Teaching material based on biomechanical evidence: ‘high-jump hurdles’ for improving fundamental motor skills

Abstract

SummaryStudy aim: the purpose of this study has been to develop teaching materials to help improve junior high school students' fundamental ability to repeatedly run and jump with a high and far-reaching travelling motion and to confirm the effectiveness of a new unit using teaching materials that are experimental in comparison to a conventional unit. Materials and methods: one unit emphasized the conventional approach. This unit aims to improve the ability to step over hurdles. To help improve this ability, a 'step-up hurdle' was used as the conventional teaching material. This task focused on reducing the up-and-down motion using three hurdles whose height was set lower than those used in a competitive hurdle run. The other unit aims to improve the ability to jump high and far over hurdles. To help improve this ability, 'high-jump hurdles' were developed and used as the teaching material. The motor skill task was to clear three hurdles without knocking a hurdle down, with the hurdle height set as high as possible. Such conventional and new units were used for a group of 25 girls and a group of 18 girls in a junior high school (CON and EXP, respectively) and were conducted during six lessons. Results: EXP's high-jump hurdle scores significantly increased throughout the advanced lessons. While CON did not significantly improve its hurdle running times in a post-test, there was a significant improvement in EXP. Although CON did not significantly lengthen the horizontal clearance distance from take-off to landing in the post-test, there was a significant lengthening in EXP. Conclusions: these findings suggest that new teaching material for teaching hurdling in physical education which aims to improve the ability to jump high and far over hurdles improves hurdle running time and improves the fundamental ability to repeat running and jumping travelling motor skills in contrast to traditional materials.