PhD, Associate Professor L.V. Yarchikovskaya
PhD, Associate Professor T.E. Koval'
Associate Professor S.M. Lukina
Associate Professor L.S. Rozanova
Saint Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg

Keywords: special health group students, coordination abilities, health improvement programs, coordination ladder.

Background. Problems of health deterioration of the national population on the whole and the young generation in particular are rated among the top priority ones by the modern society. They are further complicated by a variety of associating problems including the workability deficiencies and the creative and professional performance problems of the young people diagnosed with health disorders. Therefore, one of the key missions of the national physical education is to offer target health improvement programs with a special emphasis on services to the students qualified with special health groups based on the diagnosed health conditions.

As a case in point, we would give the physical/ functional condition rating tests of the first year university students qualified with the special health group as reported by Saint Petersburg State University in 2015-2016. The study showed that 45% of the students were never engaged in any physical education or sport practices prior to entering the university; only 11% reported attending health groups and physical therapy groups on a regular basis; and 43% were going in for sports from time to time [3]. As a result, the students’ motor abilities were found virtually incompliant with the health requirements at the university entering time.

There are quite a few research reports at present that offer new training systems for students of special health groups and provide multiple methodologies to select the motor ability (including the coordination ability) development tools and methods [4]. Some authors give a top priority in their studies to the search of efficient health improvement technologies with a wide variety of efficiency rating tools being applied, while the others concentrate their efforts on the physical quality improvement progress tests including the coordination ability progress rating tests.

Objective of the study was to develop and implement a coordination ability improvement method using special tools and equipment.

Methods and structure of the study. Researchers of Saint Petersburg State University take persistent efforts to develop new health improvement technologies and approaches designed to increase the general motivation levels, interest and commitment in the special group students [1]. One of the promising initiatives in the health improvement programming process are the actions to expand the lists of applicable improvement tools and special equipment [2] .

Coordination ladder was found to yield promising practical results in the health improvement practices. We offered a set of ladder application practices to develop a variety of coordination abilities in the students in different motor activity control domains including the complex situation responsiveness, balancing ability and general agility. 

The complex situation responsiveness was interpreted for the purposes of the study as the ability to start fast and precise movement in response to some signal. The balancing ability was interpreted as the ability to keep stable body position in a variety of movement sequences and postures. To improve the dynamic and static balancing ability in the coordination ladder applying practices, we used a series of movements and postures in special conditions challenging for balance keeping, with the movements being performed with one or both legs with forward moves, steps, jogging, different climbing moves etc.

We applied commonly accepted tests and test exercises in the experiment to rate progress of the experimental coordination ability improvement process [4]. The responsiveness rating tests, for instance, were designed as a test exercise that required of the student to catch a 45-cm-long and 3-cm-thick wooden stick coloured red, blue and white, each colour zone being 15 cm long. The tests exercise designed performed as follows: the subject waits 1 step from the trainer in standing posture with hands behind the back. The trainer holds the stick with the red zone down counting “one, two, three”, and lets the stick fall on count “three”. The subject must catch the stick with either hand, with the test success being rated as excellent, good and satisfactory when the red, blue and white zone is caught, respectively (Test 1).

Balancing ability was rated using the Romberg postural control test, with the posture keeping times of 60, 53 and 48 seconds rated as excellent, good and satisfactory test performance rates, respectively (Test 2). 

General agility was rated by the test exercise when the subject was given 5 attempts to throw a hoop on a pole or a chair back from 4 m distance, with 5, 3-4 and 1-2 accurate hits rated as excellent, good and satisfactory test performance rates, respectively (Test 3). 

Prior to the experiment, we formed a Study Group and a Reference Group each of 17 female students of 18 to 24 years of age engaged in physical education practices in the special health groups at Saint Petersburg State University.

The experiment was designed to take 7 months and included 90 minute training sessions twice a week. For convenience of calculations, the test performance rates were presented as relative units. In the main part of the training sessions (20-25 minutes), the coordination ladder was applied for the following obligatory exercises.

1. Exercise 1 was performed by the subject standing on the ladder lying on the floor. Moving sideward along the ladder, the subject made one step with either leg on count “one” to put the foot in space between the crossbars. On count “two”, the subject stepped into the same space by the other foot. On count “three” the subject stepped back by either leg, and on count “four” stepped back by the other leg. On count “five” the subject stepped sideward along the ladder, and on count “six” placed the other foot to the same space. The exercise was continued to the end of the ladder.  

2. Exercise 2 was performed by the subject moving by sideward steps lifting hips high at every step. Left-side-forward movement was followed by the right-side-forward movement to the opposite (return) direction. The exercise was repeated twice in a tranquil manner, with an emphasis on the hip-raising movement and keeping the leg strained when putting it to the space in the ladder. In the movement speed raising process, special attention was given to the movement accuracy and breathing control.

3. Exercise 3 was performed by fast steps in a riverdance style started up on a trainer’s command. Face-forward movement was performed with the front cross steps and the opposite movement with the back cross steps. The exercise was started in a tranquil manner with special attention given to the foot actions. The exercise performance pace was increased in a phased manner from one training session to the other with growing accuracy of the movements.

A series of three exercises was performed three times with rest breaks of 60 seconds between the series. The training session using the coordination ladder was finalized by relaxation and breathing recovery practices.

Study results and discussion. Experimental data were processed and analyzed, the data variations given hereunder in Table 1. Given in Table 2 are the experimental data significance rates.

It should be noted that virtually every Study Group student showed an improvement of the coordination abilities (including complex situation response ability, balancing ability and general agility) as a result of the experiment. The progress was rated particularly high in case of the balancing ability tests.

Table 1. Coordination ability variations in the students prior to and after the experiment

Table 2. Reference Group vs. Study Group experimental data significance rates

It should be noted that the experimental training process included only a few coordination ladder application exercises designed by the Saint Petersburg State University research team. At the next stage of the experiment we will apply and test at least eight special obligatory coordination ladder exercises focused on a broader range of coordination abilities.

Conclusion. The study results of the Reference Group students who trained using the traditional coordination ability correction method showed virtually no progress in the response rates, balancing ability rates and overall agility rates that may be interpreted as indicative of the traditional method being not efficient enough. The Study Group showed a significant progress in coordination abilities as a result of the experiment.

The practical experimental results demonstrated that the special coordination ladder application exercises used in the female students’ training process helped notably improve their coordination abilities. There are good reasons to believe that the special physical and functional state development tools in application to female students are quite effective in improving some of their abilities including the coordination ones. 

References

1. Koval' T.E. Ispol'zovanie kombinirovannogo podkhoda v tekhnologii proektirovaniya ozdorovitel'nykh programm (Combined approach to health program design technology) / T.E. Koval', L.V. Yarchikovskaya, O.V. Oshina // Teoriya i praktika fizicheskoy kultury. – 2015. – № 2. – P. 98–100.
2. Koval' T.E. Novye napravleniya v komplekse ozdorovitel'nykh programm v vuze (na primere aerofitnesa) (New directions in university health program complex (case study of aerofitness) / T.E. Koval', L.V. Yarchikovskaya, S.M. Lukina // Uch. zapiski un-ta im. P.F. Lesgafta. – 2015. – № 11(129). – P. 126–129.
3. Lipovka A.Yu. Funktsional'noe sostoyanie i uroven' fizicheskogo razvitiya studentov spetsial'noy meditsinskoy gruppy (pervy kurs SPBGUP 2015/16 uchebnogo goda) (Functional status and level of physical development of special health group students (first year of SPbGUP academic year2015/16) / A.Yu. Lipovka, V.P. Lipovka, M.V. Lopatin // Strategicheskie napravleniya reformirovaniya vuzovskoy sistemy fizicheskoy kul'tury. Sb. mater. Vseros. nauch.-prakt. konf. s mezhdunar. uchastiem, posvyashchennoy pamyati V.G. Streltsa. (Strategic directions of reforms in university system of physical education. Proc. of res.-pract. conf. with int. participation in commemoration of V.G. Strelets). December 18-19, 2015. – 2015. – P. 103–106
4. Paliyanova I.P. Razvitie lovkosti i metody kontrolya razvitiya koordinatsionnykh sposobnostey studentov, zanimayushchikhsya v spetsial'nykh meditsinskikh gruppakh (Agility excelling process and control methods of coordination abilities of special health group students) / I.P. Paliyanova // Vestnik Omskogo universiteta (Bulletin of Omsk University). – 2010. – № 1. – P. 181–183

Corresponding author: ludayarchi9913@mail.ru

Abstract
The article describes a new methodology of coordination ability development in female students of special health groups using a special coordination ladder, and reports progress variations of the coordination ability rates as verified by tests. Furthermore, the article presents results of the experiments designed to improve the coordination ability in female students from special health groups using a special coordinator ladder. Study results of the Reference Group students trained by the traditional coordination ability correction method showed virtually no progress in responsiveness, balancing ability rates and overall agility that may be interpreted as indicative of the traditional method being inefficient. The Study Group was tested with a significant progress in the coordination abilities as a result of the experiment.
The practical experimental results demonstrated that the special coordination ladder application exercises used in the female students’ training process helped notably improve their coordination abilities. There are good reasons to believe that the special physical and functional state development tools are quite effective in application to female students for improvement of some of their abilities including coordination ones.