REDUCING STUDENTS’ ANXIETY IN PRIMARY SWIMMING EDUCATION

Abstract

Sport is a special type of human activity that makes especially relevant the problem of mental states of the individual. This is a complex problem and only one of its many aspects can be explored in a scientific communication. The manifestations of anxiety in different sports are different. Therefore, there is no unanimity among the authors in their attempts to clarify the concept of anxiety. The multifaceted nature of the problem at first glance leads to the conclusion that there is a discrepancy in the views of different researchers. In fact, it is not. It is based on the many definitions of anxiety, which have above all common characteristics, to which we generally adhere. In this sense, for us anxiety is a special personal condition characterized by anxiety, uncertainty and insecurity, anticipation of unpredictable danger with unpredictable consequences, helplessness, fear, and often leading to inadequate reactions in behavior. The interest in our study is focused on anxiety as a mental state of the student's personality and in particular not on anxiety at all, but manifested in the behavior of swimming learners. Initial swimming education invariably creates a feeling of anxiety in students, given that it takes place in an aquatic environment, where during most movements the body loses contact with the solid support (ground / bottom of the pool). On the other hand, the students enrolled in the primery swimming courses at the universities are people who have established fears and a strong instinct for self-preservation, which prevents them from relaxing in the water and focusing their efforts on mastering the studied swimming movements. They are rigid, their minds are engaged in negative thoughts and emotions that significantly slow down the assimilation of learning material. All this creates difficulties in the study of swimming elements and it is necessary in the learning process to apply a methodology that combines a variety of methods and tools of training and effective means of overcoming mental anxiety in students. The main task of the teacher is to adapt the learning process to the mental characteristics of each student so that he achieves the best results at the end of the course. In the present study, we will measure the anxiety levels of a number of students at the beginning and end of the course of study. Thus, we will establish the effectiveness of the applied means for overcoming mental difficulties (anxiety) in the training of swimming students majoring in "Pedagogy of Physical Education" at the University of Veliko Tarnovo.