Ongoing Research: Do Young Children Learn the Front Crawl Better by Watching Videos?

Recently, the latest measurements were conducted for our PhD student Carola Minkels' new research during swimming lessons at the Dutch Dolphin Swimming Club. In this study, Carola aims to investigate the effectiveness of observational learning in teaching the front crawl, as well as its impact on motivation and self-confidence in children aged 5 to 12 years. More than 60 children participated in the study. They received swimming lessons once a week for eight weeks.

In the first week, the initial level of the front crawl, motivation, and self-confidence of the children were measured. Then, for six weeks, the children watched a video of the front crawl once a week. At the end of the study period, the progress of the children and whether their motivation and self-confidence had increased were evaluated.

This research was conducted because previous studies have shown that imitating a model helps in learning new motor skills. We wanted to find out if this also applies to swimming and whether children learn to swim faster and come to the pool with more motivation and self-confidence. If this is the case, there is a greater chance that children will continue swimming after lessons, possibly even joining a swimming club, thereby maintaining their swimming skills.

Most children enjoyed participating in the study and watching the front crawl videos. Most parents were also very enthusiastic. Stay tuned for the results of the study!

This research is part of the PhD project "Motor Learning in Swimming Lessons." This PhD project is a collaboration between InnoSportLab de Tongelreep, the National Council for Swimming Safety (NRZ), and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. At InnoSportLab de Tongelreep, with the support of the municipality of Eindhoven and Brabant Sport, we are working on the swimming lessons of the future.