RESEARCH OF THE RHYTHMICAL ABILITIES OF PUPILS OF PRIMARY SCHOOL AGE

Coordination abilities are an important element of human physical ability. They are part of the motor abilities and represent relatively consolidated and generalized qualities of the course of specific processes for regulating movements. Well-developed coordination abilities are a prerequisite for correctly and quickly learning new movements. The aim of this study was to improve the rhythmical abilities of pupils at primary schools using exercises from basic gymnastics and folklore dances with musical accompaniment. The research was carried out with 92 students at a secondary school in the city of Sofia. We used a test battery containing information about the rhythmical abilities to realize it. The battery includes four tests: frontal kicking with legs and arms on the wall, jumps in four squares, crossover jumps in four squares, and kicking with legs and arms. The methods used in this study are the testing, pedagogical experiment, and mathematical-statistical methods (variation analysis, comparative analysis with t-criterion of Student). The analysis of the results showed that the differences observed in the pupils from the experimental group, obtained before and after the experiment, were statistically significant for all indicators of rhythmical abilities. Such a difference was also found between the two studied groups at the end of the experiment. The research showed that the program we applied had a positive effect on developing rhythmical abilities.