Improving university students’ coordinating skills in physical education lessons with basketball focus

Background and Study Aim. The purpose of the study was to examine the effectiveness of a 14-week intervention in improving coordination skills among female university students. The intervention consisted in physical education lessons with basketball focus, the final practical outcome being to practice a coherent and satisfying game for the players. Material and Methods. The research was carried out on a group of 15 female university students aged 19-20, in the second semester of the academic year 2018-2019, lasted 14 weeks, with a frequency of 1 lesson per week. The applied tests were dynamic balance, body coordination, hands coordination, basketball spot shooting, wall passes. Measurements were performed before intervention as a baseline and after it to record the effect size. The manipulated variable was a physical exercises program designed in purpose to produce an effect on the dependent variable: coordination skills improvement. The significant mean difference and the effect size was statistically demonstrated with student t-test p <0.005. Results. From the statistical data obtained, we found that the results of ‘before and after’ tests differ significantly. For all the parameters under discussion the effect magnitude was large and mostly very large, also the research hypothesis was accepted. Conclusions. Applying the designed program has led to a substantial improvement of coordinating skills and has positively influenced the effectiveness of the basketball technique learning process.