SWIMMING: ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF THE PROJECT OF EXTENSION IN THE COUNTRYSIDE OF THE STATE OF BAHIA

Abstract

Swimming does make part of the active body culture and, so, can be experienced with sportive, educational or even health objectives. Having as purpose the interaction among these three factors (sport, health and education) the project of extension “Experiencing the Aquatic Environment” was developed in the city of Jequié, Bahia state, to give the opportunity to students of public schools access to swimming. Therefore, the aims were to evaluate the level of learning of the adaptation techniques to the liquid  environment and get to know the opinion of the Physical Education students, participants in this extension project, referring to its contribution to their professional development. This descriptive qualitative and quantitative study had the participation of 8 school students and 12 university extension students. The school students did three activities in the swimming pool related to adaptation techniques: balance, breathing and floating. Such activities were executed before and after their participation on the program, evaluating the performance of every participating school student. In this case, activities were graded as “done” or “not done”. In order to carry out this stage a descriptive statistical analysis was used and graded in percentage. On the other hand the University extension students answered a structured questionnaire with open and closed questions referring to the University Extension Program and to their own professional development. Data was classified according to analysis categories. At the end of the project we observed that most of the school students accomplished the breathing and balance techniques, and considered floating  the most difficult one. As for the University extension students, it was concluded that they understood the importance of the project as a way to contribute with the community, however the other way around was not evidenced. Referring to instruction, they value the project as a fact that contributed to their professional development, at the same time that it assured them an experience with reality, a place where “it was possible to act as a teacher”. It was concluded that the project “Experiencing the Aquatic Environment” has been considered a place for the development of the school students as much as for the University extension students. This is due to the  access to swimming lessons that have been offered to the school students after noticing improvement in breathing and balance techniques. It has also promoted great changes to the volunteer university students of the project since they could realize the importance of the University extension program as a context that consolidates their recently acquired knowledge and a place for the University to offer to the community access to swimming lessons. Nevertheless, what remains between lines is the fact that being an “elite” component of the active body culture, due to the need of specific infrastructure, the swimming practice faces great obstacles, mostly in places where there is lack of public swimming pools, which is the city of Jequié’s case.