The Effect of Holding Ball Game on the Backstroke (Streamlined

Position) Swimming Skill of the Swimming Extracurricular

Participants at Kentungan Public Elementary School

Claudia Megawati Suyanto

, Suharjana

Yogyakarta State University, Colombo Street, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Department of Sport Science, Graduate School

Keywords: Holding Ball Game, Backstroke Swimming, Streamlined Position.

Abstract: Swimming is one of extracurricular activities offered by Kentungan Public Elementary School. On the

implementation of this extracurricular activity, some participants are only able to master few of swimming

styles. It means that they need to learn more styles. Under the reason that they are still elementary school

students, playing game on the water is needed to make them learn the styles including backstroke swimming

style easily. One of the games which can be used is holding ball game. This research aimed to improve the

backstroke swimming body position (streamlined position) of the extracurricular participants which include

the members of class II, III, IV at Kentungan Public Elementary School through holding ball game. The

type of this research is quasi-experimental. The instrument of this research is in the form of observation

sheets showing the successful indicators of backstroke swimming. The subjects of this research are the

representative students of grade II, III, IV who join swimming club at Kentungan Public Elementary School

Yogyakarta. They consisted of 15 students; 11 male students and 4 female students. The data were collected

and then analyzed using hypothesis testing with t-test analysis (paired sample t-test). The data result in the

score of t

count

(13,315) > t

table

(2,132), and score p (0,000) < from 0,05. These show that the score t

count

bigger than t

table

, and can be concluded that there is a significant effect of holding ball game on backstroke

swimming body position of those extracurricular participants.

1 INTRODUCTION

Swimming is one of the sports firstly known by

Indonesians through invaders who came to

Indonesia. Its swimming organization was firstly

formed on 21

March 1952 which was named PRSI

(Persatuan Renang Seluruh Indonesia) at that time,

the organization was led by Poerwo Soedarmo.

Swimming is a sport branch that can be taught to all

ages, starting from babies, children, adults, until

elderly (Dwijowinoto, 1979).

The swimming is the floatation of an object in a

liquid due to its buoyancy or lift (Badruzaman

2007). In other words, swimming means the

floatation effort or lift the body into the surface of

water. Bompa (2000: 35) adds that ideally, learning

to swim can be started around 3 to 7 years old. Then,

the age of 10 to 12 years old is the age for

specialization, and the age of 16 to 18 years old is

considered as the golden age for swimmers.

The ideal arm coordination in crawl stroke and

backstroke is that they should be in the same stroke

as the opposite coordination model in which the two

arms must have the power to push (Maglischo,

2003).

The successful swimming indicator of the

elementary school students is not determined on how

fast they swim the specified distance and how many

swimming styles that they have mastered, but it is

determined on how many indicator skills they

achieve.

Basic motor skills of swimming sport consist of

six components, namely (1) getting into the pool, (2)

floating, (3) moving the limb, (4) balancing in the

water, (5) moving the arms, (6) breathing control

(Langendorfer & Bruya, 1995: 8).

Backstroke swimming is considered as an

advanced swimming style. It means that swimmers

can learn backstroke if they have mastered other

swimming styles like breaststroke and freestyle. To

make sure that swimmers do not have difficulties in

262

Suyanto, C. and , S.

The Effect of Holding Ball Game on the Backstroke (Streamlined Position) Swimming Skill of the Swimming Extracurricular Participants at Kentungan Public Elementary School.

DOI: 10.5220/0009784302620267

In Proceedings of the 3rd Yogyakarta International Seminar on Health, Physical Education, and Sport Science in conjunction with the 2nd Conference on Interdisciplinary Approach in Sports

(YISHPESS and CoIS 2019), pages 262-267

ISBN: 978-989-758-457-2

learning backstroke styles, trainers or coaches must

be able to arrange or set the swimming lessons

starting from the easiest to the hardest ones in order

to achieve the goals in learning backstroke style.

There are two factors which influence the

success of mastering backstroke swimming

techniques properly; internal and external factors.

The internal factors are the influenced factors

coming from the swimmers, such as their physical

and mental conditions, techniques, strategies. On the

other hand, the external factors are the quality of

coaches or trainers, the availability of facilities and

infrastructures, and the environmental conditions

where the teaching and learning process takes place.

From those factors, it can be concluded that the

internal factors are the dominant factors that affect

the ability to swim with backstroke style, one of

which is technique factor.

The technique factor in this case includes the

body position, arm movement, limb movement,

breathing technique and coordination movement. If

the swimmers can master those movements properly,

it can be concluded that the swimming ability of

those swimmers is good enough. The difficulties

come up because the swimmers find it difficult to

master the backstroke swimming technique well so

that mistakes come up and those can cause the

difficulties in doing backstroke swimming

technique.

One way to collect the data in this research was

using field observation. From the conducted

observation, there were various mistakes which were

made by university students, such as on the body

position. Mostly, the body position of the swimmers

is not in a line with the water surface or the body

position is not streamline and the sight is not straight

up so that the swimmers’ body cannot float well on

the water surface. It causes the swimmers to find

difficulty to swim using this style.

The mistakes on the limb movement are caused

by the source of limb power that is not from groin.

The movement is not balanced with the rotation of

the shaft body and the knee position rises above the

water level so that it does not produce fast forward

movement.

The mistakes on the hand movement are caused

merely by the paddling which is begun by the bent

elbow. It is also caused by hands’ paddling which is

too deep or the head does not rotate with the body

properly so that the purpose of paddling to push the

body forward cannot be achieved perfectly.

The mistakes on the breathing technique is

caused by lifting the head too high, focusing the

eyesight on looking at the feet, and letting water to

get into the face from above the head so that it

causes difficulty to take a breath.

On the other hand, the mistakes on the

coordination movement is when both hands are

straight above the head and the limbs do not make

any movements and the swimmers perform

accomplice movements simultaneously so that the

swimmers’ body cannot slide forward fast.

Learning the basic movements of swimming with

the supplementary tools on the learning process at

school is determined by some factors, such as

students, teachers, learning methods, facilities and

infrastructures, environments and learning

conditions. Learning the basic movements cannot be

separated from those factors in order to achieve the

learning goals. In fact, the willingness and

participation of the students are needed to succeed in

learning process. The roles of the teachers also have

effects in terms of delivering materials, teaching

methods, and facilitating the students.

Many obstacles are experienced by students in

learning the basic swimming movements, such as

fear of water, depth, and sinking, lack of conducive

learning atmospheres, boring learning processes

because of too much drilling and etc. One of the

learning approaches to create a cheerful and

enjoyable atmosphere so that students will not be

afraid is by implementing supplementary tools.

The use of the supplementary tools aims to

introduce the general movement problems of

swimming, especially on the basic swimming

movements and how to swim properly based on the

anatomical review. Correcting the basic gestures and

improving the motivation of students through the

learning process are needed in order to improve the

physical fitness of the students. The specific

purposes of the supplementary tools usage in

learning basic swimming movements are increasing

concentration, resisting power, moving reaction,

accelerating students’ movement, as well as

improving confidence and bravery on doing

swimming movement.

The representative students of Kentungan Public

Elementary School Yogyakarta have got a good

swimming skill. It is because the students are

accustomed to do that kind of water sport.

Therefore, the students are believed to have good

fitness because they used to frequently make body

movements. In the case that the students find it

difficult to adapt to swimming sport, it is due to the

fact that they must understand how to inhale and

exhale the breath properly when swimming. The

participants of the swimming club at Kentungan

Public Elementary School are mostly able to master

The Effect of Holding Ball Game on the Backstroke (Streamlined Position) Swimming Skill of the Swimming Extracurricular Participants at

Kentungan Public Elementary School

263

few of the swimming styles. There are only few of

them who are able to swim in backstroke style

beforehand.

Based on the conducted preliminary observation,

it can be concluded that the average students who

join the swimming extracurricular club mostly find it

difficult to perform the streamlined body position

while their bodies, bottoms, and limbs are sunk.

Through water games, it is believed that the

extracurricular participants are helped to learn

backstroke swimming easily.

Basically, students like playing games and they

will be more excited in doing that activity. Thus,

games can help to improve their intelligence to

understand a movement that they have not mastered

before. Here, one of the games which can be applied

to help the students is holding game.

According to Dwijowinoto (1979: 1) swimming

is one of the sports that can be taught to all ages,

both children and adults. (Badruzaman, 2007: 13)

adds that it is the floatation of an object in a liquid

due to its buoyancy or lift. Therefore, it also means

the floatation effort or lift the body into the surface

of water.

Basically, the technique or the mechanical

principle of backstroke swimming is the same as

other swimming styles. According to Thomas (2002:

25) the techniques of backstroke swimming can be

divided into some parts; a) body position, b) limb

movement, c) arm movement, d) breath taking

movement, e) movement coordination, f) buoyancy.

In addition, based on Hurlock (2010: 320) there is

none of other fields more proper but to learn how to

be a social being because to socialize depends on the

opportunity to be connected with peer group,

especially occurs in playing activities.

Holding ball game is a game that is played by

students by using a ball as the supplementary tool to

improve backstroke swimming skill. This game is

played by using a big ball as big as 15 cm at the

average water depth (not too deep and not too

shallow). How to play this game is by asking

students to supine facing up and showing a strong

leg kick while crossing the pool, then asking them to

hold the ball with both hands while firstly putting

the ball on the stomach, then after several foot

strokes placing the ball on the chest, finally after

several foot strokes placing the ball above the head

using both straight hands. The position of the body

tries to be on the water surface and the bottom

should not drown. The position of the head tries to

straight up and should not drown too, if the head is

drowned, it will be hard for students to breath.

According to Sukadiyanto (2011: 1) practicing is

a process heading to a better goal that is to improve

the physical condition, functional abilities of body

equipment, and psychic qualities of the training.

Backstroke swimming practice is still rare to be

implemented around the elementary schools in

Yogyakarta.

Based on the underlying background above, a

research entitled “The Effect of Holding Ball Game

on the Backstroke (Streamlined Position) Swimming

Skill of the Swimming Extracurricular Participants

at Kentungan Public Elementary School”.

2 RESEARCH METHOD

2.1 Research Type

This research belongs to an experimental research.

In this research, two kinds of tests were held; pre-

test (before) and post-test (after) treatments. The

differences between pre-test and post-test results

were assumed as the effects of the treatments.

Therefore, the results of the treatments are expected

to be known more accurately because there are some

comparisons between the condition before and after

the treatments. The treatments given in this research

is in the form of practicing by using holding ball

game on backstroke swimming body position

(streamlined position) for the representatives of

swimming extracurricular participants at Kentungan

Public Elementary School.

2.2 Research Time and Place

This research was held at Tirta Sari swimming pool.

The pre-test was held on 29

September 2018 and

the post-test was held on 11

November 2018. The

treatments were held on 1

October 2018 until 9

November 2018.

2.3 Research Subject

Population is the chosen objects or subjects that

have certain qualities and characteristics determined

by researchers to be studied and then conclusions

can be drawn (Sugiyono, 2012: 117). This research

uses the representative population from the members

of grade II, III, IV who participate on swimming

club at Tirta Sari swimming pool. The members of

grade IV are the dominant population on this

research. The total number of the research

participants is 15. Then, the teachers of Kentungan

YISHPESS and CoIS 2019 - The 3rd Yogyakarta International Seminar on Health, Physical Education, and Sport Science (YISHPESS

2019) in conjunction with The 2nd Conference on Interdisciplinary Approach in Sports (CoIS 2019)

264

Public Elementary School wanted to improve their

students’ backstroke swimming position.

2.4 Research Procedure

The treatments were held 3 times in a week; on

Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for 60 minutes

as the time allocation for each. The treatments of

this research were held for 16 meetings in which 3

meetings were used for pre-tests and post-tests. The

60 minutes for each meeting were allocated into

several steps of practicing. Firstly, the treatment was

begun with 7 minutes of warming up, then 45

minutes for the core practice, and the rest is or the

cooling down and evaluating the whole activity.

After the pre- and post-tests were conducted, then

the results were finally compared using t-test.

2.5 Instrument and Data Collecting

Technique

According to Sugiyono (2010: 348) “Research

instrument is a tool that is used to measure natural

and social phenomena observed”. Then, the data in

this research were collected using backstroke

swimming test. The research process was begun by

instructing the students to do warming up. After

giving the instructions of how to do backstroke

swimming position with both hands straight next to

the ears to make sure that the students understood

and did not make any mistakes in doing the test. The

tools used for the backstroke swimming body

position test were a whistle, scoring forms and

stationeries. This data collection process was also

supported by some parties; a note taker, a timer, a

whistle-blowing giver, and a test-runner. The

followings were the procedure: a) Test-takers stood

by the pool by sticking to the wall while waiting for

the whistle signal; b) After the whistle sounded, the

extracurricular participants were doing backstroke

swimming with both hands aligned beside the

distance head as best as they could.

Instrument used in this research was the

observation sheets of successful indicator on

backstroke swimming done by elementary school

students that was validated by the experts.

The data collection of this research was done

by using the backstroke swimming skill tests. The

extracurricular participants would get the treatments

in the form of basic practicing technique and holding

ball game for 16 meetings. The measurement

included pre-tests and post-tests.

2.6 Data Analysis Technique

This research did not employ prerequisite test

because this research was a population research

where the data were analyzed using t-test. The effect

of holding ball game on the backstroke swimming

body position (streamlined position) of the

swimming extracurricular participants at Kentungan

Public Elementary School Yogyakarta was analyzed

as follows. T-test

This research used the paired sample t test with a

significance level of 0,05.

3 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

The results of the pre-test and post-test of holding

ball game on the backstroke swimming body

position (streamlined position) of the swimming

extracurricular participants at Kentungan Public

Elementary School Yogyakarta research could be

described as follows:

3.1 The Pre-test Data

The pre-test results of backstroke swimming with

both hands aligned beside the ears done by the

extracurricular participants were obtained a

minimum score of 11, maximum score of 21,

average score of 12.86, median of 11, mode of 11

and standard deviation of 3.27. Those results can be

seen on this following table:

Table 1: The Frequency Distribution Pre-test on The

Backstroke Swimming with Both Hands Aligned beside

the Ears Done.

Interval

Percentage

20-22

6,67

17-19

13,33

14-16

11-13

Total

100

3.2 The Frequency Distribution of the

Post-test

The post-test results of backstroke swimming with

both hands aligned beside the ears done by the

extracurricular participants at Kentungan Public

Elementary School Yogyakarta were obtained a

minimum score of 17, maximum score of 24,

average score of 18.6, median of 18, mode of 17

and standard deviation of 2,09.

The Effect of Holding Ball Game on the Backstroke (Streamlined Position) Swimming Skill of the Swimming Extracurricular Participants at

Kentungan Public Elementary School

265

Table 2: The Frequency Distribution of Post-test on The

Backstroke Swimming with Both Hands Aligned beside

the Ears Done.

Interval

Percentage

23-24

6,67

21-22

13,33

19-20

17-18

Total

100

3.3 Data Analysis

The data analysis of this research aimed to know the

t-test result. T-test results could be seen as follow:

Table 3: The Results of Hypothesis Testing (t-test).

Pretest–

Posttest

T table

T count

Sig 5 %

Backstroke

swimming

2.132

13.315

0.000

0.05

Based on the data analysis, it can be obtained

that the score of t count (13.315) > t table (2.132),

and p (0.000) is < 0.05. Those results showed that

score of t count is bigger than t table and p is smaller

than 5%. Those results mean that Ha: accepted and

Ho: refused. Those results can be interpreted that

there is a significant effect of holding ball game to

the backstroke swimming body position (streamlined

position) of the extracurricular participants at

Kentungan Public Elementary School Yogyakarta.

3.4 Discussion

Based on the data analysis, it can be obtained that

the score of t

count

(13.315) > t

table

(2.132), and p

(0.000) is < 0.05. Those results showed that score of

count

is bigger than t

table

and p is smaller than 5%.

Those results mean that Ha: accepted and Ho:

refused. Those results can be interpreted that there is

a significant effect of holding ball game to the

backstroke swimming body position (streamlined

position) of the extracurricular participants at

Kentungan Public Elementary School Yogyakarta.

This result is in line with the definition of the game.

According to Santrock (2006: 273), a game is very

useful form of human self-adjustment. It is helping

children master anxiety and conflict. Because

pressures are fulfilled in the game, children can

overcome life problems. It could be seen from

children who previously had difficulties to swim

backstroke style, but after the ball game was

implemented, they could change their mindset.

Practicing backstroke style was not difficult, but

it was easy and fun to do. The extracurricular

participants practice based on what Ambarukmi, et

al. (2007: 1) claims that sport training is the sport

improvement process through a scientific approach

based on the principles of practice; regularly and

planned. This is to enhance the ability and readiness

of the sportsman. Therefore, the extracurricular

participants get the opportunity to practice and play

holding ball game within 16 meetings. Moreover, by

this intensity, according to the principles of practice

stated by Irianto, (2000: 19), those extracurricular

participants experienced the improvement on the

backstroke swimming body position.

4 CONCLUSION AND

SUGGESTION

4.1 Conclusion

Swimming is a kind of sports which has various

styles. One of them is backstroke style. Backstroke

style has distinctive characteristics and different

techniques to be able to train body position,

breathing method, limb movements, and arm

movements to get maximum results.

The observation was conducted in the beginning

prior to the research in order to observe and identify

the problems found. From the observation, it turned

out that the extracurricular participants could not

swim in backstroke style correctly because their

bodies were not in streamlined position. It could be

seen that their bodies, bottoms, and limbs were

drowned.

The research was conducted using a treatment in

the form of the holding ball game to improve the

backstroke swimming body position (streamlined

position) of the extracurricular participants at

Kentungan Public Elementary School Yogyakarta.

This research applied an experimental research with

16 meetings and 2 meetings for conducting the pre-

test and post-test.

The swimming practices in the treatment were

held 3 times a week, every Mondays, Wednesdays,

and Fridays. The duration on every meeting was 60

minutes. The treatments were held at Tirta Sari

swimming pool, Kaliurang Street km 8.5. The total

number of extracurricular participants was 15

including the representative students from grade II,

III and IV.

Based on the research on chapter 3, it can be

obtained that the score of t

count

(13.315) is > t

table

YISHPESS and CoIS 2019 - The 3rd Yogyakarta International Seminar on Health, Physical Education, and Sport Science (YISHPESS

2019) in conjunction with The 2nd Conference on Interdisciplinary Approach in Sports (CoIS 2019)

266

(2.132), and score of p (0,000) is < 0.05. Those

results can be interpreted that there is a significant

effect of holding ball game to the backstroke

swimming body position (streamlined position) of

the extracurricular participants at Kentungan Public

Elementary School Yogyakarta with the increasing

value of 44,6%.

4.2 Suggestion

a) The swimming extracurricular participants who

still need to improve their backstroke swimming

style can improve their abilities by practicing more,

one of them is by using holding ball game; b)

Teachers need to always pay attention on the ability

of students in swimming by providing learning with

a variety of effective training methods. Hopefully,

extracurricular participants will be able to perform

proper backstroke swimming style; c) The next

researcher can conduct a research by taking the

wider sample and population so that the ability to

swim backstroke style can be widely known as well;

d) The next researcher can conduct a research with

the different training methods so that the training

methods that affect backstroke swimming skills can

be widely identified.

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