The Propriety of Introduction of Fosbury-Flop into the Physical Education Curriculum at Elementary School

Abstract

We let thirty boys and girls in the sixth grade in elementary school who had already learned “Scissors jump” try running high jump for three days by the use of 50cm safety mat. They showed a tendency to change the style of running high Jump from “Scissors jump” to “Fosbury-flop” smoothly without instruction by teacher.
This was considered to testify that the two jump styles have a systemic similarity of skill and learning process, and that “Fosbury-flop” matches the children's development characteristics.
The results of a questionnaire to 414 boys and girls in fifth- and sixth-graders in three prefectures revealed that children desire to learn the “Fosbury-flop”.
Additionally, we had 144 children of fifth- and sixth-graders consisted of 70 boys and 74 girls, who didn't have the lesson for running high jump. They were divided into two groups: one was group F which was instructed the “Scissors jump” first (7hrs.) and “Fosbury-flop” afterwards (6hrs.): the other was group S which was instructed the “Scissors jump” only (13hrs.).
HJS index [(Record-1/2 Height)/Vertical jump×100] of group F indicated 87.7 point after lesson, that was larger than that of group S (79.3 point). The increment of HJS index and records of group F were caused by the pupils enhanced take-off skill which is the core skill of the running high jump. The improvement in pupil's images of the running high jump was more notable in group F than in group S.
The attitudes scores of group F, which were measured using Kobayashi Physical Education Inventory, were improved considerably compared with those of group S.
The present results suggested that it is desirable to teach even elementary school children with not only the “Scissors jump”, but also the “Fosbury-flop” as well.