Multidisciplinary teaching in swimming: methodological reflection and proposal of check list

Abstract

The present study proposes a new multidisciplinary approach related to teaching in swimming. Swimming is an interdisciplinary physical activity, which can be truly important at the level of the motor learning and experimentation in aquatic activities. In the present manuscript, it was compared the present reality of teaching in Swimming with a new perspective, this one with a multidisciplinary scope. Following the referred analysis, it was presented a discussion about the orientation and adequacy of the contents of the Swimming curriculum for children and youngsters, which are populations with specific characteristics and development necessities. In this sense, after stating the relevance of a multidisciplinary perspective, it was proposed a new approach for basic aquatic motor skills acquisition based on four disciplines: swimming, water polo, synchronised swimming and platform diving. This was made taking into account the initial stage of swimming teaching, i.e., aquatic readiness. This proposal aims mainly at implementing the teaching of Swimming at a multidisciplinary point of view that, in our opinion, is urgent, namely due to the small expression that the aquatic modalities traditionally considered as swimming satellites (water polo, synchronised swimming and platform diving) have in the Portuguese sports context.