Recreational Swimming – a Way to Improve Motor Skills

Sport has long been considered a social phenomenon that addresses all people, being a right recognised at international and national levels. Initially, adapted sport was a means of medical recovery and a means of spending free time in a pleasant way alongside peers with and without disabilities. Subsequently, adapted sport has turned into a means of comparing the motor skills of contestants having the same medical problems during competitions specially organized for these athletes. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of people with disabilities who play sports but also in the number of non-disabled people who, in one form or another, get involved in adapted sport. In the present study, we aim to highlight the progress achieved in learning and consolidating the swimming technique by an athlete with Down syndrome (aged 25) who has been practising swimming as a recreational activity for 1 year. Based on certain items, the swimming technique was assessed for the three styles known to the athlete, and the means used in the 18 training sessions conducted over 7 months aimed at achieving the goals established at the beginning of the study. Structured, participatory and systematic observation, documentation, mathematical statistics and graphical representation are the methods used to complete the case study. At the end of the study, we could conclude that the athlete has obviously progressed, which is revealed by the assessments carried out. However, the process of learning and improvement had to be continued for the athlete to succeed in swimming correctly and be able to participate in swimming competitions without being disqualified because of technical errors.