Influence of karate exercises on motor development in pre-school children

In pre-school children, motor activity stimulates general development and is a necessary factor in every child’s life. Through motor activity performance, a child has an opportunity to participate in many forms of activity – their favourite plays involving movement. Additionally, motor activity shapes the child’s personality [1,2]. Karate is a martial art which excellently develops physical fitness and can be a form of physical education. Karate training guarantees the trainees a wealth of movements and complexity of the exercises performed. It favourably affects movement coordination and spatial orientation. Exercises with elements of karate are symmetric and use laterally alternant move ments, stimulating the nervous system of the child’s developing body. Systematic participation in karate sessions enables comprehensive development of physical fitness. Most of the sport disciplines develop only some motor features and muscle groups. Karate develops endurance, strength, agility, mo tor coordination and elasticity of the entire body, increases the skeletal system endurance and movement precision and improves metabolism. Parallel development of all parts of the body, strengthening the abdominal and dorsal muscles and improving movement apparatus elasticity contributes to shaping a correct body posture in karate practitioners. The important elements of eastern martial arts include affecting the mental sphere and shaping character, control ability, precision, systematic work and self-discipline [2-5]. During karate sessions children have an opportunity to learn about their body and develop their strength and selfconfidence. Exercising in pairs, the children learn how to co ope rate with their peers, how to be loyal and reliable. Karate training can also relieve tension in, hyperexcitable, hyperactive or aggressive children [6]. The goal of this study was to investigate the effect of different forms of motor activity on physical fitness in pre-school children.