1 CHALLENGES ENCOUNTERED BY THE BPED STUDENTS TAKING

2 AQUATICS COURSES
3 INTRODUCTION
4 Physical activities are integrated in school curriculum since kindergarten up to the
5 undergraduate level. According to Llego (2022), Physical education has been shown to be an
6 essential part of a student’s education. It helps students to stay healthy, learn teamwork skills,
7 and have fun.Physical education is an important part of a student’s education because it helps
8 them to stay healthy and learn teamwork skills. In addition, physical education can help students
9 maintain a healthy weight and develop lifelong physical activity habits. Schools need to provide
10 physical education classes so that all students have the opportunity to benefit from these positive
11 outcomes.
12 Bachelor of Physical Education students specialize in physical education from physical
13 fitness, rhythmic activities, individual, dual, and team sports to aquatics or water activities. One
14 of humankinds’ oldest physical activities, swimming is done for exercise, pleasure, and
15 competition. The ability to swim also may save a person's life (Berkeley, 2023). Aquatic Fitness
16 is defined as activities performed in the water that promote and enhance physical and mental
17 fitness. Aquatic Fitness is typically performed in a vertical position in shallow and/or deep water.
18 There are numerous applications to appeal to a wide variety of participants.
19 Swimming is one of the most difficult courses of Bachelor of Physical Education students
20 due to the mental and physical demands. On the mental aspect of swimming, there are many
21 factors that can make a break for students. One factor is how focused you have to swim not only
22 well outstanding but also you have to achieve the given time in every stroke Drop, Freestyle,
23 Floating, Retrieve, Width to width. As physical educators, they have to clear their mind
24 completely before the practical swimming. According to Web (n.d. in Jones, et al., 2002), mental
25 toughness can be defined as “having the natural or developed psychological edge that enables
26 you to: generally cope better than your opponents with the demands that spurt places on a
27 performer”. This means that a swimmer’s attitude and mindset can control how they will do in
28 competition as well as in practical swimming. On the other hand, physical attributions are also
29 important because swimming need a lot of energy from muscles. In swimming, you need to train
30 your lungs harder and stronger. Learning how to do all strokes in swimming is just the beginning
31 because you have to learn how to strength length, stroke rate, and the energy you have to take all
32 relate to others. Most of the students have been swimming but competitive swimming is different
33 from taking a dip in a pool. Because of the mental and physical attributes of swimming, it is the
34 hardest sports in the world and you have to know how difficult it is and realize how demanding
35 this sport is.
36 Aquatics really tests and challenges every students in different aspects not just physically,
37 but mentally, emotionally, socially and spiritually as well. Students to dedicate themselves in
38 practicing different drills needed to perform during exams or evaluations. Through this, students
39 will be able to prove themselves if they are deserving to be considered future physical
40 educators.They may face different things as they go on with their course. Some challenges may
41 be encountered by the learners. These challenges may affect the overall performance of the
42 students on the aquatics subject or course they are taking.
43 Fear of water is the strongest predictor for no or low swimming competencies. Some
44 individuals will never learn to swim due to their complete avoidance of water, whereas others
45 might have difficulty with learning due to the fact that they cannot sufficiently relax their bodies
46 to facilitate floating or swimming. Therefore, it is important to identify these people and
47 establish effective teaching strategies that can best help this specific population (Misimi et al.,
48 2020).
49 The ‘every pupil a swimmer’ may be an important outcome of the school physical
50 education programme, it is necessary that if we are to help students become safe in the water, the
51 secondary school programme moves pupils beyond the ‘I can swim’ and ‘I don’t drown’ stage
52 (Hardy, 1987). The availability of swimming instruction at school, along with proximity to an
53 aquatic environment, socio-economic status (Langley & Silva, 1986), and psychological factors
54 such as the level of introversion (Nias & Hardy, 1971), have been identified as influential in a
55 child’s potential swimming ability. While schools with a pool have been shown to allocate more
56 time to swimming than those without a pool, the emphasis placed by the teachers on children’s
57 swimming proficiency and teaching methods has long been considered important factors
58 influencing secondary school swimming programmes (Page, 1976).
59 Skills are one of the challenges that may face by the students, particularly those who do
60 not know how to swim and do not have a background of proper training in swimming.
61 Additionally, the traumas or fear of water and negative experiences in pools and other large
62 bodies of water are big factors that affect students for them to be convinced to learn how to
63 swim. According to Arena Coaches (2019), there are five (5) problems afflicting swimmers of
64 all standards, these include the aquatics students. These five are fear of open water, breathing on
65 one side only, not knowing one’s ideal pace, shoulder pains, and using all the swimming
66 aids/tools at the same time. Interventions of teachers, coaches and school management on these
67 challenges or problems encountered in aquatics class by the students are very much needed.
68 Their collaborative efforts can lead the students to success and the teachers into satisfaction and
69 fulfilment knowing that his/her learners passed the course.
70 Challenges encountered in different aspects of life differ in terms of the idea on who
71 encountered the challenges. Men and women have different perceptions on challenges or
72 problems they have. It is the same with BPED students. In terms of physical activities, it is
73 believed that men can do more or better than women. It indicates male dominance in different
74 activities, tasks, works or jobs that requires more physical actuations. Some study revealed that
75 men are better swimmer than women. One of the reasons is that Men present physiological
76 advantages, including larger body size, more skeletal muscles, higher muscle strength and power,
77 lower body fat, and greater maximal anaerobic and aerobic energy delivery (Sandbakk, et al.,
78 2018). If they differ in performance, they also have difference in challenges that they
79 encountered as they undergo rigorous training and performance tasks in the course.
80 Moreover, Several studies have found that women tend to use coping strategies that are
81 aimed at changing their emotional responses to a stressful situation, whereas men use more
82 problem-focused or instrumental methods of handling stressful experiences (Endler & Parker,
83 1990; Matud, 2004; Ptacek et al., 1994). It has been hypothesized that sex differences in the way
84 women and men typically cope with stress could be one reason why women tend to report more
85 psychological distress and symptoms of depression and anxiety than men (Matud, 2004; Mazure
86 and Maciejewski, 2003), which could, in turn, be reflected in higher prevalence rates of
 87 depression and anxiety in women (Kuehner, 2003). Indeed, women tend to use emotion-focused
88 coping strategies to manage stressors that are more associated with depression and anxiety than
89 men (Mezulis et al., 2002).
90 Thus, this study was undertaken to explore different experiences of Physical Education
91 students to help the future Physical Education students to help them become more prepared and
92 resilience in their aquatics courses. For Stallman et al. (2008), varied competence in water is
93 equally as important as technical skill training, and this competence can prevent drowning. These
94 authors believe that swimming skills are only one part of “water safety” and that both knowledge
95 and attitudes must be part of any comprehensive program. The same view is seen in the idea of
96 “aquatic readiness”, representing an individual’s unique set of aquatic experiences, which predict
97 the most likely task a swimmer may be ready to acquire next in any aquatic environment. The
98 study aimed to determine the challenges encountered by the Bachelor of Physical Education in
99 taking their aquatics courses and their ways or coping mechanisms to get rid from that challenges
100 or to solve problems. It will also present data on how the challenges encountered by the students
101 or respondents differ if socio demographic characteristics are to be considered especially sex.