Abstract

Hurtado Almonacid, J.G., Páez Herrera, J., Abusleme Allimant, R. Olate Gómez, F., Follegati Shore, S., Briones Oyanedel, V. & Mallea Díaz, V. (2023). Level of motor coordination in children participating in the integral sports schools program of chile's sports ministry. PENSAR EN MOVIMIENTO: Revista de Ciencias del Ejercicio y la Salud, 21(1), 1-16. In recent years, it has been detected that generally low motor coordination results in low participation in free play situations, organized and free sports activities. In turn, a better motor mastery is consistent with a low level of sedentary lifestyle. Therefore, the objective of this article is to compare the level of general motor coordination in children that participate in the Sports Initiation component of the ''Integral Sports Schools'' (EDI) program of Chile's Sports Ministry (since 2019, ''Growing in Movement''), according to the regions they come from. Concerning the sample, the assessment covered 341 boys and girls from eight different regions in the country (Antofagasta, Coquimbo, Valparaíso, O'Higgins, Metropolitan Region, Bío-Bío, Araucanía and Los Lagos), in ages ranging from 6 to 11. The information was gathered through the 3JS instrument, made up of seven tasks (3 in locomotion and 4 in object control). The results showed that boys have a better performance than girls in terms of general motor coordination. When the test data were grouped according to the type of coordination, boys are also above girls in terms of locomotion and object control. Boys and girls from the Los Lagos region performed better in six of seven tests. In conclusion, boys outperform girls in the tests of motor coordination and object control, as well as in the scores of general motor coordination.

Keywords motor learning; motor skills; motor control; locomotion; Chile