The Reciprocal Effect of Proactive Transfer of Front Crawl and Backstroke on Learning of These Two Types of Swimming

The aim of this study was to compare the transfer of proactive learning between front and back crawl swimming skills in female beginners. 60 students who had registered in elementary swimming course were selected and assigned to four groups (two experimental and two control groups). Experimental groups learned a primary task (front or back crawl swimming) for 10 sessions and then learned the secondary task (front or back crawl swimming; contrary to the primary task). The participants of control groups participates only in secondary task. The results showed that amount of proactive transfer from front crawl to back crawl was 3.06% which was not statistically significant (P=0.977) while the amount of transfer from back crawl to front crawl was 13.45% which was statistically significant (P=0.013). On the other hand, to compare the amount of transfer of these two types of swimming, the results of U Mann Whitney test showed that the amount of proactive transfer of back crawl to front crawl was significantly higher than the amount of transfer of front crawl to back crawl (P=0.001). Therefore, these results support the sequence of back-front crawl swimming instruction in beginners.