Ways to improve the swimming fitness of students with a focus on fulfilling the standard of the RLD complex

Relevance. The revival of the All-Russian RLD complex in our country in 2014 indicates targeted measures to involve Russian citizens, and especially young students, in systematic physical education and sports. At the same time, many experts note that curricula in the subject "physical culture" do not set a specific task to prepare students to meet the standards of this complex, and the available facts about preparing students for passing the RLD standards in swimming indicate a slight improvement in swimming readiness achieved in mainly due to an increase in the distances swam during classes. The purpose of the study is to determine promising ways to improve the swimming preparedness of student youth. Research methodology. The study was conducted over threeyears with the participation of222 second-year students of KSUFKST. The discipline program 'Theory and Methods of Teaching Basic Sports: Swimming" was 72 hours, which used a specially designed set of exercises to improve technique, eliminate basic movement errors, and only then gradually increase the swimming distance. We used the method of expert assessment, pedagogical testing, and mathematical statistics. Research results. The results of assessing the initial level of swimming readiness showed that 12% of the participants did not know how to swim, and those who could demonstrated a low level of technique and typical mistakes. At the end of the course, the average time for swimming a distance of 50 m increased by 23% and all students were able to fulfill the standard of the RLD complex for swimming. At the same time, the average result of the Cooper test was 491.5 ± 18.6 m for girls, and 494.6 ± 13.9 m for boys.