«“Shoulder to Shoulder” – All-Ukrainian School Sports Leagues» as an Effective Means of Involving Children in Orienteering

Abstract

Relevance. The main means of popularizing orienteering among schoolchildren are mass sports events, and the larger their scale, the more children can be interested and involved. One of them was the All-Ukrainian competition «“Shoulder to Shoulder” – All-Ukrainian School Leagues».The Purpose of the Study was to analyze the experience of involving children in orienteering as part of preparation and participation in these competitions on the example of the Volyn oblast. Methods analysis and synthesis of scientific literary sources, systematization of the obtained results, questionnaires, the method of mathematical statistics. Results of the Study. «“Shoulder to Shoulder” – All-Ukrainian School Leagues» is the largest physical culture and sports event among students of institutions of general secondary education, as it combines five types of sports, including orienteering. It was held for the first time in the 2023–2024 academic year and included five stages: from school level to all-Ukrainian. 133 teams from Volyn oblast were registered for the 1st stage of the competition «“Shoulder to Shoulder” – All-Ukrainian School Orienteering League», of which 107 teams took part. Five teams participated in the IV stage: four from rayons and one from oblast center, which won. In educational institutions, a total of 315 children were engaged in the school stage from teams that won the opportunity to participate in oblast level competitions. It was determined that 75,0 % of the young athletes who took part in rayon stage were not previously engaged in orienteering, and 94,2 % of the schoolchildren of the winning team of Lutsk Lyceum No. 11 expressed a desire to be engaged in orienteering in the future. Preparation for the oblast stage included two classes per week for all participating teams of the IV stage of the competition in Volyn oblast. Conclusions. The All-Ukrainian competition «“Shoulder to Shoulder” – All-Ukrainian School Orienteering League» proved to be an effective means of attracting students to systematic training in this sport.