Why are university students

nowadays are lack or poor in

balance and coordination?"

The pandemic affects us in such a way that we are isolated at home and do
nothing. During our confinement at home, we struggled with frustration, boredom,
and loneliness, and psychological issues like depression, stress, and anxiety
worsened. This situation mainly affects the students, especially when the online
set-up introduces. These unhealthy behavior changes, such as an increase in
sedentary behavior and a decrease in physical activity, are frequently associated
with students mostly university students. Why are university students nowadays
have lack / poor balance and coordination?

Balance is the ability to maintain a controlled body position during task

performance, whether sitting at a table, walking the balance beam, or stepping
onto a curb. On the other hand, Coordination is the ability to use limbs and eyes to
complete and perform a task. It is the ability to use muscles at the correct time
with the proper amount of intensity. Since balance and coordination promote fluid
body movement for the performance of physical skills, they enable the youth
player to participate in sports with an acceptable degree of success, such as
walking on a balance beam or playing football). Participating in sports helps people
retain self-control for everyday chores, build social networks, and belong in a
community or social environment. However, According to Keating’s review, 40 to
50 percent of college students are physically inactive, and only 9% of university
students in the Czech Republic, According to a more recent survey, met the
requirement of 10,000 daily steps. A UK research on sedentary behavior found
that university students engaged in physical activities such as studying, watching
television, playing computer games, sitting and chatting, shopping, and hanging
out for an average of eight hours per day. It is because of the pandemic which
makes lost motivation to do activities where we are not allowed to go outside and
the limited amount of space that some university students have. Hence, Many
University students experience some symptoms of lack of balance and
coordination like Avoid physical activity, Having difficulty getting dressed
standing up (they need to sit down to get put on pants as they lose their balance
standing on one leg when doing physical activities), fall easily and trip often or
can’t ‘recover’ quickly from being off balance, and tire more quickly that can cause
difficulties. In a way that affects the health of not just the university students but
all students.

To sum up, it is significant to implement interventions based on the

recommendation of the university students themself that may be more feasible
and sustainable on a university campus. A participatory approach that gives us an
idea if and in what kind of strategy students are prepared/willing to participate.
Understanding why young people lack balance and coordination and choose to be
inactive is crucial for intervention efforts to promote more active lives.

Hanah Christina Alaban

REFERENCES
https://childdevelopment.com.au/areas-of-concern/gross-motor-skills/balance-coordination/
https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-015-1553-4