The relationships among motivational climate, perceived competence, physical performance, and affects during physical education fitness testing lessons

Despite the prominence of fitness testing in school physical education (PE), there is a sparsity of research examining the antecedents of students’ affective experiences during fitness testing lessons. This study aimed to investigate the associations among task- and ego-involving motivational climates, perceived physical competence, physical performance, enjoyment, and anxiety during two different types of PE fitness testing lessons. Altogether, 645 Finnish students from Grade 5 (50% boys, Mage = 11.2, SD = 0.36) and Grade 8 (47% boys, Mage = 14.2, SD = 0.35) participated in two fitness testing lessons with different content (lesson 1: 20-meter shuttle run test and a test of flexibility; lesson 2: curl-ups, push-ups, 5-leaps, and a catching-throwing combination test). Students’ experiences were collected using short questionnaires immediately after the lessons. Structural equation modeling was applied to examine the direct and indirect associations among study variables. Results indicated that task-involving climate and perceived competence increased students’ enjoyment and decreased their anxiety levels whereas ego-involving climate had no effect on students’ enjoyment but increased their anxiety levels. In addition, students’ actual physical performance as a mediator between motivational climate and affects, or as a direct predictor of affects, was limited. Strategies advancing task-involving motivational climate and students’ perception of competence should be employed to increase enjoyment and decrease anxiety during PE fitness testing lessons.

‘We are Not a Nation of Softies, But We Could Become One’: Exploring the Materiality of Fitness Testing in the President's Council on Youth Fitness

In this article, we peer into the scientific networks of humans and non-humans that were assembled to articulate youth fitness in the United States during the Cold War era when the perceived ‘muscle gap’ between United States youth and their European and Soviet counterparts lent urgency to the establishment of national fitness testing standards and plans. We draw on Actor-Network Theory as a theory/method to foreground the materiality of the body and measurement tools whilst also highlighting the contingency of scientific claims about the body and fitness. In particular, we discuss and contextualise two interrelated networks of fitness testing. First, we examine the Kraus-Weber Tests for Minimum Muscular Fitness in Children (K-W tests), whose results were published in 1953 and brought the ‘muscle gap’ to national attention. Second, we explore the networks assembled within the President's Council on Youth Fitness in order to implement fitness testing on a national scale, illustrating how they connected to, and extended, a variety of other networks, including the K-W tests. Throughout our analysis, we seek to illuminate the political implications of the technical work undertaken to articulate youth ‘fitness’.

The importance of standard operating procedures in physical fitness assessment: a brief review

Background Physical fitness status is a key aspect of health and, consequently, it is important to create and adopt appropriate interventions to maintain or improve it, and assess it using valid measures. While in other testing contexts, standard operating procedures (SOPs) are commonly and widely adopted, in physical fitness testing, a variety of unstandardized testing protocols are proposed. Aims The topic of this review was to evaluate the existing literature on SOPs in physical fitness assessment and to provide guidelines on how SOPs could be created and adopted. Method The electronic databases PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus were screened and original, peer-reviewed studies that included SOPs, related to physical fitness, were recorded. Results After the inclusion and exclusion criteria screening, a total of six studies were included and these were critically and narratively analyzed. Conclusions Standard operating procedures are rarely adopted in the field of physical fitness and a step by step guide has been provided in this manuscript. In the future, it is suggested to follow protocols as a routine, because this is the only way to generalize and contextualize findings.

A Study to Compare Physiological Cost Index (PCI) of Walking on Treadmill with and without Holding the Hand Rails

Treadmill walking is commonly used for fitness testing and training. Purpose of present study was to determine whether holding the front hand rails makes any significant change in energy expenditure during treadmill walking or not. Thirty volunteers (17 male and 13 female) participated in the study. Subjects were asked to walk on treadmill at speed of 1.0 to 6.0 mph with and without holding the front hand rails for 6 minutes. Physiological cost index was measured for two different positions and compared for statistically significant difference. Results showed that there was no significant difference (p > 0.05) in Physiological cost index measured for two different positions. Hence, present study concludes that, holding the front hand rails does not make any significant difference in energy expenditure while walking on treadmill. Keywords: Treadmill walking, Physiological cost index, Hand rail.

Creating a Live and Flexible Normative Dataset for Netball

A previous research has identified large data and information sources which exist about netball performance and align with the discussion of coaches during the games. Normative data provides context to measures across many disciplines, such as fitness testing, physical conditioning, and body composition. These data are normally presented in the tables as representations of the population categorized for benchmarking. Normative data does not exist for benchmarking or contextualization in netball, yet the coaches and players use performance statistics. A systems design methodology was adopted for this study where a process for automating the organization, normalization, and contextualization of netball performance data was developed. To maintain good ecological validity, a case study utilized expert coach feedback on the understandability and usability of the visual representations of netball performance population data. This paper provides coaches with benchmarks for assessing the performances of players, across competition levels against the player positions for performance indicators. It also provides insights to a performance analyst around how to present these benchmarks in an automated “real-time” reporting tool.

The association between competitor level and the physical preparation practices of amateur boxers

Physical training, testing, and monitoring are three key constitutes of athlete physical performance; however, there is a currently a lack of information on the prevalence of such methods in amateur boxing. This study aimed to explore the physical preparation practices of senior elite (SEB) and senior development (SDB) amateur boxers, and to determine whether these practices were discriminated by competitor level. One hundred and one amateur boxers (SEB n = 59, SDB n = 42) were surveyed on their understanding, perceptions and application of physical training, monitoring, and testing practices. SEB were associated with strength/power training (SEB 78%, SDB 50%, P = 0.005), monitor of training intensities (SEB 68%, SDB 40%, P = 0.006), and performing regular fitness testing (SEB 76%, SDB 50%, P = 0.006), compared to SDB. Likewise, SEB were twice as likely (56%) to have their physical preparation managed by a strength and conditioning (S&C) coach or sport scientist, compared to SDB (26%; P = 0.005). For the first time, these data demonstrate the extent to which competitor level is associated with preparatory practices in amateur boxing. Cost was identified as the main barrier in implementing several forms of scientific support in SDB. These data serve as a framework to enhance preparatory practices across different competitor levels in amateur boxing. This might include boxer and coach education on the benefits to a more scientific approach, and the use of cost-effective methods to develop, monitor and assess amateur boxers physical performance. This may be of particular importance where boxers are not funded, such as the SDB in the current study. However, this work may also be used to emphasise the importance of strength/power training, physical fitness testing and monitoring at the elite level of amateur boxing.

Comparison of Peak Aerobic Capacity Between the Treadmill and a Skiing Ergometer

Introduction: The Concept2 SkiErg is increasing in popularity and is widely used to provide a low impact total body workout. Because of these benefits, the SkiErg could be an ideal tool for fitness testing. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare VO2peak values elicited from a treadmill (TM) and SkiErg (SE) graded exercise test (GXT). Methods: Twenty-two averagely fit females completed 2 GXT protocols to volitional exhaustion on a TM and SE. Peak VO2, HR, VE, TTE, and RER were compared using paired-samples t-tests with significant differences at p≤0.05. Max RPE was compared using a Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test. Results: TM was significantly greater than SE for VO2peak (43.82±1.07 vs 33.97±5.01 ml/kg/min, p<0.01), HR (189±8 vs 182±11 bpm, p<0.01), RPE (18.91+1.11vs 17.26+2.03, p=0.02), VE (95.44±11.26 vs 86.21±2.90 L/min, p=0.015), and TTE (550.16+137.56 vs 391.86±81.20 sec, p<0.01). RER was significantly greater on the SE (1.16±0.08 vs 1.12±0.06, p=0.024). Conclusion: Results suggest that TM elicits higher max values for VO2, HR, TTE, VE, and RPE compared to SE, while SE elicits a higher RER in the current population. SE could be used as an alternative mode of testing in averagely-fit females but does not directly compare to TM values.