ABC Fit

1. ABC Fit A New Paradigm Glenn Young, BEd, MEd Physical Education and Athletics Coordinator Surrey Physical Education

2. Why Schools Fitness Test • To improve overall performance • Diagnosing weakness/deficiency • Improvement over baseline • Effectiveness of program • Gathering data • Communicate achievement • Only standardized test we have for PE Surrey Physical Education

3. Lab vs Field Based Tests • Much more accurate than field based • Lab tests to costly • Can not be replicated with large numbers Surrey Physical Education

4. Field-Based Fitness Tests • Canada Fitness Award, CFA (1970), European Test of Physical Fitness, Eurofit (1988), President’s Challenge, Fitnessgram • Focus primarily on Health-Related components of fitness (endurance, flexibility, strength) Surrey Physical Education

5. What are we actually measuring? • Genetics/heredity (potential) • Maturation (young people show a linear increase in VO2 max w/age) • Intervention (our PE programs, PA programs) • Motivation • Lifestyle • Skilled at taking the test • NOT True Improvement Surrey Physical Education

6. Critical Questions • Are you fit? • How do you know? • What criteria did you use? Surrey Physical Education

7. ABC Fitness • District has defined fitness for our students • Aerobic Fitness (4 station circuit) • Balance (Stork) • Core (Plank) Surrey Physical Education

8. Why Aerobic? • One of the best indicators of overall fitness • Obvious positive health-related outcomes • Tests are easy to administer to large groups • Many standards developed Surrey Physical Education

9. Why Balance? • Used on a daily basis (static & dynamic) • Foundation for all movement • Changing and controlling your center of gravity • Directly rewires the brain • Injury prevention Surrey Physical Education

10. Why Core? • Bridges lower body to upper body • Effective force transfer and skillful movement depend on the core to sustain proper spinal position • Enhances throwing, jumping, rotary skills • Engine of the body • Wrong focus on extremities first Surrey Physical Education

11. Why a Paradigm Shift • Fitness testing antithetical to the goal of promoting physical activity • Children are not small adults • Tests need to be appropriate • Testing needs to be efficient • Functional fitness (used daily) before performance • Criterion referenced standards • Safe--not maximal exertion or to exhaustion • Promote learning and positive attitudes Surrey Physical Education

12. Effects on Children of Fitness Testing • Intrinsic motivation increased with positive feedback after test, but decreased after negative feedback (Whitehead & Corbin, 1991) • Major contributor to negative attitudes towards PE (Luke & Sinclair, 1991) • Tests only motivate those that do well (PEA, 1988) • Over emphasis on the product-related issues (fitness level, performance) rather than the process-related issues (health, physical activity behavior) (Cale & Harris 2002) Surrey Physical Education

13. Effects on Children of Fitness Testing • Improper testing turns many “off” activity rather than “on”(Docherty & Bell, 1990, Corbin et al. 1995) • Communicates a false message that competition and excellence are necessary for health and fitness (Cale & Harris, 2005) • Children have little understanding why they are tested (Hopple & Graham, 1995) • Inappropriate or undesirable use of fitness scores to grade children as a primary indicator of achievement (Corbin, 2002) Surrey Physical Education

14. Recommendations (Cale & Harris, 2005) • Be child-centered & developmentally appropriate • Positive & meaningful experience • Provide individualized baseline scores and feedback to improve • Promote learning and positive attitude towards being active • Scores interpreted carefully because of limitations • Use criterion-referenced standards Surrey Physical Education

15. Aerobic Fitness Surrey Physical Education

16. Balance Surrey Physical Education

17. Core Surrey Physical Education

18. Pilot Results Surrey Physical Education