Relationships between Physical Fitness Components among Slovak High School Students

Introduction. The purpose of the study was to assess physical fitness based on using FITNESSGRAM test battery in Slovak high school students.

Material and methods. The reference sample consisted of 1,016 high school students from schools located in the Prešov self-governing region. Students were tested for physical fitness components using selected Fitnessgram test items. In addition, students performed 20-meter endurance shuttle run to determine their level of cardiorespiratory fitness and 10-second jumping test on a jumping ergometer to determine their lower-body explosive power.

Results. Results of one-way ANOVA showed significant differences for curl-up test (p = .012) between 15-year-old boys and 18-year-old boys. There were no differences between boys living in rural areas and their age-matched counterparts living in urban areas. Contrary to boys, girls from rural areas had higher level of abdominal strength (p = .046; d = .19). In the 20-meter endurance shuttle run, boys averaged 448.87 meters more than girls.

Conclusions. This study enables to create norm-referenced standards, which through their content will to a great extent indicate the measures of physical fitness.