Objective: Health-related fitness knowledge holds the potential for physical activity and behavioural changes. The purpose of this retrospective longitudinal study with retrospective data was (a) to examine high-school students' health-related fitness knowledge growth through the 9th, 10th and 11th grades under one curriculum condition and (b) to…

In the past decade or more, improving young people's mental health has been identified as a priority for policy-makers in many countries, including Norway. Physical education, as a setting for physical activity, is increasingly viewed as having a potentially significant role to play in addressing mental health among the young. This paper reports…

The new SHAPE America standards and grade level outcomes for high-school physical education focus exclusively on physical activities that are suitable for lifelong participation. Some of the fastest-growing physical activities for adults in the United States are non-traditional multi-sport events and obstacle course races. As "Healthy People…

The assessment of physical literacy is vital and challenging for researchers and practitioners. Passport for Life is a Canadian global practitioner-based, formative, criterion-referenced assessment of physical literacy that is recorded in an online program. Students complete eight assessments divided across four broad categories of physical…

Background: Noteworthy proportions of adolescents--particularly females--report negatively about their experiences regarding fitness and the testing of it during physical education (PE). These accounts often coincide with lower levels of body image, fitness, motivation, and physical activity and higher rates of attrition from optional PE. Purpose:…

Fitness for Life classes, in which a primary goal is for students to acquire health-related fitness knowledge, consist of a lecture session and an activity session. Unfortunately, devoting class time to a lecture reduces the time students are engaged in physical activity (PA). A potential solution to helping students develop cognitive skills…

Background: Physical education (PE) can improve physical fitness; however, little research has evaluated PE's long-term influence. The purpose is to determine PE's longitudinal effects on fitness in a group of adolescent girls and to determine whether body mass index (BMI) status influenced any potential effects. Methods: Participants were…

The purpose of this case study was to examine the relationship between sports participation and health-related physical fitness in middle school and high school students. Health-related physical fitness was measured using the Fitnessgram test battery to assess healthy fitness zone (HFZ) achievement in five areas: body composition, muscular…

This study investigated 10th-grade students' views concerning the physical effects of an adventure-physical education curriculum and the potential of such a curriculum to enhance components of a multidimensional model of physical self-concept. Semistructured interviews were used to obtain students' views and participant observations were conducted…

The purpose of this study was to examine associations of fundamental movement skills (FMS) with measures of body composition. among children and adolescents. Secondary analyses of cross-sectional data collected from 4,363 children and adolescents in Grades 4, 6, 8, and 10 as part of the 1997 New South Wales Schools Fitness and Physical Activity…

This article provides an overview of medicine ball training. Specifically, it describes "Medicine Ball for All," a physical activity program designed to provide children and teenagers with a meaningful learning experience that is consistent with their developmental needs. The article focuses on developing a safe, successful, and inexpensive…