Abstract:

The physical education is very important in terms of setting a healthy lifestyle. Of course, the family also plays a key role. For children who do not have a family background set up for sport in a supportive way, physical education remains practically the only way to arouse children's interest in physical activity or sport. Above all, the way in which lessons are conducted plays a key role. In some types of school, physical education is common to both sexes (this is particularly typical in lower grades), while in others it is separated by gender. Both approaches have their pitfalls. In the case of coeducational physical education, where both sexes perform roughly the same on average, the differences are more likely to be between physically gifted pupils and less physically fit pupils. This distribution is independent of gender at lower school age. In particular, the teacher's approach and the choice of physical activities play a major role in establishing a positive attitude towards movement and motivation to practice sport at lower school age. The teacher's approach should be highly supportive, based only on positive motivation. The choice of exercise should be varied, allowing children to have all-round physical development. Also, the teacher should work with feedback from the students. In older pupils, at the time of puberty, biologically determined differences in physical fitness in both sexes are already beginning to manifest themselves. In general, males are better at strength and speed activities and girls at those requiring coordination or range of motion. It is therefore possible to recommend a division of physical education according to gender.

However, this division no longer addresses differences in physical fitness or competitiveness that are not gender-specific. It is therefore preferable not to divide physical education into boys and girls, but rather to offer older pupils and students different types of more specialised physical activities. For example, a basic physical education offer could include physical education focused on games, general physical training (athletics), gymnastics, but also compensatory exercises that allow less physically gifted or more physically challenged students to benefit from movement. In case it is not possible for capacity or financial reasons to offer more variants of movement activities within physical education, it is necessary to provide a so-called unisex approach to sport. It is generally true that, for biological reasons, men perform better in most sports. This is mainly based on the way performance evaluation is set up in individual sports. These are mainly dispositions such as strength, explosiveness and speed, which are more inherent in men. However, it is necessary to take an individual approach and, depending on the type of sport, to try to include criteria in physical education classes that do not emphasize so much the strength and speed performance parameters, but also bend the performance parameters related to coordination of movement and its greater range. At our faculty we try to instil this change in our graduates, including future physical education teachers. We are trying to promote equal access in physical education because we are aware that only a sufficiently physically fit society with a positive attitude towards sport and exercise in general does not represent an excessive financial burden on the health system.

Keywords:

Unisex sport, equal access, education, change of attitude, sport for all.