Abstract:

Our society is burdened with one of the most fundamental negative phenomena, namely the occurrence of numerous civilization diseases adversely impacting the quality of life of each individual. The education process, among others, needs to respond to the interests of pupils and students. School must play a crucial role in this issue by providing the support of the pupils’ health and healthy development. The main negative characteristic of today’s lifestyle is the decreased physical stimulation of the body. It also plays a significant role in influencing the occurrence and development of most of these conditions. The aim of the research is the evaluation of the “increased organized” sports activity on the fitness and health of upper primary school pupils.

The evaluated set involved 111 pupils aged 11 to 14. Each child of the set with “increased organized” activity was a member of a sports team (at least 6 hours of weekly sports training activity) and simultaneously took part in 4 hours of physical education at school. The second set involved children who were not members of any sports club, did not do any sports themselves and had only 2 hours of physical education at school per week. To evaluate their fitness and health, we used the FITNESSGRAM test battery, which monitored the basic somatic indicators of the children, their aerobic capacity, muscle strength and the body’s flexibility.

Our results showed significant differences in both sets in all monitored physical and performance characteristics. They confirm that the basic precondition of each child’s health and healthy development is sufficient physical stimulation. Children from the group with “increased organized” physical activity are fitter and display better health characteristics. Thus, they are better equipped at this age for their future life, which is primarily contingent on the quality of their health. It is necessary to create all conditions enabling adequate and sufficient physical stimulation in the period of their growth and development, i.e. also in the school environment.

Keywords:

Physical education, children, health, physical fitness, FITNESSGRAM.