Health-promoting physical activity and extra-curricular sport

Abstract

The primar y purpose of this explorator y study was to determine the percentage of time in which school pupils coached by teachers were engaged in moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) during extra-curricular spor t practices. Three secondar y purposes of the study were to determine (a) the percentage of time allocated by teachers for pupils to engage in fitness activity or acquire health-related knowledge, (b) the percentage of time in which teachers used behaviours likely to encourage pupils to par ticipate in health-promoting physical activity, and (c) whether the percentages of time in which pupils were engaged in MVPA, allocated by teachers for pupils to par ticipate in fitness activity or acquire health-related knowledge and in which teachers promoted health-related physical activity, changed during the course of a spor ts season. Par ticipants were 20 high school teachers from Alabama responsible for coaching high school girls' basketball. One practice coached by each teacher was videotaped during the early-season, mid-season and late-season. Practices were coded with SOFIT, a systematic obser vation instrument designed to quantify factors thought to promote health-related fitness in instructional spor ting/activity contexts. Results indicated that pupils engaged in MVPA for 50.47 percent of their time but that ver y little time was allocated for fitness activity (1.96%) or for providing fitness knowledge (2.54%). In addition, teachers spent ver y little time promoting (0.52%) or demonstrating (0.18%) fitness. Patterns of pupil activity, practice context and teacher behaviour were consistent across the season.