Lt Col Suzana Tkavc, MSc., PhD candidate (CISM Sports Director, CISM HQ, Brussels, Belgium) CONGRUENCE BETWEEN PHYSICAL FITNESS EVALUATION AND THE RESULTS OF MOTOR ABILITY TESTS PERFORMED BY MEMBERS OF THE ARMED FORCES

CONGRUENCE BETWEEN PHYSICAL FITNESS EVALUATION AND THE RESULTS OF MOTOR ABILITY TESTS PERFORMED BY MEMBERS
OF THE ARMED FORCES

SUZANA TKAVC, M.SC.

Lieutenant - Colonel of the Slovenian Armed Forces,
CISM Sports Director, CISM HQ, Brussels, Belgium

Abstract

The study aimed to examine a test battery with the existing physical fitness evaluation and compare it with the results of the evaluation of motor abilities. The scores (depending on the result, age and gender) for each motor ability test were used to determine the types of statistical groups which were then compared with the existing physical fitness evaluation groups. The sample of subjects consisted of 83 members of a unit of the Slovenian Armed Forces who performed motor ability tests: push-ups, sit-ups and a 3,200-m run.  The subjects were divided into four age groups. The sample of variables included the number of points achieved in the push-up, sit-up and running tests. The classification in the groups was based on the K-means method, whereas Ward’s criterion function was used as a similarity measure in the classification. Three statistical groups were obtained and their typology was determined based on the characteristics of the centroids: ‘excellent’, ‘underperforming in terms of endurance’ and ‘underperforming in terms of strength’. The typology of statistical groups points to a combining of the strength and endurance tests with those subjects with poor motor abilities and an unequal distribution of motor abilities in the selected test battery. A bivariate analysis was conducted to compare the types of statistical groups with the physical fitness evaluations and to thus establish congruence. The finding was that a direct comparison was impossible due to the characteristics of the centroids, with the exception of subjects with a high level of physical readiness. The comparison revealed inequality in the tests of strength and endurance in terms of evaluating physical fitness, owing to which the evaluation could be misleading and might fail to yield realistic results of physical readiness. Moreover, it also raised the question of whether the structure of the evaluated motor abilities was sufficient for evaluating physical fitness where only two dimensions were being compared. The resulting incongruence puts into question the selected test battery and physical fitness evaluation criteria and therefore also the validity of the points system. Among other things, an examination of the distribution of subjects into age groups by type of statistical group and by physical fitness evaluation revealed that motor abilities diminished with age irrespective of the fact that age was taken into account in the points system. It was also established that the subjects’ physical readiness was very high; however, nearly half of them underperformed in terms of strength and endurance.

Key words: test, motor abilities, physical readiness, physical fitness, soldier