Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8
← PE
PESports science: how the body performs24 min★★ difficulty

Components of fitness and how to test them

"Getting fitter" is too vague to train. Fitness splits into components, and each component has a test that turns a feeling into a number you can compare next term.

Part of your national curriculum
  • Competitive sport and tactics: Analyse their performances compared to previous ones and demonstrate improvement to achieve their personal best
  • Health and fitness: Develop components of fitness through sustained physical activity, understanding the effects of exercise on the body

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Analyse their performances compared to previous ones and demonstrate improvement to achieve their personal best

Key learning points

  • • Health-related components
  • • Skill-related components
  • • Matching test to component
  • • Making the numbers trustworthy

This lesson at a glance

  • 24 minutes
  • 16 parts to scroll through
  • 4 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

performancescomparedpreviousdemonstrateimprovement

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 16 · Discover6%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 16

Watch first

Components of fitness and how to test them

An English teaching video on this topic from TED-Ed. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Analyse their performances compared to previous ones and demonstrate improvement to achieve their personal best

2

Learning cycle

Part 2 of 16

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Part 1 · Health-related components

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

3

Explore the idea

Part 3 of 16

Learn

Health-related components

Cardiovascular endurance (the heart, lungs and blood supplying oxygen over time), muscular endurance (repeating contractions without fatigue), strength (maximum force), flexibility (range of movement at a joint) and body composition (the proportions of muscle, fat and bone). These affect general health as well as sport.

4

Explore the idea

Part 4 of 16

Learn

Skill-related components

Agility (changing direction at speed), balance, coordination, power (strength x speed), reaction time and speed. A badminton player leans on agility and reaction time; a shot putter leans on power. Naming the components a sport demands is the first step in designing training for it.

5

Quick check

Part 5 of 16

Quick check

Which test measures cardiovascular endurance?

6

Quick check

Part 6 of 16

Quick check

Power is best defined as:

7

Reset break

Part 7 of 16

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
8

Learning cycle

Part 8 of 16

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Part 2 · Matching test to component

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

9

Explore the idea

Part 9 of 16

Learn

Matching test to component

Multi-stage fitness test — cardiovascular endurance. One-minute sit-up test — muscular endurance. Grip dynamometer — strength. Sit-and-reach — flexibility. Illinois agility run — agility. Standing broad jump or vertical jump — power. Ruler drop — reaction time. 30m sprint — speed. Standing stork test — balance. Alternate-hand wall throw — coordination.

10

Explore the idea

Part 10 of 16

Learn

Making the numbers trustworthy

A test is only useful if it is valid (it measures the component it claims to), reliable (repeatable — same surface, same footwear, same tester, same warm-up) and used against published norms for age and sex. Record baseline results, train for six weeks, retest under identical conditions and compare. A change of one or two centimetres on sit-and-reach may be measurement error; a change of ten is progress.

11

Quick check

Part 11 of 16

Quick check

A learner is retested on a different surface with no warm-up. This mainly reduces the test's:

12

Quick check

Part 12 of 16

Quick check

Which component matters most for a netball centre changing direction repeatedly?

13

Explore the idea

Part 13 of 16

Worked example

Reading your own data

Baseline: bleep test level 6.4, standing broad jump 1.62m. After six weeks of interval running plus two jump sessions a week: level 7.8, jump 1.71m. Endurance improved by more than a level, so the interval work paid off; the jump gain of 9cm is beyond likely measurement error, so power improved too. Next block: keep the intervals, add depth jumps for power, retest with the same tester and shoes.

14

Challenge round

Part 14 of 16

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

15

Mastery quiz

Part 15 of 16

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Components of fitness and how to test them

4 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. Which activity best develops cardiovascular endurance?

  2. 2. Which test measures cardiovascular endurance?

  3. 3. Power is best defined as:

  4. 4. A learner is retested on a different surface with no warm-up. This mainly reduces the test's:

16

Lesson round-up

Part 16 of 16

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

Not played

Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Article

What a warm-up is actually for

A warm-up raises the heart rate, sends more blood to the working muscles and raises muscle temperature by a couple of degrees. Warm muscle stretches further before it tears, and messages between brain and muscle travel faster, so movement is more accurate.

A good warm-up has three parts: a few minutes of easy movement, mobility that takes joints through the range the sport needs, and short bursts at close to game speed.

Long, still stretching before explosive sport can slow the muscle down. Save that kind of stretching for the cool-down.

Written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. Explain in your own words two things a warm-up does to the body.
  2. Design a ten-minute warm-up for one sport, with times for each part.
  3. Keep a training log for three sessions: what you did, how long, and how you felt after.

  • Training log

    Writing

    Write what you did, for how long, and how your body felt afterwards.

    Half a page

Saved as you type.

Part 1 of 16 · Watch & discover

How this is going

  • Not looked at yet

    Analyse their performances compared to previous ones and demonstrate improvement to achieve their personal best

  • Not looked at yet

    Develop components of fitness through sustained physical activity, understanding the effects of exercise on the body

Good Learning Co. — personalised UK curriculum learning, built around what each learner loves.