The Daily Mile:15 minutes running improves the physical fitness of italian primary school children

The Daily Mile™ is an innovative school-based intervention that requires children to run or jog outside for 15 min at a self-selected pace during class time. Today, only one study has investigated the efficacy of The Daily Mile on physical fitness, which was conducted with Scottish children. Thus, we aimed to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of The Daily Mile in Italian primary schools. A total of 486 children participated in The Daily Mile for 3 months (experimental group), whereas 309 children continued their daily school routine (control group). The 6-min run test, standing long jump, body mass index, and waist-to-height ratio were assessed. Their teachers completed surveys for assessing the intervention acceptability. After correction for age and gender, significant group × time interactions were observed in the 6-min run test and standing long jump results. In the post-test period, the experimental group showed improvement in the 6-min run test and standing long jump results. Overall, the teachers were satisfied with the program and found it suitable for their school context and easy to implement. The Daily Mile was successfully implemented and smoothly accepted in the day routine of Italian primary schools

The Most Active Child Is Not Always the Fittest: Physical Activity and Fitness Are Weakly Correlated

The present cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate the impact of physical activity level (PA) on physical fitness by controlling for individual characteristics in Italian children. A total of 329 children (girls n = 155, 42.6%; from five primary schools, 17 classes) aged 8–10 filled out the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Children (PAQ-C) to assess their PA level and performed anthropometric measurements (body mass, height, and BMI) and physical tests for measuring sprint (20 m sprint), cardiorespiratory fitness (shuttle-run test), balance (single-leg stance), handgrip strength (handgrip), lower-limb power (standing long-jump), peak force (countermovement jump), and low-back flexibility (sit-and-reach) skills. Linear mixed-effects models were applied to determine the relationship between physical fitness and PAQ-C score controlling for individual characteristics (i.e., gender, age, BMI). Results reported significant relationships between PAQ-C scores and sit-and-reach, shuttle-run, long-jump, and sprint tests. All considered physical tests were correlated with gender, age, and BMI, except for sit-and-reach from BMI. The variance in age, gender, BMI, and PAQ-C score accounted altogether for 30.0% of the variance in handgrip, 23.0% in single-leg stance, 26% in sit-and-reach, 36% in shuttle-run, 31% in long-jump, 34% in sprint, and 31% in countermovement jump. Therefore, the relationship between PA and fitness is not absolute and depends on the test and children’s characteristics

Corrective Adjustment Procedures as a strategy to remove Relative Age Effects: Validation across male and female age-group long jumping

Objectives: To validate the application of Corrective Adjustment Procedures for removing Relative Age Effects in youth athletic contexts, this study estimated the longitudinal relationships between decimal age (chronological and relative) and performance in male and female long jumpers. Using trendlines, Corrective Adjustment Procedures were applied, and Relative Age Effect distributions associated with performance attainment were re-examined. Design: Retrospective longitudinal design examining competitive long-jump data between 2005 and 2019. Methods: In Part I, participants were 689 junior Italian long jumpers (age range = 11.01-17.99 years; 56.6% females) who participated in ≥three events. Longitudinal modelling and regression equations quantified the sex-specific relationships between decimal age and long jump performance. In Part II, equations were utilised to adjust individual performance within an independent sample (N = 13,639; 50.1% females) of age-matched jumpers. Relative Age Effect distributions within attainment levels (i.e., Top 25-10%) were examined based on raw and correctively adjusted performance. Results: Irrespective of sex, Relative Age Effects were prevalent across all age-groups with medium-large effect sizes at 12-17 (males and females) and 12-17 years (females) of age (Cramer's V range = 0.07-0.28). Relative Age Effect bias magnitude also increased with attainment level (i.e., Top 25-10%). Following Corrective Adjustment Procedure application, typical Relative Age Effects were removed with non-significant deviations in relative age distributions regardless of sex or age-group or attainment level (Top 25 or 10%). Conclusions: Findings provide efficacy for Corrective Adjustment Procedure application to remove Relative Age Effects across youth long jumping events. Corrective Adjustment Procedures suggest potential in improving performance evaluation, identification of technically skilled performers, and sporting experiences

Feasibility of implementing an outdoor walking break in Italian middle schools

<div><p>Brief bouts of physical activity during the school day are an innovative method for increasing physical activity in the school setting. The purpose of the study was to investigate if the introduction of an outdoor active break, based on walking and running, in a middle school in Italy is feasible in terms of implementation (i.e., adherence, costs, safety) and acceptability (i.e., satisfaction, intent to continue use, perceived appropriateness). One hundred and forty students (aged 12 ± 1 years) and 20 teachers (aged 50 ± 8 years) participated in the activity for four months. The activity consisted of walking (or running) one kilometer outside the school buildings during the mid-morning. Data from questionnaires regarding the satisfaction with and the acceptability of the activity were collected.</p><p>The activity was safely performed three to four days a week, without any costs to the school or to students’ parents. Students and teachers were satisfied with the activity (positive answers from 95% and 89% of each group, respectively). Moreover, the teachers reported that the program was easy to organize and did not negatively influence their teaching activities. The intervention was easily and safely implemented, and it was considered suitable for the daily routine of an Italian middle school. Further studies are needed to examine its impact on physical activity levels and academic achievement.</p></div

Frequencies of occurrences in relation to the observed teachers’ behavior (i.e., items 1–6), the organizational aspects (i.e., items 7–10) and the general information about the activity (i.e., items 11–15) investigated in the teacher questionnaire.

<p>Frequencies of occurrences in relation to the observed teachers’ behavior (i.e., items 1–6), the organizational aspects (i.e., items 7–10) and the general information about the activity (i.e., items 11–15) investigated in the teacher questionnaire.</p

Correction: Career Performance Trajectories in Track and Field Jumping Events from Youth to Senior Success: The Importance of Learning and Development.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0170744.]

Student questionnaire about perception of the activity.

<p>Student questionnaire about perception of the activity.</p

Teacher questionnaire about perception of the activity.

<p>Teacher questionnaire about perception of the activity.</p

Frequencies of occurrences in relation to students’ behavior (i.e., items 1–6), organizational aspects (i.e., items 7–8) and general information about activity (i.e., items 9–11) investigated in the student questionnaire.

<p>Data are presented for the overall sample and for males and females.</p

Career Performance Trajectories in Track and Field Jumping Events from Youth to Senior Success: The Importance of Learning and Development - Fig 1

<p><b>Individual performance trajectories in males (A) high jump and (B) long jump athletes.</b> The individual trajectories are reported for each athlete with color varying according to personal best performance, from blue (lowest level athletes) to red (highest level athlete).</p