<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<italic>Study aim</italic>: While there is wide debate around specialization in one sport, there is a lack of information about fitness levels and motor competence of children participating in single or multiple sports.
<italic>Material and methods</italic>: The study involved 358 fifth-grade children who participated in a set of health-related fitness and motor competence tests over two consecutive years. A subsample of children (<italic>n</italic> = 109) wore an accelerometer for seven consecutive days. The independent samples t-test and ANCOVA were used to compare differences between single and multi-sport participants in study variables and changes between baseline and follow-up.
<italic>Results</italic>: Multi-sport participants performed better in shuttle run (baseline/follow-up; <italic>p</italic> = 0.001/<italic>p</italic> = 0.006), push-up (<italic>p</italic> = 0.006/<italic>p</italic> = 0.036), and five leap tests (<italic>p</italic> = 0.001/<italic>p</italic> = 0.009) in baseline than single sport participants among boys. Likewise, multi-sport participants showed significantly more improvement in the throwing and catching combination test between study years among boys F1,159 = 3.570, <italic>p</italic> = 0.030. Among girls, no differences were found in any study variable between single and multi-sport participants.
<italic>Conclusions</italic>: From the perspective of fitness and motor competence tests, there are no arguments for participating in just one sport at an early age. Instead, multi-sport participants performed better than single sport participants in the majority of test variables.
</abstract>

Study aim: While there is wide debate around specialization in one sport, there is a lack of information about fitness levels and motor competence of children participating in single or multiple sports.
Material and methods: The study involved 358 fifth-grade children who participated in a set of health-related fitness and motor competence tests over two consecutive years. A subsample of children (n = 109) wore an accelerometer for seven consecutive days. The independent samples t-test and ANCOVA were used to compare differences between single and multi-sport participants in study variables and changes between baseline and follow-up.
Results: Multi-sport participants performed better in shuttle run (baseline/follow-up; p = 0.001/p = 0.006), push-up (p = 0.006/p = 0.036), and five leap tests (p = 0.001/p = 0.009) in baseline than single sport participants among boys. Likewise, multi-sport participants showed significantly more improvement in the throwing and catching combination test between study years among boys F1,159 = 3.570, p = 0.030. Among girls, no differences were found in any study variable between single and multi-sport participants.
Conclusions: From the perspective of fitness and motor competence tests, there are no arguments for participating in just one sport at an early age. Instead, multi-sport participants performed better than single sport participants in the majority of test variables.

Contrasts in fitness, motor competence and physical activity among children involved in single or multiple sports

Biomedical Human Kinetics

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Study aim: While there is wide debate around specialization in one sport, there is a lack of information about fitness levels and motor competence of children...

Contrasts in fitness, motor competence and physical activity among children involved in single or multiple sports

Published Online: Jan 27, 2021

Page range: 1 - 10

Received: Sep 30, 2020

Accepted: Oct 30, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/bhk-2021-0001

Keywords
Accelerometer, Physical fitness, Motor competence, Multi-sport, Single sport, Longitudinal

© 2021 Kasper Salin et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Contrasts in fitness, motor competence and physical activity among children involved in single or multiple sports

Published Online: Jan 27, 2021

Page range: 1 - 10

Received: Sep 30, 2020

Accepted: Oct 30, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/bhk-2021-0001

KeywordsAccelerometer, Physical fitness, Motor competence, Multi-sport, Single sport, Longitudinal

© 2021 Kasper Salin et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Accelerometer, Physical fitness, Motor competence, Multi-sport, Single sport, Longitudinal