Teaching skill related fitness components start in elementary school. Just like students understanding what the 5 Health Related Fitness Components are, they must also practice the 6 skill related components.

Physical education class teaches kids how to live long lasting healthy lifestyles through individualized physical activity, game and sport. As you read through other articles I have written, you will see that I take an unconventional approach to keeping kids moving. That might include individualized activities like using TikTok to get your daily physical activity, or teaching the kids how to do a self ran HIIT workout.

But I also love teaching games and sports. For instance, one of my favorite games to teach and play is ultimate football. This game, and like many others uses all 6 of the skill related fitness components. If you are lacking a few of the components, chances are you wont do as well as a conditioned athletic student. But it doesn’t mean you cant improve!

Keep reading to see what the skill related fitness components are, and why you should be teaching your students about them.

What are the Six Skill Related Fitness Components

The six skill-related components of fitness contribute to your ability to successfully participate in sports and activities. People that have a high level of skill-related fitness are more likely to be physically active than people who have lower level of skill.

Improving your fitness levels are always something we should be striving for.

To improve levels of fitness one must first know what skills they are good at, and set goals and work toward improving both their health and skill related fitness components.

The six skill related fitness components include:

• Speed
• Power
• Agility
• Balance
• Coordination
• Reaction Time

What Does Each Skill Related Fitness Component Assess?

Speed is the ability to move your body or parts of your body swiftly and efficiently. A variety of sports rely on speed to gain advantage over opponents. An example would be a basketball player making a fast break to perform a layup or a football player out running the defense to receive a pass or score a touch down.

Power is the ability to move swiftly while applying the maximum force of the muscles which combines speed and muscular strength. An example would be a baseball player swinging his/her bat with enough power to hit the ball far enough to advance to first base.

Agility Is the ability to change the position of your body while controlling the movement of your whole body. Agility is an important quality in many sports, because you must change direction rapidly and always have your body under control. Examples include, playing defense in basketball and being able to move with your opponent while he/she tries to get around you, or a tennis player moving quickly from side to side in order to hit the ball.

Balance is the ability to keep an upright posture while either standing still or moving. Good balance in essential in many activities like skating, surfing, skiing, and gymnastics. Yoga is also a great way to improve your balance since you have to hold your body in certain positions.

Coordination is the ability to use the senses together with body parts during movement. For example, dribbling a basketball. The usage of your hands and eyes working together is called hand-eye coordination.

Reaction Time is the amount of time it takes to start a movement once your senses signal the need to move. People with good reaction time can usually start quickly in track and swimming or react quickly in ping pong or karate.

Why am i Teaching the Skill Related Fitness Components in my Physical Education Class?

Just like I talked about in my post about health related fitness components, students need to understand the who, what, where, when, why and how in sports. The better you are at specific skills, game or sports the higher the probability of you being active outside of PE class.

By fourth grade, your students should understand what the fitness components are and how to improve their own fitness levels. But starting in fifth grade, your students should know the skill related fitness components. As kids move through middle school they are expected to understand the following:

• 5th Grade: Differentiates between skill-related and health-related fitness.(S3.E3.5).
• 6th Grade: Identifies the components of skill related fitness. (S3.M7.6).
• 7th Grade: Distinguishes between health-related and skill-related fitness. (S3.M7.7).
• 8th Grade: Compares and contrasts health related fitness components. (S3.M7.8).

This is important, because when your students get to middle school, they start to focus a lot more on skill, game play and strategy. By 8th grade, students should be competent in these additional grade level outcomes in the psychomotor domain;

• Passes and receives with an implement in combination with locomotor patterns of running and change of direction, speed and/or level with competency in invasion games such as lacrosse or hockey (floor, field, ice). (S1.M4.8).

• Transfers weight with correct timing using low to high striking pattern with a long-handled implement on the forehand and backhand sides. (S1.M15.8).

• Transitions from offense to defense or defense to offense by recovering quickly, communicating with teammates and capitalizing on an advantage. (S2.M6.8).

Note: above and below are only a few of the many that relate to competency in the skill related fitness components for middle school and high school.

Once students leave high school, they should be proficient in the following grade level outcomes:

• Demonstrates competency in 2 or more specialized skills in health-related fitness activities. (S1.H3.L2).

• Describes the speed vs. accuracy trade-off in throwing and striking skills.28 (S2.H2.L2).

• Designs and implements a strength and conditioning program that develops balance in opposing muscle groups (agonist/antagonist) and supports a healthy, active lifestyle. (S3.H7.L2).

• Analyzes the components of skill-related fitness in relation to life and career goals, and designs an appropriate fitness program for those goals. (S3.H12.L2).

Note: all Fitness Knowledge grade level outcomes should be at a level 2.

• Level 2: allows students to build on Level 1 competencies by augmenting knowledge and skills considered desirable for college or career readiness

Why is Knowing These Skill Important?

How many people do you know that are on an adult basketball league? How many people do you know that play on an adult football team? Chances are you don’t know that many. Softball? Maybe a good handful. But the reality is that once people leave high school, their physical activity levels drop.

From elementary school through high school you get the most physical activity from PE class, recess, sports teams, clubs or some sort of program you do after school that involves movement.

The decline of physical activity after high school drops significantly, because not everyone will go on to college to play sports. Many students need to work, or don’t have time due to their studies. Or after high school, kids go right into the workforce bypassing college completely.

And what happens after those college kids that played sports graduate? Well they either move up to pro, or join the work force. Leaving even more people less physically active than before.

Now I am not saying once you graduate high school or college you just become inactive. There are many that still get their recommended physical activity and more. But numbers show a significant drop in physical activity levels after high school. And as a PE teacher, it’s my job to equip as many kids as possible with the knowledge and skills to be active for a lifetime.

Understanding the Correlation

If you are good at something, you’re more than likely going to want to partake in that activity. As a K-12 PE teacher, I am constantly teaching and building on my students strengths and weaknesses when it comes to skill related fitness.

The point of this is to equip my students with a wide variety of skills, so that when they are out at the beach or a back yard gathering, and a pick up game of volleyball or basketball breaks out, they will feel confident enough to join. They learned the skills, and feel comfortable enough to play along.

They’ll be more likely to be physically active outside of PE class, because they are physically literate. And what does that mean….lifelong healthy bodies and healthy minds.

This is why PE is so important. If students don’t have it, they wont learn basic movement or fitness skills. And if they don’t have these skills they’ll have a greater chance of becoming inactive too early on in life. And with inactivity comes fitness related health problems that can certainly be avoided.