Skill Related Components of Fitness

Skill-Related Fitness Balance

Skill-related physical fitness consists of those com- Balance refers to a person’s ability to maintain their
ponents of fitness that have a relationship with equilibrium when moving or when they are in a
enhanced performance in athletic activities. Skill- stationary position. Some
related fitness abilities increases one’s ability to examples of balance are:
perform in various activities and only has an indi- • performing a v-sit on the
rect connection with health. The skill-related com- beam or on the floor
ponents of fitness are considered to be agility, bal- • landing after a rebound in
ance, coordina- basketball
tion, power, • re-gaining balance after
speed, and re- ‘stepping in
action time opposition’when serving a
though some ball
people feel that
other abilities
such as spatial
awareness Coordination
should be in-
cluded. It is Coordination refers to a
assumed that person’s ability to perform
kids who have complex movements due to the
who posses a working together of the
high skill- nervous system and the
related fitness muscles of the body. This is
will be more also referred to as a person’s
likely to participate in a variety of activities and for ability to do two things at the
this reason will also exemplify a high standard of same time. Some examples of
health-related fitness. Skill-related fitness compo- coordination are:
nents are assessed with several different tests. Such • catching a ball in a lacrosse
components as reaction time and speed are consid- scoop while running
ered by some to be more related to heredity than • dribbling a ball while moving
healthy lifestyles, especially in young people. • hitting a pickleball while
moving forward on the court

Agility Power
Agility refers to a person’s ability to move their body Power refers to a person’s ability to transfer energy
quickly and easily. This also includes their ability to into force at a rapid pace also known as explosive
quickly change their direction while maintaining their body movement. Power is considered to be a combi-
balance. Some examples of agility are: nation of strength and speed. It has also been defined
• stepping aside quickly in the hallway to avoid as the ability to exert muscle force quickly For this
running into someone else reason some consider it to be a combination of skill
• stopping, starting and changing directions quickly to and health-related physical fitness. Some examples of
avoid a defender power include putting
• stepping quickly on the court the shot and vertical
to return a serve or an jumping. There are,
opponents shot however, many different
• changing directions quickly to types of power and total
avoid stepping out of bounds assessment would re-
quire many different
tests.
“The rate of learning in skill-related fitness
varies from person to person”
Skill Related Components of Fitness
Speed Spatial Awareness

Speed refers to a person’s ability to move fast. Speed Spatial awareness refers to a person’s ability to know
combined with strength will provide power and force. where they are in relationship to teammates, oppo-
This is a skill-related component of physical fitness nents, boundary lines, goals and other objects.
that relates to the ability to perform a movement Some examples of spatial awareness are:
within a short period of time. There are many differ- • knowing where you are in relationship to the end of
ent types of speed such as running speed, swimming the balance beam when walking backwards
speed, speed of hand or foot movement to name but a • knowing where you are in relationship to teammates
few. Among athletes a 40 yard dash is often used to so that you can set them a ball in volleyball
measure speed. There are a wide variety of tests of • when playing basketball, knowing where the
speed that are specific to different movements and defender is so that you can dribble around them or
activities. Some examples of speed are: shoot
 running a fast-break in basketball • Knowing where you are when you are upside down
 moving a racquet fast on the rings
through the ‘hitting zone’ to hit
a ball harder
 running fast to catch a Key Terms to Understand
Frisbee during an ultimate
Frisbee game Components of Fitness
Health-related Fitness
Skill-related Fitness
Agility
Balance
Coordination
Power
“By being active kids will learn to Speed
appreciate the importance of health Reaction Time
Spatial Awareness
and skill related components of fit- Hereditary
ness, and will come to learn ways to Assessment
help prevent injury and increase
their performance.”

Reaction Time

Reaction time is a skill-related component of physi-

cal fitness that relates to the time between one of “To help kids along the path
your senses recognizing a
stimulus and your body mov-
to fitness, it’s helpful to have
ing in response. One example some understanding of the
of reaction time is moving
your foot from the accelerator components involved. It’s also
to the brake pedal when react- important to realize that the
ing to a situation that requires
a person to stop a car. Howev- emphasis should be placed on
er, like other skill-related fit-
ness tests there are many dif-
the health-related, as opposed
ferent types of reaction time to the skill-related,
and total assessment of reac-
tion time would require many
components of fitness.”
different tests.