Fitness Testing for Children: Let's Mount the Zebra!

Few paediatric health topics have sparked as much academic and public debate as school-based fitness testing. Since Rowland exclaimed nearly two decades ago that the “horse”, referring to schoolbased fitness testing is dead, opinion has been divided – to test or not to test. Whilst many agreed with Rowland`s criticisms, others suggest that it is not school-based fitness testing per se that is problematic but that we have been riding the wrong animal, and should instead be riding a zebra – signifying a multi-dimensional approach to its implementation. We acknowledge concerns over school-based fitness testing, but argue that the associations between fitness and health, as well as the secular declines in fitness, necessitate such monitoring. More importantly, we highlight several potential opportunities for fitness testing, to not only to map an important aspect of health, but also to improve physical selfconcept and challenge the misconception that leanness equates to good health and fitness and its corollary; that fatness is invariably associated with poor fitness and health. We believe that a carefully chosen fitness test battery delivered in an educational context, can transform the horse into the zebra, and it is time for the skilful rider to mount and ride it. (198 words)