Associations between swimming & cycling abilities and fitness in 9-11 year old boys and girls

ABSTRACT

The associations between swimming and cycling abilities and fitness levels in 9–11-year-old children were examined. A cross-sectional study involving 2258 children (50.7% boys; aged 10.52 ± 0.6 years) from 33 schools across Wales, participated in Swan/BridgeLinx health, fitness, and lifestyle programmes between 2013–2019. Health and fitness data were collected; namely body composition, cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength, flexibility, power, and speed using standardised measures. Children completed an online survey collecting data on swimming and cycling abilities and sports club attendance. Multivariate multilevel regressions were used to examine the associations between measures. The ability to swim and cycle was significantly (p < 0.05) associated with all components of fitness when accounting for age, body mass index (BMI), deprivation, gender, and sports club attendance. Boys outperformed girls with significant interactions between swimming, cycling and cardiorespiratory fitness for gender by swim (p = 0.001) and gender by cycle (p = 0.015). The gender by cycle interaction significantly predicted grip strength and power (p < 0.05). Swimming and cycling are important “milestones” in the journey of motor development and are associated with higher levels of fitness. These activities should be promoted to allow for an optimal development of motor skills, fitness, and health.

KEYWORDS:

• Children
• fitness
• swimming
• cycling
• motor competence

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all the children who have taken part in the SwanLinx and BridgeLinx programmes since 2013. These programmes would not have been possible without the support of Swansea Active Young People Department (AYPD), Sarah McCoubrey and Wendy Anderson and the Bridgend AYPD, Karen Winch, Joanne Delve, Maxine Boobyer, Samantha Tallis and Mari Sutton. The students at Gower College and Bridgend College have also played a vital role in assisting with data collection; whilst the team at HAPPEN have also provided data for this study: https://happen-wales.co.uk

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical approval

Ethical approval was obtained from the SwanLinx and BridgeLinx programme Research Ethics Committee boards (PG/2014/007; PG/ 2014/37).

Additional information

Funding

Amie Richards has a PhD Scholarship from Knowledge Economy Skills Scholarships (KESS). It is apan-Wales higher level skills initiative led by Bangor University on behalf of the HE sector in Wales. It is part funded by the Welsh Government’s European Social Fund (ESF) convergence programme for West Wales and the Valleys.