Construction of physical fitness test for high school boys: A factor analytic approach

The study intends to develop physical fitness test battery for high school boys. The physical fitness standards and norms diverge from place to place, region to region, geographical locations, food habits, etc. The physical fitness standards set for one country may not be suitable for another country. The study had been taken keeping in view of Indian scholastic conditions. Thirty two physical fitness test items were preferred or tailored by considering the appearance authority of test items and experts’ judgment in the field of physical education. These variables were administered to 180 high school sports boys who had represented their relevant schools at least in inter school, taluk level sport competitions. The data was subjected to principal component factor analysis by using SPSS software. Factor analytic results acquiesced seven factors, which accounted for 69.3 percent of the entire variance in the data set. Six components of physical fitness were identified of which the muscular strength emerged as principal component (with 34.0 percent of total variance) of physical fitness. A test battery of six items was developed by considering rotated factor loadings, reliability and objectivity of test variables. The constructed test measures muscular strength, muscular endurance, agility, explosive power and speed of limb factors of high school boys.