Associations Among Selected Motor Skills and Health-Related Fitness: Indirect Evidence for Seefeldt's Proficiency Barrier in Young Adults?

Purpose: This exploratory study examined the notion of Seefeldt's (1980) hypothesized motor skill proficiency barrier related to composite levels of health-related physical fitness (HRF) in young adults. Method: A motor skill competence (MSC) index composed of maximum throwing and kicking speed and jumping distance in 187 young adults aged 18 to 25 years old was evaluated against a composite index of 5 health-related fitness (HRF) test scores. MSC (high, moderate, and low) and HRF indexes (good, fair, and poor) were categorized according to normative fitness percentile ranges. 2 separate 3-way chi-square analyses were conducted to determine the probabilities of skill predicting fitness and fitness predicting skill. Results: Most correlations among HRF and MSC variables by gender demonstrated low-to-moderate positive correlations in both men (12/15; r=.23-.58) and women (14/15; r=.21-.53). Chi-square analyses for the total sample, using composite indexes, demonstrated statistically significant predictive models, (2)(1, N=187)=66.99, p<.001, Cramer's V=.42. Only 3.1% of low-skilled (2 of 65) individuals were classified as having a good HRF. Only 1 participant (out of 65) who demonstrated high MSC was classified as having poor HRF (1.5%). Conclusion: Although individual correlations among individual MSC and HRF measures were low to moderate, these data provide indirect evidence for the possibility of a motor skill proficiency barrier as indicated by low composite HRF levels. This study may generate future research to address the proficiency barrier hypothesis in youth as well as adults.