Creating a physical fitness test for soldiers based on the correlations of the results of the special and general physical fitness tests

Abstract

The current geopolitical situation in Eastern Europe makes it obligatory for every soldier to be battle-fit and, thus, have good all-around physical fitness. The national armed forces units never had a special physical fitness (SPF)/combat and general physical fitness (GPF) tests, which would take into account the peculiarities of soldiers’ combat tasks in each unit and planned workload, which would enable assessing the soldiers’ ability to perform the most important tasks during combat, imitating some of the most typical combat tasks, such as moving heavy loads – equipment, protective gear, etc. – going over various obstacles, evacuating the wounded, changing the shooting position, etc. The aim of the study is to develop a general physical fitness test based on the correlations between the control exercises in the GPF test and the control exercises in the SPF test. 57 soldiers participated in the study. 4 field tests were used to test the soldiers participating in the study: 1 adapted special physical fitness test and 3 general physical fitness tests. The analysis of the study results for determining correlations in the SPF and GPF control exercises was carried out using the Pearson and Spearman range correlation coefficients, which showed large effect values between several GPF control exercises and the SPF control exercise march, whereas other SPF test control exercises had medium effect value correlations with some GPF control exercises only. The study showed that it is possible to develop a purposeful GPF test adapted to the peculiarities of a unit, including in it control exercises that can predict the results of the SPF test control exercises.