Reading a Fitness Battery Before Kho-Kho Selection
A 16-year-old Class 11 girl wants to be selected for the school kho-kho team. In the school's fitness battery she records: height 158 cm, weight 68.4 kg, 50 m sprint 9.4 s, 1-minute sit-ups 16, sit-and-reach 12 cm, 600 m run-walk 3 min 05 s, and 6 push-ups. The school's minimum recommendation for team selection is 50 m under 8.8 s, sit-ups 24 or more, 600 m under 2 min 45 s and sit-and-reach at least 18 cm. She has mild asthma, uses a salbutamol inhaler about 15 minutes before physical education, and has had no attack for two years. She attends school by bus, eats one proper meal a day, and sleeps about six hours. The selection trial is in eight weeks.
1. Interpret her fitness test results. Which components are below the school's standard, and what cautions apply to your interpretation?
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Her BMI is 68.4 ÷ (1.58 × 1.58) = 27.4 kg/m². For a 16-year-old this must be read against age- and sex-specific BMI percentiles, not adult cut-offs; waist circumference would add useful information about central fat.
Against the school's own standards, she is below on all four listed items:
- 50 m: 9.4 s versus 8.8 s - speed and acceleration are deficient;
- sit-ups: 16 versus 24 - abdominal muscular endurance is low;
- 600 m: 3 min 05 s versus 2 min 45 s - cardiorespiratory endurance is low;
- sit-and-reach: 12 cm versus 18 cm - hamstring/low-back flexibility is low;
- push-ups: 6 - upper-body endurance is also poor.
Kho-kho demands repeated short sprints, rapid direction change, reaction time and enough aerobic recovery, so speed and endurance matter most for selection.
Cautions: these are school standards, not population percentiles; a single test occasion is unreliable; test order, motivation and heat affect results. Her six hours of sleep and one meal a day can depress performance independently of training. Her asthma is described as controlled, so it does not by itself explain the results. Use the battery to plan training, not to label her.
2. Design an eight-week programme for her two weakest components and state the asthma precautions you would build in.
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The programme should target speed and cardiorespiratory endurance first, with strength and flexibility as support, three or four days a week.
- Aerobic work: walk–jog intervals for 20–30 minutes, starting with 2 minutes jog/1 minute walk and progressing to continuous jogging, at a perceived effort of 12–14 on the 6–20 scale, 3 days a week.
- Speed: 20–30 m sprints with full recovery, 4–6 repetitions, twice a week, after a thorough warm-up; quality matters more than quantity.
- Strength: body-weight squats, wall push-ups, sit-ups and glute bridges, 2 sets of 8–12, twice a week.
- Flexibility: daily static stretching of hamstrings, calves and hip flexors after activity, 20–30 seconds per stretch.
- Progression: increase one variable per week; re-test at week 4 and week 8.
Asthma precautions: 10–15 minutes of gradual warm-up; inhaler 15 minutes before exercise, carried at all times; avoid very cold, dry air and high-pollution days; keep the inhaler with the teacher, not in a locked room; stop at the first sign of cough, wheeze, chest tightness or unusual breathlessness; cool down gradually. She should have a written action plan agreed with her doctor. Training should not begin during an acute attack.
3. Would you select her for the trial now? Justify your decision and state what would change it.
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On the evidence given, I would not select her for the final team on fitness grounds alone, because she is below the school's minimum on every item and kho-kho selection also requires skill, game sense and attitude that have not yet been assessed.
However, exclusion from the trial would be harsh and premature. The fair decision is provisional entry into a training squad with a clear target: re-test at week 6, and select only if she approaches the standards and shows suitable skill and commitment. If the trial is the only selection route, allow her to attend as a developmental trialist, with the coach observing her catching, dodging, reaction and teamwork rather than only her 600 m time.
What would change the decision: a clear upward trend across repeated tests, good skill and attitude, no asthma problems during training, and improvement in sleep and eating. What would not change it: a single good day, or selecting her because she is a senior student.
The selection policy should be explained to her in writing, so the decision is transparent and she knows exactly what to improve.