Physical activity levels and time-on-task in Maltese under 13 football nurseries

Abstract

Several studies have focused on the quality of physical education (PE) lessons and the time that students are on task during these lessons; it is seen that they are engaged in less than 50% of the time in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). However, few studies in Malta have dealt with activity levels, time-on-task and the delivery of sessions in sport clubs. Studies were limited to PE settings. This study examines how time is spent during Under 13 football training sessions in Malta using the Academic Learning Time-Physical Education (ALT-PE) tool and observations. It also analyses the different physical activity intensities which children are exposed to, particularly MVPA through the utilisation of accelerometers. The coaches’ views regarding these factors were investigated through interviews. Five nurseries, one from each district in Malta, were randomly chosen through multi-stage sampling. One hundred and eight children participated in this research project. Ten observations (two in each of the five nurseries) were carried out during training sessions and five interviews were conducted with coaches (one from each nursery). Results show that on average children spent around 45 minutes in MVPA (42.3%). Through the use of ALT-PE, 11 minutes and 33 seconds (33%) was recorded as activity time and 12 minutes and 15 seconds (35%) as waiting time. The majority of the interviewed coaches did not know of any tools which measure time-on-task and physical activity. It is recommended that coaches use tools to measure time-on-task and physical activity levels to enable them to monitor the training sessions' adequacy and that ongoing professional development would target improvement in session planning and delivery.