Recreational cycling provides opportunities for regular exercise and is a feasible activity for most people. However, bicycle-related accidents are among the most common causes of children’s physical injuries. Various cycle training courses have been developed and in order to measure the outcomes of these courses, accurate monitoring and evaluation is essential.
The aim of the present study was to develop and validate a test in order to estimate core-cycling skills of elementary school pupils.
The sample included 38 primary school children (22 boys, 16 girls; 9.00±2.14 years). Participants completed a 12 skills cycling test, based upon an existing test and the advice from an expert panel. Two researchers were trained on the scoring procedure of all test stations. For each skill, a 5-point scale was used to assess the general performance. Furthermore, for two skills, the researchers additionally indicated if the child was able to fulfill some specific points of interest.
All data were analyzed using SPSS version 21.0. The factor structure of the test was determined with exploratory factor analysis (EFA), using principal components estimation with varimax rotation.
Bartlett’s test of sphericity (χ2=150.59, df=66, p<.001) and Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (ΚΜΟ=.531) indices were satisfactory. EFA extracted four factors with an eigenvalue above 1: a. Cycling skills over obstacles (3 skills); b. During cycling skills (4 skills); c. Transitional cycling skills (3 skills); d. Attention cycling skills (2 skills). These factors accounted for 65.67% of the total variance explained and all skills’ loadings were above .40.
The results showed that the test is a valid instrument for measuring elementary pupils’ core-cycling skills. The current validation study indicated that cycling skills in our context are divided in four components: Cycling skills over obstacles, during cycling skills, transitional cycling skills and attention cycling skills. This test can be used worldwide, especially for countries right-driving countries.
• Innovative perspectives on physical education, physical activity, health and wellbeing a
