title: Associations among selected motor skills and health-related fitness: indirect evidence for Seefeldt's proficiency barrier in young adults?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  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.
  
  
  METHODS
  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, chi2(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%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health, Exercise, and Sport Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409-3011, USA. david.stodden@ttu.edu
authors.forename: David F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Stodden
authors.forename: Larissa K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: True
authors.forename: Stephen J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Langendorfer
authors.forename: Zan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Gao
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology*; D010809:Physical Fitness / Q000502:physiology*