Club Fit! was developed in response to the alarming – and growing – incidence of childhood obesity among Pasadena’s children. The program targets elementary school-aged children who are identified as obese, overweight or at-risk for either condition. Club Fit! was launched as a pilot program, serving twenty-four students at Pasadena’s Madison Elementary School, during School Year 2004-05.
During the following school year (2005-06), two kinesiology professors, nineteen undergraduate and three graduate students from California State University, Los Angeles delivered the program to 168 students. Club Fit! was organized into three modules, of eight-to-ten weeks each. While continuing to serve students at Madison Elementary School, Club Fit! expanded to a second site, The Sycamores, an after-school enrichment program attended by a number of Madison students. Activities were conducted at each site on a twice-per-week basis, serving primarily 4th and 5th grade students.
Program Goals and Outcomes In order to assess the degree of progress toward the achievement of the six identified program goals, data was collected throughout the school year and included students’ daily journal entries, pedometer readings and pre/post-tests of the children’s perceptions and knowledge related to the material covered during each session. The findings of these assessments, and their related program goals, were as follows:
Goal 1: To improve measures of health-related fitness, (muscular strength, muscular and cardiovascular endurance, flexibility and body composition), by engaging the children in moderate to vigorous physical activity.
Outcomes: We wanted the students to understand the importance of fitness, identify components of health related fitness and improve or increase their level of physical activity. Each Club Fit! student wore a pedometer to track the amount of mileage and overall physical activity time accumulated during each Club Fit! meeting. Over the course of each session, student levels of physical activity and mileage increased. During Week 1 of the program, the students’ accumulated mileage was .7 miles; by Week 7, the amount of accumulated mileage had increased to 3.5 miles per week. On average, the students accumulated 1.4 miles per class meeting. Similar gains were made in terms of the time spent in physical activity. During Week 1, students spent 19 minutes engaged in activity; by Week 7, that figure was 82 minutes. A related positive outcome was observed, in terms of improvements in the self-perception of program participants, as the children experienced themselves participating more fully in physical activities. Not only did their level of activity change, but we observed improvements in levels of self-perception related to fitness. 30% of the students who, at the outset of the program, believed themselves to be “somewhat fit,” reported a belief that they were “very fit” by the end of the session. Perception of body image was another important area of focus. There was a reported 40% increase in the students’ perception of body image. Those who, upon entering Club Fit!, had reported that they liked their body “a little,” or just “liked” their body, later responded positively to that question, stating that they “loved” the way their body looked.
Goal 2: To improve motor skills. Often, obese individuals and those at-risk for developing obesity are poorly skilled at sports related activities. This is often the motivation for avoidance of these healthful activities. Therefore, each Club Fit! meeting focused upon some aspect of skill development in activities such as soccer, basketball, throwing and catching.
Outcomes: By the end of each ten-week session, students were able to play a game “3-on-3" soccer while demonstrating competent ball control, kicking and passing skills. Students learned how to dribble a basketball in both stationary and moving situations, as well as a number of passing techniques. By the end of the sessions, they were able to dribble the ball, pass directly to a partner and shoot to score. They also developed the proper biomechanics for throwing and catching. By the end of their Club Fit! sessions, all were able to catch a ball thrown by a partner from varying distances and to use these skills in game-like situations. All of these achievements increase dramatically the tendency of individuals to approach, rather than to avoid, physical activity as a strategy for health maintenance.
