Fundamental movement skills proficiency and their relationship with measures of functional movement and health-related physical fitness in Welsh adolescents

The aims of this study were to determine the fundamental movement skill proficiency, functional movement competency and health-related physical fitness in a cohort of UK adolescents, and to further examine if there were any relationships between these variables. In total, there were 178 participants aged between 11 and 13 years, 90 boys and 88 girls. Ordinal logistical regression analysis was used to investigate the relationship between FMS proficiency and functional movement competency and multi-factor ANOVA were used to explore the main effects of the FMS and the functional movements with health-related physical fitness responses. Overall, FMS proficiency and functional movement competency were classified as being low. In addition, positive relationships were found for several functional movements with specific FMS, and, for several functional movements and FMS with some measures of health-related physical fitness. In conclusion, further intervention of these variables is clearly warranted with this adolescent population in Wales (UK).