Physical Fitness Of Army Forces Of The Czech Republic

Abstract

Introduction: The activities of security forces and armed forces depend on two parameters: psychological level and physical fitness. These two components are the main parts of the selection procedure. Physical fitness is a topic to be discussed, especially in regard to security forces or armed forces (Bonneau, Brown 1995; Sörensen et al. 2000). Physical preparation fundamentally affects the performance of a policeman or a soldier and it is associated with stress management and service interventions or combat tasks (Gershon et al. 2008; Darryl 2000). This research is focused on physical fitness of the army forces. Further this research is important not only because it should result in expanding the portfolio and knowledge enriching study fields, such as the Special education of Security Bodies (SESB) and Applied Sport Education of Security Bodies (ASEBS) at the Faculty of Sports Studies of Masaryk University, but it also aspires to be of great contribution for security forces or armed forces themselves (Bugala, Reguli, Čihounková 2015; Reguli, Bugala, Vít 2016). Aim: The aim of the study is to find out the physical fitness level of the Army forces of the Czech Republic. Methodology: Research design as descriptive and quantitative. The data of the physical fitness test was collected from the individual Army forces of the Czech Republic in the last 4 years (2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018). The quantitative data were analysed on the basis of the statistical methods. After executing the basic statistical and normality tests, we focused on ANOVA. The total number of respondents was in 776. The ratio between genders was 698:78. Results: After comparing physical fitness tests with Sit UP, Press Up, Pull Up, Stay in Pull Up, Cooper Test, and Swimming 300m over the past four years, there was no significant change in physical fitness. All disciplines had almost the same value except for the exer-cise with the name Stay in Pull Up. This exercise is for women. Fifteen women were tested in 2015, twenty-five women were tested in 2016, twenty-eight women were tested in 2017 and only ten women were tested in 2018. The small number of women, who tested is caused by the fact, that women are not as common in Army as men. Conclusion: We can say that the emphasis on the physical performance in Security and Army forces is still up to date. We did not notice any significant differences between the years 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 tested. Thanks to this finding, we can state that there is a continuous maintenance of physical fitness in the Czech Republic’s army.