About the project

FitBack is a European project whose full name is “the European Network for the Support of Development of Systems for Monitoring Physical Fitness of Children and Adolescents”.

Its mandate is to advocate for, and provide tools that will allow examination of population health trends, the effects of national fitness policies and interventions on child health at the local, regional, national and European level. FitBack will enable the prediction of future trends in population health by relating health risk to physical fitness status. The FitBack network has been developed in collaboration with 10 European partners who have been measuring physical fitness assessment in children and adolescents for a long time. This network is coordinated by the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Sport, Slovenia which has more than 30 years’ experience monitoring the physical fitness of all school children in the country every year.

The FitBack network welcomes new researchers and research groups from around the world. It can offer European expertise and support on all aspects of physical fitness monitoring of children and adolescents. For example, FitBack provides fitness monitoring tools for parents, teachers and children, organises regular meetings, workshops on current topics of interest, provides networking opportunities to interested stakeholders (like conferences), maintains links to European databases on physical fitness and other resources, educational materials, and provides best-practice descriptions on how to maximize one’s fitness. FitBack provides collaboration on fitness data analysis and counselling to new members on how to establish their own fitness monitoring system.

FitBack supports:

1. Children, adolescents, parents, teachers, physicians and coaches

With the FitBack tool that provides feedback on the selected Alpha fitness tests compared to European reference values, and related health risk.

2. Policy makers at the local, regional and national level

With essential information they can use for establishing their own physical fitness assessment protocols for testing and monitoring the health-risk of children and adolescents.

Overcoming difficulties in physical activity monitoring

By focusing on physical fitness, a metric that is more closely linked with health indicators than physical activity and measured more reliably, this project addresses the need identified by the European Commission to overcome difficulties in physical activity monitoring. In accordance with European HEPA policies’ recommendations, it also extends and deepens the cooperation at transnational EU level, shares information, and exchanges best-practices of physical fitness monitoring systems developed across Europe.

Establishing a single, multilingual online platform

The main purpose of this project is to support the establishment of physical fitness surveillance programs by a single, multilingual online platform, FitBack, which provides feedback on specific, individual physical fitness outcomes from the Alpha fit test battery. Fitback contains key information for others to establish their own national, regional or local system for monitoring physical fitness in children and adolescents. The Fitback platform was developed, tested and evaluated within 30-months' time by a project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Sport Collaborative Partnership scheme of the European Union (project reference: 613010-EPP-1-2019-1-SI-SPO-SCP).

By creating such a platform, we aim to bridge gaps between European political recommendations and the current state of affairs locally, as well as strengthen cooperation between sectors (education, health, sport) to provide data-driven policy decisions on physical education and related physical fitness priorities.

 

Promo materials

Fitback Flyer .PDF Fitback promo video

 

Members of the Fitback network

Country Name
Slovenia University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Sport (Leader)
Basque Country Basque Government, Eusfit Mugiment
Brasil Federal University of Sergipe, Department of Physical Education
Croatia Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Faculty of Kinesiology
Croatia University of Zagreb, Faculty of Kinesiology
Czechia Palacký University Olomouc, Faculty of Physical Culture
Czechia Technical University of Liberec, Department of Physical Education and Sport
Denmark The International Sport and Culture Association (ISCA)
Estonia University of Tartu, Faculty of Medicine
Finland JAMK University of Applied Sciences, Likes
France University of Lille, INFINITE - Institute for Translational Research in Inflammation
Germany Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Institute of Sports and Sports Science
Hungary Hungarian School Sport Federation
Iceland Faculty of Health Promotion, Sport and Leisure Studies
Ireland University of Limerick, Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences
Italy The Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Faculty of Education
Kosovo Center of Research, Studies in Physical Education, Sport and Health - CRSPES
Luxembourg European Physical Education Association (EUPEA)
Montenegro Western Balkan Sport Innovation Lab
North Macedonia HEPA Makedonija Nacionalna organizacija za unapreduvanje na zdravjeto so fizicka aktivnost
Poland Pope John Paul II State School of Higher Education in Biała Podlaska
Portugal University of Lisbon, Faculty of Human Kinetics
Serbia University of Belgrade, Faculty of Sport and Physical Education
Serbia University of Belgrade, Faculty of Teacher Education
Spain University of Granada, Faculty of Sport Sciences
Spain University Pablo de Olavide, the Faculty of Sport Sciences
Turkey Istanbul Topkapi University, Faculty of Sport Sciences

 

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