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Off-Topic High School physical standards tests

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Tarzan

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This has had me wondering for years. I've done a few web searches from time to time (using duckduckgo, I hate google) and haven't had any luck.

When I went to High School in Australia in year 10 our PE teacher ( a nazi drill sergeant who was convinced we were all worthless weak unworthy physical specimens) put us through a series of physical tests. He told us that the tests were given to US High School students in what he said was the majority of states in the union. He said if a student didn't meet a certain level of physical fitness they could fail the year and have re-take the test or even the repeat the whole year of school.

I have no idea if any of what he said was true or if he was just trying belittle us and fuel his own fragile ego.

Anyway he told us that we were doing what was called A.P.H.I.D testing. It was over 30 years ago, so I can't remember what the acronym stands for (that's if it's even a real test and not just something he concocted himself) I remember he said it means American Physical something and not much more.

We had to do about 5 tests.

Chinups
Standing long jump
Ball throw
1/2 mile run (could have been 1 mile)
Something else that eludes me

We were given 2 scores for each test, one was a raw score score and he other was percentage mark where your score was compared to other kids your own age & size. He did have a chart to reference our raw scores to and he gave us a percentage mark right on the spot when someone did well.

Did A.P.H.I.D. testing ever exist in U.S High Schools or was it all a figment of our P.E. teacher's imagination ?
 
Maybe APHID existed before my time, but I never took such a test when I was in High School.

The two tests that I remember in Elementary and Middle School was the The Presidential Physical Fitness Award (85 Pecentile) and the The National Physical Fitness Award (50 Percentile). Those tests were ushered in by President Kennedy in the 60s.

I don't know if American schools do it anymore. It wouldn't surprise me if a lot of schools ditched it. PE classes are disappearing because a lot of school boards think it's a waste of time (and many are realizing that was a mistake). But also perhaps the standards may run the risk to make the less athletically inclined "feel bad". I don't think I came close to the President Challenge as kid and I didn't care.

This is the only score card I could find online PHYSICAL FITNESS TEST STANDARDS

EDIT:

The test was replaced by President Obama in 2012 with the Presidential Youth Fitness Program (PYFP). I don't know all the details, but it seems to use a program called FITNESSGRAM that measures things differently.
 
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Maybe my PE teacher was just full of it ?

He made it all seem so official though, if it was BS it was an elaborate hoax.

I was talking about it with a few school friends I saw for the first time in years the other day. It turns the guy that couldn't even do one pullup still can't do one and the other guys that could do a few can't do any now.

I was the only one who can do more than we did in that school test over 30 years ago.
 
Curiosity got the better of me, so I dug out my old High School reports and I found a report from the PE teacher. It was actually from year 9 and not year 10 as I'd remembered. Nowhere does it mention anything about APHID testing or any standard system of testing.

It actually had 5 different categories and 3 sub categories for strength.

It has under strength

Shoulder (we did pullups) RS-13, % 98
Leg (standing long jump) RS-2.65, % 100
Stomach (sit ups) RS-90, % 88

Then there are sections for
Agility (which I think was a shuttle/cone run done on the basketball court) RS-9.5, % 98
Speed (50 meter sprint) RS-6.5, % 98
Endurance (mile run) RS-4.51, % 84
Co-ordination (softball throw) RS-54.7, % 96

I was 14, weighed 67kg and I was 167cm short.

As I remember the RS was the actual result and the % was how many people of your age or weight you could beat. The details are a bit sketchy there though.

My PE teacher tried to force me into track cycling when he tabulated the results, it seemed like I would have been a good candidate for it in hindsight. I thought I was going to be the next kickboxing world champion at that stage and the only way I would have worn lycra at that point would have been at gunpoint. I didn't start racing pushbikes for another 8 years or so after I'd smashed my knee in a motorbike accident & destroyed my shoulder in a Rugby league scrum collapse.
 
Yes, we had those tests in the late 60's and early 70's. There was a half mile run I believe, a sprint and/or a shuttle run, standing long jump, chin ups, and a softball throw. I think there may have been sit ups and maybe push ups. It wasn't pass/fail, at least where I went to school. I think it was called "Presidential Fitness Test" or something like that. As I recall there was a standard that you got a certificate for. Otherwise it just showed you where you stood physically.
 
I'd swear we had to rope climb as well, all the way to the gym/auditorium ceiling. I don't recall any repercussions for failing any portion of it, but nobody wanted to look like a chump - many did.
 
So it seems like there was something to it, I don't know where the acronym came from though, just hearing the word APHID still sends a shiver up the spine of anyone who didn't do well on the test or even one aspect of the test. The way they were carried out all your piers witnessed you fail or succeed.

It was almost like the tests we did were custom made for me, I was playing Rugby League on weekends & training twice a week, going to Karate twice a week and competing in tournaments and doing a paper run delivering newspapers on my bike. So I was fit as a fiddle. For many other kids the tests were soul shattering.

I can't help wondering how kids these days would compare though. One one hand the kids are less active because of all technology we have and conversely we see athletes at the top level setting new performance standards across the board.

After reading about Eisenhower & Kennedy and their attitudes I can't help but wonder if they would have done well on those type of tests themselves or if they were projecting their own inadequacies/fears onto the general population. If I took a rope to parliament house in Australia I bet there wouldn't be many politicians who could pull their fat asses more than a few feet off the floor.
 
I remember having fitness tests in elementary school and a bit in middle school but I don't recall exactly what they were other than a pull up that no one could do in elementary school. I also remember that the test was the practice so its not like you practiced doing a pullup every day until test day, test day was it. Most of PE was playing some sport and usually involved a lot of downtime.

Like the rope day in middle school. Generally how it worked was that everyone sat down and then two students would attempt it at a time. Which means everyone else was sitting and waiting rather than being physical.
 
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