The role of physical fitness in teaching alpine skiing on assessment, fear and self-esteem

The purpose of the research was to determine the relation between the level of students' physical fitness and the effectiveness of Alpine ski instruction as regards the assessment of technique, the level of fear and self-esteem. The research took place during the CAMP training in the ski resorts of Parnassos in the Greece and Janskie Laznie in the Czech Republic. The experimental group consisted of 71 Greek students and 153 Polish students respectively. The International Physical Status Test (ICSPFT), the questionnaire on fear, self-assessment, the evaluation of the technique by trainers on the scale 1 to 4 and the self-evaluation of the technique by the students themselves were applied in this research. The evaluation of the skiing technique by the ski instructors as well as the self-evaluation of men was higher (2.4 ± 0.5 and 2.8 ± 0.7 respectively) than that of women. Social fear and athletic fear were significantly lower in the Greek group (67.0 ± 10.9 and 22.2 ± 3.6 respectively). Finally, self-esteem was higher in athletes (52.2 ± 5.0) and the value of credibility (lying) was lower in athletes (13.5 ± 2.5). In conclusion, the students' psychological predisposition and preparation before the winter CAMP must be taken into account.