The influence of different physical education programs on police students' physical abilities

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to determine the influence of different Specialized Physical Education (SPE) teaching programs on the level of students' physical abilities. Design/methodology/approach - In the Academy of Criminalistic and Police Studies (ACPS), one of the teaching program goals is an improvement of student's physical abilities level. Since the establishment of ACPS, three SPE programs have been implemented differing in number of class hours. Five different tests were used: "Isometric dead lift," "Hand grip," the Long jump (LJ), the Sit-up test and the Cooper test. Findings - Multivariate analysis of variance results indicated a statistically significant difference between the programs in tests LJ, Sit-up and Cooper. The Bonferroni test showed differences between all three programs. The discriminant analysis showed that both discriminant factors are statistically significant. The greatest factor in the first function was the test LJ, while the greatest factor in the second discriminant function was the Sit-up test. Practical implications - The importance of research was the fact that by determining the changes of students' physical abilities level, the authors can evaluate the effectiveness of various SPE programs. Results could be used in planning standards, selection and control of the achieved physical abilities level. Social implications - Changes could contribute to the positive effects of the educational process on improvement of students' physical abilities. Originality/value - This is one of the few studies which examine the influence of quantitatively different teaching programs on the level of physical abilities within a period of 15 years