Frontiers in Education Technology Vol. 6, No.4, 2023 www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/fet ISSN 2576-1846 (Print) ISSN 2576-1854 (Online) 73 Original Paper Research on Strategies for the Healthy Development of Teenagers’ Physical Fitness under the Background of Integrating Sports and Education Jialu Ni1 1 College of Sports Human Science, Jilin Sport University, Changchun, Jilin, China Received: October 4, 2023 Accepted: October 27, 2023 Online Published: November 11, 2023 doi:10.22158/fet.v6n4p73 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/fet.v6n4p73 Abstract The issuance and implementation of the “Healthy China 2030” Plan Outline has pointed out the direction and provided guiding ideology for China to gradually become a sports powerhouse. Youth are the fresh troops of the country, the main force and new force for achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and shoulder the hope of the country and the nation. The physical health of teenagers is the top priority of school sports work, and the importance of improving the health level of teenagers cannot be ignored. This article uses the methods of literature review and logical analysis to discuss the significance of the healthy development of adolescents, the current situation of foreign youth physical education, and the reform of school physical education models. The aim is to analyze the current difficulties in the development of youth physical education and propose strategies to improve the physical health of adolescents. Keywords integration of sports and education, teenagers, sound development 1. Introduction In the 21st century, with the rapid development of China’s economy and society, people’s physical labor in daily life has been continuously reduced, and the sedentary mode has gradually become the “mainstream”. Teenagers studying in school have become the main sedentary group. In the context of exam oriented education, “valuing academic achievements and neglecting sports” is still the mainstream concept, which has led to the “obese children” and “myopic children” in today’s society. The emergence of a large number of “nearsighted children” has led to a downward trend in the main physical health indicators of adolescents for more than 20 consecutive years. Therefore, the www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/fet Frontiers in Education Technology Vol. 6, No. 4, 2023 74 Published by SCHOLINK INC. significance of “integration of sports and education” is crucial. In the context of the new era, the integration of sports and education is an important measure to promote the healthy development of youth physical fitness, promote youth training, and cultivate high-quality national sports reserve talents. 2. Current Situation of Physical Health of Teenagers in China The issue of adolescent physical health has become a global concern. Adolescents are the future of our country and the world, and their healthy development determines China’s future development. However, adolescent health issues have not been fundamentally resolved. A few years ago, Professor Mao Zhenming from the School of Physical Education at Beijing Normal University pointed out that the current physical characteristics of Chinese teenagers are: soft (soft muscles, lack of strength), hard (hard ligaments, poor flexibility), clumsy (clumsy and uncoordinated movements), dizziness (vestibular cochlear nerve halo, poor balance). In the current lifestyle environment, the increasing pressure on academic work has led to a gradual increase in sedentary time for teenagers. The development of modern information technology has also led to an increase in screen usage time for teenagers. This series of reasons have caused a continuous decrease in their outdoor activity time, leading to a lack or even continuous decline in the basic sports ability of most teenagers nowadays. 3. The Practical Significance of Sports for the Healthy Development of Teenagers Health is not only about being free from illness and weakness, but also maintaining a perfect state of physical, psychological, and social adaptation. Sports can stimulate secretion of β- Endorphins from hypothalamic secretion in the human body and can create a joyful mood, alleviate anxiety and tension, and promote mental health. When conducting sports training or competitions, errors in technical movements and failures in competitions can effectively promote resilience. The deep fatigue brought about by high-intensity sports training is actually a dual exercise on individual psychology and physiology, thereby improving individual pain tolerance. Sports can improve the nutritional status of the myocardium and the elasticity of blood vessels, while also making the respiratory muscles more developed, increasing lung capacity, enhancing the body’s ability to transport oxygen, and improving the function of the circulatory and respiratory systems; Sports can improve the production ability of bone and muscle cells, make muscle fibers thicker and bone thicker; Scientific exercise can also thicken the articular cartilage, increase its compressibility and contact area. At the same time, the nutritional hypertrophy of connective tissue and intercellular matrix promotes the volume of muscle ligaments, improves joint stability, and promotes the functional development of the human motion system. www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/fet Frontiers in Education Technology Vol. 6, No. 4, 2023 75 Published by SCHOLINK INC. 4. Development of Japanese Youth Physical Education In its early years, Japanese school physical education was committed to promoting the physical health of adolescents, and relevant policies were issued to provide solid guarantees and correct guiding ideology for this purpose. The development of sports education policies in Japan has gone through four stages, namely from the Meiji Restoration to World War II, after World War II, during the Tokyo Olympics in Japan, and in the 21st century. However, the main direction and goal of the four reforms are to enhance the physical health of young students. After the 21st century, Japanese school sports aimed to improve students’ physical fitness, providing opportunities for teenagers in schools and various regions to participate in sports activities. At the same time, it also emphasized the deep integration of community, family, and school sports, promoting the unity of educational influences from all aspects. 5. A Study on the Governance of Adolescent Health Development under the Background of Integrating Sports and Education 5.1 Strengthen the Organic Combination of Health Education and Physical Education Teaching, Establish the Educational Concept of “Health First” Physical education teaching should always adhere to the fundamental task of “cultivating morality and cultivating people” and the guiding ideology of “health first”, so that students have excellent sports abilities, develop good health behaviors, and form noble sports ethics. 5.2 Actively Transforming the Model of Physical Education Courses in Schools 5.2.1 Transformation of Traditional Physical Education Course Mode to Gamification Mode of Physical Education Course In the context of exam oriented education, physical education, as an exam subject, needs to be given grades. It seems that grades are used to motivate teenagers to engage in physical exercise, but the results are exactly the opposite. Most schools have always maintained the idea of “preparing for the exam, practicing, not taking the exam” and “practicing what you take,” losing the “original intention” of physical education evaluation, causing students to develop a resistance towards physical exercise. After a busy academic life, teenagers need to relax and unwind outdoors, and preparing for exams can only increase their stress. Humans always accept things they love to see and hear. By flexibly combining games and physical education classes, physical education classes can become more vivid and interesting, which can better enhance the participation of teenagers, improve their athletic ability, promote their personality shaping and brain development, and prepare them for future adaptation to modern society. 5.2.2 Organic Combination of Sports Music and Physical Education Classes Music has the function of cultivating sentiment and relaxing the mood. Music, as the first signal, enters the brain through the auditory organs, stimulating the cerebral cortex to generate excitability and achieving co frequency resonance with the brain. The organic combination of music and physical www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/fet Frontiers in Education Technology Vol. 6, No. 4, 2023 76 Published by SCHOLINK INC. education can achieve a “1+1>2” effect. Music can affect the rhythm of sports through rhythm, and the two complement each other, not only improving the training atmosphere, but also improving sports performance. Therefore, the organic combination of sports music and physical education classes has profound practical significance. In traditional physical education classes, physical education teachers generally use short commands or whistle forms to guide and control the rhythm of students’ movements. For teenagers with a strong desire for “novelty”, this method is particularly dull. Integrating sports music with physical education classes, playing music with different rhythms according to different course content, and controlling students’ movement rhythm, exercise intensity, and workload through music rhythm, allows students to gain a brand new physical exercise experience. This not only satisfies the desires of young people, but also relaxes students’ mood and alleviates exercise fatigue through music. 5.3 Strengthen Sports Support and Reduce Injury Risks Sports require direct physical participation, and the completion of actions such as confrontations, sprints, and jumps requires the collaboration of physical qualities such as speed, strength, and balance, which determines the objectivity of injury risks in sports. 5.3.1 Guarantee Mechanism for Campus Sports Injury Accidents among Foreign Teenagers 5.3.1.1 Protection Mechanism for Sports Injury Accidents among Young People in the United States The sports insurance system in the United States is very comprehensive and covers an extremely wide range, including professional athletes, sports workers, sports enthusiasts, school training team members, and students, providing them with solid protection. The sports insurance in the United States, due to its rich and diverse types of insurance, allows all students on campus to choose insurance types reasonably and flexibly based on their own sports situation. Thanks to the comprehensive sports insurance system and medical assistance guarantee system, sports insurance has been popularized on American campuses. The United States has also incorporated sports insurance into the national sports system and social insurance system, providing legal protection for the development of sports. These conditions effectively promote the development of school physical education. 5.3.1.2 Protection Mechanism for Sports Injury Accidents among Japanese Teenagers The development of sports in Japan has a long history and has undergone several reforms. With the improvement of sports injury protection legislation and insurance tools, parents can rest assured that their children will participate in high-intensity competitive sports competitions. Firstly, Japan attaches great importance to legislation in terms of ensuring the risk of sports injuries, striving to have laws to follow. The current relevant laws include the “Sports Revitalization Law”, “Sports Basic Law”, “Japan School Safety Association Law”, “Japan Sports Revitalization Center Law”, etc. These laws have made legal planning for the risk of sports injuries among young people on campus. Secondly, the organic integration of Japanese youth sports with the developed domestic insurance market system has nurtured a sports insurance mechanism represented by the “commercial contract model” of Japanese sports safety insurance. This mechanism clearly regulates a series of detailed rules such as the scene of sports www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/fet Frontiers in Education Technology Vol. 6, No. 4, 2023 77 Published by SCHOLINK INC. accidents, the strength of claims, and the division of responsible persons, which effectively protects the relevant interests of policyholders and builds a solid safety net for the development of Japanese youth sports. Thirdly, the coverage of campus sports insurance in Japan is extensive. Japanese campus sports insurance covers various sports activities for teenagers in school, including campus sports events, campus sports classes, extracurricular sports activities, and even on the way to and from school. 5.3.2 Research on the Protection Mechanism and Strategy for Campus Sports Injury Accidents in China The school sports insurance system in China is still in its early stages and needs to face many challenges. Many current relevant systems and laws are unable to adapt to the diversity and specificity of sports injury risks for young people on campus, and the methods for handling sports injury accidents are not reasonable, which has a significant gap compared to foreign countries. Facing the suddenness, complexity, and particularity of sports injury accidents, it is necessary to construct scientific, flexible, and implementable measures. Firstly, at the national government level, it is necessary to improve the “Regulations on School Sports Work”, provide more precise regulations on the handling of sports injuries, and combine relevant examples to establish a targeted sports insurance system on campus, increase insurance types, and expand coverage. Secondly, domestic schools should learn and draw on foreign sports safety concepts and insurance systems. They should not only carry out sports safety related courses to popularize sports safety knowledge and preventive measures for students, but also provide solid material protection for policyholders in different situations, eliminating the concerns of parents and adolescents. Thirdly, for physical education teachers, they not only need to learn how to teach sports skills, but also have rich theoretical reserves and proficient practical experience in preventing and handling different sports injuries. In the classroom, relevant knowledge should be taught to every student, so that they can correctly handle their own or others’ injured parts when encountering sudden sports injuries, ensuring effective treatment and avoiding secondary injuries. 5.4 Strengthening the Connection between Schools, Communities, and Families, Unifying the Multifaceted Educational Impact 5.4.1 Organizing Sports Events between Schools The competitiveness of sports makes it more attractive and more satisfying to the desires of young people. In competition, sports performance can rise to new heights after continuous collisions. Teenagers have strong energy and desire to win or lose. Conducting inter school competitions can stimulate students’ sports potential, feel the charm of sports in competitions, and improve their competitiveness. “Promoting practice through competitions and combining them” is an effective method to improve a school’s physical education teaching ability. Coaches summarize and adjust strategies based on the problems that young people participate in each competition to form a new teaching system and methods, and apply them to the teaching of physical education in schools, which helps to improve the overall level of physical education teaching in schools. A healthy competitive environment is extremely beneficial for the development of campus sports, which can stimulate teenagers’ love for sports and promote their healthy physical development. www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/fet Frontiers in Education Technology Vol. 6, No. 4, 2023 78 Published by SCHOLINK INC. 5.4.2 Form a Linkage between Schools and Society, and Mobilize the Enthusiasm of Young People to Participate in Sports Activities Teenagers are the future of our country, and their strong physique can provide strong human resources for the national sports. Nowadays, the physical and health problems of teenagers are becoming increasingly serious, and all sectors of society should attach great importance to this. If conditions permit, more good sports and exercise venues should be provided for teenagers. In addition, schools should collaborate with relevant sports associations or non-governmental organizations in society to regularly organize sports activities, promote the organic integration of social sports and school sports, raise awareness of the physical health of young people at all levels of society, encourage them to actively participate in sports, liberate their nature in sports, promote physical health, and return to the essence of sports. 5.4.3 Schools actively Transform Parents’ Inherent Beliefs and Promote Teenagers to Develop Good Sports Habits 5.4.3.1 Transforming Parents’ Inherent Traditional Beliefs about Sports In the current context of exam oriented education, most parents only focus on their students’ grades and neglect their physical health issues. After completing the heavy workload of daily studies, teenagers face various tutoring classes in their extracurricular time, which directly leads to a decrease in their exercise time and a gradual decline in their physical fitness. The basic function of sports is to enable people to “build” a healthy body through exercise. In the context of the integration of sports and education, schools should establish connections with every family, so that parents can understand the relationship between physical exercise, disease prevention, and physical health, so that parents can understand and support teenagers in sports activities. Only when parents deeply realize that the physical health of teenagers and the harmony and happiness of families are closely related to the future of the country, can they break down ideological barriers and enable schools and parents to work together for the development of teenagers’ physical health. 5.4.3.2 Encourage Parents and Teenagers to Participate in sports together In daily life, the influence of parents’ behavior on teenagers is subtle. If parents engage in sports activities, their sports behavior will serve as a powerful reference for teenagers and can promote them to continuously join the ranks of sports. The fundamental measure to promote the healthy development of young people’s physical fitness is to enable them to engage in physical exercise activities. In this measure, parents need to fully recognize their mission - as supervisors, encouragement, and leaders. Parents should learn more about sports related knowledge and frequently lead young people to participate in various forms of physical exercise activities in their spare time. While improving their physical fitness and alleviating psychological pressure, It can also cultivate their excellent qualities of bravery, hard work, and positivity, which will guide teenagers to establish the correct concept of healthy development. www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/fet Frontiers in Education Technology Vol. 6, No. 4, 2023 79 Published by SCHOLINK INC. 5.5 Vigorously Cultivate a Team of Physical Education Teachers and Coaches The construction of physical education teaching staff is an important factors determining the level of physical education teaching in schools and an important foundation for promoting the physical and mental health of young people. Firstly, with the continuous improvement of physical education requirements and standards in schools, the selection of physical education teachers should also meet higher requirements. Not only should their teaching abilities and basic knowledge be evaluated when applying for physical education teachers, but also regular professional training should be provided after employment. When the training is completed, assessments should be conducted to maintain a systematic and institutionalized assessment. Secondly, schools can hire retired athletes from national and provincial teams. Retired athletes receive high-level training, have high specialized skills, and have participated in various high-level competitions and won many honors during their service, which will bring a “celebrity effect” to the school and increase students’ participation in physical education classes. Thirdly, strengthen the scientific research ability of physical education teachers, so that they can become course builders and developers, and promote the efficiency of physical education teaching in schools. Fourthly, provide opportunities for physical education teachers and coaches to go out for training and learning, encourage physical education teachers to learn new teaching concepts, innovate their thinking, and improve the quality and effectiveness of physical education teaching. 6. Conclusion “The integration of sport and education” is a lighthouse that guides China’s current society in addressing the physical health needs of young people. It requires schools at all levels in the country to establish the “health first” concept of physical education teaching in response. The complexity and difficulty of the deep integration of sports and education are manifested in the collaborative efforts of the country, government, schools, communities, families, and individuals. To achieve this goal, the public needs to abandon traditional concepts of sports, attach importance to the multifunctional role of sports, and clarify the internal connections between sports, education, and health; The government and various schools should work together to improve the protection mechanism for sports injury risks, and provide protection for young people to engage in sports activities. As the successors of a country, the physical health of young people is crucial for the future and destiny of the country. Schools should pay attention to the healthy development of young people, create a good sports environment, scientifically guide them in sports, and promote their physical health. www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/fet Frontiers in Education Technology Vol. 6, No. 4, 2023 80 Published by SCHOLINK INC. Reference Zhu, C. X. (2023). Reflection on the Integration of Middle School Physical Education Teaching and Mental Health Education. Western Quality Education, 9(2), 102-105. 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