Fig. 1

Mean z-scores and 95% CIs for the cohorts 2016 to 2022 for six physical fitness components. The vertical line marks the first day of the school year in which the first Covid cohort was tested (August 10, 2020). For Coordination, PowerLOW, PowerUP, and Balance, the blue lines show a quadratic pre-pandemic cohort trend. For Speed, the blue line shows a linear pre-pandemic cohort trend. For Endurance neither the linear, nor the quadratic cohort trend were significant; the blue line therefore marks the pre-pandemic cohort mean. Endurance = cardiorespiratory endurance (i.e., 6-min-run test), Coordination = star-run test, Speed = 20-m linear sprint test, PowerLOW = lower limbs muscle power (i.e., standing long jump test), PowerUP = upper limbs muscle power (i.e., ball-push test), balance = static balance (i.e., one-legged-stance test with eyes closed). For coordination and speed, scores were converted from seconds to meter/second (i.e., pace scores; star-run test = 50.912 [m]/time [s]; 20-m linear sprint test = 20 [m]/time [s]). For static balance, scores were log-transformed