Opinions of Primary School Teachers on Alpine Skiing: Popularity, Frequency and Skill Level

Abstract

Winter seasonal physical activities are an integral part of physical and sports education, within which ski training courses are commonly organized at primary schools. As with all school-based physical activities, the teacher’s role is crucial. This study aims to identify and analyze the opinions of physical and sports education primary school teachers regarding the popularity, frequency and skill levels in alpine skiing. The research was conducted using an online questionnaire with data collected from March 2023 to March 2024. A total of 653 physical and sports education teachers teaching at the lower secondary level of primary schools across Slovakia participated in the study. Descriptive statistics and hypothesis testing were conducted using IBM® SPSS® Statistics v29. The results show that alpine skiing is the most popular winter sport among teachers. Nearly 49% of the respondents reported participating in recreational skiing 1–2 times per month, while only 12.86% engage in it every weekend. No statistically significant differences were found between gender and the frequency of recreational alpine skiing. These findings confirm that alpine skiing remains a widely favored winter activity, offering numerous physical benefits and contributing meaningfully to the physical education objectives within schools.