It's tough being an adolescent,even tougher being an overweight adolescent. But itseems like modern life conspires to make it difficultfor teens to stay fit and active. Community oppositionwipes out plans for a skateboard park, but your bestfriend has Tony Hawk's Pro Skater for Play Station.You used to play soccer during recess—but inmiddle school, it's about shooting hoops andgirls aren't welcome. Plus, everyone is watching.

It's not surprising that physical activitylevels drop and rates of overweight and obesity climbin the middle school years. But it's a trendworth fighting, insists George Graham, president ofthe National Association for Sport and Physical Educationand a professor of kinesiology at Pennsylvania StateUniversity. Graham spoke with Connect for Kids'editor Susan Phillips about the challenge of keepingkids moving in middle school.

Are certain groups of adolescentsat particular risk of obesity and being overweight?

Certainly girls are more at risk than boys, there's no question about that. African American, Hispanic,and Native American kids are also more at risk. We see the big increase in obesity coming between theages of 12 and 18, from about the time they start middle school.

You've been activein the area of school-based physical education forabout 30 years now. How has PE changed?

It's better in a lot of ways. Twenty years agoit was common to see captains picking teams. I liketo think today that is rare. That's a huge change,it really hurts kids to constantly be picked last... There's an emphasis more on sports and physicalactivities that youngsters can do for a lifetime,as opposed to just team sports. Things like golf,tennis, badminton, rock climbing, roller-skating.

What if parents feel thata school's program isn't fitting in withkids' needs?

Parents should know that there's no supportfor an old-style program. If they see kids pickingteams, things like that, parents have a legitimatecase for going to the administration and saying, "Thisdoes not reflect what we know works today in physicaleducation."

Are middle school and highschool kids spending more or less time in the gymand on the playing field now than in the past?

Probably less time, though we don't have gooddata on that. We know that in terms of requirements,particularly at high school level, we have less physicaleducation than we used to.

Why is that? Has schoolreform had an impact?

Yes. No Child Left Behind at this point has not been a good friend to kids' bodies, though it maybe a good friend to their heads. Some of us might say we're being irresponsible, because we talk about education of the whole child, but it's really not, it's just the head.

There's a lot of competition for kids'time, and a lot of the attractive options don'trequire much physical effort—video games, computergames, TV, instant messaging. What are some successfulstrategies for keeping middle-schoolers involved inphysical activities?

The most important thing is that it has to startearlier than middle school—parents and schoolsneed to help kids find activities they really likeand enjoy, as much as they enjoy watching televisionor as much as playing video games. Unfortunately forfar too many kids, there's nothing that theyreally like enough, that they enjoy enough, that theyreally want to do it. So then here comes middle school,and the body changes, and it's not cool to dothings with parents, and you can't be on theteam unless you're already good.

It's tough to get kids turned on to new sports and activities in middle school, for a lot of psychological and social reasons. But young children love to move. That's the time to introduce them to sports, all different kinds of activities, and then hopefully they can grab on to a couple and bring that along into middle school. Hopefully not just team sports, but if they happen to like something like skiing, or in-line skating, or certain kinds of dance, maybe cycling, that's all key.

But what if it's too late for that? Is there any way to get an un-athletic middle school student moving?

My God, it's hard to take a middle school kid, overweight and out of shape, and get him or her turned on to physical activity. All the standard advice—"Go for a walk with your parents, do sit ups and pushups during commercials"—I mean, sure. All that stuff, it doesn't work.

It has to be something they want to do, something they can do with friends. I'm a big advocate of skateboard parks. I know there is a bad stigma attached to that culture, but it does appeal to alot of kids who may not be that team athlete kind of kid. And it's a wonderful sport, in terms of physical activity, in terms of workout, in terms of balance. There's a video game, called Dance Dance Revolution, some kids just take to it, they just love it, they can't get enough of it, particularly girls. There's a home version as well as anarcade version.

• PE Central, a web site for health and physical education teachers [2], has lesson plans, curricula, research, information on best practices and links
• NASPE, the National Association for Sport and Physical Education [3], recommends 60 minutes of physical activity a day for kids. See the group's other recommendations.
• Links on advocacy, fundraising for PE, adaptive PE and more are at PE Links 4 U. [4]
• CASPER, Concerned Adults and Students for Physical Education Reform [5], also has information and resources for people interested in promoting and improving physical education programs in schools.