Fitness training for kids doesn't need to be heavily structured
NOTE - This post was originally written for our 'weekly warble' segment in a few Facebook groups for the community local to our gym.
Welcome to the weekly warble here at Ideanthro Movement!
In this week's warble I'm going to talk about why fitness training for kids doesn't need to be heavily structured, and instead why it can be quite playful and organic. I'm going to use our Youth Program as an example.
As a tiny bit of context, our Youth Program runs on Thursdays afternoons (and we're adding Mondays as well in a couple of weeks) at Cawonga Park in Oxley (that's the one next to where Foodworks used to be). If you've driven through Oxley of an afternoon you might have seen us.
If you have seen our Youth Program, you might have noticed that, as I alluded to before, it's quite playful and organic. Children are spread out, trying different things. It's definitely not like they're all standing in a line doing the same 5 movements over and over again. Let me explain why this is the case, and hopefully I can finish with a little bit of useful information for anyone trying to get their kids more active at home.
At Ideanthro Movement, to be fit (in our eyes anyway) is to be physically capable in a wide range of different movements and activities. It's important to have depth of ability in any given movement (i.e. to be quite good at that specific movement) but it's also important to have breadth of ability (i.e. to have practised many different movements). Breadth of ability is what kids get when they experiment. As coaches we give the kids ideas of movements they might want to try, and suggest ways to improve their technique (this builds the depth of their movement) but we also let them experiment within safe bounds to ensure they build breadth of their abilities. That's what ends up making our sessions playful and organic; kids taking a base idea, and expanding upon it themselves. This is not only good for developing physical abilitites, but it has a big benefit for engagement because it means that kids who are detail oriented can practice the same movement to develop depth, but children who might have a shorter attention span can also try other variations upon the idea.
I'll finish this warble with a tangible example. Let's say we're practicing balance walking on a wooden beam. The kids in our Youth Program will likely all give it a go. Some might continue to practice their balance walking, building depth of that skill, but another child might choose to try and balance by sitting on the beam, without their feet touching the ground. That will develop a different balance skill (one that is still useful!), and thus expand their overall breadth of abilities.
And so if there's a takeaway message from all of this for you trying to get your kids active at home it's this. If your child wants to practice a particular physical skill or pursuit, that's awesome. They're building their depth of skill in that domain. But if it's easier to motivate them to try a little bit of everything, then that's also great, because breadth of ability is also really valuable.
Happy moving!
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