Why is it so hard to teach young children sports?

Introduction 

Considering the lack of physical activity anymore in most adults, Engstrom (2008) deduced that exercise does not seem to be genetically programmed into the adult body.  On the contrary, he writes, “…growing children, especially in the Early Years, (are) driven by irresistible impulses of physical motion (p. 109).” Effective coaching and proper training habits for positive sports development of preschool-aged children begins with understanding that physical activity helps support their overall development (Marston, 2001).  However, understanding the idea of keeping children active is not the difficult to understand; it is how to integrate sports into the process that has darn near everyone baffled.      

Three States of Development 

Physically, Cleland (2011) describes preschool-aged children as progressing through three states of development: initial, elementary and mature. 

 

Initial  

 Preschoolers (2-3yrs) perform at the initial stage developing, “a fundamental movement skill, children make their first observable and purposeful attempts at performing the task” (p. 5).  At this stage, coaches, parents and teachers can expect relatively crude, uncoordinated movements that will look over-exaggerated, rhythmically coordinated, and incomplete.  Children are not ready to perform many of the movements sports require but patiently, it is possible to creatively work with them on those movements.  

Elementary

As preschooler-aged children mature (3-4yrs), they become more cognitively available, or organized in their thoughts and capable of more cooperative play.  At this point, coordination and rhythm have dramatically improved, children are less erratic and  more capable of controlling their movements, but still lack fluidity.  Skill and confident levels vary greatly, years in some cases for children of the same age. 

      Mature        

More mature preschoolers (5-6yrs) begin to demonstrate patterned movements that are accompanied by well-coordinated, mechanically correct, and efficient transitions.   

 

Reaching developmental outcomes

Ease in teaching young children sports begins by understanding how to achieve reasonable developmental outcomes.  Young children, especially those who are in the initial stages of development, require a different type of attention.  How often it is the case that we, as a adults, make the mistake of treating young children like they were older, thereby having unreasonable expectations that they fall short in achieving.

Our competitive society will not allow you to read this anywhere else but take my word for it, after working with 1000's of tots you want to do the following and do them often:
  

• Allow free play (or keeping instruction super simple) 
• Allow exploration (low intensity/patience) combined with encouraging children to 
• Explore a range of movement possibilities (use many learning aids whenever possible). 

Conclusion 

Sports are complicated (square peg).  Children require simple and fun (round hole).  We must begin to fit sports to young children instead of the other way around.  There are many aspects of sports to be learned by children, and my best recommendation for teaching your young child sports is to not think like an athlete or even that your playing sports; instead, design fun activities with fun objects like noodles, cones, rings, dots, etc.that can include sports equipment and have a sports theme.   

Any work you do with young children will be quality time well spent and beyond the introduction of sports it is important to realize you are introducing him to body, space, effort and relationship awareness that will help him build a vocabulary congruent with coaches’, parents’ and teachers’ that they will one day work with (Cleland, 2011).

Finally, the parents’ role is very important for younger children (one to five years).  When you seek programs through your local park district or elsewhere, find ones that offer parent-participation; they should also a) keep numbers small, b) focus on the whole person, c) respect individuality, d) empower children e) encourage persistence, f) and treat children as a resource to be developed, and e) help youth envision their future.

 See you in class!

--Coach Pickles