Kids Athletics: Teaching skills to children throughout games
Young children are being distinguished for their lively, energetic and active character which is accompanied by their huge wishfulness for playing. However, because of their young age, learning is not their main interest, although curiosity about the things that are happening around them prevails. The game is the most reliable way on learning basic and more specific, easy and difficult, gentle and complex movements.
What are the main interests and activities of children?
Children love to run, hide, throw objects and imitate adults’ movements. In preschool and kindergarten they are engaged in painting and learning the basic arithmetic in the form of a game, while in elementary school they are slowly being pushed to practice through play. Schools teach physical education as a subject and perform basic movements that will help them develop their skills in doing sports in the future.
What do skills mean and which are their types?
Skills are defined as the activities that one does to achieve a final result with the greatest possible confidence and the least consumption of time and energy, e.g. cleaning an apple with a knife is a skill. In general the skills can be either easy or more complex e.g. the shot in football. More specifically, the skills are classified into the following categories:
- open and closed
- thin and coarse
- cognitive and motor
- discrete,continuousand serial
- simple and complex
Get to know with children’s skills on the Base Training seminar How can children develop skills? Initially in children motor skills can be developed with games such as chasing and in the same time correcting them when they perform any movement in the arms and legs incorrectly and also hide n’ seek in order to develop their cognitive skills in finding their teammates. Furthermore, in older ages small obstacles (e.g. cones, marks, boxes, etc.) can be placed in a row, one following the other, so that they can be overcomed methodically and afterwards all of them could be placed in different places so kids overcome them randomly by running. At the same time they can play in teams, using balls with some players throwing them in a random order onto their teammates to practice their reflex levels and their motor skills. There are several other toys that can promote learning through exercise in young children, being an important resource for them. Learn how can you become a successful kids coach in Base Training Katerina Zouganeli Source Magill, R., & Anderson, D. (2018). Κινητική Μάθηση και Κινητικός Έλεγχος. Disigma.gr. Retrieved 18 June 2021, from https://www.disigma.gr/media/blfa_files/chapter_KINHTIKH_MATHISI.pdf. Seminars Recent Articles
