http://www.wcss.wa.edu.au/pdf/importanceoftheplay_AAP.pdf

However in addition to burnout, there are many other benefits in exposing children to a wide range of sports.  A few of these are discussed below.

First of all, we don’t think that “four to eight sports” is prescriptive – the number of sports also depends on parents’ willingness to escort their children from place to place; the ease of access that a child has to sport; and balancing all other time commitments that parents and children have.

The programme at Shaws Little League exposes the children to twelve sports and no doubt that this will increase further as time goes on.  We have carefully selected these twelve sports as the skills involved in each are very transferable and associated across each of those sports.

How are they associated?  Nearly all sports involve skills such as balance, aerobic and anaerobic fitness, changing direction, pivoting, hand-eye co-ordination and power.  That is the starting point – it doesn’t matter which sport we want to learn, a development programme needs to encompass these skills.  There is an element of commanility between feet movement, the way our arms move and our follow through across all sports.  So surely, we should be teaching these things at a young age – or better still getting children to realise this by themselves.

If we look at the relationship between different sports and attempted to map them on a continuum (purely theoretical), it allows us to see the relationship between each sport. Note that there is no need to learn the sports in linear order.

Without offending anyone, and taking into account the difficulty in mastering sports skills and excelling at any sport, track athletics is by far the most simple of sports, in theory.  It doesn’t involve other objects, there is no confrontation between athletes - athletics involves a person racing against the clock (or themselves).

Next on the continuum would be team sports like soccer, rugby, volleyball, basketball, netball and ultimate frisbee – developing the concepts of team play and leadership, adding a foreign object (a ball or frisbee), aiming for a target and using only our bodies to control the object.

Then come sports that involve an implement to control the ball – hockey, golf, teeball, baseball, cricket and tennis.  Have you ever seen a child’s first attempt at striking a ball?  More often than not, a child will with either their hands together or apart make a pushing motion toward the ball.  Only after developing confidence will that child attempt to strike a stationary ball, before attempting to hit moving balls.  Therefore it is far to say that tennis is one of the most difficult sports to master.

In addition, you may have heard of the concept of cross-training – using a range of other activities to become more proficient in your chosen sport, eg elite tennis players pass a medicine ball to each other to develop their strength, in which the technique used is exactly the same as that involved in passing a rugby ball!

Ultimately though, the thing that underpins all the sports is the concept of fun – only when children are having fun, they are prepared to challenge themselves, invent new skills and try harder. Using clear, concise and simple instructions assists in children’s development and allows them more freedom to develop their own technique and fosters independent learning.

At Shaws Little League, we ensure that children have fun, learn a range of sports in one location and are kept actively engaged for the duration of each session.

Thursday March 5, 2009

THE battle to top the medal standings at last August’s Beijing Olympic Games captivated the world, with the hosts eventually topping the table with 51 gold medals to end the Americans’ dominance from 1992 to 2004.

The medal race will surely be closely watched when the Youth Olympic Games is held here from Aug 14-26 next year, but the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have opted to move the emphasis towards a balance of sport, culture and education.

The inaugural Youth Olympiad will see over 3,500 athletes aged 14 to 18 years, from over 200 countries, competing in 201 events across 26 sports.

For teachers like Dr Jean Cote (picture), professor and director at Queen’s University’s School of Kinesiology and Health Studies, it is a welcome move for youth sports development.

“There is a tendency to get the kids specialising in sports earlier, causing problems with more injuries, burnout and dropouts,” said the Canadian, a visiting professor at the National Institute of Education’s Physical Education and Sports Science department under the EW Barker Professorship. “Medals should not be so important. If it’s done in the spirit of teaching kids these values, then it’s a great idea.”

Cote, 43, delivered a presentation on positive youth development through sport at the Singapore Sports School yesterday.

He said studies have shown that, to prevent burnout, it is better that children aged between six and 12 play four to eight sports, before choosing one to focus on in their early teens.

China may have enjoyed tremendous success by starting athletes from as young as five years old, but Cote warned: “In China, with table tennis, there are so many kids so they don’t care about the dropout rate.

“For countries like Singapore, focusing on getting young kids to play different sports is more efficient and a better pathway. “The problem with youth sports today is that it’s over-professionalised, in terms of coaching and the number of hours in training, and the element of enjoyment is lost as a result.”