A New Approach for a Nation?
Canada’s progress in Long-term Athlete Development is starting to change the way some organizations think about developing physical literacy. Groups of sports, led by the “on-ice” sports of Ice Hockey, Ringette, Speed Skating, and Figure Skating are collaborating to introduce young children to the world of skating – working to develop skating skills, on-ice agility, balance, and coordination so that the child can later enter any one (or more) of these sports for healthy recreation or to develop sport excellence.
Approaching this in a different way, some local recreation organizations are offering young children the opportunity to sign-up for year-round programs that combine exposure to a number of different sports, with fundamental movement skill learning opportunities and lots of skill-developing mini-games.
This new approach is also being tried by some sport facilities. Swimming pools are developing “introduction to aquatics” programs that teach water safety and basic swimming – with the opportunity to take the first steps towards competitive swimming, water polo, synchronized swimming and diving.
With creative thinking, local recreation providers and groups of national sport organizations could put together programs such as:
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Introduction to ball games – teaching the throwing, hitting, catching, passing and kicking skills that could lead to later involvement in basketball, volleyball, soccer, rugby, team handball and other similar games.
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Introduction to hitting games: teaching children to hit stationary and moving objects with a variety of bats and racquets, providing the building-block skills for softball, baseball, hockey, golf, tennis, badminton, racquetball or squash.
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Introduction to being “on-the-water” making children safe and comfortable around boats and introducing them to the idea of propelling a boat using paddles, oars, and sails – to encourage children to take up canoeing, kayaking, rowing, and sailing.
As a nation, we have to change the thinking of many groups that work with young children. Too many organizations think of children as a resource to be brought into their sport, and to be kept in that single sport for as long as possible – the “get them early and keep them” approach. This “get them and keep them” approach restricts the range of physical literacy skills that children develop, diminishes their all-round athletic development, and stops too many children from experimenting with different sport – and finding the one that is just right for them. Long-term, both the sports and the children are hurt by this approach.
Figure 10 Children Who Enter Puberty Late Have Longer Time Period to Refine Fundamental Sport Skills