#244: There Has Never Been a More Important Time to Get Kids Moving.
Influencing our younger generations while being at our best physical selves is an important part of creating a better world. Let's explore why and how this can happen.
There might never be a more important time for us all to move. While the message is simple and has been coming at us for years, it is not easy to make happen.
Simple not easy.
The role we have as parents, coaches and educators has never been more important in initiating and supporting more physical movement into our lives.
Simple not Easy
Help kids to get moving. By all means necessary.
Moving: Running. Biking. Skating. Skiing. Playing street hockey. Walking the dog. . Scooters. Skateboards. soccer. Mini sticks in the basement. Indoors. Outdoors. Whatever works.
Playing catch with football or baseball. Soccer. Shoveling snow in the winter, yard work with parents. Swimming lessons.
We, as adults, play a huge role in modelling and leading this. The kids that I see outside have parents that are supporting encouraging it.
Can these simple initiatives help us all improve our physical literacy?
Being physically literate is being able to move with competence in a wide variety of physical activities that benefit the development of the whole person.
Crawling, jumping, balance, coordination, strength and endurance, speed, agility, changing directions, throwing, catching, tracking are all examples of the skills that make up physical literacy.
Yes, they are skills. Unfortunately they are being ignored by young and old alike.
We are not born with these skills. If we are blessed, we are born with the capacity to develop these skills.
We learn them.
Like any skill, if they are not practiced, they don’t develop. In the case of us older folks, they decline FAST if not practiced.
Having coached and taught in the 80’s, 90’s, through the 2020’s I have noticed a change in the physical capacity of our youth. Whether that be the field or on the court or in the gym, movement skills have definitely declined.
In 2024, there is now a strong demand for youth sports development and specialized instruction. Integrating a physical literacy component into our lives becomes critical in supporting these programs.
We all have a roll to play.
We don’t have to be fitness and movement experts to make an impact. We just have to believe that moving daily is important and set a good example.
As parents we can make sure that we model and encourage these behaviors and accommodate them.
Encouragement is the least we can do.
Preferably we use this opportunity to model some of these behaviors. I can not think of a more important endeavor that can impact our health, our energy and the same in future generations.
We can also be empowered to have a physical movement criteria to whatever our kids are participating in. Some activities we register our kids for have more physical skills built into them then others, but many are very specialized. We can use this time to help build their physical literacy. That includes areas of physical development that are not focused on in their favorite activity. We can then transfer to being advocates for the same in our sports programs and physical education programs in our schools and municipalities. In short, this means they should do more than just the sport they are registered in.
This is why activities like cycling, walking, and ball skills are terrific. They include a lot of the skill development that can be applied to many other skills.
We also need to understand the role that daily physical movement plays in the mental side of youth and the ability to deal with the changes that we are all going through. There is a massive connection between daily movement and mental health. For example, regular activity helps with the management and decline of anxiety.
Here is one study of many relating decline in anxiety and depression in pre-adolescent youth in regular movement associating with pleasure, and non-competitive interactions between participants.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6694801/
As coaches, we can help connect the dots by acknowledging that most of our sport programs do not include time on physical movement skills. Most of the time the skills of the sport are the focus. We can include this in preparation for the activity as well a the recovery time. Each community has a lot of expertise in the form of movement coaches who are passionate about instilling skills in our youth. They can be found in our schools, municipal recreation centers and in local youth programs.
As parents, teachers, coaches and educators, we need to re-establish physical literacy as a priority. Current advocates are needing support in the school system as well.
The repercussions of not doing so are massive.
https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-018-5903-x
Objectively measured physical activity data show that only 9% of Canadian children and youth aged 5–17 years are getting enough physical activity to meet the guidelines of at least 60 min of daily movement.
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/82-625-x/2015001/article/14136-eng.pdf
There is no better time to refresh our commitment to more movement in our lives than now.
We have a great opportunity and model our own daily habits for younger generations as well as build up our health and immunity.
As adults, the habits we exhibit spin off to our youth. Our influence is real. Let’s make a difference.