Movement Disguised As Play. Taking Ownership Starts With Leading By Example.
Integrating better movement can be as simple as dressing up some play activities. It starts with intention and initiative. Edition 170.
Welcome to edition 170 of The Physical Movement. Welcome to our growing community. I am honored and humbled that you are spending a few minutes with us.
This week we examine taking ownership of the activity level in our children’s lives beyond driving them to practice, games or tournaments. We start with a little history. Let’s dig in.
Before there were 3 week tryouts, tryouts after the tryouts, 10-11 month seasons, offseason viewing tournaments, regular out of town tournaments and games, registration fees into the 4 and 5 figures, strength coaches, skill coaches, mental coaches, and coaches for coaching, there was play.
Free play. Open play. Play on the driveway, front lawn, street, and at the local park.
Back in the day, I do remember an annual tournament where our local hockey association (Riverside Park, Lasall, Quebec, Canada) would have an exchange trip with another organization (Franklin County, Boston area, Massachusetts, USA). The trip would consist of 1 team from every level (Mosquito, Peewee, Bantam and Midget- 4 teams) loading 2 buses on the Thursday morning. We would stay with a an opposing team’s player’s family. We would play 2 games, maybe 3. We would do something fun…outdoor hockey or go to a Bruins game or…) and come home. On the bus. No hotels. No parents. Just 2 coaches per team. Players. Long distance phone. Hockey. Family meals with the other family. And back home.
Hours were spent at the rink. All the younger teams would watch the older teams.
The exercise would be reversed the following year.
I remember visiting Quebec City this way on one tournament. Bathurst, New Brunswick one other year.
I remember them very clearly and they were 45-47 years ago!
My how things have changed!
The play time back in the day also included regular Physical Education at school, in addition to recess and lunch time play sessions on school grounds. There were no team tournaments in elementary school.
It seemed like we were playing all the time, and very little of it was organized in formal competition.
The changes have come at the expense of movement, physical literacy and good health.
Frozen tag
Wiffle ball & stick ball
Tennis and tennis related lead up games.
Modified soccer (pick your space, pick the size of your goal, pick your object to boot around)
4 corners
Hopscotch
British bulldog (on land and in water)
Jump rope
Target golf at the school yard , before it was an arcade event!
Dodge ball (no need for the wrenches! )
Hide and seek
Ledgers
Touch football
Street hockey/ball hockey : sometimes 2 on 2 in front of the house, sometimes the whole neighborhood at the school yard, sometimes on boots and sometimes on the outdoor rinks.
Throwing /catching the football/mini football and frisbee.
Mini-games would rule. 2 on 2 at the 10 yard line, 2 on soccer mini field soccer. Shoot on the goalie.
Riding a bike to everything
Riding a skateboard or rollerskating!
3 on 3 basketball/1 on 1 basketball/ 21 !
Wall ball and/or Champ.
Badminton
Can you name a few that not here?
Without even knowing it, we learned how to move, twist, turn, jump, run, dodge, speed up, slow down, climb up, climb down.
We figured how to settle disputes, keep score, draw teams, and make them fair.
Did I mention keep score? Best 2 out of 3, best 3 of 5, 4 of 7, 5 of 9 and I remember best 6 of 11!
We learned how to play with bruises. We would run home an get a band aid and get back out there.
We came in from the cold to unthaw the cold feet and then got back out there.
Hit, catch, kick and throw a ball, tie our own skates, balance on a board and blades, keep afloat, throw and dodge a ball or oncoming opponent, hold a grudge and let one go. We had rivalries and then friends within 20 minutes. We would debate a point and counter an argument, run away real fast and catch someone, organize an outing on the bus to the game, or a round up at the park.
We figured out if our friends were home by riding our bike to their house and knocking on their door. We added and removed players at will based on supper time, homework and bedtime.
We don’t live in 1975 anymore, but we can open up opportunities for developing movement capacity disguised as play.
3 steps in getting movement into your kids lives:
1. Initiate movement and exercise. Any kind of movement works, playing catch with the football, baseball, frisbee or kicking the soccer ball. Turn the movement into a game. Get a sweat going.
2. Follow Coach Goodman’s advice: lead by example. While it was not 1975, it was 2008, my son was 8, and the road hockey games brought me back 30 years. We had parents out front, kids, a ball, 2 nets, 2 goalies and lots of laughs. Parents were playing, laughing and encouraging everyone. They kept their sticks down and set up the kids up for the goals, and gave just enough challenge on the ball to make it interesting. Everyone slowed down when the smallest kid had a chance to score.
Parents played. They were able to move. The kids loved and so did the grown ups. We talked about for days and at some points during the year (the Fall before snow, and Spring after the snow, the games happened regularly.).
We were not away all weekend at tournaments, or on our phones/screens.
My experience as a kid and the one I tried to create for my son led us to the active lives we live today.
For stick ball, we needed only a stick and ball.
For hockey, we always had sticks around and an old tennis ball. Goals were sometimes those snazzy nets and other times we used shoes or rocks as goalposts.
We initiated movement and could move ourselves. We encouraged play, and that is timeless.
We disguised building up physical skills and capacity through play. No one thought about developing stick handling or hand eye coordination. We just played and we got better, stronger, faster. And when we did not, we would throw or kick or shoot on the wall until we did.
It starts with intention.
It continues with effort and initiative.
It happens with the understanding that it is a need, a void that requires filling.
Grown ups, find a way to move with your kid. You will see the return for years to come in the smiles and good health,
The experiences of my youth led me to pursue Physical Education and my teaching degree. It opened the doors t0 30+ years of coaching. This is not the path for everyone, I understand, but a positive experience playing led to other positive experiences.
As a young PE teacher we would keep logbooks of low organization games. Lead up games, mini games and events. You can find those with a few clicks. Some are shared below.
Sometimes we just need a spark to introduce some fun into our coaching or parenting. God knows that life is hard enough.
Here are some resources to help:
Google: “low organization games” if you are stuck.