Skill Set for Life

Back when kids used to be able to play outside until dark, it was the perfect prescription for developing fundamental movement skills. I tend to spend a lot of time thinking about how great “the good old days” were from a developmental movement and physical activity perspective.

Fundamental movement skills can be divided into three categories: 1) stability: controlling musculature in opposition to gravity or skills that emphasize balance (dance, gymnastics, ice skating, surfing, snowboarding, skiing), 2) locomotor: how the body moves through space which include: walking, skipping, leaping, jumping, galloping and running and 3) manipulative: making controlled and precise contact with objects in their environment which include: throwing, kicking, catching and striking (soccer, golf, tennis, softball, baseball).  You can look at your own child/children to determine whether they are getting a good mix of the three.

My favorite professor in graduate school (Dr. Janet Fisher) used to say, “what you do in the first decade prepares you for the next seven or eight.” In other words, we tend to do what we are good at when it comes to movement (or anything else for that matter) and if we developed a well-rounded repertoire of skills as a youth, we will be able to participate in a diverse amount of physical activities as adults. So before you take your child out of a sport and say “my daughter/son is not good at (fill in the blank with a sport) . . .” you may think about the skill set he/she could gain out of participating in that sport (i.e., kicking, throwing, catching, striking). Some sports are clearly better than others from a physical activity perspective. Soccer and basketball are great for the cardiovascular aspect (or minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity) whereas softball and baseball may not be but it depends on how the practices are led (many coaches will incorporate a lot of running).

Another avenue for developing fundamental skills is in physical education class. The California education code mandates that all children in grades 1 - 6 receive 200 minutes of physical education every 10 days and secondary grades 7-12 should receive 400 minutes each 10 days (although physical education is only required in California high schools for grades 9 and 10). These minutes do not include recess. The California Model Content Standards found at  http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/pestandards.pdf provide the guideline of what children should be able to do in each grade level. For example, the first grade standards include proficiency in all locomotor skills: running, throwing, jumping, leaping, skipping, galloping and by the end of elementary school, children should be competent in all of the manipulative skills as well. So, if manipulative skills, for example, were not your thing and you don't tend to incorporate them into your child's life, you may think about signing your child up for a tennis or golf lesson or letting him/her participate in a season of softball or baseball.

If you think about the physical activities you enjoy, you can likely trace your movement roots and find a link between what you did growing up and what you do now. Are you pretty well-rounded when it comes to what you are confident in doing or do you cluster your activities to one type? Of course there are many other factors involved in what we do, but if someone were to ask you to a) join an adult softball league b) take a snowboarding lesson and 3) try Zumba (Latin dance/aerobics class) would you be confident to do all three?  If we give our kids those fundamental skills, they can have the ability to choose what they want to do physically for years to come – including things (no doubt) we haven’t heard about.