Play & Development
How to Start Working With Schools as a Fitness Professional
In 2000, I had 5 years of experience leading group exercise classes for adults and two rambunctious children at home. I realized that every time I took my kids to the playground and let them loose, I liked them better. For the balance of the day, they were happier,...
Age-Related Training Goals for Young Athletes (Part 1: The Long Build)
In this 4-part series we answer the question about the optimal ages young athletes should learn the skills that will translate into better movement, coordination, sports skills, and overall physical literacy. This guide will make the case for a strategic, progressive...
Improving Vertical Jump with Young Athletes
Gravity does it’s best to hold athletes down to the ground. The ability to jump well is a serious advantage in most sports. Not only does this skill move athletes closer to the clouds to hit, catch, or shoot, it helps with other skills like first step quickness...
How Physical Activity Grows Young Brains
"Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity" - John F. Kennedy It seems that even without the mountains of supporting research we have access to today, people have had...
Easy Learning: 6 Steps to Teaching Movement Skills to Grade Schoolers
A growing number of children are entering sports and fitness programs lacking basic, fundamental movement skills. Once a task for physical education and play, youth sports and fitness coaches must now add the introduction of basic movement skills to their coaching...
4 Reasons You Can’t Train Kids Like “Small Adults”
If you work with kids in any capacity, it’s goes without saying that their thoughts, motivations, and actions are very different than those of an adult. In the realm of sports and physical training however, many overlook or are unaware of just how...
4 Ways to Integrate Physical Literacy Training into Sports Practice
Concepts of “physical literacy” are now becoming par for the course when it comes to creating activity programs for kids. International bodies for fitness and sport are embracing this “new” terminology as the foundational construct from which kids can learn to...
Play for Athletic Performance and Lifetime Health
Whether the goal is to guide a child into lifelong athletic success, or merely equip them with the tools to be active for life, play is a powerful tool to deliver both results!
Who’s to Blame for Our Technology Addicted, Sugar Consuming, Inactive Kids?
Kids these days! It's so frustrating to see my kids just sit around being inactive, staring at their phones, eating sugar, and slowly becoming more and more obese. Someone needs to do something! I mean, someone else needs to do something. I’m an adult. I have to do...
How Childrens’ Sleep Habits Impact Their Bodyweight
Discover the science of how sleep quality and bodyweight are related with children.
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