DEVELOPMENT OF SKILL OF MOVEMENT IN KIDS - THE EVER PRESENT PROBLEM
Certainly it is a profound problem, not the one for a short article on our website, but, nevertheless, I want to touch upon this subject even if only on a surface level just to start a topic for much longer and deeper discussions, which would possibly lead us to a better understanding and more serious steps in our discovery.
I just returned from the National Basketball Tournament in Orlando, Florida for kids 14-15 years of age. It was interesting to see so many talented kids playing together, representing different states, schools, coaches’ teachings and philosophies. As much I enjoyed watching these games, I was disappointed by the same mistakes in the performance of different young players.
No matter where they came from, they had the same missing elements in their preparation, which I call the school of movement. It was easy for me to see how these mistakes would turn into deep errors in their further development of the skills of movement and how badly they would influence their carrier, if they choose professional basketball for living.
This example clearly indicates the problem in general. It is not about basketball or track and field, where I come from, and where I saw the same problems of missing the fundamental preparation in movement. All of this leads to the same sad end of the story – by reaching the adult age these kids will be out of what they thought they will be doing all their life and on the top level.
My personal experience of working with the best kids in the USA Triathlon in 1994-1997 just confirmed the same facts as we discussed above. From 50 best American hopefuls in 1995, as I predicted to their parents and my colleagues, their coaches, only one still survived in the elite triathlon by the year 2002. The rest of them disappeared and I have no idea where they are now, because I don’t see their names in starting lists of major triathlons anymore.
I could easily continue this description further citing examples from different fields, but the problem is still there and should have been already clear to everybody, but unfortunately it is not the case, and the present system of teaching continues to produce the "traditional” errors of missing fundamental preparation in the skill of movement, no matter what sport or school we are talking about. Only in some sports events, such as gymnastics, figure skating, diving and some others, where performance really depends very much on school elements, teaching goes somehow in the right direction.
When it comes to kids representing "general public” or majority of the population this problem gets completely out of hand and becomes a chaotic, sporadic process of doing something, which we call "physical activity”, where teaching is just a foster child with the least attention, efforts and time spent.
Why does it happen so? The answer is very clear – we do not know what to teach and how to teach. Mostly we just train our kids: kick harder, do more, be tough, be strong, etc. I heard just recently how one high school track coach taught his students to run hurdles. He gave them the instructions literally like that: " Running hurdles is very simple, just go over them nice and easy”. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do: laugh or cry.
If we continue this way, then we’ll end up mostly, with some exceptions, with the situation that our kids will never do what we think they were born to do. But the question remains: what are we supposed to do? I would be happy to give you the answer, but it is not about the 5 best drills, which will teach your kid to be perfect. And the answer is not about the drills at all. It is about the way of thinking and perception; it is about education and culture, it is about our understanding of who we are as a part of nature, and how we have to live with nature as one world. It is not an easy task, of course, but this is what was passed to us from our ancestors as a philosophy of life and our task is to keep going in the same direction enriched by modern knowledge about our existence.
Dr.Romanov
