To make our athletic pyramid as broad as possible so that in later stages we have a wide range of bio-motor abilities to utilise, we need, as previously asserted, to begin our journey in as generalised manner as possible.
This generalised phase is essentially divided (although not discretely, it’s always a continuum based on the individual, their history and the current environment, rather than ‘you’ve reached this age, you are now going to perform activities that this stage requires’. This may or may not be right for the individual or their situation.) into two main aspects; initiation and formation.
Athletic initiation usually occurs from the ages of <6-10 and should not be in anyway oppressive. The emphasis should be on fun and enjoyment, with performance not even on the radar.
As already maintained, the fitness’ that needs to be programmed into early ‘training’ is more skill related. So acceleration, catching and throwing, balance and agility type activities are in, long endurance type activities should be absent. Let me qualify this last point, even 400-800m of continuous running is a long way for children, this type of activity shouldn’t be programmed. Yet I’ve seen many sessions where this was the warm-up, the warm-up! By the time the kids begin the session they’re fried. Do you really think this is the ideal situation for learning to take place? Of course not, the kids need to be fresh; this is how the nervous system learns best. All movement is neuro-muscular, it is THE most important factor for performance.
To keep the kids motivated, the sessions should be based around games that are designed to incorporate skill development. To maximise the child’s participation games should ideally be small sided with plenty of opportunity to experience various positions and movement skills. So games like ‘pairs cricket’ are ideal, as the participants experience a variety of roles within the game, with each role only having a short duration so that extended periods of concentration and attention are not required.
Within these games the equipment used also needs to be considered. Take Tennis for instance, I remember using solid plastic racquets with sponge balls (usually with a chunk removed by I’m assuming a particularly ravenous school-mate?) in infant and junior school. However these have a completely different feel and response than does a proper stringed racquet and tennis ball, so the actual skill learnt using this equipment is less transferable than would skills developed using an appropriately sized stringed racquet and a modified tennis ball (lower pressure to reduce the bounce).
During these modified games, you can introduce simple rules that require the development of basic tactics so that positional awareness and teamwork skills are developed. A small area 2 v 1 game will cover many skills all at once such as moving into space, feinting and tight control etc while providing maximum participation.
Towards the end of the phase, you can begin to increase the demands placed on the children, albeit very cautiously, so that although fun is still the dominant factor, the children are starting to be challenged and stretched. The sessions should be programmed so that ratio of success to failure should be about 8 to 1. However, even when the child has been stretched slightly beyond their current level, the emphasis should still be on positive reinforcement of what they did correctly and what they could do next time to gain success. There is no need to emphasise what went wrong, that information is already there, what is needed is the information required to be successful.
Combined, the above brief points should point you in the right direction to begin appreciating how to develop a multi-lateral foundation. In the next step, once this foundation is built we can start to arrange our programming to begin forming a highly skilled athlete.
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