Skip to main content

SPEED AND AGILITY IN CHILDREN

Kids during Tenderville Easter Camp, April 2013
Agility Training is crucial to any child looking to excel in sports. Agility has been defined as the ability to change directions and gain speed without losing motor control. This requires a combination of different attributes such as speed, good balance, coordination skills, muscular power, strength and endurance. Speed has been defined as the ability to travel a short distance in the shortest time. Speed and agility training enhance athleticism and makes your child more likely to perform well in sports. Participation in sports promotes your child’s overall health, promotes an appreciation for health and exercise, a sense of self-worth and interaction in a teamwork setting.

Speed and Agility training in sports would improve your child’s:
  • Ability to change direction quickly during a match.
  • Ability to weave between players at speed.
  • Ability to react quickly either to a command (i.e start gun) or a change in play.
Speed and Agility training would improve your child’s everyday activities such as:
  • Rushing to get somewhere.
  • Reacting to slipping on an unstable surface.
  • Stopping or changing direction quickly to avoid bumping into something or someone.
Before choosing a drill exercise, you must first of all determine what sports your child is interested in and then develop the child’s the skills as would be required to excel in his/her chosen sports.

Types of Speed and Agility drills for Children

Musical Chair: I’m sure this must have made your jaw drop. Yes mum and dad, musical chairs. Musical chairs besides developing agility (in trying to secure a chair), also helps in sharpening the mind by keeping the brain alert. This is achieved by absolute concentration on the music thereby, quickly responding as and when it plays and pauses.

Other drills include, Jump Ropes, Hopscotch, backward running, sprint drills using cones.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

NUTRITIONAL/HEALTH BENEFITS OF PLANTAINS

P lantains are widely eaten in West Africa. Plantains are similar to bananas but larger in size. While bananas are termed fruits, plantains are vegetables. Bananas are mostly eating raw, while plantains are usually cooked before consumption. Plantains can be eaten unripe, ripen or over-ripe. When unripe, plantains are usually green in colour, when ripen, they turn yellow. In Nigeria, for example, unripe plantains are usually used to cook plantain porridge, ripe plantains are mostly fried and used as a supplement to main dishes like rice and beans. Over-ripe plantains are used to make snacks like plantain fritters. 

COOL-CUMBERS…FIVE REASONS WHY CUCUMBERS ARE GOOD FOR YOU

A nyone would agree that cucumbers are one of the most handy and common (fruits) vegetables. In Nigeria, for example, it would be rare to arrive at a market and discover that they have run out of cucumbers. I love having cucumbers at home, as they make perfect snacks. Cucumbers are great ingredients for salads and juices. Plus, cucumbers have other uses besides eating them. For example, placing cool cucumbers on the eyes relaxes them and reduces puffy eyes.

NUTRITIONAL BENEFITS OF ZOBO/SORREL DRINK

z obo/sorrel was a must have during family gatherings. As children, we loved drinking it, not only because of how nice it tasted, but also because it coloured our lips and tongues red. Zobo (Nigerian) or Sorrel (Jamaican) is a red coloured drink made from a flower called Hibiscus sabdariffa.  The sorrel plant contains a wide range of vitamins and minerals including vitamin C, calcium, niacin, riboflavin and a group of compounds called flavonoids. Flavanoids not only gives the sorrel plant its deep red colour, but, are also rich in antioxidants which rids the body of toxins. The sorrel plant also contains nutraceleuticals, which are said to be helpful to the health. Nutraceleuticals can help prevent and treat several diseases including diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and cancer.