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.

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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.

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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.

HEALTH BENEFITS OF LIME AND HONEY

L ime and Honey are two must haves in my house. I use honey as a substitute for white sugar. I remember a friend of mine visited me once and she wanted to drink garri (drinking garri is local to Nigerians, i.e. eating dried cassava with cold water as opposed to hot water), she was astonished when I told her to use honey to sweeten her garri. I'm not a tea person, but my parents are, and a cup of tea for them is not complete without limes.

Fabila's Fitness Club

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