Aquatic plyometric drills for children offer a promising avenue for promoting physical fitness and skill development. By following the guidelines recommended in this article, physical educators and coaches can ensure safe and effective implementation of these drills.

The preschool years are essential for developing physically active lifestyles and social-emotional well-being. This article introduces the PASS (Physical Activity and Social Skills) physical education program, which identifies specific ways to develop fundamental motor skills, provide physical activity opportunities, and promote social-emotional…

Assessing children's movement competence (MC) offers numerous benefits for academics, practitioners, clinicians and children, allowing individuals to meet children's developmental needs and improve their MC. Yet, there is concern that currently available assessment tools only provide a single plane (fundamental movement skills) perspective of a…

"Game sense" is a sport-specific iteration of the teaching games for understanding model, designed to balance physical development of motor skill and fitness with the development of game understanding. Game sense can foster a shared vision for sport learning that bridges school physical education and community sport. This article explains how to…

Background: Standard physical education (PE) programs and the team-teaching methodology have rarely been evaluated to investigate their real efficacy in changing children's motor skills. Aims: The aims of this study are two-fold: The first aim is to evaluate the effectiveness of a PE program for improving coordinative motor skills in the team…

Martial arts have recently gained the attention of physical educators as a viable activity in their physical education curriculum. However, physical education teachers may have difficulty teaching martial arts because they have little pedagogical content knowledge and no experience, and because they perceive martial arts to be dangerous and…

This article examines the incidence and quality of physical activity instruction during early childhood. Although the positive effect of physical activity on the cognitive, social, and physical development of young children is generally acknowledged, there is little emphasis nationally on ensuring appropriate physical educational experiences…

The question of how to modify athletics programs according to Title IX specifications can be resolved by examping the basic reasons why play and sport are necessary. These reasons range from relaxation and catharsis to learning and competence seeking. Specific programs, then, should be tailored to fulfilling this braod range of needs, and…

Through movement, children learn to orient themselves in space, defining for themselves such conceptions as up and down, right and left, through, around and inside; the integration of motor and sensory experiences may well be the foundation upon which complex cognitive skills are built. (JD)

This collection of papers reviews the effects of sport and physical activity on children. It is organized around six sections representing the basic disciplines that contribute to a broad view of the child in sport and physical activity: physiology; medicine; growth and development; psychology; sociology; and motor learning. Although each paper…

A model is proposed for the development of planning strategies in which both task demands and learners' needs are integrated with the general needs of the typical developing child. Five variables are considered in designing lesson plans: (1) physical prerequisites; (2) hierarchical organization; (3) perceptual processes; (4) sources of feedback;…

Describes physical and motor development characteristics of children from early childhood to adolescence, and discusses theories of motor skill development with practical applications for parents and teachers. The final section discusses declining fitness levels in children and ways to improve fitness in school-age children. (SLD)

The total development of the child can be enhanced and enriched through various activities in physical education, youth sport, and leisure pursuits. Children between the ages of 5 and 12 are eager, enthusiastic, highly motivated, and interested in physical activity, and they comprise the population served by the school physical education program…