The Nine Foundations of Youth Coordination
Brett Klika, Co-Founder SPIDERfit Kids
www.spiderfitkids.com
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After Today, You’ll Be Able To…
1. Create life-long movers
2. Utilize the building blocks of fitness and physical literacy to create
fun, engaging programs!
3. Increase kids’ participation and enthusiasm for exercise
4. Asses, program, and play with purpose
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Explore, Play, Refine!
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Building Blocks to Fitness and Physical Literacy
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Perceptual Motor SkillsPerceptual motor skills demonstrate an ability to interpret sensory inputs and create the appropriate motor output.
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Powerful Play- Foundational Sensory Awareness
1. Rudimentary body awareness
2. Directional awareness
3. Spatial awareness
4. Temporal awareness
5. Visual awareness
6. Auditory awareness
7. Tactile awareness
8. Vestibular awareness
9. Proprioceptive awareness
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Movement Variables - MV
Effort Space Relationships
FORCE LEVELS OBJECTS
strong high/med/low over/under
light between/among/around
TIME DIRECTIONS/ PATH BODY PARTS
fast forward/backward narrow
slow diagonal wide
sustained zig zag curved
FLOW RANGES PEOPLE
free self-space mirror/matching
bound general space partners/solo
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Body Awareness
• An ability to identify body parts and functions.
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Body Awareness Games
• Body Part Call Outs: Begin calling out parts of the body and children
must identify them by touching that part or performing the
designated action.
• Body Words: Partners stand facing one another so one can see the
board with a short word on it. The partner facing the board must
spell the word with their body while the other partner attempts to
guess what the word is.
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Body Awareness Games
• Yes
• Texas
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Body Awareness Activities and Games
• Hat
• Phoenix
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Directional Awareness
An ability to identify directions in relation to the body and external environment.
•Directionality
•Laterality
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Directional Awareness Activities and Games
• Fast Feet: The children face the instructor and stand in an athletic
stance. On the command, they begin moving their feet up and down
quickly. The instructor either points or says “right”, “left”, “up”, or
“down”. The participants must orient their body in that direction.
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Spatial Awareness
• The ability to properly orient your body effectively and efficiently within a given amount of space
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• Airplanes: Move around the space with arms straight out to the side. Avoid contact with other airplanes without dropping the arms.
• Bi-Planes: Form a plane with a partner.
• Helicopters: Move around the space while spinning
• Airplanes and clouds: 1/3 of children on floor, legs up. Attempt to tag airplanes as they move. Once tagged, airplanes become clouds.
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Temporal Awareness
• The ability to establish internal timing to sequence and synchronize movement
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Temporal Awareness Activities and Games
1. Movin’ to the beat: Perform the movement in time with the beat.
2. Gear runs - 1st gear- walk, 2nd gear jog, 3rd gear run, 4th gear sprint.
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Visual Awareness
• An ability to smoothly focus, track, and follow objects of varying sizes at varying speeds.
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Visual Awareness Activities and Games
• Partner Tracking Tag: 1 partner lines up behind another. Partner
behind moves hands in the first partner’s periphery and the first
partner attempts to track and tag them.
• Partner Cross-tracking tag: First partner must tag with opposite side
hand.
• Partner Periphery Tag: Partner behind stays in 1st partner’s
periphery. 1st partner must keep eyes forward.
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Vestibular Awareness
• The ability to establish orientation of the head and body with gravity using feedback about direction and acceleration.
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Vestibular Awareness Activities and Games
1. Spinning Tops: Spin in the specified direction for the specified
number of times, then stand on one leg.
2. Log Roll Bonanza: Perform the specified movement in the specified
direction. When the instructor points “down” drop and log roll in
the opposite direction. When the instructor points “up” come up
to the feet and continue the movement in the opposite direction of
the roll.
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Auditory Awareness
• The ability to detect, filter, and comprehend direct and indirect sound.
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Auditory Awareness Activities and Games
• Partner Auditory Tag: One partner stands behind another. Facing
forward, the partner in front closes their eyes. The partner behind
moves their hands in the partner periphery, snapping. The partner
in front attempts to grab or tag the snapping fingers.
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Tactile Awareness
• An ability to interpret sensory feedback from touch.
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Tactile Awareness Activities and Games
• Partner letter: One partner stands behind another. The partner
behind “writes” a letter, number, or short word on the partner in
front’s back. If the partner in front guesses the letter, number, or
word correctly, they run to the other side of the grid and back, then
repeat with the other partner.
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Proprioceptive Awareness
• Joint position feedback identifying wear the limbs are in space in addition to pressure detected at the joints.
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Proprioceptive Awareness Activities and Games
• Blind partner mirror: One partner has eyes closed. Other partner
moves an arm around in patterns and
• Blind Body ID: Children close their eyes and raise their hands in the
air. Call out a body part and they must directly touch that body part
without opening their eyes, or adjusting their position.
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Assessing The Perceptual Motor Skills
• Qualitative Scoring system
1.A developmental detriment
2.Below developmental level
3.At developmental level
4.Above developmental level
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Programming PMS
• Integrate all PMS into daily programming
• Warm-ups
• Circuits
• Games
• Skill work
• Apply movement variables
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Key Take-Aways
• Physical literacy and coordination are skills that can be “built,”
assessed, progressed, or regressed.
• Understanding the developmental continuum can aid educators in
programming the right skills at the right time.
• Understanding teaching/coaching strategy can aid in more engaged,
excited, and happy learners.
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Thank You!!!
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