Menu
Close
It is the body’s ability to move lots of muscles to carry out tasks. Fine motor control would allow you to pick up a pencil whereas gross motor control would allow you to kick a football.
So, what is the difference between motor coordination and skill ? The two are carefully linked but sometimes working on overall motor coordination (firing the muscles in the correct order) will make learning a skill much easier (such as catching a ball).
A skill will work on a specific task. One example would be striking a football so that it swerves in one direction. The coach might start by teaching the child the angle their foot should be at on strike. Motor coordination would allow the body to balance throughout the movement, pivot around the standing leg, create flexibility in certain parts of the body etc.
There are other huge benefits to developing motor coordination that most people don’t know.
BUT remember – you can’t have one without the other. If you work endlessly on skill development with children, but limited motor coordination – then they will struggle to develop the new skills. It’s also important to remember that you can set children simple tasks to do at home that will help you both in the long run. Here’s some simple ideas:
When watching a trained child next to an untrained child, the differences stand out. The trained child appears to have more balance and is able to react more quickly. They also appear to learn skills more quickly and get less frustrated with tasks.
This is simply because our muscles work from signals sent down the neural pathway. The more developed it is, the quicker the messages are sent. It’s like having a busy city with only a few pathways. Too many people will try and travel down one path, blocking it up and slowing the movement down. The more pathways you build, the quicker the people travel. It’s exactly the same with our neural pathways. The more you develop them, the quicker the signal travels and the quicker your muscles react.
Is It Simply Genetic Luck ?
Although genetics plays its part, and some children naturally develop better motor coordination than others – it can be trained.
Did you know the age that you have develop your neural pathways the quickest ?
The answer will shock you. It’s 2 years old. That’s because at this age, the brain is learning everything about its new environment. It’s like a sponge – sucking in information on what’s fun, what’s dangerous, what tastes good, how to stay upright etc. This means the sooner you start motor coordination training, the better results you will get.
Starting simple is vital and slowly building the complexity of the tasks. If you started with a 2 year old baby for example, you could start with simple tasks such as moving their right hand and then moving their left hand in time to a tune. You could then do the same with the feet. As they got better at this, you could then put your hand out on their right side to touch, and then place it on their left side. The baby will then have to track your movements with its eyes and respond with muscle movements on both sides of the body.
We have put exercises on the app that you can use from 4 years on – but we will be adding baby exercises in the future.
How Long Does It Take to Train ?
There will be instant improvements in some areas. Single skill tasks can be achieved in one day. Adding complexity to tasks, means it will take longer to learn them. However, if a chid was to use Skill Kids for 5-10 minutes a day, they could improve their motor coordination by 30-40% over a 3 month period.
Increasing Participation
In the academic year of 2022-2023, only 47% of children and the young met the medical guidelines for taking part in sport or physical activity for an average of 60 minutes per day in the UK.
Globally, 390 million children are now considered obese – up from 8% in 1990 to 20% in 2022. Undoubtedly, children throughout the world are becoming less active – which is having a profound affect on their health and putting a massive strain on health services.
It is important to remember that it is much easier to encourage children into physical activity once they have improved motor coordination. It improves their confidence as they improve their ability to carry out specific movements. It also enhances their learning skills and reaction speed.
Growing Confidence
In order to let a child develop to its full potential in any given sport or activity, it is important to have a long-term player development plan. The greatest mistake made with children is to get them to specialise in one area too early. This gives them a limited skill set and prevents development of other important areas.
Most coaches focus on technical and tactical development, but have you ever thought of the different elements that make up the whole child.
The first time most people see the cogs chart, they’re amazed at the elements they had never considered. It’s rare for example that ‘Environment’ and ‘Emotion’ are considered in the individual. Then when these elements are broken down into their constituents, it becomes clear why elite athletes now have so many experts in their coaching team.
In Skill Kids however, we will give you a comprehensive guide on how to develop these areas in your child.
How Will a Long Term Player Development Plan Benefit my Child Physically ?
Early specialisation can lead to injury long term due to over-use of specific parts of the body. Prime examples are:
There are other factors such as the weight of the tools. Young feet kicking full size balls and young arms swinging heavy rackets and bats can over-stretch the joint tendons in a developing body and also develop muscles on one side of the body more than the other.
It’s also quite common that the child is not following a basic conditioning programme to strengthen every area of their body. Most of the time is spent in the sports arena with little focus given to effective warm up and warm down routines. Therefore, knee and shoulder injuries in the young are very common. Lack of motor coordination also plays a factor in this though, as inefficient movements lead to greater risk of injury. Working on skills such as balance and proprioception, (stabilising the joints throughout movement,) is also vital in preventing injury because it reduces the risk of twisting or over-stretching joints.
Did you know that there are optimal periods in a child’s growth to develop specific areas ?
Up to 10 years of age, children’s bodies are made for stop-start games, involving quick sprints, reactions and fun. They are also generally supple because their bodies are made to bounce more when they fall to prevent breaks. Therefore, it ‘s a good idea to set training around these areas.
You will see that as children get older, the body adapts more to allow stamina development. The body starts to produce lactic acid meaning you can incorporate gentle anaerobic work, (or higher heart rate), and then eventually you can introduce real strength work. This doesn’t mean you can’t do strength work when they are young, but the focus will be very different. It will look at stabilising joints and developing strength through a range of movement – rather than focus on lifting heavy weights and developing power. That is brought in later in the development phase.
A child’s development to adult or professional stage can be broken into sections. The first section is learning the fundamental skills, and the child can then start to learn some basic training regimes. As they get older, the training gets more specific for the sport they are into, to the point where they may try to become a full-time competitor in that sport.
A proper long-term player development plan can be vital in giving a youngster a realistic chance of progressing to a high standard in their sport. Feel free to contact us for more details.
We work in partnership with children’s organisations and schools to help develop holistic approaches to motor coordination, skills and health development in children and young people. This ranges from starting groups of 3 years of age, up to World and Olympic level.
We can develop easy to use programmes at all levels with data feedback to show you the effectives of the programmes and increase participation. We can also give reduced mass premium subscriptions to organisations to encourage regular use.
This will all be backed up by our team of experts who will be continually on-call should you need our help.
Simple guide for a transformative journey - follow these easy steps to begin.
Begin your wellness journey by downloading our app from your device’s app store.
Personalize your experience by creating a profile. Input essential details, and let us guide you on your wellness path.
Choose from a variety of programmes that cater to your specific needs by adapting and setting goals that suit your lifestyle. Have your programmes re-evaluated weekly or as often as you like.
Track your progress and identify areas for improvement with our app. Let the app help you progress and achieve your goals with its analytics tools.
Connect with like-minded individuals in our vibrant online community. Experience the encouragement, motivation, and celebration of successes that come with being part of the community.
Contact
Begin your wellness journey by downloading our app from your device's app store. Install it and prepare for a transformative experience.
