Coach Dave's Weekly Blog! 8/11/2021

I’ve decided to start my own blog with a different topic each week. I’ll be sharing my thoughts and views on certain topics which will include some stories of my own experiences as well as tales of when I’ve fallen, dusted myself off and gone again!

I’ll be sharing my own thoughts and experiences of everyday life of being a father, a partner, a coach, running my own business and as many of you may know, a mid-to-high handicap golfer looking to lower things by the week!

As you can imagine a main feature of my blog will be my views, opinions and philosophy on coaching and working with children.

Today I’m going to share my fascination with movement!

From a very early age, I was always intrigued with the ‘how’ behind everything. When it came to TV, movies, music & sport, I always had a higher interest with the behind the scenes footage and extra clips that would come as part of a bonus DVD (for the millennial out there this is what came as an extra when you bought DVDs prior to streaming!)

When the All or Nothing documentaries were released, I had an absolute field day on being able to see what life is like at top level sport and what happens on a day to day basis at these huge football clubs.?

When I started my university studies I very quickly became fascinated with how people move, more so how children move. It started from watching videos and clips of top level athletes training, then how it was differentiated for younger athletes and then children.

From watching elite athletes lifting weights, to children moving broomsticks to understand movement patterns of the same exercises to understanding time differences for certain exercises to achieve optimum performance.

I became obsessed with learning how a child’s movement develops over time and how it affects a fully grown adult’s performance.

I quickly learnt that the earlier a child picks up a movement pattern, the easier it will become to replicate as they grow through their teenage years.?

It sounds obvious that the earlier a technique is used, the stronger the connection will be but it was the physiological facts behind this knowledge that blew me away and it made me think,? “How can I use this to support children to ensure they reach their full potential in regards to physical literacy?”

When I started coaching and teaching in schools, I made it my objective to ensure there was a wide variety of movements and actions in all my sessions regardless of the sport or topic. The children wouldn't be restricted by the sport. If it was football, we would still incorporate throwing and catching in the lesson at a certain point.

By continuing to develop many different attributes of a child's technical movements, it gave them a greater chance of achieving the most important factor of all - a competent level of physical awareness and the ability to move well.

From simple hops, skips and jumps to balances, catches, throws and dodges to movements in isolation and combination. These patterns were and still are a key feature of what I do.

I’m fortunate that I get to use football as my vehicle to aid the physical development of the children that I coach. Therefore it’s very easy to include changes of direction, balance work, stopping and starting and much much more.

A key feature of developing physical literacy is repetition. If you’ve ever seen me teach or coach, you will see many movements are repeated on a weekly basis. The stimulus or game may be different but the physical movement itself e.g. two footed jump, skipping backwards, using a variety of surfaces of the foot, are the same each time.?That's part of the art of coaching, the children do not know that they are learning through play.

Repetition creates a stronger neurological bond which reinforces the movement patterns which leads onto a greater level of physical literacy at a later age.

I get to explore this field even further with Tots Football Fun. It’s paramount that children engage as much of their body as possible, as well as explore movement at different levels and speeds.

My fascination with movement and being blessed with the ability to impart knowledge well with children puts me in an extremely privileged position where I can help children become physically literate and hopefully play my part in creating a life-long love for physical activity and more so at The Football Fun Factory, a life-long love of football!