Ages 4 to 6
Objective: Develop physical literacy through experiment, practice and play. Promote fun activity that is family oriented and part of daily life. Begin to master the body and get introduced to the ball (i.e., things it can do, ways it reacts, etc.).
LUYSA will:
- Introduce children to simple rules of soccer.
- Help develop basic movement skills that build towards more complex movements for soccer and other sports.
- Help practice fundamental movement skills before soccer specific skills are introduced.
- Design activities that help preschoolers to feel competent and comfortable participating in a variety of fun and challenging future sport activities.
- Design activities that are gender neutral so that active living is equally valued and promoted.
- Ensure that games for preschoolers are non-competitive and focus on participation.
Outside of soccer the family should:
- Provide physical activity every day regardless of weather.
- Provide 60 minutes of structured and at least 60 minutes of unstructured physical activity per day.
- Children should not be sedentary for more than 60 minutes at a time except when sleeping.
- Children should also enroll in swimming, gymnastics and athletics (track and field).
This section is an adaptation of Balyi, Istvan; Charles Cardinal; Colin Higgs; Steve Norris; Richard Way. Canadian Sport for Life, (Victoria, BC: Canadian Sport Centres, 2005), p 19-34
