Let’s imagine that we are in charge of public policy and that we are going to create a new physical education curriculum. One that is aimed at increasing kids’ physical activity levels. What should we focus on?
Well, let’s look through the lens of fundamental movement skills. What does it teach us?
Table 1 is a non-exhaustive list of motor skills in 3 sports. Table Tennis, Squash and Badminton.
| Table Tennis | Squash | Badminton | |
| Throwing and Catching | |||
| Hopping | |||
| Running | |||
| Hitting an object | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Climbing | |||
| JumpingIncluding landing | ✔ | ||
| Changing direction | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Static control of body weight | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Dynamic control of bodyweight | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Although you are ahead of me now. I want to press on. When exposure to a wide range of sports is limited sports participation programs provide a narrow physical development curriculum.
Funding participation is easy enough to understand. Kids are inactive, get them into a sport. If they enjoy a sport just maybe they will increase their activity levels. But when we look at developing fundamental movement skills, we can see the cracks.
What about encouraging kids to take on multiple sports? Since a reasonable test of a youth (under 14 years of age) fundamental movement skills program would be that a student could go across to any other program and excel.
That’s an easy win, right?
Maybe. If we can find a way for coaches and sports not to feel threatened by others when we fund sports and programs through participation numbers. And if we can help teachers and parents see what a well-rounded fundamentals program looks like.
And if that’s what it takes then the question becomes. How do we encourage active, healthy, and curious contributors to society?
A twist on an old theme, but it might just be enough.
Enough to encourage an age-grade rugby coach to teach athletics in the summer for example.
Enough to see that acquiring fundamental movement skills will only happen by design.
And it might just help us see that to be successfully active across multiple sports, activities, and pastimes we need a wide range of fundamental movement skills, not just a few.
The system we have now is a hand-me-down. But what are we handing down? It’s time to look through a different lens and ask a different question.
How do we encourage active, healthy, and curious contributors to society?