GUIDELINE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELECTED
MOTOR SKILLS IN
YOUTH SPORT PROGRAMS
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Athletic performance success is dependent on many factors including
confidence, preparation, concentration, anxiety, and locus of control, ability
to focus and physical skill capability. If anyone of these factors is not
fully developed the athletic performance of the individual many suffer. Although
many of these factors can be manipulated and controlled through training and
practice, physical skill capacity may be dependent on the physical development
of the individual. This is especially true with children. Quite often, the
success of an individual in a youth sport program is dependent on his or her
physical development. As physical motor skills develop, the individual becomes
more proficient, and consequently, many other of factors such as concentration,
confidence, anxiety control and locus of control, improve as well. Often the
first step to improving the success of an individual in a youth sport program
is timing the teaching of motor skills to coincide with the individual's physical
development. However, the majority of physical education teachers and coaches
of sport teams are not aware of the developmental sequences of motor skills
in children. Obviously, this lack of knowledge would successfully hinder the
success of youth sport programs. This course attempts to address this issue
by providing a guideline for the developmental sequences of running, jumping,
combined fundamental movement patterns (galloping, skipping, and sliding),
kicking and punting, over-arm throwing, catching, tracking and object interception,
striking, balance, temporal awareness, as well as addressing the issues of
stature and weight interrelationship with motor development and performance,
body proportion interrelationship with more performance. This course covers
the age of development of motor skills, developmental stages of motor skill
attainment, performance trends of motor skill development, gender differences
in motor skill development, as well as factors influencing the development
of motor skills. This course also serves to function as a reference for teachers
and coaches of physical education and youth sport programs. As previously
mentioned, the success of motor skill performance improves often confidence,
concentration, anxiety control and locus of control improves as well.