As a parent or caregiver of a child in a Sportball program, you play a crucial role in supporting their sports journey. Whether your child is stepping onto the field for the first time or is an experienced Sportballer, we understand that embarking on this adventure can be both exciting and sometimes overwhelming (they are kids after all!). That’s why we’ve created this comprehensive guide to help you navigate and understand what to expect from our kids sports programs, and your child’s experience.

Above all else, we want you and your child to come to Sportball and have FUN! Using our Sportball Magic, we will teach fundamental physical skills through age-appropriate drills, help your child gain experience in organized activities and build confidence through participation in sports.

After nearly 30 years in business, here is what we have learned that will help you be prepared for your first day at Sportball and a successful season ahead!

Junior (16 Months – 2 Years Old) 

Children at this age most often join Sportball as their first group/class experience, as well as at their earliest stage of development of physical activity. 

What can we expect from them when joining their first Sportball program? 

• They are in a new space with a lot of new faces. Their senses and emotions are working in full gear to understand their surroundings. They may be nervous or confused trying to comprehend everything new to them, and that’s ok and 100% normal.
• The best thing we can do is give them time to deal with these emotions. They may not want to play at the beginning of class and might spend most of the class staring at everyone from the sidelines. Our class is a routine, and we can expect to see a big change from week 1 to week 4. 
• Children at this age are just learning physical activities for the first time, gaining confidence and balance in their movements. A parent’s role in our program is that of a “personal trainer”. Guiding and assisting their child in successful activation and an overall positive Sportball experience.
• A positive and engaged parent encourages a positive and engaged child.

Parent & Child (2-3 Years Old) 

Children in this age range are gaining more confidence in their movements and balance. They are still discovering new types of movements, but with practice, they can achieve success through parental and coach guidance. 

What can we expect from them when joining their Sportball program? 

• Being in a new environment surrounded by strangers can be intimidating for some children, even with their parents/caregivers by their side. This can cause nervousness to participate due to fear of failure, and being judged by others they don’t know. 
• Because of this, they may not be interested in jumping right in and they can easily become stuck in “NO” mode (i.e. When parents keep asking their kids to play, they go immediately to “no”). How do we most effectively get them out of “no” mode? We stop asking them to play and allow them to sit and observe the class, watching the other children smiling and having fun. By letting them know they are welcome to play if they want but not applying any pressure, children of this age begin gaining interest in the activities and desire to play. We need to be patient and allow them to join at their pace, and on their terms. 
• Your role as a parent is to guide your child through the class and help them follow the coach’s instructions – Bring them to the magic line and pay attention to demonstrations, to show them where to play and support them if they need assistance during practice, and to be their cheerleader.
• Remember, a positive and engaged parent encourages a positive and engaged child.

Drop-off (3-5 Years Old) 

For indoor programming, grown-ups remain outside the gym during class. 

For a lot of friends in this age group, this may be their first experience of doing a program on their own. They may be nervous about allowing their grown-up to leave the gym, even if they attend daycare or a pre-school program. A grown-up may stay at the beginning of the season to help their child get comfortable by keeping in mind that we are working towards the goal of all grown-ups being outside the gym during class. Our coaches are trained to deal with separation anxiety and will work with parents to achieve the common goal of independent play. Remember, this looks different for every child. 

Benefits of a drop-off program: 

• Less strangers in the gym means less distractions for the children. When families are out of the gym, their child’s focus is solely on the coach and activities in class.
• Sportball is a structured, routine-based program. It is easy for programs to lose that structure when there are too many people distracted from the program itself.
• It is the responsibility of coaches to ensure that children remain safe in class and are safely returned to their grown-up at the end of class. When more people (parents) are in the gym, this increases the difficulty in running a safe program and ensuring all children are safely dismissed to their grown-ups at the end of class.
• This promotes independence and encourages your child to learn and succeed on their own. 
• Learning to be comfortable and confident on their own in different environments. ex. School, Sportball, swimming lessons, scouts, etc.
• Learning to regulate/take direction from different teachers/coaches other than their primary caregivers.
• Kids learn to socialize with other children their age without their parent’s intervention. This promotes learning social cues and independent play.

Drop-off (6-9 Years Old) 

For indoor programs, grown-ups are outside the gym during class. 

Friends in this age group are independent and capable of playing group/team activities with confidence and minimal instruction. These programs are designed to expose participants to new games and sports, trying new movements and skills in a fun and supportive environment. 

What is this program about: 

• Learning new exercises, stretches and movements.
• Gaining experience in group/team activities that require more instructions and rules.
• Teaching independence and encouraging children to learn and succeed on their own. 
• Help children get comfortable and confident on their own in different environments. ex. School, Sportball, swimming lessons, scouts, etc.
• Learning to socialize with other children their age without their parent’s intervention. This promotes learning social cues and independent play.
• For those who are not yet ready to participate in a competitive league, Sportball programs provide a safe and challenging environment without the pressure of competition. 

Sportball programming introduces children as young as 16 months to a variety of different sports in a safe and non-competitive environment. Our coaches are extremely knowledgeable about age-appropriate baseline skills and progressions for each of the sports we play, enabling them to make adaptations based on your child’s unique needs. This allows children to learn and develop at their own pace all while having fun and challenging themselves in new ways.

Learn more about our different Sportball programs or find a Sportball program near you by visiting us at www.sportball.com/in

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So You’ve Decided to Enroll your Toddler or Preschooler…

When making the decision to enroll a young child in organized sport, parents typically gravitate towards ones that they are knowledgeable of, or that their child has shown a particular interest or aptitude for. But at 2 and 3 years of age – not all children may necessarily know what they like, or express an affinity towards any one sport. This leaves many parents overwhelmed when considering what sport to choose, how early to start, and how often their child should participate. Researchers have coined two common types of sport participation pathways as one’s which involve pursuing many sports at the same time (‘early diversifying’), or one’s which entail singularly focusing on one (‘early specializing’). In recent years, early diversification has grown in popularity, with single-sport specialization linked to a number of negative outcomes for athletes, including burnout or exhaustion from sport, risk of overuse injuries, and reduced enjoyment – the cumulative result of spending extensive time in one sport context from a young age. By contrast, a common assertion by sports researchers across a number of North American institutions is that:

“Youth should be provided opportunities and be encouraged to engage in diverse sports and delay single-sport specialization”²

How Multi-Sport Programs Work…

Subsequently, rather than focusing on one sport from a very young age, Multi-Sport programs are uniquely designed to offer diverse early sport experiences – giving children exposure to a variety of sports over the course of a season, and capturing the interest of children with varied sport interests. At Sportball, for instance, each Multi-sport class focuses on one of eight ball sports, including: Soccer, Baseball, Basketball, Football, Hockey, Volleyball, Golf, or Tennis. In other words, in one session, children are exposed to a different sport, enhancing their sport-specific knowledge, and contributing to their overall physical literacy. If you are not sold yet, this innovative program design also adheres to suggested age and developmental program requirements as laid out in the Long Term Athlete Development Model framework, a policy document designed to foster both elite performance, and life-long physical activity. Accordingly, during the Fundamentals stage of the model,

“The focus is on providing fun, inclusive, Multi-sport, and developmentally appropriate sport and physical activity” – Canadian Sport for Life, 2018³

Conclusion…

When making the decision to enroll your toddler or preschooler in organized sport, why not keep your options open? With the arrival of Multi-sport programing, children can gain access and exposure to a number of kids sports, giving them a say in what sport they enjoy most, excel at, or wish to pursue further. Collectively, this may be the best defense against early sport dropout; ensuring children remain in sport and physical activity long enough to reap its’ benefits.

Articles Cited:

¹DiFiori, J. P., Güllich, A., Brenner, J. S., Côté, J., Hainline, B., Ryan, E., & Malina, R. M. (2018). The NBA and Youth Basketball: Recommendations for Promoting a Healthy and Positive Experience. Sports Medicine, 2053-2065.

²Canadian Sport for Life (2018). Long-term athlete development 2.1.

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Social Skill Development at Sportball

At Sportball, children’s social skills are developed from the onset of our classes, and regularly reinforced through coach modelling and repetition. For instance, children begin each class by gathering on a pre-established ‘magic’ line, and playing a simple game of Sportball Says. This activity requires children to actively listen and carefully model their coach’s actions and behaviours, all while engaging in exercise. During warm-up, children gain experience at turn taking, stopping and directing their attention to a coach if/when a whistle is blown, and maintaining an appropriate distance between themselves and their peers, ensuring all children’s safety and enjoyment, and helping children adjust to routine, and rule-following.

Children are also introduced to several sport-specific skills within each Sportball class (i.e., passing and shooting in floor hockey, or dribbling and shooting hoops in basketball), all of which have a pro-social skill tied into their delivery (Coaching with Purpose at Sportball). For instance, when a Sportball coach introduces the concept of passing in floor hockey, he/she will emphasize that communicating with peers and using pro-social language are necessary to effectively do so: “We will be learning how to pass in floor hockey today. Each time we pass, we have to make eye contact with our friend, and say ‘pass please’!” Coaches also lead children through a debrief at the end of each practice, where children each have the opportunity to voice what they learned or liked most about the class. During this time, coaches emphasize the importance of actively listening to one another, and using respectful pro-social language such as saying ‘thank-you’ to each child after sharing.

While each of the above-described social skills are built into Sportball’s curriculum, other social skills – such as problem-solving or conflict resolution – emerge on an ‘as-needed’ basis. For instance, if/when interpersonal issues arise between children (i.e., if children have difficulties sharing equipment or taking turns), coaches use these instances as teachable moments – modelling and discussing the appropriate way that children may resolve these issues.

Transferring Social Skills to the Home and the Classroom

We know that children’s social skill development does not stop once practices end, which is why our coaches briefly meet with parents after Sportball classes to share what physical and social skills were emphasized. To help reaffirm the social skills that children learn in sport classes, researchers suggest that parents should draw attention to and praise children’s adoption of newly learned skills (i.e., treat them with enthusiasm and as achievements)¹, which will further support the transfer of these skills from the sport setting, and into other contexts- such as at home, or in the classroom. For example, parents may reflect on Sportball classes with children, and ask probing questions such as, “what did you learn you should do when the coach is giving instructions?” followed by supportive statements such as, “I saw you doing such a great job listening to your coach in practice today!” Parents may also post hypothetical questions to children, such as what they would do if a classmate was not being kind to them, or not waiting their turn. Ultimately, these scenarios – lived or hypothetical – can lead to important teachable moments that parents can help their children navigate and learn from.

Learning appropriate social-skills at Sportball – such as effectively communicating and interacting with adults and peers – are critical skills that children will benefit from having learned before they enter grade-school.

Help develop your child’s social skills through one of our many sport-based programs across North America. Click here to find a class near you.

Sources:

• Allen, G., Rhind, D., & Koshy, V. (2015). Enablers and barriers for male students transferring life skills from the sports hall into the classroom. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 7(1), 53-67.

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At Sportball, instead of sheltering children from failure, we help children navigate it in a safe and supportive environment. Success and failure are taught at Sportball through a combination of modified games, and careful coach demonstration and modelling, and may also be reinforced at home by parents (described below), or drawn-upon in other life domains. This idea is rooted in the overall approach of using sport as a vehicle to teach children important life and social-skills, which they can use in the school-yard, in the classroom, or with siblings and peers² .

What We Do As Coaches

While Sportball strives to create a non-competitive sporting environment, even our youngest Sportball attendees are introduced to small in-class challenges, which deliberately introduce children to both success and failure. For instance, children participate in races against their fellow classmates and coaches, which coaches may elect to win or lose in any given class/warm-up. After each race, coaches demonstrate and model how to appropriately react to, or perceive both scenarios. For example, coaches may lose a race, yet congratulate the class, and exclaim: “It looks like you were all faster than me this week, but that’s okay- because I tried my best!” Alternatively, coaches may win, but assure children who are disappointed: “I may have won this time, but – there is always next week to try again!” As children progress through Sportball classes, they begin participating in more organized games, yet – they do so with a number of modifications. For instance, when playing basketball, coaches may restrict players from intercepting passes between opponents – ensuring that children of varied ability levels get an equal opportunity with the ball. While there are still opportunities for experiencing success and failure within these modified games (i.e., through scoring baskets), we attempt to reduce the divide between children who may be more advanced, and those who are newer to a sport. 

What Can You Do As A Parent?

Parents can extend the lessons about success and failure that children adopt at Sportball and reinforce them during the car-ride home. For instance, parents should be conscious of the language children use to describe their experiences in class, such as disappointment they may express towards underperforming, or any preoccupation they may have about being ‘the best.’ In either scenario, parents should focus on praising children’s efforts over results – communicating that who won or lost a given game or activity is secondary to trying one’s best, and having fun. These lessons should be echoed during any unstructured sport or activity that takes place at home, at school, and between peers and siblings. Parents may also find it helpful to watch professional sporting events as a family, and draw parallels between children’s sport experiences and those of professional athletes/ teams- highlighting that even talented athletes experience wins and losses, and have both good and bad days.

Overall, we are conscious of the unique opportunity we have at Sportball to deliberately expose children to both success and failure. Through this, our goal is to help children form an adaptive (versus maladaptive) relationship with failure, altogether helping children become more resilient, and better prepared for the classroom, and for life.

Want to learn more?

• Crane, J., & Temple, V. (2015). A systematic review of dropout from organized sport among children and youth. European Physical Education Review, 21(1), 114-131.
• Pierce, S., Gould, D., & Camiré, M. (2017). Definition and model of life skills transfer. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 10(1), 186-211.

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In the past, it was assumed that children adopted these important life and social skills through mere participation in sport alone (i.e., children work with teammates, therefore, they learn how to communicate with others) – a process referred to as implicit or indirect life-skill development¹. However, in recent years, research supports the notion that explicitly teaching these skills (i.e., intentionally discussing what ideal communication between teammates looks like, and how it can be applied to other areas of life), contributes to greater life-skill and overall developmental gains in sport participants². The forthcoming section will outline how Sportball has integrated these research findings into our existing program structure and philosophy.

Progressive Life and Social Skill Development at Sportball

At Sportball, we offer extensive coach-training and mentorship, designed to introduce coaches to our unique program methodology. This methodology is built-upon the belief that children should be Coached with Purpose, insofar that each sport skill that children are taught should entail a physical sport and gross-motor skill component, and an associated social skill. Our long-standing partnership with researchers in the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at the University of Toronto has enabled us to create lesson plans that teach children appropriate gross-motor and sport-specific skills that align with key age and developmental milestones (i.e., Fostering Physical Literacy at Sportball). We collaborated with this research department again this past Spring to further refine our methodology with regard to social skill development – in an effort to determine what life and social skills best align with children’s age and developmental milestones, as well as how they can be more explicitly taught within our classes. The following is a break-down of the life and social skills that are the foci of each of our five distinct classes, which target the unique needs of children between 16 months and 12 years of age:

PARENT AND CHILD:
FIRST STEPS
(16-24 months)

Attention and Focus
Following Instruction
Spatial Awareness
Confidence
Turn-Taking
Participating in a Group

PARENT AND CHILD OR INDEPENDENT DROP-OFF:
ABC’S OF SPORT
(2-3 years)

Following Instruction
Turn-Taking
Pro-Social Language
Problem Solving
Sharing
Recognizing Peers

INDEPENDENT CHILD:
FUNDAMENTALS (3-6 years)

Turn-Taking
Problem-Solving
Sharing
Independence
Teamwork
Game Rules

INDEPENDENT CHILD:
SKILLS/TEAMPLAY(6-9 YEARS)

Strategy and Progressive Problem Solving
Group Play & Interaction
Leadership
Accepting Winning and Losing
Confidence

INDEPENDENT CHILD:
LEARN TO LEAD
(9-12)

Strategy and Progressive Problem Solving
Group Participation
Leadership
Response to Winning and Losing
Self-Perception

As illustrated in the table above, life and social skills progress in complexity across each of our sport classes in order to align with children’s age and stage of development. In addition to understanding this concept, Sportball coaches are taught how to introduce each life or social skill at the start of a class or lesson (i.e., “We will be playing basketball today. This sport requires that we share with our friends. Sharing means that we all get to play!”), as well as what key-words can be used during practices and post-practice debriefs to reinforce these lessons.

Overall, just like when introducing physical sport skills, we are conscious that life and social skills are best taught through coach demonstration, modeling, and continued practice!¹  Find out what kids sports programs are available in your area, and help support your child’s journey towards learning important life and social skills today!

Sources: 

¹Gould, D., & Carson, S. (2008). Life skills development through sport: Current status and future directions. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 1(1), 58-78.

²Bean, C. N., & Forneris, T. (2016). Examining the importance of intentionally structuring the youth sport context to facilitate psychosocial development. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 28, 410–425.

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Physical Activity At Sportball

While organized sport remains one of the most popular forms of extracurricular activities for children and youth – with a reported 77% participating in Canada each year¹, it is hard to comprehend that children consistently remain under-active. The fact is- no two sport programs are the same, and children are not always active for the entirety of their sport practices². Sport classes can quickly become mundane, a significant amount of practice time can be lost to coach instruction, transitioning between drills, managing children’s behaviour, and ultimately  -standing around. At Sportball, we value the importance of physical activity, and go to great lengths to ensure that children are active from start to finish in our classes. We utilize short lines, or even better, no lines, and integrate a continuous flow of exciting new drills, all supported by well-trained coaches (Coach Education and Certification Blog), and a high instructor-to-child ratio – keeping our classes moving and ensuring children cycle through skills faster. While our signature Multi-Sport classes focus on skills associated with a different sport each week (The Arrival of Multi-Sport Programming), we start each class, regardless of the sport, with an identical, high energy warm-up. Children are encouraged to run, jump, crawl, and hop during a group warm-up, providing a much-needed outlet for their energy, and building their core physical literacy skills (Fostering Physical Literacy at Sportball Blog).   

Keeping the Momentum- Physical Activity Outside of Sportball

While we try to make our Sportball classes as active and engaging as possible, we believe it is important that children carry the same enthusiasm for physical activity and sport at home and in their day-to-day lives. Parents may assume that children are sufficiently active while in gym class and recess in the school yard, but despite parents’ often reliance on these contexts to meet their child’s physical activity needs, the reality is, gym class only makes up a small portion of children’s day, and children all too often spend their evenings indoors, and in front of screens.¹  At Sportball, we recently launched a new initiative- offering weekly instructional videos to parents, guiding them on how to re-create some of the skills and activities learned at Sportball classes each week in their own homes. For instance- Week 1 may entail an instructional video on practicing the ‘Point and Throw’ in T-ball, while Week 2 walks parents through practicing a ‘Volleyball Bump’ with their child. These drills serve as a reminder to your child of some of the key skills they learn in class each week, accelerating children’s ongoing skill development and confidence. These drills are geared towards children of different developmental ability levels, and only take a few minutes to complete at no additional registration costs or equipment, altogether contributing to more time-spent together with your child or as a family, and ultimately- being physically active. Check-out our classes today to gain access to our high energy sport classes, as well their accompanying take-home videos.

Interested in learning more?

¹2018 Canadian ParticipACTION report card on physical activity for children and youth.  

²Wickel & Eisenmann. (2007). Contribution of youth sport to total daily physical activity among 6-12 year-old boys.

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