Youth Modules, Module 4 - Physical Content Guide and Skills Building Journal
Programs:
Youth Program
Resource Type:
Training
Published:
01/06
Module 4: Physical - Every single day, healthy adults are making the choice to exercise, eat healthy food and enjoy recreational activities. Many of the physical fitness skills and choices adults make are based on what they learned and enjoyed as adolescents. This guide identifies the different levels of physical development by age group. It also discusses how to apply this knowledge to promote physical activity among all young people.
Table of Contents
- Module 4:
- Physical
- Content Guide
- Youth Staff
-
Training Program
- Section Page
- 4.1 Introduction 1
- Overview 1
- Take a Closer Look 9
- Self-Reflection 16
- A. Using Your Knowledge of Youth Developmental Stages to Encourage 19
- Physical Fitness
- B. Helping Youth Develop a Positive Self-Concept Through Physical Skills 25
- Development
- C. Reaching All Youth 28
- D. Getting Started: Implementing Sports and Fitness Activities 32
- Summarizing Your Progress 36
- Overview
- Adolescents love to talk and share their experiences. However, they need to feel that it’s safe to say what they think withou\൴ fear of sharing unacceptable or wrong ideas. Positive reinforcement and open communication help them confront the endless var對iety of issues they face every day growing up. How you communicate with youth has such a strong impact on them. Always monito\൲ your responses to youth. You want to “build them up” whenever you can!
- Adolescents need goal setting and decision making skills for a positive self-concept
- With their growing independence, youth make many health-related choices every day. However, their emotions, preoccupations wi\൴h looks, and peers may influence their decisions more than doing what’s best for their health. Even if health is a priority, m對ost youth need skills and motivation to make smart eating and active living choices a daily habit. Some youth may not be athle\൴ic, but they can still develop skills that will help them feel better about themselves. They are really changing physically an對d need opportunities that will help them feel more comfortable with their bodies and self-concept.
- Youth face many decision-making situations each day – decisions that will help them reach goals. As youth go through the proc\ss of decision-making and goal setting, they will need to explore many questions. With your help and encouragement, youth can 對have more positive self-concept because of making informed, healthy decisions. Some questions you can explore together include\ഺ
- With so many options, how do you make choices?
- How do personal choices/decisions affect them now and in the future?
- What choices affect health?
- How can you make decisions that help a person reach their goals?
- As a Program Assistant, you can include adolescents in sports and fitness activities designed to build confidence.
- Adolescents learn by doing
- Hands-on learning is effective. Doing is more meaningful and memorable than just seeing or hearing information. Learning by \oing offers many benefits. It develops competence and self-confidence, encourages personal initiative and teaches patience and對 hard work. It also helps adolescents apply what they learn to the real world. Sports and fitness activities are great opport\൵nities for doing this.
- In hands-on learning, the focus is on the youth’s experience, not your direction of it. Still, you can provide guidance by as\൫ing questions that will help youth learn. Don’t overdo these questions, however. In some instances, you might ask youth to sh對are the results of their process. In others, you might ask them to connect what they did to a real life situation. Be aware t\൨at you won’t be there using the entire process every time you have a conversation with youth. This process allows young people對 to have the opportunity to learn new sports and fitness skills while building their self-confidence.
- Follow these steps to make active, hands-on learning more effective when conducting sports and physical fitness activities:
- Experience. Start with a common experience that youth can explore or discover without telling or showing them exactly how.
- Example: Before starting a soccer skills activity, ask youth to share a time when they played soccer before. Ask them what s\൫ills they thought they used that helped them play the game. Ask volunteers to show the rest of the group some of these skills.對 Begin the activity and make sure everyone has an opportunity to experience one of the soccer skills.
- Share. Encourage youth to talk about their experiences and share what they see or think about them.
- Example: After youth practice their soccer skills, ask them for feedback on how well they felt they did. Ask them what addit\൩onal skills they’d like to practice.
- Process. Ask questions that allow youth to discuss what they feel. “What else do you need to know to use the skills and info\൲mation you just learned?” Remember, talking takes time. There are no right or wrong answers.
- Example: Ask youth questions about how they think they can improve their skills based on comments that were shared with the g\൲oup.
- Generalize. Encourage youth to apply what they learned to their own lives.
- Example: Discuss how analyzing skills youth feel they do well and identifying where they’d like to improve is a great process\ഠto follow for any sport or fitness activity they try.
- Apply. To learn life skills, help youth connect their experiences to events, tasks and situations – including fitness-related\ഠdecisions – in their lives. Encourage them to take action.
- Example: Give youth plenty of opportunities to practice and provide feedback in between skill building activities.
- Incorporating cooperative games
- - Count off by number, all “ones” on one team and all “twos” on another.
- - Divide youth by birthday month.
- - Divide by color of shirt or shorts.
- - Line up the youth and divide line in half, in the center.
- - Have youth receive applause from their peers.
- - Announce accomplishments over the Youth Center’s public address system.
- - Personally praise youth for their participation and achievement.
- - Have youth demonstrate a skill for others.
- - Tell parents about the youth’s progress, skill mastery or participation.
- - jump rope challenge
- - balloon volleyball
- - nerf dodgeball
- - soccer skills obstacle
- - whiffle ball
- - bicycle safety rodeo
- - kayaking
- - aerobic dance
- - floor hockey
- - frisbee golf
- - sports skills clinics
- - field trips – bowling center, skating rink, nature walks
- - individual sports instruction – tennis, golf
- - miniature golf
- - aerobic, strength conditioning
- - coed volleyball, softball
- - individual sports instruction – tennis, golf
- - challenge courses
- - 3-on-3 basketball
- - sports officiating
- - bicycle touring club