How are motor-skills developed in children through Ultimate Frisbee? Let’s explore this…
Taking this series of posts on Children & Ultimate forward, we need to understand what motor-skills are and how they benefit the growth of a child.
So What Are Motor-Skills?
In order to carry out various tasks, we need to move a certain way – this happens because we have motor-skills, but these need to be built and developed efficiently.
Here’s how ultimate frisbee helps children to develop these motor-skills:
1. Coordination:
Like all sports, ultimate frisbee requires various coordinated movements, such as running, jumping, throwing, catching and balancing. Engaging in these movements repeatedly helps children develop and refine their hand-eye coordination and overall body coordination.
2. Balance & Agility:
Pivoting, balancing and agility is extremely important – to change directions quickly or maintain stability while performing specific movements. These test, challenge and develop a child’s balance, proprioception (awareness of body position in space) and agility, leading to better control over their movements.
3. Fine Motor Skills:
Certain sports, such as tennis, basketball, martial arts and ultimate frisbee require precise hand movements, such as gripping the disc in various holds (to obtain different types of throws) or dribbling a ball while playing basketball. These activities enhance fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and dexterity.* Improving fine motor skills can have benefits beyond sports, such as supporting tasks like writing, using utensils and working with different objects.
*I have to add here that I love the word ‘dexterity’ because it means (according to the merriam-webster.com dictionary):
“readiness and grace in physical activity especially :
skill and ease in using the hands”
4. Gross Motor Skills:
Playing ultimate frisbee involves large muscle groups and movements, which contribute to the development of gross motor skills. Running, jumping and throwing are examples of actions that enhance strength, power and overall physical abilities.
Read here for:
- 7 Reasons Why Children Should Play Ultimate Frisbee
- Developing Emotional Well Being of Children Through Ultimate Frisbee
- Developing Positive Discipline & Goal Setting in Children Through Ultimate Frisbee
5. Spatial Awareness:
Personally, the development of spatial awareness while playing sports growing up really helped me so let me first explain – as with other sports, while playing ultimate you need to develop an understanding of spatial concepts, such as judging distances, timing movements / throws and manoeuvring in a given area.
For me, it helped me to learn to navigate spaces effectively, anticipate and react to the movements of others. You’re more alert, sharper in fact… actually, that takes me to my next point…
6. Reaction Time:
Most sports often demand quick reactions to stimuli, such as catching a disc, evading opponents, or responding to changing game situations. Regular participation in ultimate frisbee can improve a child’s reaction time, allowing them to process information faster and respond more efficiently to stimuli in different contexts.
Read here for:
7. Strength & Endurance:
We’re aware of how beneficial physical exertion is, as it contributes to the development of muscular strength and endurance. Activities like swimming, cycling, or ultimate frisbee, for example, build muscular strength, improve cardiovascular fitness and enhance overall endurance. These physical attributes support motor-skill development and enable children to perform various movements with greater efficiency. But I’ll dive deeper into this in one of the upcoming posts.
Now on to the last point…
8. Bilateral Integration:
Ultimate frisbee requires the coordination of both sides of the body, promoting bilateral integration, for example include throwing and catching a disc with both or one hand leading to improved bilateral integration and motor control.
Overall, we believe that it is important to engage in age-appropriate activities and gradual skill progression is essential to ensure children can safely and effectively develop their motor skills through sports.
And that’s what we aim to do when we coach Ultimate Frisbee – to help develop but not cause strain – it’s important to be mindful of this and understand that while children require assistance in developing efficiently, we must also help the child based on their individual strengths and weaknesses. That respect is essential.
To know more about our classes for children aged 7-10 and 11-16 year olds in Mumbai, India then check out our “Who we are” page or our FAQ page or email us on info@schoolofultimate.com
