Objective of the Course

The objective of this course is to ensure coaches working with juvenile athletes, players or teams understands and appreciates:

• that skill is the most important ingredient in sports performance for adults and how this impacts on how to coach juveniles
• is conversant with the type and range of skills that are critical in the overall development of juvenile athletes and players
• the emphasis that needs to be placed on basic coordination, function, and motor skill coaching and training for 6 to 12 year olds

 Course Content

Skill is the most important component of fitness in most sports. This course examines the various skills that the strength and conditioning coach must coach, train and develop with the young athletes and players to give them the building blocks of proficiency take them more skilful in sport later in life.

There are many definitions concerning what we mean by skill. Fortunately most have several common features. It is generally accepted that skill is learned, consistent and specific to the task. In the case of the juvenile athlete or player there is a greater need for developing the general skills of movement and function rather than the specific skills of the sport. We will learn later that early specialisation in sport – committing to a sport before the age of 10 does not assist the development of any athlete or player. We need to keep working on the skills that will make the juvenile more athletic first and then make them better sports players.

Course videos

There will be at least 15 videos for this course.

Topics of the Course

The following topics are covered in this course:

Introduction to the course

This topic introduces the course and gives a clear outline of the aims and objectives of the course

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Fundamental Motor Skills in Early Childhood (5 to 8 years)

This topic examines the importance of motor skills learning for children of this age-group and how the coach can ensure the development the key areas of locomotion, manipulation, awareness and balance/stability.

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Learning of Skills in Late Childhood (9 to 12 years)

This topic demonstrates that during the 10 to 12 years of development a greater emphasis can be places on common or fundamental sports skills as well as progressing the sports specific skills of the individual athletes/players.

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Types of Skills

In this topic skill is defined and the importance of cognitive, perceptual and motor skills is examined. Further discussion on general and specific, physical and mental, simple and complex skills takes place. How the coach needs to prepare in coaching the varieties of skills young sportspeople need is also examined.

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Classification of Skills

This topic discusses the classification of skills. These include open and closed skills, gross and fine skills, internal and external paced skills as well as discrete, serial and continuous skills. The approach to coaching skills in each group is examined. 

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Motor Skill Development

According to Siedentop, sports skills and motor skills development comprises three fields, which are distinct but highly related namely motor development, motor control and motor control. It also introduces a discussion on skills fitness, motor fitness, physical fitness and mental and their relative importance to the young athlete/player coaching continuum.

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Functional Skill Development

This topic examines the importance of core stability and body function for the young sports person. It examines skills of squatting, lunging, bending, rotating, pushing and pulling and the development of torso mobility and lower limb balance and stability.

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Coaching Sports Skills

This topic examines the 3 levels of skills coaching – the beginner or discovery stage, the intermediate stage and he advanced stage of skill development. It also examines the type of advantageous environment the coach can develop so that child can learn skills.

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Skill Training and Capacity Development

This final topic is a short one examining the capacities for development of each child and how each capacity has a certain menu or list of requirements that are considered appropriate to this particular stage of development in relation to the 5 components of physical fitness.

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Course fee

Te fee for this course is €49.95.

Optional Course relating to Skill Development

There are a series of course relating to Sports Specific Skill coaching available under the heading List of Optional Additional Courses (Juvenile Sport).

Important note:

Before purchasing any course check the top right hand corner of the home page and make sure that you indicate your location correctly. This ensures you have no currency exchange fees to pay. use the drop-down menu to finalise.

The location possibilities are 3: Ireland/Europe (€)     /   USA ($)     /  UK (£)

 

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