Lifetime Fitness
From News for Swim Parents
Published by The American Swimming Coaches Association
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Fort Lauderdale FL 33309
Growing recognition that many American children are neither
developing sufficient fitness, nor learning appropriate lifetime health
habits has caused leading physical educators to re-evaluate their
long-time methods and shed the traditional coach/drill sergeant image
for an educational approach that gives young students the tools for
lifetime fitness.
Ron Feingold, Ph.D. of Adelphi University in N.Y., and one of the
leaders in this movement explains,”To me, what's relevant is what they
learn about fitness, and how do they feel about physical activity. The
goal should be to get them to enjoy fitness and physical activities and
to understand their benefits."
Accordingly, progressive P.E. teachers are exchanging their former
emphasis on teaching competitive sports skills and administering
competitive fitness tests for an approach that encourages students to
adopt "appropriate lifelong exercise behavior," and a healthy
appreciation for physical activity. The proverbial "ounce of
prevention" will help children improve their long term health prospects
by developing healthy lifestyle habits from an early age.
The new priority is that kids should know how their bodies work after
they've had 12 years of physical education. As one teacher said:
"It's more important that they understand how to develop strength and
cardiovascular fitness, how to train safely, and to have a basic
understanding of what happens when you move, than to know how to shoot a
basketball."
The changing focus of thinking about youth fitness is also leading to a
re-examination of fitness testing methods. Such competitive tests
as the Presidential Physical Fitness Test tended to discourage those
children who needed help the most. Kids who performed poorly were
embarrassed both by taking the fitness test and by their results, while
better athletes were rewarded for their performances.
That test has now been adjusted to make it an educational process and to
focus on personal improvement rather than performance level with rewards
and recognition to those making progress from previous tests. "We
want kids to buy into the idea that it's the activity that's important
and the performance score is secondary," says Dr. Marilu Meredith,
director of youth fitness programs for the Institute of Aerobics
Research. "If we can impart an activity habit - and keep it fun -
they'll stay active and they will be fit."
What actions can both parents and age group coaches take to import these
ideas into age group swimming?
1) Consciously communicate to kids the importance of aerobic fitness and
"healthy hearts" by raising their level of awareness of swimming's
aerobic benefits.
2) Be more conscious of the importance of your own role modeling in
maintaining good health through personal fitness programs.
3) Balance emphasis on achievement and performance for age groupers with
emphasis on the simple values of participation for the long term and
communicate swimming as simply the first step in a lifelong fitness
habit.
4) Tie in the value of good nutritional habits, not simply for better
performance, but for health's sake.
If we adopt a health-related outlook for age group swimming we'll be
giving the kids in our programs a form of lifelong health insurance that
can't be purchased at any cost.
