THE FUNDAMENTALS

FUNdamental movements and skills should be introduced through fun and games. FUNdamental sports skills should follow and include basic overall sports skills.

• FUNdamental movements skills and FUNdamental sports skills = physical literacy.
• Physical literacy refers to competency in movement and sports skills.
• Physical literacy should be developed before the onset of the adolescent growth spurt.

Table 1 lists the wide variety of fundamental movements and skills that underpin physical literacy. They include 4 different environments: earth, water, air, and ice.

TRAVELLING SKILLS

Hopping, Gliding, Leaping, Running, Galloping, Sliding, Skipping, etc

OBJECT CONTROL SKILLS (LOCOMOTOR SKILLS)

Kicking, Throwing, Punting, Catching, Stopping, Dribbling, Striking Volleying etc

BALANCE MOVEMENT SKILLS (STABILITY)

Dodging, Balancing, Body Rolling, Spinning, Stretching, Curling etc

The basic movement skills of 3 activities provide the base for all other sports

• Athletics: run, wheel, jump or throw.
• Gymnastics: ABC’s of athleticism — agility, balance, coordination, and speed.
• Swimming: for water safety reasons, for balance in a buoyant environment, and as the foundation for all water-based sports.

Without the basic movement skills, a child will have difficulty participating in any sport. For example, to enjoy baseball, basketball, cricket, football, netball, handball, rugby, and softball, the simple skill of catching must be mastered.

It is critically important that children with a disability have the opportunity to develop their fundamental movement and sport skills. Failure to do so severely limits their lifelong opportunities for recreational and athletic success. Despite this great need, children with a disability face difficulty gaining the fundamentals because

• overly protective parents, teachers, and coaches shield them from the bumps and bruises of childhood play.
• adapted physical education is not well developed in all school systems.
• some coaches do not welcome children with a disability to their activities because of a lack of knowledge about how to integrate them.
• it takes creativity to integrate a child with a disability into group activities where fundamental skills are practiced and physical literacy developed.