Course:KIN355/2020 Projects/Stability at the time of projection
Force Creation: Stability at the Time of Projection
Defining the Concept and Its Importance
Force creation can be defined using Newton’s 3 laws of force: inertia (any object at rest will stay at rest and any object in motion will stay in motion until acted upon by another force), acceleration (an object will accelerate in the direction that a force acts upon it), and action and reaction (any action has an opposite and equal reaction).
For force to be created within the body, parts of the body must be stabilized. When the stabilization occurs, this gives the body something to brace and pushes or pulls against the said body part. Many people take for granted how important abdominal muscles are in the roll of stabilization and force creation. According to Gagen and Getchell (2008) the abdominal muscles (in golf) stabilize the hips and create the anchor point around which the swing and weight transfer take place.
Force creation and stabilization are important motor milestones for children that coaches, teachers, and parents should be aware of. The abdominal muscles are an important muscular group in children because they help with the stabilization of the body. In early childhood years, the abdominal muscles slowly increase strength until infants can sit up on their own, prop themselves up with their arms on their tummy, creep, crawl, stand up, and eventually begin to walk. Without the stabilizing group of muscles, this would be next to impossible. Gagen and Getchell (2008), state that children and other individuals who are unable to jump, throw, kick or hit with success or vigor lack the stabilizing area. For example, in the article Applying Newton's apple elementary physical education (Gagen and Getchell, 2008) when a kindergartner throws a ball, he or she often lifts the ball and thrusts it forward; movement is primarily elbow flexion and extension, with little or no activity outside of the forward motion. Since the children lack advanced strength of the abdominal region, it can be concluded that the children throwing the ball at a younger age do not rotate the torso or move outside the forward motion due to a lack of ability to stabilize their bodies after the rotation. In the case of throwing, Newton’s laws of inertia and acceleration are being performed but not as effectively if stabilizing muscles were stronger. Practicing these stabilizing and force creating movements through fun games (e.g. playing catch, hopscotch, hot lava, kicking a ball etc.) is crucial in childhood years, and are an effective way to develop the previously discussed movements.
Role in Childhood Development and Contemporary Considerations
Force and stabilization in forceful movements is important for a multitude of reasons. As children physically develop, their mass and height increases, and so does their inertia. This creates a larger need for more force production as well as an increase in the momentum needed to create the forceful movement. An example used earlier was children throwing a ball. Early throwers only use flexion and extension when throwing a ball ; but as the body changes in mass, more momentum is transferred through the body and rotation/stabilization of the body is needed to throw (Gagen and Getchell, 2008). One thing to consider when it comes to developing children is if a child does not develop properly as they age, they may not get over the “awkward phase” where their bodies are going through more changes and they will need to relearn how to move effectively. Therefore you may not see the rotation and plant of the foot when throwing a ball that is seen in other developing children. This concludes that there may be a less forceful movement because of a lack of stability in the thrower. Gagen and Getchell (2008) explain this “awkward phase” happens in most children through puberty.
Some factors that teachers, coaches, and early childhood educators should know about children’s abilities and motor milestones are as follows: A physical educator should be aware of the physical changes that children are going through and the changes in inertia and momentum that the children need due to the changes in their bodies capabilities. If the educator is not aware of these changes, it may cause the children to result back to bad habits in physical movement due to low control over the body and forceful production.
Educators and coaches should know different techniques to teach children when they are learning how to throw and kick etc., and be able to explain where the force the children need to generate comes from in order to get them to create more force during the said action (Gagen and Getchell, 2008). This is important because when teaching a child how to kick a ball for example, if the instructor shows that you have to use the legs and glute region to generate more force in the kick, this will help the children to understand the movement better.
Educators should use games that involve different levels of force production (hopping, jumping, skipping, throwing, changing direction, weight transfer etc.). This will help children increase their core movements and muscle development. It will also help them overcome motor milestones. For example: when hopping with one foot, children tend to land on their flat foot and not absorb the force with a bent knee and ankle. Using different games will help teach how to increase forceful movements and create stability through the body, and how to absorb it.
Educators should be aware that all children will not have the same abilities due to differences in height, weight, strength, and early development and that the heavier/stronger children may be able to “cheat” their way through forceful production due to the more advanced physiological differences (Langendorfer and Roberton, 2002). Put simply, they will not have to use proper form when kicking or throwing for example, which is dangerous because it can lead to injury due to improper body movements.
Finally, educators should be able to introduce the law of action and reaction in a simple way. For example throwing a ball against the wall and catching it as it comes back or jumping and trying to absorb the force with bent knees and ankles on the landing to prevent injury (Gagen and Getchell, 2008). This will help with the absorption of force and can build the children’s confidence in creating a more forceful and stable movement because of proper technique and better understanding of what force is. Educators will need to develop programs or use the programs provided to better develop a child's movement patterns. The activities should focus on jumping and posing, both of which require good stability and balance provided by core strength.
Practical Applications
Activity #1: Extreme Hopscotch
Purpose: The goal of this exercise is to develop their stability and core strength through hopping exercises. After going through the different progressions, children should be able to have better control of their body and improved core strength needed to improve stability (Surkar et al., 2015).
Target Age: The age range for this exercise is 6-8 years old
Apparatus/Equipment: Sidewalk Chalk, 10 Hula Hoops, 2 Balls
Environmental Space/Set-up: Outside in an open space, can be done in a driveway (for parents at home), a sidewalk, on a school outdoor play area (concrete – for schoolteachers and coaches). Make sure the area is open and clear of any hazards that are on the ground such as rocks, sticks, or other equipment.
Instructions:
The game of hopscotch can be played with many variations. The activity will start from the basics. At this time, the child will start below the #1 box as show in the figure. The child will then be asked to bunny hop with both legs into box #1, and then hop again with one-foot landing in each of box #2 and box #3. The child will continue with two-legged bunny hopping until 10 and then will jump out and finish the activity. There are also many variations that can be taken with this activity in terms of how many legs you want to jump with, which numbers you are allowed to land in, and which numbers you must avoid. Different variations can be explored in the following section. In each of the activities, the instructor or parent should give a demo of how it should be done. They should use proper form such as loading through the knees and landing with knees bent to absorb the force. The instructor should also emphasize on proper form and explain the reasoning behind it.
Modified (in order of increasing difficulty): advance to the next level when the current level is completely with proper form. This ensures that there is something for children to improve on no matter what movement level they are on right now.
1. Two-legged bunny hop, one foot in each of the boxes that have an adjacent box horizontally.
2. One-legged hops in the single boxes and two feet (one in each box) in the double boxes
3. One-legged hops with alternating legs in the single boxes and two feet (one in each box in the double boxes)
4. One-legged hops with dominant leg, the instructor will choose to either use the boxes on the right or on the left for the double boxes.
5. One-legged hops with non dominant leg, the instructor will choose to either use the boxes on the right or on the left for the double boxes.
6. One-legged hops with dominant leg, the instructor will choose to either use the boxes on the right or on the left for the double boxes. The instructor will throw a ball at box #10 and the child has to catch the ball while still balancing on one leg.
7. One-legged hops with dominant leg, the instructor will choose to either use the boxes on the right or on the left for the double boxes. The child will throw a ball to the instructor who is standing 5m above box #10. The child has to throw while balancing on one leg.
8. Other modifications can be made to the speed in which the activity needs to be completed. By extending the period which the children must stand and balance on one leg, the child will be able to improve their stability and core strength.
Activity #2: Snapshot
Purpose: The goal of this exercise is to develop their stability and core strength through poses or a frozen picture. Children will be able to improve their body awareness and understand how their body works. While children are required to do fast paced activities and then come to a halt, this will test their ability to stop and use their core muscles and stability to absorb and withhold all other external forces and influences. After going through the different progressions, children should be able to have better control of their body and improved core strength needed to improve stability (Surkar et al., 2015).
Target Age: The age range for this exercise is 5-10 years old
Apparatus/Equipment: 1 whistle for the instructor, cones to mark the boundary (optional)
Environmental Space/Set-up: Outside in an open space, can be done in a driveway (for parents at home), a grass field, in a gymnasium, or on a school outdoor play area. Make sure the area is open and clear of any hazards that are on the ground such as rocks, sticks, or other equipment.
Instructions: In this activity, children will be playing within the boundaries provided by the instructor. Instructors can choose to point out boundaries based on landmarks or use cones that the children must move within. Children will travel around in the method provided by the instructor (refer to the chart for movements). The instructor will then blow the whistle and yell out a certain pose that the children must execute and hold for 10 seconds. The instructor will count from 1 to 10 and then will yell out a different movement for the children. It is important for the instructor to inspect the children during the post to ensure that they are being as still as possible. The instructor can give examples of all the poses prior to the start of the game or they can allow the children to be creative and come up with their own interpretations of the poses.
| Movements: |
| Walking |
| Running |
| Two-legged hops |
| One-legged hops |
| Crawling |
| Run with a partner |
| Poses |
| Pencil Pose |
| Airplane Pose |
| Downward Dog Pose |
| Elephant Pose |
| Tree Pose |
| Table Pose |
| Lunge Pose |
| Touch your toes |
| Squat Pose |
| Running Pose |
| Throwing Pose |
| Skiing Pose |
| Surfing Pose |
| Starfish Pose |
| Superhero Pose |
| Beach Chair Pose |
| Bear Pose |
Modifications: As the age group or skill level of the children increases, the basic poses will no longer be difficult enough. The instructor should ensure that the children are being challenged in some way to keep them interested as well as improving their skills. If children are strong, instructors could ask them to hold poses that use their core strength. These include poses such as a plank or a v-sit that they must hold for a period of time. This will help to develop the core strength of the children and as a result improve their overall balance and stability.
For children that are struggling with the basics, the instructor can make the movements less intensive, such as walking, and let them hold their pose for a shorter period of time - such as 5 seconds instead of 10.
If the children are starting to get tired or are not giving it their best effort, the instructor can introduce elimination. This is where the instructor will eliminate those who are not able to hold their pose. This can be a good change and spark up more competitiveness between the children involved.
Summary
Stability refers to an individual’s ability to maintain a controlled body position, involving balance and weight transfer, amidst a task (Adolph & Franchak, 2017). Developing infant stability enables new skills and new possibilities for observation, socialization, interaction and locomotion. Further, with regards to childhood movement experiences, stability is critical as is considered a prerequisite for the development of higher-level gross motor performance and essential to both learning and controlling fundamental movement skills. Thus, parents, coaches and educators must be aware of the critical roll stability at the time of progression plays in the physical, social, motor and emotional development of the child.
References
Adolph, K. E., & Franchak, J. M. (2017). The development of motor behavior . Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive science, 8(12), 102-143. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1430
Linda Gagen & Nancy Getchell (2008) Applying Newton's Apple to Elementary Physical Education, Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 79:8, 43-51, DOI: 10.1080/07303084.2008.10598231
Surkar, S. M., Edelbrock, C., Stergiou, N., Berger, S., & Harbourne, R. (2015). Sitting Postural Control Affects the Development of Focused Attention in Children with Cerebral Palsy. Pediatric Physical Therapy, 27(1), 16-22. doi:10.1097/pep.0000000000000097
Stephen J. Langendorfer & Mary Ann Roberton (2002) Individual Pathways in the Development of Forceful Throwing, Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 73:3, 245-256,