Playing sports can help children improve their health, emotional well-being and academic performance, according to organizations such as to the President's Council on Physical Fitness. Kids like to play, not work, and teaching them sports with games-based methods will ensure they want to learn how to throw, catch, run, jump and kick. Adding goals and points to your sessions will make learning fun and help to increase your teaching success.
Games-Based Learning
Don't start with technique. Focusing on where to place the hands on a baseball bat, the correct form for a backhand or how to keep the elbows in while shooting a basketball turns play into work. Start with a goal, such as hitting a ball with a bat, serving into the correct service box or making a basket. Let your child try it a few times without instruction. Before correcting, ask why she thinks the ball is not going where she wants it to go, and ask her what she can do to rectify the situation. Allow her try again with the adjustment. If it still doesn't work, offer help. Asking a child for an opinion lets her feel the two of you are playing together as opposed to the feeling of being coached.
Graduated Length Method
Start with success. Have the child start close to the goal or net to make it as easy as possible to kick a goal, make a serve or hit a fly ball. As the child develops the ability to successfully repeat the skill, start moving him back, each time waiting for several successful repetitions of the skill before moving him farther back.
Kid-Size Equipment
Many children won't be able to hit a tennis ball over a regulation-size net, sink a basketball through a high hoop or swing a full golf club. Along with the graduated length method of learning, use age- and skill-appropriate equipment. For baseball, start with larger, plastic bats and larger balls, including beach balls. Lower the hoop for basketball and the net for tennis. Tennis players also benefit from foam and low-pressure balls. Cutting adult golf clubs and rackets may not be enough to shrink those implements for kids. Consider buying clubs, bats and rackets specifically sized for children.
Add Targets, Points and Rewards
When children play, there usually is a winner or some type of reward. To help effect games-based learning and problem solving while kids are playing, use targets such as cones, Hula Hoops or inflatables. Don't make children hit small targets as a measure of success. Hitting near the target at which she was aiming can be a measurement of success. If you aren't comfortable with competition or winners and losers, give points for each successful shot, with the child needing to earn a certain number of points before she can move on to the next skill or game.
