PLAY will help you and your leader, coach or instructor to set goals and track your progress as you develop physical literacy.
About PLAY
The PLAY program includes forms, charts and online tools that your leader, coach or instructor can use to determine your level of physical literacy and help you improve it! There’s also information for you to check out and share with your parents. Your leader, coach or instructor will be checking these two parts of your physical literacy:
PLAYfun
There are many different ways to be physically active, but almost all of them make use of the same basic skills. For example, running is an important skill used in soccer, dance and tennis—just to name a few! These basic skills are called fundamental movement skills. Your leader, coach or instructor can use PLAYfun to observe 18 of these skills and help you to learn more about these skills and how to improve them.
PLAYself
PLAYself is a self-evaluation for you to your own physical literacy. “How good are you at doing sports in the gym? In the water? On the ice?” “I can’t wait to try new activities or sports?” There are no wrong answers, so why not give it a try?
Physical Literacy and Injury Prevention
Developing physical literacy will also help you to avoid getting injured when you participate in a physical activity or play a sport. Why? Because physical literacy relates to better body movements and increased awareness of your physical environment.
For example, everyone thinks they know how to run, but the truth is that a lot of people run with poor body movements. Many of your classmates may run inefficiently, or in a way that increases their risk of knee or ankle injury. The same could be said for other movements such as jumping and throwing. With poor movement skills, you increase your risk of injury.
By working on your physical literacy you are doing yourself a big favour. You are developing good movement skills and reducing your risk of injury. This is important for anyone who wants to have fun participating in physical activity or sport!