Outlining the area of childrens fitness ___________________________________ Ruben Lundtoft

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Outlining the area of childrens
fitness___________________________________ Rub
en Lundtoft Julie Johnsen Fitness in
Association (www.foreningsfitness.dk)  
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Development in childrens fitness(Overblik over
den danske fitnesssektor, Kasper Lund
Kirkegaard, 2007)(Tal om børnekultur en
statistik om børn, kultur og fritid, Wulff og
Bille, 2006)

• Less physical activity among children
• More times spend on TV,
• playstations and computers
• From children day care to activating children in
  fitness centers
• Childrens fitness has a large growth potential

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Fitness programs with most growth
potential(IDEA Health Fitness Assoc. 11.
annual Survey Results, Sept. 2006)

• Personal training Pilates or Yoga
• Kid's fitness
• Adult one-on-one personal training
• Pilates traditional strength training fusion
• Gyrotonic
• Pilates
• Senior classes
• Strength training (group)

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Fitness for children in Denmark(Fitness til
børn vinder frem, Berlingske Tidende, 2007)
(Experiences from the project Fitness in
association www.foreningsfitness.dk )

• Also in Denmark we experience increasing demands
  on different kinds of fitness for children and
  teenagers.
• In Denmark it is estimated that 3.000 children
  are members in fitness centers.
• Clubs experience increasing demands from
• schools, local authorities, families with
  inactive children.

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Development projectChildren- and Teenfitness

• Purpose of this project
• Fulfill the wishes for fitness-activities for
  children
• Offer a wide range of physical activities to
  reach children with different interests
• Create an environment where children can develop
  not only physical but also social skills and
  mental skills

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What is fitness?(New Oxford American
Dictionary, 2007)

• Fitness is
• the condition of being physically fit and healthy
• the quality of being suitable to fulfill a
  particular role or task

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What is Children- and Teenfitness?
Outdoor activities
Playing
Strength training
Cardio activities
Basic training
Exer-tainment
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Why fitness for children and teens?

• Fitness includes everyone does not exclude
• - poor motor functioned children/teens
• - overweighed children/teens
•  More time to the individual
• - personal conversation

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Generel motivation factors(Yngvar Ommundsen,
professor, Norwegian School of Sport Sciences,
Oslo, Norway)
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Generel motivation factors(Yngvar Ommundsen,
professor, Norwegian School of Sport Sciences,
Oslo, Norway)

• Enjoyment
• Self-efficacy
• A social good group environment

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Generel motivation factors(Yngvar Ommundsen,
professor, Norwegian School of Sport Sciences,
Oslo, Norway)

• Acknowledgement fore participation
• Personal investment in the activity
• Positive feedback
• Show attention to the child/youngster

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Generel motivation factors(Yngvar Ommundsen,
professor, Norwegian School of Sport Sciences,
Oslo, Norway)

• A democratically leader style is more motivating
  than authoritarian or laissez-faire leader style
• Children and youngsters should seek to have
  task/mastery goals instead of performance/ego-goal
  .

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Working with children

• Be creative when working with children
• Include fun, exploring, games
• - this may include making new individual
  programs exercises and regulating goals - this
  may include reorganizing the room every week
• The entertaining value is important
• - This is their spare time
• It is our goal to see children leave the fitness
  center with a smile on their faces

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Potentials

•  
• Learning while exercising!

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Discussion issues

• What is your experience with children fitness in
  your country?
• Fitness among children is popular. Is this reason
  enough to implement it in your respective
  physical cultures?
• How can we maintain the interest for fitness
  activities?
• How can you see it implemented in your country?
  Which opportunities/barriers do you see?
• How does it work in those countries who already
  have implemented fitness for children and
  teenagers?