Celebrating life with great people, after a gorgeous evening run. Photo Courtesy of Charly Caldwell II

There is constant information in the media regarding inactivity and recommended activity levels.

The CDC and health.gov both post the recommended guidelines for youth ages 7-17 as:

“an accumulation of at least 1 hour a day of moderate to vigorous physical activity”.

As I am sure you know, inactivity has a negative impact on health in terms of obesity, diabetes, heart and cardiovascular function.

Exercise and sport, however, has shown to have a positive impact on these health factors, as well as bone density and structure, social interactions, sleep and mood improvement.

I want to focus however, on the other end of the spectrum, as physicians and therapists are seeing more young patients with issues due to over-activity related to exercise and sports.

To be fair, this is commonly due to a combination of factors, such as growth spurts, an accumulation of school or regional...

"It's a beach play day for Charly and his girls..."

Kids who play do better period.

They experience greater health benefits, do better socially, have higher grade point averages, higher graduation rates and more college acceptances.

Children’s participation in sports is so important that schools, municipalities and government agencies have devoted entire campaigns to its promotion. But where does it start?

Children do not automatically become proficient at sports.

Some will be naturally more adept than others, but they all need to be taught fundamental motor skills and given the opportunity to progress through appropriate development stages to be successful.

Motor skills are voluntary, learned movements made by the human body to achieve a task, such as a child twisting their body and moving their arm to throw a ball. By mastering fundamental motor skills such as a basic sprint, vertical jump, side step or leap, children will have the basic skills needed to participate in...