Getting Started with Active Start

Ages: 0-6 (Please note: Ages are guidelines, not restrictions)

Primary Focus: Be active. Children at this age need unstructured physical activity for at least 60 minutes a day. Toddlers and preschoolers shouldn’t be sedentary for more than one hour at a time, unless they’re sleeping.

Competition Level: None

What the Coach Recommends: Barbara Blanchar runs a Little Spikes program at WingHaven Country Club in O'Fallon, Missouri. One of the hardest things for parents, Blanchar said, is to simply let their kids have fun during a summer session. Mom and dad often want their child to hold the club properly from the start. Blanchar doesn’t care if they’re doing it wrong. It doesn’t have to be perfect. But it does have to be fun.

One of Blanchar’s Little Spikes stations involves hitting floating balls into the swimming pool. She puts a blowup shark in the water as a target. Sometimes they’re on the lawn tossing golf balls rather than hitting them. Sometimes they’re throwing water balloons into the sky (or at dad).

Ice cream always follows.

Blanchar’s activities are designed to help children develop basic movement skills like the ability to run, walk, jump and throw.

Coach Says: “I think the hardest thing for me is that (golf coaches) see the value of multiple sports. I worry that baseball and soccer players are not doing that. Hopefully the parents can understand the importance of playing multiple sports. I want them at golf, but at a certain age I don’t need them year-round. Get that athletic ability and that athleticism so they can play golf better as they grow.”

Athletic Skills: Running, jumping, hopping, twisting, turning, stopping, catching a ball with two hands.

Technical Skills: Experiment with the club and ball! Remember, kids don't learn like adults.

Psychological Development: Try new challenges! Giving effort and following simple instructions at this stage is the goal.

Social Development: Sharing, saying thank you, being with friends. Parents are central for praise and approval of all they do.

Practice: No formal guidelines. Positive experience based on child's interest level is the key.

Competition: NONE! They are too young.

Equipment: Safety is first and foremost at this stage, not the equipment.

Where to play: Anywhere equivalent with ability (golf course, park, mini putt, backyard, living room.)

✔ Provide organized physical activity for at least 30 minutes a day for toddlers and at least 60 minutes a day for preschoolers.

✔ Provide unstructured physical activity — active play for at least 60 minutes a day, and up to several hours per day for toddlers and preschoolers. Toddlers and preschoolers should not be sedentary for more than 60 minutes at a time, except while sleeping.

✔ Provide infants, toddlers and preschoolers with opportunities to participate in daily physical activity that promotes fitness and movement skills.

✔ Provide parents with age-appropriate information related to golf.

✔ Introduce healthy nutrition habits (food should not be used as a reward)

✔ Ensure that children acquire movement skills that build towards more complex movements. These skills help lay the foundation for lifelong physical activity.

✔ Encourage basic movement skills — they do not just happen as a child grows older, but develop depending on each child’s heredity, activity experiences and environment. For children with a disability, access to age and disability-appropriate adapted equipment is an important contributor to success.

✔ Focus on improving basic movement skills such as running, jumping, twisting, kicking, throwing and catching. These basic human movements are the building blocks for more complex activities.

✔ Design activities that help children feel competent, successful and comfortable participating in a variety of fun and challenging games and activities.

✔ Ensure that games for young children are non-competitive and focus on participation.

✔ Because girls tend to be less active and more social than boys and children with a disability less active than their peers, ensure that activities are gender-neutral and physically inclusive so that active living is equally valued and promoted for all children.