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The Faces of Physical Activity
Realizing that I was laying face down in the mud with my mountain
bike on top of me, I started to ask myself some hard questions.
The mountain bike ride started out nice enough, except for the blowing
snow at the top of the mountain and a few carry your bike hills.
The single track turned into a beautiful ride with challenging turns
and nice drops but the little drop in the gulley. . . well, it dropped
me like I had trespassed and needed to be punished.
So, as I began the process of brushing myself off, getting the
bike off of me, checking for broken bike parts and making sure that
the bloody spots weren't in need of any immediate attention, I wondered
why do I do this? Can this really be worth it? Does this activity
really belong in the schools? Maybe mountain biking isn't such a
healthy choice after all. But as I sped down the trail, surrounded
by the yellow, orange and red of the trees with a slight drizzle
on my back, I felt an enormous sense of accomplishment. I was exhausted
and sore but I challenged the mountain and made it.
The feelings associated with physical activity can be quite scary
but NOT nearly as scary as the 100 billion dollar estimate of health
care costs associated with sickness related to obesity. Overweight
figures recently published in JAMA show that almost 10.4%
of children 2-5 and 15.3% of children 6-11 are overweight. Additional
sad news is the fact that some minority population children have
experienced a 10% increase in overweightness.
In light of this information, I can only hope that you can turn
your students on to the joys of physical activity that I have found.
Yes, many of the choices require skill but as the students experience
success and a sense of accomplishment, they will challenge themselves
further and continue being physically active for life.
In this issue you will read about a number of ways in which physical
activity benefits children as well as types of physical activities
and methods of teaching physical activity.
Kirk Mathias
PELINKS4U
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