Physical Literacy + Injury Prevention
Physical literacy – an important part of injury prevention
Physical literacy is defined as the ability to move with competence and confidence in a wide variety of physical activities. It has sometimes been referred to as a “vocabulary of movement”, and it is seen as one of the keys to promoting physical activity among Canadian children and youth to support lifelong health and well being.
Beginning early
Children need to begin developing physical literacy by correctly learning fundamental movement skills such as running, jumping, catching and throwing from an early age. Over time, these movement skills are developed into fundamental sport skills that support a wide variety of healthy physical activities and even high performance sport.
Reducing injury risk
But physical literacy is about more than just sport and fitness. It is equally important for reducing the risk of injury in any physical activity at any level of participation. When physical literacy training and injury risk reduction strategies are integrated into schools, recreation, and club sport programs, it helps to improve the resilience of child and youth participants and reduce their risk of injury.
For example, kids may learn to run by playing outside with their friends, but there is no guarantee that they will learn how to run correctly. They may run inefficiently, or in a manner that otherwise increases their risk for knee or ankle injury. The same could be said for many other fundamental movements such as jumping and throwing.
Learn more
Promoting physical literacy among children and youth can help reduce their risk of injury. We encourage our partners to learn more about resources and tools for developing physical literacy and reducing injury by visiting the Canadian Sport for Life physical literacy website www.physicalliteracy.ca/PL-IP
Physical literacy is defined as the ability to move with competence and confidence in a wide variety of physical activities. It has sometimes been referred to as a “vocabulary of movement”, and it is seen as one of the keys to promoting physical activity among Canadian children and youth to support lifelong health and well being.
Beginning early
Children need to begin developing physical literacy by correctly learning fundamental movement skills such as running, jumping, catching and throwing from an early age. Over time, these movement skills are developed into fundamental sport skills that support a wide variety of healthy physical activities and even high performance sport.
Reducing injury risk
But physical literacy is about more than just sport and fitness. It is equally important for reducing the risk of injury in any physical activity at any level of participation. When physical literacy training and injury risk reduction strategies are integrated into schools, recreation, and club sport programs, it helps to improve the resilience of child and youth participants and reduce their risk of injury.
For example, kids may learn to run by playing outside with their friends, but there is no guarantee that they will learn how to run correctly. They may run inefficiently, or in a manner that otherwise increases their risk for knee or ankle injury. The same could be said for many other fundamental movements such as jumping and throwing.
Learn more
Promoting physical literacy among children and youth can help reduce their risk of injury. We encourage our partners to learn more about resources and tools for developing physical literacy and reducing injury by visiting the Canadian Sport for Life physical literacy website www.physicalliteracy.ca/PL-IP
