From baseball to dancing, fencing to football, some kids need a little more time to get back into the rhythm of the sport after coming out of a pandemic break.
This may seem like clumsy dribbling or two, more frequent breaks for “breath-taking” and awkward social interactions. Instructors in Ottawa say they are also noticing challenges in the physical development of some of their young athletes.
But they are not very worried and hope that the children will catch up quickly.
“I’ve been doing this for years and the change I’ve noticed has been remarkable,” said Bill Michalopoulos, a football coach for children ages 10 and 11 and president of Ottawa South United Soccer.
In the last four months of returning to normalcy, Michalopoulos said he had seen a lot of fears and anxiety among some athletes.
“It’s right in your face. It’s different from an individual to a person,” he said. For example, he said when he asked the team to reunite, some players would stand a few feet away from others, even though the requirements for physical distancing were no longer met.
For some children on the football field, teamwork and bridging the gap nearby were a challenge. (Associated Press)
Technical skills are also lagging behind, Michalopoulos said. Most players juggle balls in the air 10 times without dropping them – before the pandemic, the same age group could make about 50.
Overall, the team is struggling to get closer, he added.
“They’re about six months behind … It’s a huge amount of time because they’re evolving so fast at this age.”
Divide between competitive, novice athletes
Failures are “something everyone who trains on a mass scale has noticed,” said Paul ApSimon, an Olympic fencing coach and co-owner of Tryumph Gymnastics Academy.
While racing fencers were able to make significant progress during the pandemic due to more training time, the intermediate swordsman struggled with basic skills.
For example, there is a “big gap” in the coordination between the eyes and hands of young fencers, balance and agility, he explained.
His program had to change programming to allow students to catch up. They spent twice as much time in each class, working on basics such as attacks and standing on one foot.
Paul ApSimon, a fencing coach in Ottawa, says he has noticed that some young recreational fencers are a little slower in learning basic sports skills as they break the pandemic break. (Submitted by Paul ApSimon)
ApSimon, who is also a high school physical education teacher, said he had noticed the basic levels of fitness and students’ motivation to be “drastically reduced.”
Before the pandemic, for example, about 90 percent of his students could run 2.5 kilometers in about 18 minutes.
“Today we are struggling to get about 60 percent of students to walk about half the distance in a reasonable amount of time,” he said.
Ignorance of rules
Mike Kenny, founder of Right Way Basketball, said he also noticed a split between competitive and less experienced players who were less exposed to organized sports during the pandemic.
Physical literacy, problem-solving and social skills are lagging behind, he noted.
“That night with one of our Right Way skills sessions, we just made them split into groups. What would have taken maybe 30 seconds before now takes a lot longer,” he said.
“A lot of kids just don’t have the ability to look someone in the eye and expose themselves there.”
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Mike Kenny, a physical education teacher, says he has seen more children struggling with basic “physical literacy” skills than before the pandemic, which paused personal classes in fitness and most organized sports.
As a high school physical education teacher, Kenny said he also noticed some failures in schools.
“Many students, even in 9th and 10th grade, don’t even know the rules of some of our most popular sports,” he said, citing games such as softball.
Intake of air and lack of motivation
Julia Gutzik, founder of Luv2Groove Dance Education, attends Ontario schools and teaches kindergarten dance next to 12th grade classrooms.
She said that while most children were excited to move again, she noticed a lack of cardiovascular endurance everywhere.
“A common theme is within the first five minutes, students will say, ‘I’m tired.’ “They need a break,” she said.
“Another thing I think is a little different is maybe following the instructions. So when we teach a dance routine, it takes a little longer to catch on.
Julia Gutzik, founder of Luv2Groove, was seen here teaching a group of students how to dance at school. (Submitted by Julia Gutsik)
Peggy Pratt, president of the South Ottawa Baseball League, works primarily with children between the ages of four and nine. She said one challenge she noticed was that it was harder to get players to focus on the field.
“They really just want to talk to their friends sitting next to them on the bench. And this is normal, but it is very exaggerated, especially at this time, “she said, attributing it to a lack of communication opportunities during the pandemic.
“In terms of street skills, there are some children who usually have a certain range of skills but lag behind,” she said, adding that they were catching up “very quickly”.
“Children are resilient”
Nicholas Grimar, co-owner of Laws of Motion, said his gymnastics and parkour club had not noticed much impact on children’s development.
Other instructors, especially those who introduced virtual classes during the pandemic, also told the CBC that their athletes had recovered immediately.
“I was impressed with how resilient the children are. “They seem to have adapted and recovered quite well from the pandemic,” Grimar said, noting that many children have already “fully recovered” from small setbacks due to a lack of fitness time.
Fencing coach ApSimon also agrees.
“Children are resilient, as we see [them] come back, but we definitely need to have this conscious approach to fill the gap, “he said.
Basketball coach Kenny said parents and guardians should also help their children.
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