About

The Playball program follows a holistic approach and offers learning opportunities and experiences relating to the cognitive, physical, social and emotional development of the child. Playball takes advantage of developmental windows of opportunity by providing a wide range of suitable movement skills and physical activities in a safe and secure environment - perfect for optimal learning!

At Playball, we help children develop fundamental building blocks of sport, agility balance and coordination, as well as the three key elements of physical fitness - endurance, strength and flexibility.

Children are also introduced to a range of different sports skills for tennis, cricket, hockey, rugby, football, basketball, baseball and volleyball.

How do the Playball programs work?

We have specialized programs for the following age groups:

• 18-24 month olds - Play This Way
• 2-3 year olds - I can do
• 3-4 year olds - Watch me Play  
• 4-5 year olds - Dinkies
• 5-6 year olds - Preps
• 6-10 year olds - PlaySport
• 6-12 year olds - PlayGolf

All of our programs are independent of each other and are taught accordingly, offering your child a completely different sporting experience and learning environment.

There are five age appropriate programs, each program lasting one year. In each program the children's developmental, emotional and physical needs are met. Each program has as one of its primary objectives to teach sport and movement and teach it properly, taking into account each age group's cognitive and emotional capabilities. Each program has an impressive creative component that ensures that each lesson is both exciting and positive. The children are never bored and genuinely love the lessons.

The Science Behind What We Do

 Our objectives are twofold - to instill confidence to engage in life-long physical activity through enhancing "physical literacy".  Physical literacy, like learning English or Maths, is the learning of fundamental movement and sports skills that will form a solid foundation for sports participation.

All sports can be broken down into individual skills needed to play them.  Playball works from the bottom up ensuring that all levels are solid before moving on to a more advanced stage.
 

From crawling to an ace tennis forehand... the evolution

Bear in mind this will take years... Crawling (strengthening the shoulder muscles and developing left and right bi-lateral symmetry and coordination) results in the ability to hold a bat with a firm grip and allow for confident swinging of this bat.  We also need hand-eye coordination and timing so that our body knows how far away the ball is from our body, and when to start the swing process.  Now we are able to hit a ball off a cone.  Progression to a rolling ball, then a bouncing ball, then a smaller ball, then a bigger racquet is a sure start to a great tennis forehand!  The great thing about this is, with all this training, the body and brain work together more easily so the hitting or striking of any object, whether it be in rounders, softball, cricket - won't be a problem!

This is the process for ALL our skills leading up to ALL sports!

Once in the classroom, findings show that children who have had the opportunity to strengthen their core stability (stomachs and backs) are able to sit up straight in their chairs and concentrate far longer than those who are slumped, as the lungs aren’t getting the same amount of oxygen to the brain. A child’s gross motor skills need to be developed before their fine motor skills. Without fine motor skills, children will struggle to hold a pen, write, colour in a picture or tie their shoelaces. 

Body and spatial awareness is of massive importance as it helps a child understand where he or she is in relation to the world around them. Children who constantly bump into objects or who seem clumsy are lacking spatial awareness, balance and possibly gross motor coordination.

Bilateral symmetry (being able to use the left and right side of the body equally well) and midline crossing are vital for developing the neurons between the left and right hemispheres of the brain, which allows for far more effective learning to take place.

The benefits are endless and most importantly ESSENTIAL!

Schools

Please view the Video below

If you would like Playball at your school please do get in touch. gavin@playball-london.com