What Is Playball

Playball offers a variety of sport and movement programs for boys and girls. All of the programs are taught in a fun-filled, energetic and positive environment and for the last 30 years children from all over the world have enjoyed the positive impact that Playball has had on their lives. We are not just another ball program. We use the medium of sports to improve motor development, increase concentration, build muscle tone, improve hand-eye and foot-eye coordination, improve balance along with countless life skills. At Playball your children will learn persistence, courage, responsibility, teamwork, self worth, and numerous other attributes. Playball motivates children to participate in sports and sparks an interest in physical activity. At Playball we are partners in education. We believe that success leads to confidence and more success!

Playball consists of 6 stages – each offering the relevant age group a program focusing on its specific development level.

  • Toddlers-FUN 2 B1(12 months-turning 2)
  • Twos Can Do (2 turning 3 years old)
  • Watch Me @ 3 (3 turning 4 years old)
  • Dinkies (4 turning 5 years old)
  • Preps (5 turning 6 years old)
  • Players/Phys Ed 2 Get Ahead (6-8 years old)

Toddlers “Play This Way” Playball Program Overview

Components We Teach:

Movement:

  • Stability
  • Locomotion
  • Manipulation

Sensory Integration:

  • Visual
  • Auditory
  • Tactile

Social Aspects:

  • Sense of Identity
  • Language and Communication
  • Learning Concepts

Movement is the Key

Every sensory motor skill that is mastered is an important building block in your child’s overall development. All skills are built according to the physical foundation laid in the first years. MOVEMENT IS THE KEY!

Two Can Do Class Overview

Our Two Can Do classes’ focus is on laying the basic foundation of movement in order to enable your child to accomplish more challenging sport-related skills as they progress through the Playball program. Emphasis is on participation and not competence at this early stage. We want to ensure your child’s first experience of Playball is positive and exciting.

A two year old is still discovering the wonderful things their bodies can do and need lots of practice in basic building blocks like locomotion, balance etc, which is why we focus on:

  • Delivering an active start to structured, fun (but formalized) lessons.
  • Enrichment of movement experience and participation in sports activities for two year olds.
  • Motor planning, core strength, balance, stretching, spatial awareness, running, jumping, concept formation and object manipulation.

Through lots of exploration and discovery, we work in a creative way to encourage your child to:

  • Move more freely
  • Stretch their physical boundaries
  • Develop spatial awareness
  • Perform ‘big’ motor movements
  • Develop counting, color recognition and word familiarization

Watch me @ 3 Playball program overview

A healthy balance is maintained between fun and learning as your child is introduced to basic movement and sport development skills which will lay the foundation for future, successful sports participation.

As this is often your child’s first encounter within a formal environment, learning will also be directed towards improving concentration and listening skills.

The Watch me @ 3 program covers the following areas:

  • Coaching all basic sports for kid’s skills with the emphasis on a measure of competence involving the grip/foot position, body position, head position and the action/movement to the ball/object (this is the first introduction of the Playball Focus Points – PFPs – which are engrained in all subsequent programs).
  • Continued development of your child’s enjoyment of sport.
  • Confidence to participate in sporting activities and games.
  • Social integration with other children
  • Development of concentration and listening skills

Dinkies Playball program overview

The main activities emphasis is on mastering a wide variety of sport and movement skills with the balance between participation and the quality of each skill.

This program provides fun activities for kids to practice individual skills more rigorously, which subsequently develops competence and starts to develop muscle memory. In addition to practicing these skills more thoroughly, we begin to introduce skill sequencing – which is the process of stringing individual skills together to form a sequence of skills – the foundation of all sports.

An example would be the forehand shot in tennis. The shot is not performed on its own. The Playballer has to move into position beforehand using a variety of locomotive movements, perform the forehand shot, follow through, and then again move into position to hit the next shot. The more fluid these skills, movements and transitions are, the more successful the Playballer will be as a tennis player.

Your kids will benefit from the Dinkies program in many ways and have lots of fun, but most importantly they will also:

  • Develop a wide range of sport skills through fun activities
  • Understand individual participation
  • Overcome fears that discourage sports participation
  • Introduced to organized sport specific skills and activities

Preps Playball program overview

In addition to fine-tuning skills developed in the previous Playball stages your child will practice more demanding specialized sports skills and formalized sport drills with an emphasis on refining the quality of the skill and movement.

Team work and leadership development

There are a number of exercises that include partner work to provide the children with an introduction to team work, and they will also begin to develop their own decision-making in a game situation. Preps learn to work together as a unit to achieve a common goal and begin to take small leadership roles.

Playing small-sided sports games is very exciting for Playballers and they learn how to win and lose graciously. Here is a summary of what this kids clubs program will deliver:

  • More technical development of the skills related to the sports we teach focusing on contact and release points and finish.
  • Introduction to teamwork and continued development of partner work.
  • Development of decision making in a game situation.

What Preps would have achieved by the end of this program

By the end of the Preps program, we can confidently state that Playball and its unique teaching methods have definitely made an active contribution to your child’s development. The educational nature of our program helps consolidate all learning into a solid foundation.

This age group is a particularly exciting time in your child’s life – the fundamental building blocks are now in place and form the base for progress in all aspects of formal and informal learning, whether in academics, social or cultural. And what’s even better, they have now developed a healthy and positive association with sport!

Players Playball program overview

This program teaches the intricate skills needed to play our main ball sports of football, netball, basketball, hockey, rugby, tennis, volleyball, cricket and baseball/softball.

Team work and leadership development

Players will understand the importance of working together as a team, enjoy the challenge of leading, and concentrate on more tactical play.

Our clubs and classes teach children to show respect and sportsmanship on and off the field and most importantly, will continue to develop a genuine enthusiasm for sport participation.

The program will provide your child with the necessary skills and knowledge of the basic rules relating to each sport and will cover:

  • Introduction to match play.
  • Introduction to basic rules of the sports.
  • Continued development of sport related skills by applying advanced skills to a match situation.
  • Development of more complex team work concepts.

“PHYS ED 2 Get Ahead” Playball Program Overview

Our Phys Ed 2 Get Ahead program strives to prepare children to lead healthy lifestyles by being fit, mentally active and physically capable during their informative years and beyond. There are many benefits to Physical Education and Playball PE is there to help encourage, guide and build strong students.

  • Self discipline
  • Physical activity
  • Physical fitness
  • Link between physical movement and academic learning
  • Learn and build concepts
  • Helps with stress reduction
  • Goal setting
  • Team building
  • Respect for others
  • Motor skill development
  • Leadership building
  • Peer relationship building
  • Fundamental movement phase
  • Cooperation with others

Each child develops at a different rate dependent on individual life experiences. In each class and in each child there are varied needs in the motor skills that some are mastering while others are refining. The program anticipates the rage of ability present in each class and ensures that there is a mastery and refinement in each skill in each lesson. This helps consolidate the boundaries of their abilities.. Our activities have a sound scientific foundation and they are age appropriate for each age group.