News - Pre-School Multi Sport Program and Paediatric / Childrens Therapy Services - Konfident Kids

Exciting News!

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -1000

Vacation Care September 2011

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -1000

Fundamental Movement Skills - Jump!

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -1000

What’s new with Konfident Kids?

Konfident Kids has introduced a blog at http://konfidentkids.blogspot.com/ as well as a Facebook Group with new information, discussion forums and exclusive discounts at http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=23611609790 as well as Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/KonfidentKids or @KonfidentKids so feel free to comment, discuss or tweet with us!

Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS) - Run!

As mentioned in last week’s update, this week, we are going to look at a specific Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS) in depth, what some studies have shown about children’s development when going to school in this specific skill, and what you can do to assist your child to develop these skill. Next week, we will go over more of the FMS.

So, the next skill we are going to look at today is another one of the loco motor skills; Jump.

For jumping, the study showed that approximately fifteen per cent of Year 2 boys showed mastery of the vertical jump, increasing linearly by approximately 10% per Year to 52% of Year 10 boys. Between 20% and 30% of boys in each Year group displayed nearmastery. Twenty per cent of Year 2 girls displayed mastery of the vertical jump, increasing to 52% of Year 10 girls. Mastery of the vertical jump increased by around 10% in each Year group from Year 2 to Year 8, but did not increase thereafter. Between 15% and 25% of girls in each Year group demonstrated near-mastery.

So what is mastery of jumping? Based on the Good For Kids, Good For Life, Live Life Well initiative by the NSW government, the skill is defined as;

The action of pushing off with both feet and landing with both feet. To look right, your child should prepare to jump by bending the knees and pushing the arms forcefully behind, stretch both arms forcefully forward and upward reaching all the way above the head to create momentum. They should take off and land on both feet simultaneously and thrust the arms downward during landing.

These are the 5 desired criteria of running correctly and these skills are built upon as a child grows and continues to develop;

1. Eyes focused forwards or upwards throughout the jump

2. Crouch with knees bent and arms behind body

3. Forceful upward thrust of arms as legs straighten to take off

4. Contact ground with front part of feet and bend knees to absorb force of landing

5. Balanced landing with no more than one step in any direction

So how does Konfident Kids help? Konfident Kids works on helping kids progress through their fundamental movement skills through different sports and game based scenarios, drills and actions. This helps kids to increase the height and length of the jump for long jump and high jump, increase the power in the arms and legs to use a whole body effort, increase their balance to have a better landing and increase their confidence. Konfident Kids provides a report after each sport, to let you know how your child is progressing with both their sport specific skills, social skills and fundamental movement skills.

New posts will come out weekly with updates on the program, new skills to practice and games to play so check in on Facebook, Twitter or Blogger for new posts!!

** There will also be a Konfident Kids competition out later this year,
so watch this space for updates!! **

Fundamental Movement Skills - Run!

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -1000

What’s new with Konfident Kids?

Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS) - Run!

So, the first skills we are going to look at today are some of the loco motor skills; Run.

Based on the study of NSW Schools Physical Activity and Nutrition Survey 2004 (SPANS) and the 1997 NSW Schools Fitness and Physical Activity Survey (NSWSFPAS) assessed the fundamental movement skill proficiency of a representative sample of students in Years 4, 6, 8 and 10 (approximately 9.3, 11.3, 13.3 and 15.3 years of age, respectively). It found that, with the exception of one skill, the prevalence of mastery/near-mastery did not exceed 40% for boys and girls in any one Year group (Booth, Okely et al., 1999).

For running, the study showed that approximately 10% of boys in Year 2 displayed mastery of the sprint run, with this proportion increasing to just under 40% among Year 10 boys. Approximately 20% of boys in all Years displayed near-mastery of the sprint run. Five per cent of girls in Year 2 achieved mastery of the run, increasing to 25% among Year 10 girls. Between 15% and 30% of girls in all Years demonstrated near-mastery of the sprint run. In all Years, mastery levels were slightly higher for boys than for girls.

So what is mastery of running? Based on the Good For Kids, Good For Life, Live Life Well initiative by the NSW government, the skill is defined as;
A rapid movement that involves transferring weight from one foot to the other with a brief loss of contact with the ground by both feet. To look right, there should be a brief period where both feet are off the ground. Ensure there is a narrow foot placement landing on the heel or toe rather than flat-footed. The non-support leg should be bent to approximately 90 degrees.

These are the 5 desired criteria of running correctly and these skills are built upon as a child grows and continues to develop;
1. Eyes focused forward throughout the run
2. Knees bend at right angles during the recovery phase
3. Arms bend at elbows and move in opposition to legs
4. Contact ground with front part of foot
5. Body leans slightly forward

So how does Konfident Kids help? Konfident Kids works on helping kids progress through their fundamental movement skills through different sports and game based scenarios, drills and actions. This helps kids to increase their stride length, their style or running to move their arms in opposition to legs, bend arms and legs while running and progress to running backwards. Konfident Kids provides a report after each sport, to let you know how your child is progressing with both their sport specific skills, social skills and fundamental movement skills.

New posts will come out weekly with updates on the program, new skills to practice and games to play so check in on Facebook, Twitter or Blogger for new posts!!

** There will also be a Konfident Kids competition out later this year,
so watch this space for updates!! **

Fundamental Movement Skills At A Glance

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -1000

What’s new with Konfident Kids?

Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS) at a glance

As mentioned in last week’s update, this week, we are going to look at a basic description of the Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS) and how they affect your child’s development. Next week we will go through some of these in more depth.

So firstly, what does the term Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS) mean? FMS is involving different parts of the body i.e. arms, legs, torso, head etc and putting them together in a movement pattern. They form the foundation for more coordinated, specialized, complex skills used to play games, outdoor education, recreational activities and sports. So what does that all mean? It means that we put several body parts together to form a movement pattern like jumping. In a jump, we use our arms, legs and torso to build up the power to either jump high or far.

So what are the FMS? There are 12 main FMS. These are broken into two groups:

Object Control Skills (using a ball/bat etc)	Loco Motor Skills (moving the body)
Catch	Balance
Throw	Run
Kick	Jump
2-hand strike/batting	Hop
	Side-step/side-gallop
	Skip
	Dodge
	Leap

These main FMS are then broken down further to specific skills, but we will talk about that over the next few weeks as we go through the 12 FMS, their specific skills, what you can do at home to help develop these skills and talk about the results that studies have shown on how “under developed” a lot of kids are when they go to “big school”.

New posts will come out weekly with updates on the program, new skills to practice and games to play so check in on Facebook, Twitter or Blogger for new posts!!

** There will also be a Konfident Kids competition out later this year,
so watch this space for updates!! **

What's New With Konfident Kids

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -1000

Konfident Kids has had some major programming changes this term.

Thanks to our “Guinea Pig” Penrith Saturday program, we have trialled a new style of programming that has now been rolled at our all our venues. A big thanks to all the mum’s and dad’s from our Penrith Saturday classes, for their feedback and support!!

Instead of having one sport each week (6-7 sports per term), and two assessment days per term, Konfident Kids is now facilitating one sport over two weeks. So will allow terms to follow on from each other by having 5 sports per term and 10 sports per semester. To demonstrate your kids progress, feedback/reports are given out after the end of each double week. The improved programming enables kids to work on their Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS) [see next week’s post for a description of the basic FMS]. But from the kids point of view, they learn the basic skills needed for each sport (like dribbling or goal shooting), and then put these newly learnt skills together in a simulated game-like environment.

We are already finding huge improvements in the kids progression in each sport and their FMS with the new programming. So between the new double week of one sport and the more regular feedback provided to parents, we are finding that kids are becoming more Konfident in each sport and in themselves. And they are having so much fun doing it!

Semester discounts will be available for 2012 which will allow a saving when enrolling for a semester instead of a term. Discounts will also be available at intervals for all our Facebook members, so keep checking in regularly for updates!

New posts will come out weekly with updates on the program, new skills to practice and games to play so check in on Facebook, Twitter or Blogger for new posts!!

** There will also be a Konfident Kids competition out later this year,
so watch this space for updates!! **

Vacation Care Dates Confirmed

Fri, 27 May 2011 00:00:00 -1000

Konfident Kids are excited to announce that our July School Holiday Vacation Care dates have been confirmed. See the details below.

July School Holidays ~ Penrith

Dates: Monday 11th July to Friday 15th July

Times: 8:30am - 4:00pm daily

Venue: Kingswood High School, Bringelly Rd, Kingswood

For more information on Konfident Kids Sports Vacation Care Programs or to receive your Sports Vacation Care Enrolment Package, you can;

View our online information by clicking here.
View our online enrollment form by clicking here.
Contact Alex on (02) 4731 3469 or, email her by clicking here.

Introducing some of the KK team

Fri, 06 May 2011 00:00:00 -1000

All of our Konfident Kids coaches and facilitators are outgoing and enthusiastic about working with children to develop their skills and KONFIDENCE. I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to a few of our current team.

Konfident kids is proud to introduce;

Anthony Solano - Anthony coaches at our Rozelle Saturday class. He has a Level 1 Coaching Certificate in Baseball and is a keen baseball player and coach! Anthony has also worked as an Active After School Community Coach. Anthony is hoping to go on to study Business, Majoring in Sports Management.

Lia Pjanic - Lia has been running our Konfident Kids classes for more than 3 years now, and currently conducts our Liverpool Saturday class alongside new recruit Lachlan. Lia is very busy studying a Bachelor of Education/Primary Education, has a Cert III in Fitness, is First Aid qualified and also runs Active After School groups, Pilates sessions and Aqua Aerobic groups.

Konfident kids has recently had two students join our team.

Firstly we have Beau who has worked several Vacation Care programs with Konfident Kids and has now begun expanding his experiences to assisting with Penrith Saturday classes and parties. Beau is an avid footy fan and has been playing League for several years. Beau is very passionate about working with children.

Then we have Emma who has entered the Konfident Kids world with a bang! Emma has worked with a number of Vacation Care programs with Konfident Kids and is now out and about, working at Konfident Kids Sports Parties most weekends. Emma has performed in many sports and loves Athletics, representing NSW on a number of occasions.

Term 2 2011

Tue, 03 May 2011 00:00:00 -1000

We would like to sincerely welcome everyone to Term 2 2011. We hope that you all had a very happy Easter and ANZAC day holiday break.

Konfident Kids week 1 sessions were conducted on Saturday the 30th of April and Monday the 2nd of May. We hope that all our Konfident Kids had a fantastic first week and will continue to enjoy their time during weekly sessions throughout Term 2.

The Konfident Kids Team.

KK sports and Penrith Family Fun Day

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -1000

Thanks to everyone for joining us for a fantastic day at Penrith FREE Family Fun Day on Saturday the 19th of March. Konfident Kids had a wonderful day meeting lots of new faces, playing games and getting soaking wet in the rain!!

A very big thank you also, to Penrith City Centre Management who made the day possible, especially in such a short period of time. We hope that Konfident Kids can continue to support this event into the future.

Yours truly,

The Konfident Kids Team