Team SB
Our instructors are passionate about what we are doing here at Small Ballers.
Angie & Tommy
Founders
As a child I learned how to dance through classes in my area. That is where the dream began and now expanded into Small Ballers.
Since starting YDAB (Young Dancers Academy of Bradford), parents have inquired about additional activities for children. As we moved to deal and socially manage the pandemic we realised it was time to start more classes for all kids. At the start of 2022 we were keen to create and add to our AbleSoap Children’s Programming.
Small Ballers’ is looking forward to 5 great sessions this year with 2 in the summer. More importantly, we look forward to your children benefiting and gaining lifelong valuable insights.
Angie & Tommy
Why ball sports?
We all known that regular exercise will do your body good, improving your cardiovascular health and reduces risk of obesity and other health related problems. With that being said, a great way to get your child moving and active is to engage in ball play. Ball playing is an extremely effective exercise that should be incorporated into your child’s play routine. This is because not only does it teach your child important sports skills such as throwing and catching, ball play can also prepare your child with important life skills. Read on to find out what are the developmental and fundamental benefits of ball play for your child.
Improves Hand-Eye Coordination
Hand-eye coordination is an important function in one’s everyday life. It is needed in so many aspects of life for simple activities like eating, handwriting, reading and many more. By practicing how to catch and throw a ball can help improve our child’s hand-eye coordination. By hand-eye coordination, we mean the use of our eyes to direct our attention to a task and then using our hands to execute it. Examples of hand-eye coordination activities for a child can be as simple as putting blocks on top of one another or moving a block from one end to the other end of a line. Another activity that can engage your child to use his or her hand-eye coordination would be the simple game of “throw and catch”. This can help your child develop eye tracking skills, which are vital for reading.
Develop their Fine Motor Skills
Ball play is an excellent way to develop and strengthen your child’s motor skills. By practising ball play at an early age, it helps to familiarize your little ones with their environment and develop the mobility of their upper body. In addition, it helps them to develop the muscles needed to engage in physical activities such as running and jumping. These fine motor skills are also crucial for everyday activities such as dressing or packing away their toys.
Boost their Self-Confidence
Ball play can also help them to gain more self-confidence as they take on challenges and overcome boundaries. This give them the boost needed when they move on to try more physically demanding activities
Fine motor skills are also developed by ball play, including playing throw and catch, and are crucial for everyday self-care skills. Without adequate motor skills, a young child will struggle with day-to-day tasks like feeding themselves, dressing, packing away their toys, and getting onto and off the toilet or potty.
Therefore, it is important that you try to engage ball play with your child at an early age. A great way to add more fun when playing ball would be the use of a basketball board and hoop, where your kid can aim to throw the ball into hoop.