Do you exercise less during the winter months? Here are a few Fitness Drills from my Skillastics Game Series for families to try at home especially easy during the winter months.

Getting the kids in your family to get off the couch may seem impossible! Adults know that motivation is 90% of an exercise program. Kids just need it to be fun! I have created games to make basketball and fitness drills more enjoyable. Working on these just three times a week will make a difference in your overall fitness level. Before sitting down to your favorite TV show, or as a break from homework, give these drills a try.

If your kids are active in soccer or other team sports, you may think they don't need fitness drills like this. In twenty years of working with kids in my basketball camps, even those who think of themselves as real athletes are not in optimal fitness for their sport. They need to work their core muscles groups (i.e. stomach (abdominal) and lower back) Why not make it a family challenge to get fit!

1. "Twist" Together – This is an excellent warm up. Turn on your favorite music and for one to two minutes, dance with your child. *This drill develops your abdominal muscles, as well as gluteus and quadriceps muscle groups.

2. Partner Roll - Adult and child each position their body in a push up position facing each other about 3 feet away from each other (A push up position is defined as balancing your body on your toes and on your hands with your elbows straight). If it’s too difficult to hold the position on your toes, holding the position on your knees is another option. One person has a ball (i.e. basketball, tennis ball, volleyball soccer ball). Roll the ball to your partner, holding your position. When the partner stops the ball, holding their position, they in return roll the ball back. Roll the ball back and forth for approximately 10 times. Increase the rolls as your fitness level increases. *This drill develops balance and coordination, as well as abdominal, lower and upper back muscles.

3. Can-Can Crab – Adult and child each position their body on all "fours" with the stomach facing the ceiling. Your bodies are in line with your feet facing each other. On go, both raise your left foot and touch. Bring the foot down and then both raise right foot and touch. Touch toes approximately 10 times. Increase the touches as your fitness level increases. *This drill develops balance and coordination, as well as quadriceps, gluteus and abdominal muscles.

4. Partner Pound and Clap – Start in a standing position, facing your child. Adult hold both of your hands out approximately chest high with fingers open and palms facing your child. The child will bend down and pound the floor two times with their palms. They then will jump and try to slap both of the adult’s hands. (Adults – slowly raise your hands as your child’s ability to jump increases). Repeat this 5 times. Then, the child is standing, but bending at the waist, holding their hands down as low as they can with the fingers open and palms facing the adult. The adult bends down, slaps the child’s hands two times and then jumps, raising their hands high above their head. Repeat 5 times. Increase the jumps as your fitness level increases. *This drill develops gluteus, hamstring and quadriceps muscle groups.

Mirror Drills - These next three activities are drills when one person is a leader and one person is a follower. After a few moments you switch the responsibilities.

5. Money Dance – Start in the standing position facing each other. The leader starts by moving right elbow toward left knee while simultaneously bending the left knee toward the right elbow where they end up meeting. The follower follows the leader’s movements. The leader drops and then repeats with the left elbow and right knee. Again the follower follows the leader’s movements. The object of this drill is for the leader to speed up and slow down their movements with the hopes of the follower to stay in synch. After a few moments, switch responsibilities (i.e. Child becomes the leader and adult becomes the follower). *This drill develops balance and coordination, as well as hip flexors, gluteus, scapula (upper back) and pectorals (chest) muscle groups.

6. Jog In Place – Start in the standing position facing each other. The leader starts by slowly jogging in place with the follower following the pace. The object of this drill is for the leader to speed up and slow down their movements with the hopes of the follower staying with that speed. Jog for one minute and then switch responsibilities. *This drill develops cardiovascular endurance, as well as gluteus, quadriceps and hamstring muscle groups.

7. Reach Drill – Start in the standing position facing each other. The leader starts by extending their arms in any direction (i.e. over head, toward feet, out to the side, out in front). The object of this drill is for the follower to mirror these movements. After one minute switch responsibilities and repeat. *This drill develops scapula, pectoral and abdominal muscle groups.

Competition Drills - The next two drills are friendly competition drills. The object is to finish the amount of repetitions required before the other person does.

8. Butterfly Challenge – Both individuals start in a sit up position, with feet in the air. (Sit up position is defined as lying on the floor with your stomach facing the ceiling. Knees are bent and elbows are bent with hands behind the head. On command, both begin reaching their right hand toward their left foot, while the left foot is simultaneously moving toward the right hand in the air, with the right hand touching the left foot in the air. Drop and repeat with left hand toward the right foot in the air. Count touches. First person to 10 wins. Increase touches as fitness level increases. *This drill develops balance and coordination, as well as abdominals and hip flexors.

9. Pelican Stance Challenge – Start in the standing position facing each other. Raise left leg and balance on right foot only. First person to hold their balance the longest wins. Repeat, balancing on left foot. Repeat three times. *This drill develops balance, as well as abdominals and lower body stabilizers (leg muscles).

10. Quick Handoff – Start in the standing position with backs against each other. One person has a ball (i.e. basketball, football, tennis ball, volleyball). Start this drill by handing the ball to the other person while keeping the backs against each other. Go in a clockwise direction for 5 circles and then repeat 5 times going in a counter-clock direction. The objective of this drill is to see how fast you can pass the ball. Increase the amount of circles as your fitness level increases. *This drill develops hand/eye coordination, as well as the abdominals.

Those of us, who are physically active and fit, generally started on that road at a young age. Finding a sport that you enjoy provides a reason to stay fit and a social aspect to life that forms the basis for life-long health.

For me it was basketball. I just loved the game from the start. Focused training prepared me to play college ball and a desire to perform ball-handling skills and tricks sparked a career as a sports entertainer and basketball clinician.

For your child, it could be volleyball or soccer. Each sport requires training but while many kids practice one or twice a week, they do not get enough exercise to get into shape. Government guidelines suggest that children under 18 should engage in physical activity for at least 60 minutes a day, five days a week and everyday if possible. Three times a week this activity should involve at least 20 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity i.e. break a sweat.

If this sounds like an impossible goal, remember to make fitness fun. And fun is what can get a child away from TV or the computer and into the action. Drills that work on eye-hand coordination can also build muscle strength of the all-important core – the abdominals and back. Doing these drills a few times a week with your child can offer an enjoyable way to increase your and your child’s physical activity level and perhaps improve performance in a team sport – basketball, soccer or volleyball.

Here are a few to get you started. Add some of the drills that your young player knows from team practice. And don’t be fooled. Before you know it you’ll be breaking a sweat and getting more of a workout than you realized. Grab a couple of balls –basketball, soccer, volleyball or other – and your child and have some fun.

Face each other and try to execute the drills together. As your skills improve you can compete for speed of execution. Complete each drill 10 times.

• Tornado Catch. Throw the ball slightly above you head, twist your body completely around (360˚) and catch the ball after it bounces.
• Blind Back Catch. Hold a ball on the back of your neck Drop the ball and quickly move your hands down and behind your back to catch the ball before it hits the ground. (Alternatively hold the ball on the back of your child’s neck and release the ball for them.)
• Butterfly: This works your stomach muscles if done correctly. Lay on your back with legs in the air. Transfer the ball from your right hand to the left and back to your right in a figure 8 behind your knees.
• Crossover Dribble : Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and knees bent. Dribble one hard dribble with the right hand to the left hand and back again in front of your body. Try a more difficult variation. With your feet a bit farther apart, dribble right to left in a figure 8 around your knees.

  ---

  How Sugar Harms

  Could you use a crash course in overall nutrition? The Family Nutrition Book: Everything You Need to Know About Feeding Your Children--From Birth Through Adolescence by William Sears, M.D. and Martha Sears, R.N. is a great place to start. Here are some excerpts from their discussion about sugar.

  The complex carbohydrates found in vegetables, grains, and fruits are good for you; the simple sugars found in sodas, candies, frostings and packaged treats can do harm.  It’s as simple as that.  Here’s why:

  Sugar depresses immunity.  Studies have shown that downing 75 to 100 grams of simple sugar solution (about 20 teaspoons of sugar, or the amount that is contained in two average 12-ounce sodas) can suppress the body’s immune responses.  The immune suppression is most noticeable two hours after ingestion, but the effect was still evident five hours after ingestion.

  Sugar sours behavior, attention and learning.  Studies of the effects of sugar on children’s behavior are wildly contradictory, but the general consensus is that some children and adults are sugar sensitive, meaning their behavior, attention span and learning ability deteriorate in proportion to the amount of junk sugar they consume.

  Sugar promotes sugar highs.  Some persons are more sugar sensitive than others, and children may be more sensitive to sugar than adults are.  A study comparing the sugar response in children and adults showed that the adrenaline levels in children remained ten times higher than normal for up to five hours after a test dose of sugar.  Studies have also shown that some children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (A.D.H.D.) react to glucose-tolerance tests with a dip to low blood-sugar levels producing abnormal behavior.  High adrenaline levels or low blood-sugar levels produce abnormal behavior.

  Sugar promotes cravings.  The more sugar you eat, the more sugar you want!  A high-sugar meal raises the blood-glucose level, which triggers the outpouring of insulin.  This excess insulin lingers in the system, triggering a craving for more sugar, thus adding another hill to the roller coaster ride.

  Sugar promotes heart disease.  When you eat excess carbohydrates, your body turns these sugars into fat.  The body stores excesses of most nutrients as a safeguard against    starvation.  If you eat more carbohydrates than you can burn off, the excess is stored as fats.  People who eat too much sugar tend to have higher blood triglycerides, and this increases the risk of cardiovascular disease.

  Soft Drinks.  Many soft drinks provide a double-whammy of sugar and caffeine, a combination that sends most bodies (and minds) on an uncomfortable biochemical roller-coaster ride.  The junk sugars in soft drinks also take good things out of the body.  High doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners increase the urinary excretion of calcium, leading to weaker bones, or osteoporosis, and to deposits of calcium in the kidneys (i.e., kidney stones).  The phosphoric acid present in many soft drinks further robs the body of calcium by increasing the loss of magnesium and calcium in the urine.

  Packaged bakery goods.  The combination of white sugar, white flour, and hydrogenated shortening makes packaged bakery goods a nutritionally empty package (i.e., crackers, chips, cookies, etc.).  Most sweet snacks, such as cupcakes and doughnuts, contain all three of these factory-made foods.  Look for baked goods that are made with whole grains, contain no hydrogenated oils, and are sweetened with fruit concentrates.