Children's Fitness Coach Course Blog - Featured Image

To support fitness professionals in designing and delivering quality fitness and exercise programs for children, canfitpro recently updated and enhanced its Children’s Fitness Coach course. 
 
According to the 2022 ParticipACTION Report Card, only 17.5% of Canadian children and 11.6% of youth (ages 12-17) are meeting the requirements set by the 24-Hour Movement Guidelines, which support children’s healthy growth and development. The report highlighted the need to address the impacts of the global pandemic as research shows that physical activity levels in Canadian children have decreased over the last two years. 

Beyond the impacts on physical activity levels, children’s mental health has also been noted as an area of increasing concern, with rising levels of anxiety, depression, and self-harm among young Canadians. Schools and healthcare providers are taking steps to increase awareness of these issues and provide support for students, and the Canadian fitness industry has a significant role to play in supporting children’s access to quality fitness programs through a variety of different platforms. 
 
Why Qualified Instruction is Key to Children’s Success 

To provide safe, effective, and engaging programs for children, it is essential for fitness professionals to stay up to date on the latest trends and techniques within the field, and to confidently be able to answer questions like: 

  • Is strength training safe for children ages 7-12? 
  • Which primary components of fitness are trainable in children? 
  • Are relay races an effective activity, or do they promote unhealthy competition? 

canfitpro Children’s Fitness Coach course is designed to provide practical information and tools to help fitness leaders like you deliver quality children’s programs. 
 
Who Should Take This Course? 

If you already work with children… the course will give you a chance to update your knowledge of research and foundations for healthy child development, share new activities and ideas, and check in on best practices when delivering programs to children ages 7-12. 

If you’re not currently working with children… the course will give you the foundations of child growth and development, provide you with a framework and templates to design your classes, offer a range of different fitness program type and lesson plans to use with children, show you step-by-step how to launch children’s fitness classes as part of your offers. 

What’s Inside the Children’s Fitness Coach Course? 

Here is a look at what’s inside the training: 

Section 1: Understanding Children and Children’s Fitness  

This section provides a detailed look at children’s growth, as well as physical, cognitive, and social developmental phases that they go through between the ages of 7 to 12. You’ll also learn about physical literacy and the difference between physical activity, exercise, and fitness training. 

Section 2: Children’s Fitness Program Planning 

Learning what motivates children and designing programs to match their cognitive and developmental needs is a critical aspect of working with this age group. This section provides a framework for program design, offers a lesson plan template, and presents a variety of different types of activities that can be included in children’s fitness programs. 

Section 3: Children’s Fitness Programs in Action 

Using the program design framework, this section walks learners through specific program and class plans for four different types of children’s fitness programs: group fitness, strength training, sport- or activity-specific programs, and family fitness. 

Section 4: Coaching Skills 

This section presents the various coaching skills needed to bring children’s fitness lessons to life, including giving instruction, maintaining class structure, fostering a space to play and explore, progressing skills, and providing positive encouragement.  

Section 5: Setting Up Your Children’s Fitness Classes 

Now that learners have the skills and tools to program, design, and deliver quality children’s fitness classes, they are ready to plan, promote and generate revenue as a Children’s Fitness Coach. In this section, we show the diverse ways you can be hired to work with children, or how to start your own children’s fitness business, including an income calculator, location planning and preparation, as well as legal set-up, insurance and other risk mitigating actions to take.  

With the rise of sedentary and screen-based lifestyles, children’s fitness is an important platform to help equip children with lifelong, active living habits at an early age. Through physical activity, children learn to set and work towards goals, improve their personal fitness, and become more social. These benefits make children more resilient and give them a strong foundation for future success with active living, and in life. 

Learn More 

If you’re interested in learning more about working with children, or upskilling your current qualifications, check out canfitpro.com/childrens-fitness-coach and visit pl3yinc.com/canfitpro for pre-packaged kids fitness programs and business solutions.  
 
COURSE INFORMATION 
Name: Children’s Fitness Coach  
Type: Online Program 
CECs: 4 FIS, PTS, HWL  
Length: 2.5 hours + Quiz 
Cost: $129 for cfp members 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Melanie Levenberg, M.Ed., kids’ fitness expert, international speaker, author, TEDx presenter, canfitpro PRO TRANIER and canfitpro 2022 Fitness Professional of the Year. As the Founder of PL3Y International, her programs have gained global accolades for boosting mental health and getting over 3.5 million students active through dance, yoga, and play. She coaches fitness professionals how to build their business getting kids active in schools and recreation centers.  
 
http://www.pl3yinc.com/IG @pl3yinc and @melanielevenberg