CrossFit in Schools: Preparing the next generation for life's challenges
In October, we’ll be running CrossFit sessions in Bosham Primary School as part of their Sports week. We have had the privilege of running these sessions in a few local Primary schools over the last few years and it’s something that we love!
Physical Education has taken various forms in school over the last 50 years, varying from parachute games and bean bag throwing to freezing cross-country runs and basketball in the hall. For many of us it was a lifeline in school, a place to let off steam, an environment outside of the traditional classroom where we excelled, and for others, it was the hour of the week we dreaded.
Today, the need for quality P.E. in schools is the greatest it’s ever been with 23.4% of year 6 children measuring obese in 2022 and pupils spending an average of only 2% of their school lives in P.E. lessons. Whilst league tables mean academic subjects take priority over the timetable, we look at that 60–120-minute P.E. slot carved out each week as a lifeline because it can prevent illness and disease later in life.
But P.E. is about so much more than just exercising to prevent obesity or to protect against injury or disease later in life. It’s about moving well, having fun, learning new things and overcoming challenges. It’s about independence and working with others, strategy and tactics, learning to win and learning to lose. Which is why running CrossFit in schools is both a privilege for us and essential in our eyes because we know it provides so many benefits to children and young people, including:
Increased knowledge of healthy habits
Knowledge is power! CrossFit can help by not only providing an outlet to be active but through instilling healthy habits and knowledge from an early age. This kind of education gives children and young people the foundation to healthy habits and empowers them to make their own choices based on what they have learnt.
Improved Athleticism
We know that those who exercise are likely to be stronger, faster, have more endurance and generally be healthier than those who don’t. But for kids, it’s even more important because at a young age, the human brain is starting to make neurological connections and adaptions. Kids who are active from a young age demonstrate greater strength, co-ordination, balance, and stamina than those who haven’t. CrossFit won’t just get kids active, but it will get them moving well, something that will stick with them for life.
Boost social skills
Sport has so much to teach us about managing our emotions, resilience, sportsmanship, teamwork and competition. CrossFit classes also emphasise the importance of listening to the coach, staying focusses on a task until it is complete and integrity to complete the workout without cutting any corners. It’s also a space where we celebrate people’s success really well. As all elements of CrossFit can be scaled to an individual’s ability, it becomes less and less about comparison and more about individual progress and so young people learn to encourage each other. Everyone’s a winner!
Improved Confidence
When kids overcome challenges, they grow in confidence. The CrossFit environment is full of challenges to overcome and therefore consistently encourages the narrative that they are capable of doing hard things. They also gain from being able to keep track of their own progress, knowing they once were able to do two pull ups but now can do eight, as an example, provides the evidence that hard work really does pay off. Their belief in their own potential increases when they realise that their training is having the results they hoped for.
We could go on and on about the role CrossFit can play in a young person’s life. The CrossFit programme was developed to enhance individual competency across all physical tasks, including just being a kid. It is built around the concept of functional fitness, training for the physical demands of life first and foremost. The foundational elements are cardiovascular and respiratory, endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy.
All the foundational elements of CrossFit meet the requirements of Key Stage 1, 2, 3 and 4 from the P.E. National Curriculum*. Which is why we are working hard behind the scenes to get a team together to regularly take CrossFit into school. We recognise that quality P.E. lessons are hard to plan for and require time and financial resources that schools don’t have. We acknowledge that we have the training, equipment and personnel to make a difference. We are passionate about people moving well and we want to see that start from an early age.
*with the exception of dance but we all know that when a good tune comes on the playlist, we’ll have that part of the curriculum covered too!
References to National Curriculum: