Run, jump, throw and swim games
Ready when: nothing, this is the first card.
What you are learning
Many movements in one session, the way a pentathlete trains many sports: sprinting with good arms, jumping from standing, throwing at a target, balancing and skipping. Young pentathletes do best with lots of variety.
Words on this card Shooting range, Target, Hip to lip, Standing long jump, Underarm throw
- Shooting range
- The area where athletes stand to shoot at the targets.
- Target
- The round mark that lights up when it is hit.
- Hip to lip
- The sprint arm action: hands swing from the hip up to the lips.
- Standing long jump
- A jump forward from standing with both feet: crouch, swing, drive.
- Underarm throw
- A throw with the arm swinging low to high, stepping with the opposite foot.
Set up
Cones, a hoop, bean bags, a skipping rope.
Weather: dry ground
Show it first for the one teaching
- Sprint 10 m with the hands swinging from the hip up to the lips.
- Standing long jump: crouch, swing the arms back, then drive forward and land on both feet.
- Throw a bean bag underarm into a hoop, stepping with the opposite foot.
- Walk a chalk line heel to toe, then skip 10 times.
Your part while they practise
Play along; mix the activities in 20 minutes.
Step by step
- A 10 m sprint (arms from hip to lip).
- A standing long jump (crouch, swing, drive).
- An underarm throw into a hoop.
- A balance walk on a line.
- Skipping.
How much: 4 rounds 20 min a session 4 days a week
Say one thing Pick one line from "What you will see" for today and say only that.
The game: Little pentathlon
Five stations, each scored against your own best.
Who plays: the child against their own best; the family can play too, each against their own best.
How to play, turn by turn
- Turns
- Do the five stations in order
- Score each: sprint, 1 point if faster than last time; jump, 1 point if further; throw, 1 point per bean bag in the hoop out of 3; balance walk, 1 point for no step off; skipping, 1 point for 10 skips without a stop
- Add the points; write them down
- 2 rounds; keep the better one
- Fair play
- A grown-up throws from 2 m further back.
- Points
- Up to 7 points a round, as above.
- Fouls
- No point at that station
- A step off the line in the balance walk
- Stepping over the throwing line
- A jump that starts with a run-up
- Winning
- Beat your best round.
- 3 points for 1 star
- 5 points for 2 stars
- 7 points for 3 stars
Easier or harder
Fewer stations.
Add a swim game at a pool.
What you will see, and what to say
- the child dislikes one station
That is fine, try it once
One go, then move on. - the child tires
Rest, then go again
A short rest between stations.
Self-check
The child completes 5 of 5 stations in a round.
Fitness for this
Warm up first: how to warm up, at workonfitness.com. For strength and stretching, its exercise library shows each exercise step by step, with an easier version.
This card trains variety, agility, coordination.
awiseathlete.com/sports/modern-pentathlon/modern-pentathlon-b1