Flow Motion Youth Athletics
What is Flow Motion Youth Athletics?
Through primarily focusing on the underlying skills of Track and Field events of running, jumping, and throwing, Flow Motion Youth Athletics is dedicated to developing children’s fundamental movement skills, coordination, strength, and confidence.
By providing structured support and expert instruction in a fun, inclusive, and age-appropriate manner, we aim to inspire each child to grow as young athletes, develop a growth mindset. and form a deep connection with track and field and a lifelong love of physical activity.
Our Youth Program is currently available as an extra-curricular and afterschool club across Charlotte, NC. If you are interested in having our program in your school or neighborhood, please reach out, we’d love to hear from you!
What does the program look like?
General Overview
Each session involves fun and interactive warm up and cool down activities as well as a minimum of two physical activities that support each athlete’s development in either running, jumping, or throwing. Although each session is primarily focused on developing athletes physically, a typical session will also include a social, emotional, and/or cognitive element to it as well.
Mini Athletes: 4- 6 years olds
The primary focus of these sessions is to develop general movement proficiency through fun and interactive activities. We explore the basics of running, throwing, and jumping so that children become familiar with these movements and develop awareness of how to move their body and limbs to perform these movements effectively. Additionally, we place a large emphasis on exploring both locomotor (hopping, skipping, galloping etc.) and non-locomotor (balancing, twisting, stretching, etc.) skills that form the building blocks of running, throwing and jumping.
These skills are generally developed in closed practice format, where the environment is predictable, and the athlete can perform the skill at their own pace with lots of repetition.
Young Athletes: 6-11 years olds
The primary focus of these sessions is to delve deeper into the fundamental movement skills of running, throwing, and jumping and develop our understanding of how these connect to track and field events and other sports. We explore the different speeds we can run, the various ways we can throw depending on the object we are using and the target we are aiming for, and how to jump far and high and land safely. We place greater emphasis on our technique, often breaking down these skills to isolate specific parts to work on before bringing it all back together. For some skills we look at combining movement sequences (i.e hop, skip, and a jump) as we transition to modified versions of Track and Field events.
These skills are developed using a combination of closed skill format and group games that have a mixture of competitive and non-competitive elements to them.
Who Is Behind Flow Motion Youth Athletics?
Our Youth program is designed and led by Coach Mike McMillen. Mike is a certified Physical Educator with a degree in Sport Development with Physical Education and a Master’s in Education. He has over 15 years’ experience of teaching and coaching children at some of the most prestigious schools from around the world, including England, China, Vietnam, Thailand, and The United States. Mike is also a certified USA Track and Field Level 1 Coach, and a Road Runners Club of America Level 2 Coach (with a specialization in Youth Running). Mike has coached various sports throughout his career, including Cross Country, Track and Field, Soccer, Basketball, Tennis, Gymnastics, and Swimming.
Mike is passionate about helping children understand how their bodies move and helping them form a passionate connection with being active. He takes all the skills, knowledge, and experiences he has absorbed from around the world in the various coaching environments and channels that into a powerful opportunity for our youth to grow as athletes and as young people.
Core Values
- Safe – our youth sports activities are delivered with safety as a priority
- Positive – we create an environment where young athletes feel safe, confident, and supported in taking risks and trying new or challenging tasks. We celebrate the small wins along the way to the big wins!
- Age–Appropriate – Activities our designed and adjusted to meet the needs of young athletes so that they can develop their skills at their own pace.
- Work Hard – We challenge ourselves to put our best effort into everything we do, not just on our good days, but also in those tough moments we encounter.
- Child-centred – we always put the child at the heart of our program development and delivery
