Study shows generation of butter fingers

CAN’T throw, can’t catch and can’t jump. Are we raising a generation of “butter fingers”?

New research has uncovered what sports and health specialists fear: Aussie children are losing fundamental movement skills — catching and throwing balls, kicking, hopping, skipping and running.

Today’s primary school children can’t jump as far as children were able to in 1985 — falling short by an average of 16.4cm — or 11 per cent less, a major study has found.

The study, The Great Leap Backwards, Changes in the Jumping Performance of Australian Children Aged 11-12 Years Between 1985 and 2015, asked 4000 children aged 11 and 12 to leap as far as they could while standing, with the best of three attempts recorded. When researchers checked the results against the same test from three decades ago — when the children only got the chance to jump twice — they were amazed at the decline.

Thirty years ago, year 6 boys could leap 151.5cm, but this had fallen to 133.5cm, while for girls the fall was from 141.9cm to 127cm.

Meanwhile, a separate new national report card into children’s skills — which scores Aussie kids a “D plus” for movement skills — reveals year 6 boys and girls have extremely low levels of “mastery” in kicking, throwing overarm, catching and leaping.

Researchers from the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance gathered at a conference in Adelaide last year to discuss the problem and issued a report card saying “immediate action” was needed.

The 2018 Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Young found 30 per cent of girls were able to show mastery in running, 33 per cent in vertical jumping, 13 in kicking, 14 in overarm throwing, and 49 in catching. For boys, it was 53 for overarm throws, 59 for catching, 13 for leaping, 32 for running, and 32 vertical jumps.

“We need immediate action to get our kids moving more every day,” the report card stated. “They need to engage in activities that will get them ‘huffing and puffing’ as well as strengthening and developing their muscles and bones to ensure they are healthy heading into adulthood.”