Little Athletics is an Australian modified athletics program for children from 3 to 16 years of age. Offering a wide range of events from running, jumping, throwing and walking, events are modified to suit the age, development stage and ability of the child.
The Little Athletics summer season runs from October to mid-March. At Woden Thunder we run a meet most Saturday mornings starting at 8.30am.
The focus of Little Athletics is on participation and learning the fundamental movements of running, jumping, throwing, walking and rolling. There is an event for everyone, and athletes have the chance to try them all out. Everyone is welcome to join, no matter their ability. Athletes stay with their age group for the course of the program and are supervised by their age-group manager who keeps the group together and takes athletes around the field to their events for the day.
As athletes get older, more events become available to try such as triple jump and javelin.
For our 5 and 6 year olds we run a program call ‘On Track’.
“On Track” is an athletic skills development program that aims to provide children in the Under 6 to Under 7 age group with the opportunity to learn the basic gross motor skills and movements in a fun environment.
The program concentrates on teaching our younger athletes the fundamental motor skills of running, jumping, hopping and throwing in a non-competitive environment, whilst also focusing on active participation, learning and improving, having fun and experiencing excitement. The activities in the program are designed to be progressive over time and will be different each week. By fostering friendships, decreasing the competition mindset and increasing prospects for learning, the program is able to deliver all the above essential aspects.
At Woden, for the Under 6s, we will have two On Track activities and two running events until the Xmas break and then we will move to one On Track activity, two runs and one formal field event.
For the Under 7s we will have one On Track activity, two running events and one field event until the Xmas break and then we will move to, two runs and two formal field events.
Woden Thunder Athletics, also has set up the Tiny Tots program. Anyone with a child aged 3-4, can register your child for Tiny Tots. The Tiny Tots group is run for 30-45 minutes on Wednesday night starting at 5.30pm. Tiny Tots has a firm policy relating to parent supervision – we need a minimum one parent to always be on hand for your child/ren.
To become a member you can register through the registration portal HERE.
WODEN THUNDER ATHLETICS SATURDAY MEET PRINCIPLES
The aim of the products that Woden Thunder Athletics offers is to provide an environment where our members can have Fun, develop Skills, enjoy Social interaction, and lastly enjoy Competition.
Balance between Fun, Skills, Social, and Competition
The balance between Fun, Skills development, Social, and Competition should be a scaled approach depending on age. For example, the focus:
• For under six’s should be 85% fun, 10% skills, 4% social, and 1% competition
• For U12s the focus will be 20% fun, 30% skills, 30% social, and 20% competition
• For U18s the focus will be 10% fun, 10% skills, 40% social, and 40% competition
The above percentages are not intended to be exact but to give a sense of the ratio that competition plays in our Club’s product by age.
Based on the above, the following is Woden Thunder Athletics approach to Saturday meets:
Program Structure
• We aim for four events each week (usually one short run, one longer run, one jump event, one throw event). This ensures our program is not too long and that each week there are different events offered over a four-week cycle.
• We stagger start times with U6 to U13 starting from 8.30am and our U14 and above commencing from 10.00am. We aim for our program to take around 90 minutes.
• The ideal size of groups is around 12 athletes, so some age groups will be split into two or three groups.
Program Focus by Age Group
For ages U6 to U8, where the focus is weighted more to Fun and Skill Development, the program will do the following:
• Under 6s: No technical events before Christmas, i.e., only running and On-Track activities to ensure the focus is on fun and skill development.
• Under 7s: Before Christmas, one On-Track activity and one field event which will not be measured, i.e. focus on skills for those events and the other field event measure only one attempt.
• Under 8s: Measure only one jump or throw for field events before Christmas.
For all age groups U15 and younger, we are aiming to improve skills.
Visiting Athletes
Woden Thunder Athletics does allow athletes from other clubs to participate in our Saturday morning meets on a limited basis, that is, we allow visiting athletes on a one-off basis only. If you wish to avail yourself of this offer you must notify the club in writing of the date of the visit, the registered club, the age group of the athlete and their registration number.
