Jumping is somehow closely linked to our emotions of joy and excitement. These skills continue to mature and be refined throughout the lifespan with practice.

Once toddlers are running, climbing on furniture and managing stairs they are ready to practice jumping – at first their feet may only just clear the ground, but with practice and maturity they will graduate to jumping off a small beam or step, to jumping over a low obstacle to eventually jumping for distance (long or broad jump) or height (vertical leap). Their own body weight is all that is needed. Strength conditioning conjures up images of expensive equipment, personal trainers and gyms – but none of this is necessary for young children to build up and maintain their bone density and muscle strength. What comes to mind is aerobic activity such as running, climbing, cycling – but what is often forgotten is that young children also need to engage in bone and muscle strengthening activities in order to maintain health. When we think about the Health Guidelines for young children, we know that they should be physically active for 3 hours every day – of which one hour should be vigorous activity which gets the child huffing and puffing. The 2018 Active Healthy Kids Australia Report Card recently highlighted declines in the jumping ability of Australian children and young people which indicate that ‘it’s time for a jump start’ for muscular fitness.

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