#26 - The Importance of Unsupervised Play

James and Dan review and dissect an article from The Cut which explores the rise hypervigilance among American parents and mental health issues in children and teenagers. 

This state of of excessive alertness, heightened sensitivity, or intense watchfulness is being seen in playgrounds and can potentially limit a child's ability to develop physically, socially and emotionally.

They discuss the  importance of unstructured/unsupervised play and independent mobility for children's well-being, as well debate the notion that parental intervention in children's autonomy may harm their emotional health in the long-term.

The mission of the Fitness in Youth podcast is to;

• Explore new ways to help make youth fitness a priority, fun, and for them
• Empower parents, policy makers and professionals with the tools to help their communities, today
• Elevate the intentions of the health & fitness industry, for the better (long-term)

About the hosts:

• James Fitzgerald - OPEX Fitness
  • James FitzGerald is the founder of OPEX (Formerly OPT) and The International Center for Fitness. When not coaching, he’s a full time husband, father and fitness athlete. His 20+ years of experience and service as a strength coach/technician, tireless practice on refining energy system work, nutritional and lifestyle balancing techniques and training of other coaches has made OPEX a sought after method of bringing fitness to a higher order.
• Dan Young - YOUNGTraining
  • Formerly a professional water polo player, Dan found an insatiable thirst for knowledge on how he could align and optimize behaviors to improve his performance as an athlete. This lead him to make the transition from athlete to coach and pay forward the knowledge and tools he acquired working under some of the industries best. His passion is working with the youth, to give them the tools to navigate their health long term and in so doing, change the landscape of the fitness industr...