Kinetic Play: Why We Need More
Play can look like a lot of different things. Some people prefer games like tennis or golf. Some would rather engage in creative play like painting or writing or improv. And some like sitting down with a book and getting lost in a story (yes, that’s play too).
We want to talk about kinetic play and how it can help stem the rising tide of perfectionism.
Kinetic play is physically moving objects with and around your body by tossing, flipping, spinning, swinging, or otherwise manipulating them in order to master tricks for the fun of it. You choose a simple object like juggling balls, flower sticks, a hoop, top, yoyo, or kendama and then start exploring it to discover your own style of tricks or put tricks together to find flow.
If you’ve ever tried to juggle or play with a yoyo or hoop, you know that it looks simple. But you quickly learn that simple doesn’t always mean easy. Kinetic play is fun because it’s challenging and rewarding when you do finally get the trick you’ve been working toward. Fidget spinners are just something to hold on to - kinetic play tools give you an opportunity to develop skills and level up in the real world.
Playing with an object, working on tricks, dropping and messing up along the way (that will happen as you’re learning), gives you an intuitive understanding of the physical forces and world around you. The more time we spend on our screens, the less opportunity we have to experience that.
Once we reconnect with gravity and accept dropping will happen. And get comfortable with the fact that we probably won’t get it the first time or the second (there’s always a harder trick to remind us of that). We can start paying attention to what’s actually happening. What can I learn from where it fell? How was I holding my body that may have affected it?
Kinetic play gives people the space to have fun, flow, and joy while practicing how to learn new skills and mess up along the way.
Contact us to learn how we help integrate kinetic play into school, college and workplace programs.