As physical educators, we are accustomed to touting the benefits to students about benefits from activity that is physical in nature. Play is good and fun. We need to spread this word beyond the schools and out into the communities we live and serve. Research has shown that in children, play allows neural- somatic connections to further develop and allow child-adolescent-adult development of movement patterns to more fully utilize physical movements that have become successful. This successful movement is interpreted as pleasurable due to repetitious practice honing the capacity to move well in producing the expected outcome. The implication, we do what we have success with and can replicate reliably. Our growth and survivorship depend on a vast array of movement capabilities. Shouldn't our declining years also demand our efforts to maintain our movement capabilities with a return to play to produce a similar success for life?
