span involves the task to adapt the courses’ aims, contents and methods to the different performance levels of the Ball School children. Altogether, the children go through four levels on their way of becoming young “trained” athletes pursuing health and fitness or volleyball-, tennis-, football-, hockey-, handball- or basketball-playing children. The Ball School's levels: The "Mini-Ball School" is a programme designed for very young children, i.e. for toddlers and pre-schoolers, in order to support the development of skills in early childhood. In addition to the training of first motor skills, emphasis is put on linguistic, cognitive and social-emotional skills. In this course, the children get the opportunity to explore and discover the environment around them independently. Furthermore, there are lessons and exercises teaching children ball games. Apart from general sports programmes for „normal“ toddlers, pre-schoolers and primary school children, Ball School Heidelberg also offers programmes for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), for overweight/obese (“Ball School light”), for physically handicapped and highly talented children. Each programmes has its own specific concept. „Ball School INCLUSIVE“ is another Ball School programme at pilot stage which allows healthy as well as chronically ill children to play and exercise together. Scientific monitoring The Ball School's scientific monitoring comprises two central forms of evaluation. Within the so-called input-evaluation, all participants (children, parents, trainers, headmasters, department heads) are asked about several aspects, including the following: Programme resources (Ball School: prominence, quality, effects etc.) Implementation resources/staff (trainers: quality, acceptance, popularity etc.) Implementation resources/sports facilities and material Participant resources (children: performance level, motivation, learning progress/success etc.) A written interview about the Mini-Ball School, for instance, was attended by 516 educators: the nursery nurses’ feedback clarifies that the Mini-Ball School is a high-quality concept, which can be perfectly integrated into the daily routine of kindergartens (grade= A-B). Output-evaluations gather all direct results/effects of the Ball School (pre-/post testing differences), e.g.: The children's learning progress in the area of playing (tactics, coordination, technique) The frequency of accessions to sports clubs The children's extracurricular engaging in sports activities The Mini-Ball School's effects were evaluated by controlled study design. 370 children, aged 4, 5 and 6, were investigated in a longitudinal study. Children participating in the Mini-Ball School reached significant greater strides in terms of motor skills than children of the control group. In particular weak children seemed to benefit from the programme. Four-years-old children within the lower quartile reached an