Hey guys. After watching my 2 girls racing up the street i noticed that they both have a sprinters form (not “girly”) at all. Before last week they had no intrest in athletics but changed after meeting Inger Miller at the Modesto Meet this year and seeing a tape of their old man sprinting. My basic question is how soon would you introduce speed work into their training? We’ve only started working on arm/hand positioning with some nerve traffic work- high knee w arm action stuff. I know they’ll need to get stronger but I didn’t want to do any more tempo than I needed to. Her are their specs. Thanks for your help guys
Taylor: 10 years old- 1 week training–4’6" 79 lbs (but muscular)
Imari: 12 years old- 1 week training–5’2" 100 lbs
My girls are 6 and 7 and they just started track camp and Ive noticed with them, that if you keep it fun and not too difficult they will come back for more. Dont try to train them like adults. They are kids and cant handle the same work loads or intensities that postpuberty kids can, and they get bored very quickly. Try to get a copy of Tudor Bompa’s Total training for Yong Champions so good general stuff for kids. Its an awsome book for 7 yr olds to mid teens. Get Charlies books too, for when the training gets serious.
Key ages for girls for developing fast twitch muscle fibres is between 11 and 14 years old. Keep the inensity high (they are not strong enough, nor fast enough for intensity injuries to be a problem), and the volumes low. Keep them away from endurance work as it hinders growth. Get them doing push ups, sit ups and hyperextensions 6 days a week, starting at 3 sets of 3 each, and add one or 2 reps each week. Preferably every morning. This doesn’t count as exercise, it is just part of the daily routine and doesn’t count towards total volume unless the kids are generally active anyways.
my advice is plain and simple just let them run and have fun.they will start to get serious if they wish to do so themselves.take herbs advice on the high intensity training but the main thing is to not push anything on them
I personally think that the only real thing you should concentrate on at this stage is teaching them to run with good mechanics. This underpins everything and will set a good foundation for any futher development when they get old enough to want to get serious. Just watch out for bad habits as they can be hard to correct as they get older.
Also kids like to compete so let them run in little open meets as often as possible and keep the training volume low. Don’t push them too hard as even little kids can get injured - my hips were wearing away by the time i was 13 because I was pushed to hard at soccer. They still have 10-15 years to get to the Olympics!