Another thing I may do with very young athletes 8-10 yrs:
Warmup
Mb/Jumps
Bw movements
Tempo
Saving the hill work for the next bracket.
I am doing hillwork only to give my athletes a better chance to master the deep angles and strength required for the start in such a short period of time. Will also be doing the flat starts as per the graph 1 and 2 after the 4 weeks of hill work to also help out in this area.
Will think about your suggestion and maybe do it to my younger athletes.
I understand the reason behind hill work - my point is 7-12 years old don’t need hill work - too many coaches in this country hate the slow cook process.
7-12yr old:
Simple MB and Jumps
Bw movements
Games
2-3 times per week is all they need.
No reason for 7-12 yr olds to train 6 times per week - shit I wouldn’t even want to spend 6 days per wk training that age bracket…
Understood. I will take your advise to heart. I see the good in what you are saying. Thanks again.
A lot coaches mean good but they are fucking up tons of young athletes - esp the one I saw at the track last week (killing the young kids with 400 repeats - kids were dropping like flys)… If you don’t take anything from this thread - plz don’t make 7-12 year olds train 6 days per week…
Okay, I know that I am not wanting to be one them coaches for sure and don’t get me wrong, “I fully understand what you’re trying to get across” no need to further emphasize it.
Done properly hills are fine. I trained kids 1 day a week and their only speedwork was club 1 day a week. Teach motorskills and use med ball work sparingly with a 1kg ball. They are not little adults.
No way I would have a 7yr old doing hill work. If you want motor skill develop teach them basic sprint drills and tumbling exercises…
I did start out with the mentality where I would rather train the kids age range from 14 and up, but some parents insisted, their kids join as well. I guess it would be just wise for me at this juncture to pull out the younger aged kids altogether and stick with training the 14yrs and up, would be much easier as only myself to do the training, got no other assistance where I could separate the kids and change the routines to suit.
I think it’s possible to keep your groups:
1: Train everyone together but decrease the volume for the young kids - ex: older group 20x explosive mb throws/younger group 8-10x.
OR:
2: Bounce around from group to group.
The big kids run, little ones walk.
Get the parents to help, recording etc. They love watching their own kids exercising
For age groups like mine, what would be the recommended speed/tempo volumes per workout/week
8-10 years old: 2 speed/1 tempo
12-15 years old: 2 speed/2 tempo
14-16 years old: 2 hills/2 tempo/1 mb.
8-10: I would use mb tempo or games for this group. When they are able to complete 800-1000m of tempo move to next phase. Like I mention earlier speed work would be games/relays/sprint drills etc until they are strong enough to maintain positions.
12-15: Goal would be 1200-1500m of tempo then move to next block. I would use 40-80m runs for tempo. You can start with short sprints 10-20m for 100-200tv if they are strong enough to maintain position.
16: Goal would be 1600-2200m of tempo then move to next block. Tempo runs of 60-100m. Short sprints 10-30m for 100-250tv.
General guidelines…
great help, have noted these for future references.
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Charlie did hill work with our son in very small doses and hoped to continue this work as an essential development component over time. This occurred at least 3 years ago and my son is now 13.
Training children can be tricky and needs to fun.
We used the same hill shown in GPP as well as a 30 meter hill in our area to train other young hockey and tennis players
The recipe everyone hopes for as shown in GPP is a guideline only. Each person within a group may all look the same initially but they must be treated as individuals.
The idea of using hills is not incorrect. Training for young children needs to be moderate in days, time and intensity.
I think your advice is helpful RB34 and maybe it’s helpful to point out that judgement of training choices becomes very difficult for coaches and parents. Hence the cookie cutter approach modeled after what adults do becomes very interesting for keen coaches and parents.
Training choices and methods used for children need more attention , more caution and when in doubt less it more.
I was not meaning to be critical about kids doing hills or not… Often , when it doubt , leave it out.
RB34 what do you mean by the ‘GS’ is it general strength? If so, then the whole day would only be on GS alone?
General strength circuits: Bw movements/cal