Hello,
What is the general consensus (if their is one) on play, sports, games for toddlers and very young children? I believe it is a good idea to plant the seed that games and sports are fun. However, what activities are most critical at this age and what can they learn? What are most children not doing? Also, what is missing in modern day American dining?
I think the key is to allow the kids to chose their activities (parents may suggest, but the kids have the final say). I see too many 10-16 year old kids come in to train because their parents are making them do it. The parents have made them do it all their lives, and the kids are burnt out. At this point, the time and money put into a training program is wasted. Nothing is accomplished and the parents get mad and wonder why their kid didn’t get better.
At very young ages, parents should suggest activities that use hand/foot eye coordination. This is the time in that child’s life that their nervous system shows the most growth. Begin to develope coordination strategies early and engrams will be more easily formed later in life.
“What are most kids not doing?”… In the current trend of video games and DVDs a lot of kids just don’t get physical activity. It’s a shame, but there are parental coalitions trying to get Physical Education classes removed from schools completely. Between latch-key situations and fears of child abduction/endangerment, more kids are being kept inside after school and are not allowed to run around and play sports that help develope the children physically.
“What is missing in modern day American dining?”… The real question should be “what ISN’T missing in modern day American dining?”. There is no attention paid to adequate diet and moderation. Resteraunt portions are typically big enough for two meals, full of fried foods, and lacking in general balance. In America, more is better. Americans also tend to be lazy, hence the high demand for processed foods and fast food. That is the current trend, and unfortunately I do not see it changing any time soon.
[QUOTE=Firebird WRler]At very young ages, parents should suggest activities that use hand/foot eye coordination. This is the time in that child’s life that their nervous system shows the most growth. Begin to develope coordination strategies early and engrams will be more easily formed later in life.
So soccer would be a sport to pick up, any others?
Read the title of your post. PLAY! Soccer is probably too structured and organized for “very young children”. It would be better if they could learn all the skills of running, kicking, changing direction, etc. without lines on the feild, goals, etc. Kids are pretty good at Playing if left to their own devices. For you the challenge would be to score a goal. For a kid the challenge can be just being able to make contact with the ball. Gretsky and Cal Ripkin Jr. had good articles about this type of topic. I’ll dig tonight.
TNT
Soccer is a great sport to start off with. Tee-ball is another great coordination builder. When it comes down to it, every sport builds coordination in some way.
TNT, when you hear very young children, how old do you consider very young? In my opinion, a 5-6 year old child would be fine to begin structured athletics. There is no reason that they should have personal trainers or private coaches, but a structured atmosphere teaches a lot to these kids. If the kids do not want to be there, this is where the problem comes. I know of many wrestlers that began structured wrestling at age 4-5, didn’t win a single match the first one to two years, still loved the sport, and later became world/ Olympic champions and contenders.
When it all comes down to it, if the kid is having fun without endangering their bodies, it’s alright.
This is one of my favorite topics because I believe in the US we specialize to early and the kids are burnt out by the time they reach ages when specialization should be happening. The best quote I have ever heard is from Tom Myslinski, he said “Children should minor in all sports and major in none”. Get the book “Children and Sports Training” by Jozef Drabik, Ph.D. and also research Dr. Istavan Bayli and Oded Bar-O. Also go and visit James Smith Website www.powerdevelopmentinc.com he has some excellent articles as well.
Mark McLaughlin
Gymnastics is great all around development my 4 yr. old son is in it.
Last night on ESPN was the 25 all time greatest flops. Todd Marinovich was a top 5 flop. He was trained from infancy to be a QB. He was agood QB but then did a 180 and turned to drugs and everything else.
My girls became very fit from the dance and gymnastics… Now they run track and are even more fit and better at dance class.
Personally I like in this order:
Athletics
Gymnastics
Swimming
(IMO the best thing for cardiopulmonary development in kids)
Athletics means track and field or just any sport?
c’mon baby… Of course it means track field.
All the kids on my kids track team are the fastest in any other sport they do. Not only are they the fastest but the most athletic and agile too.
Read the book “Training Young Champions” by Tudor Bompa. He does a pretty good job of writing what kind of training kids should do. I believe the book says to have a high practice to game ratio. I believe he said to do some circuit training with basic exercises for 20-30 minutes 2 days a week at most. It was pretty basic stuff like jumping over a small sponge tube for like 2 x 10. I don’t think there was any weight training until the age of 13 or 14.
That’s an excellent book. Alot of good guidlines.
I just ennrolled my son in gymnastics and I think he will do well.
Please excuse my computer illiteracy. Don’t know how to do the link thingy yet.
Cal Ripkin article: www.canadianfastball.com
Web Board
Midget Division
page 11
“How Much Is Too Much”
posted 12/31/04
Hope this helps.
TNT
Found and thanks.
http://www.canadianfastball.com/
Every Coach should read this!!!
December 31, 2004 -
By Cal Ripken, Jr.
As we prepare to begin the new year, the time is fast approaching for youth baseball travel teams to get started with their tryouts and preseason practices. For many kids as young as 8- and 9-years-old baseball has become a year-round sport. In some ways it is exciting to me as a life-long baseball player to see so many young people taking the sport seriously. As a parent, however, I have unanswered questions about whether or not the game is becoming too serious too fast.
My son, Ryan, has been playing travel baseball for the last two years. During that time I purposely have limited his games. Still, despite my personal limits and family vacations during the summer, he probably has played in about 35 games each of the past two years.
Ryan turned 11 in July, and as I look at his team’s proposed schedule for the coming year, it seems as though his team could play as many as 70 games during the spring and summer.
As a dad I’m wrestling with the question of how much is too much. On the developmental side there is sentiment that the more a kid plays the better he will get. While this may be true in terms of preparation, when it comes to kids there are other factors that determine how well they play the game. First, some kids mature faster than others. They become bigger and stronger and are dominant players at a certain age no matter how much they play. Often times these players come back to the pack as they get older and the other players catch up to them physically.
Another thing that worries me about kids playing so many games is the proper development of fundamental skills. When there are so many games there isn’t much time to practice. When placed in so many different game situations kids naturally adapt to the size of the field as well as the speed of the game. Through trial and error they quickly figure out how to be successful at the level in which they are playing. For example, an infielder might be able to avoid backhanding balls that are hit to the left and right and still throw the runner out at first, because the players at their level are not that fast yet.
As the player grows older, however, that same infielder might try to get in front of a ball to his right and then have to take a few extra steps to set up and make a strong throw. The extra time needed to make the play might allow a faster runner to reach base safely. If the player had learned how to properly backhand a ball earlier in his baseball career he may have been able to make the play correctly and throw the runner out at first. The backhand is a skill that should be taught and practiced at the youngest ages. It is hard to develop a fundamental skill without practicing it over and over. Game situations do not provide enough opportunities to develop the muscle memory necessary to perfect certain fundamentals.
Remember, even though these kids are playing in a lot of games, they still are in the developmental stages. Practice is an essential tool for developing fundamentals. Kids get all wound up when they are getting ready to play games and while the games are being played. They are nervous and excited. There is pressure to succeed that doesn’t exist in practice. Sure, you can work on certain things during batting practice and pre-game infield, but there is only so much time to prepare for games. Many times there is another game going on and a team’s pre-game preparation takes place in an open field somewhere – not on a baseball field.
Teaching fundamentals – both from a team and an individual standpoint – also is difficult during games. When a player makes a mistake you don’t want to correct him on the field in front of everyone. That can be embarrassing, which can be a very negative experience. The best time to try to talk to a player about something that occurred during the game is between innings, but even then it is hard to communicate effectively. Coaches have other responsibilities they must tend to such as serving as base coaches. Parents are cheering, making noise and trying to talk to their children. The player is worried about his next at-bat, whether his girlfriend saw him make a mistake or what his parents are thinking. The excitement and pressure surrounding an organized game just is not an environment conducive to teaching successfully.
So, practice is extremely important for developing the fundamental skills necessary for players to be successful as they continue climbing the youth baseball ladder. Practice also is essential for teaching team fundamentals and allowing players to learn about the nuances of the game. Baseball is the most cerebral team sport. Team strategies and individual responsibilities can change with each pitch. There is no way that all of these team fundamentals and strategies can be communicated and corrected in a hectic game environment.
Another issue when it comes to young players playing in so many games has to do with their enjoyment of the sport. At the developmental stages it is important for us to grow and nurture the seed. If a kid is playing baseball he obviously is interested and excited by the sport. Games can be fun, but they also can be pressure-packed – especially in a tournament environment. We have to be extremely careful not to zap the passion and fun from the game for the kids. Baseball is a sport with a lot of ups and downs. It is emotionally and mentally challenging, There is a danger, especially when things are not going so well, that baseball can become too much like work when there are so many games. This can lead to burnout and cause players to stop playing the sport, which is the exact opposite of what we as youth coaches should be trying to accomplish.
In spite of my concerns I still have not determined how much is too much. As a parent and a coach I’m still in the learning stages when it comes to this issue. I recently communicated my concerns about the length of the schedule to Ryan’s coach, and he had a pretty good counter. He asked me how many games I played as a kid. I told him that I couldn’t remember playing anywhere near as many games as Ryan’s team had played until I got much older. He then asked me how many times a week that I played baseball of some sort in the summer – pick-up games or some other fun variation of baseball. Honestly, I can’t remember a day in the summer when I didn’t have a glove on my hand. For many reasons kids just don’t play nearly as much baseball on their own as we did, so his argument was very interesting to me. But, I still am concerned about the amount of pressure that can develop during organized games as opposed to the neighborhood sandlot games we used to play.
There are other positives that can come out of playing so many games. To succeed in most tournaments, especially when they come in the middle of the regular-season schedule, teams need to develop pitching depth. This means that more kids will get the opportunity to pitch. The same can hold true for other positions. When you are playing so many games you have to make sure to spread the innings around or players will get tired and their production – and ultimately their enjoyment of the sport – will tail off.
Ultimately, the coach of a travel team playing an extensive schedule is going to have to shoulder the responsibility of making the experience as positive as possible. How the season is framed or presented to the kids is incredibly important. The coach must be in tune to the needs and desires of the kids to make sure they are not burning out. He must determine if they still are having fun and looking forward to the games. He must go out of his way to make the game experiences enjoyable and foster an environment where everyone contributes. He must avoid the win-at-all-costs mentality and not rely on the same players over and over again. He must maintain a stable disposition, not getting too high or too low. And most important, he must monitor the situation closely at all times, watching for signs of physical and mental fatigue. In theory, more games – if handled correctly – can be a good thing, but a lot is riding on the coach.
I’ve presented arguments for both sides of this issue. As a dad – and as a coach – I’m still trying to figure out what is best. This is going to be a learning experience for me, and I would like to include all of you in my learning process. From time to time I will communicate my experiences with you as Ryan’s season progresses right here in this newsletter.
Some of the things I will be trying to understand are: What is the proper disposition for a coach when a team is playing so many games? Is it better to play 75 games during the summer or to spread them out so that there are 25 games in the spring, 25 in the summer and 25 in the fall? Does spreading the season and practice time out into different seasons hurt the overall development of young athletes who could be playing other sports at different times of the year?
I look forward to sharing our experiences with all of you and also look forward to gathering information from you – the youth baseball coaches of America – as I attempt to develop a better understanding. Feel free to share your experiences with us via email at www.ripkenbaseball.com. I hope that all of you are enjoying a safe and relaxing holiday season. Baseball is right around the corner