There are some really great ideas in Tudor Bompa’s total training for young champions. To be honest though, when I had a group of 20 kids aged 9 through 14 and the program they loved the most was the one Charlie helped me put together (not sucking up just being honest). I also incorporated a gymnastic warm up on top of the speed work. I found that the best female athletes were always former gymnasts. So when my kids had the chance to do a recreational gymnastics program with Teodora Cepoi (Silver medalist in 76 oly games) I went to the classes and pretty much poached her warm up routine. The kids loved it they were all pumped up after wards and looking to train more. I had 1 day of isorobic runs or partner resisted runs (10-15m) and one day were they did chase games wearing a sparq break away belt and EFE/FEF runs (10m/10m/10m) . We did med ball throws and always finished with running A’s and abs and push ups. That was enough strength end to make them feel almost lactic… It was a hit!! Another thing I did was to have a good attitude and make them feel like you have confidence in them.
Hi gymrob, I got the book in the mail today. You are correct, it is terrific! Thanks for the tip!
T-Slow, No problem. Glad you like it. I should say though that I first read about this book from James Smith in the past so we have him to thank.
Btw here is an excellent piece on the PASM which I think may interest you: http://www.elitefts.com/documents/TomMyslinski.pdf
Enjoy!
Hi Jay, I have been thinking about this warmup routine. Do you think you could share the basic outline with us here? It sounds really good.
I ordered Bompa’s book, thanks for the tip!
Thanks for another interesting resource! I’m going to read through it tonight. I’ll get back to this thread as I try to pool some ideas and will report back.
Last year with my track team, I felt like I was trying to build kids from scratch during a six week season. Now I realize I was basically building a foundation from scratch on sand. The kids had no general fitness, and minimal foundational movement skills related to speed, power, or strength activities, despite the fact they can bump and set a volleyball and execute a layup. Six weeks can’t do much in that case! Interestingly enough, gymnasts were my best athletes.
The idea this year I think the idea will be to build the agility, balance and co-ordination appropriate for the age group, but upon a foundation of general fitness, speed, power and strength. Then when it comes time for individual sports, we aren’t just teaching a bunch of weaklings to sprint, play volleyball, soccer, or basketball- they should be able to run, jump, and throw.
Since I’m in control of the physical education curriculum and it’s not like parents come to breathe down the gym teachers neck about what he’s up to, I can do whatever I want. This should be an interesting year if we can get everything organized into a CF program school-wide. Angela, you can expect to hear from me soon! 
Here’s a recent article by James Smith which might help. http://www.jtsstrength.com/articles/2011/09/14/super-child-part-i-early-childhood/
easy local stretches.
after some stretches sit in a butterfly grab your feet and roll on your erectors back and forward side to side. Dont know how to explain it but you roll around like a weeble wobble on your back and glutes. Sounds stupid but it really loosens your hips and back.
I cant find my note book but off the top of my head it was the following (in order)
walks on toes with hands out to the sides at shoulder height. Legs should be straight and come up to hip height or higher. 2x10m
walks with jumps. take one step jump up and bring both of your legs up in front of you and side ways (like a side split) 2x10m
walk and take a hand stand then come back to a standing position every few steps 2x10m
forward roll to stand or forward roll to hand stand then roll forward and stand up. 2x10m
cart wheels 2x10m
I think there were a few more but you get the general idea…
Your going get some really good stuff from that book. I dont know why all these “youth speed coaches” read it instead of the watered down verkoshansky work outs they pass around
Anyways good luck man. Those kids are lucky to have someone doing this for them.
Thanks for the reply on the warmup. I guess it would require a lot of mats, so I will have to modify it a little bit since most of our mats are on a cable covering the rock wall that was installed a few years back (nice!) that nobody uses.
I’m definitely going to take advantage of the rock wall, but until this point nobody has had a clue how to incorporate it. I’ll send some pictures when I can.
As a sidenote, I have ordered Bompa’s “Total Training for Young Champions” as well as “Youth Strength Training.” I’m not so sure the second title will be any good, but I’ll check it out and report back.
Thanks to darkhorse for the James Smith article link too! I have a Physical Education conference coming up in a month, it will be interesting to see if anyone there has the remotest concept of how to train kids for measurable athletic improvement.
Taking a look at the atrocious movement skills of my grade 3 and 4 students, I’m starting to see that the key movement skill that needs to be taught is how to run. Some of their mechanics are shocking! Everything else is a distant second. I will try to start putting together a long term plan, and will report back with what I come up with.
On another positive note, it looks like I will be heading out to Michigan to visit the very talented ESTI this weekend. I’m sure he will have some valuable input to add!
You’re welcome. You will def need some mats for the gymnastics stuff.
Window of opportunity to develop feedforward control system is between ages 4 and 8.
Hi Pakewi, can you explain that in a little bit more detail? I’m not sure I understand.
I tried to run 3( 6 )week sessions at the grade school my son just left ( grades K to 6 ) This was the least amount of time Charlie and I felt we could do and not overwhelm the kids due to other sports and general activities. One session in the fall, Another 6 week session ( 2 or 3 x a week depending on if you can get 3 days ~ 35 to 45 minutes per session / varied for different ages ) just after the xmas break ~ Jan if you can do it and then the final session to work in the spring to go along with the track season. ( front load it by 4 weeks or maybe more
Tudor is a great resource and has written many books. He states in one of his books that gymnastics , track and swimming are the best background developmental sports = gymnastics for strength, flexibility, / Track for speed and strength and pool for endurance.
I went from doing competitive gymnastics 3x a week for 2 or 3 years to breaking the grade 9 provincial record in Ontario in the 60 meter hurdles. There was very little specific training before I actually ran any meets. Interestingly I was also a very strong swimmer and did track only in competition ( no training) for probably at least 2 or 3 years in grade school. ( 100, 200 , high jump ). Grade 10, I jumped my height with very little training specific training either. ( 171 or 5"7’inches).
Angela,
That is very interesting. After someone mentioned it here first, I noticed that the most talented grade 8 female short sprinters I had last year all have gymnastics backgrounds, and one of the quickest grade 8 boys is a high level swimmer. It’s too bad all the grade 7’s and 8’s were away when you visited.
My school has a rock wall, and consequently it tons of gym mats, as the rock wall is covered with them virtually all year long.
I’m working with mostly grade 3’s and 4’s this year. I’d like to build some speed, power, and general strength work into the regular curriculum, as the curriculum addresses agility, balance and coordination, but does not address strength, power, speed, or running mechanics adequately in my opinion.
I’d like to run some extracurricular programs as you mention. It will be critical to getting kids ready for track season later in the year. As I found out, it’s impossible to get people fit in six weeks!
The other Physical Education teachers in my school are pretty open to ideas, so it will be interesting to see what changes we can incorporate. I think general fitness and some work on running mechanics are the key issues. Some of the mechanics are atrocious!
When you ran the extracurricular program, how did you split it up? Did you cap it at a certain number of participants? Did you work with one or two grades at a time?
From coaching high school track for 12 yrs., at least as far as the girls, the kids with gymnastics backgrounds in particular were such quick learners. I would teach them various drills and coach them on it maybe a few more times on some of the finer points and with few exceptions, they would perform the drills well. They possessed the capacity to learn and even master some drills very quickly.
The two best female athletes (identical twins) had been involved with gymnastics from age 6 until probably 10 or 11 or so(not sure exactly when they stopped) before they, due to their height, “started breaking equipment.”
Rob Panariello - frustrated by what he’s seeing in his rehab clinics in terms of injuries - wrote a very good article for my website on the subject of development and preparation in young athletes.
Pioneer, that is very interesting that you mention the capacity to pick up drills quickly. I noticed that too. I wonder if that has something to to do with the envelope of time that Pakewi mentioned…
NumberTwo, thanks for the link to that article, it is excellent. Man I have a lot to learn!
T-Slow, I attributed it (rightly or wrongly) to the fact that they had been exposed to and required, within the framework of their training, to learn so many movements that it made them more consciously and/or subconsciously receptive to learning even more and different skills.
Later on they picked up swimming, volleyball and track and field-one was primarily a hurdler and the other a jumper (hj, tj/lj and later pv).
T-Slow - Rob P is a sharp guy and has a lot to offer on both the rehab and conditioning side of things. If you are ever in the New York/Long Island area, you should look him up and visit one of his clinics. I’m hoping to visit him some time in the next few months.
I had 50 kids and at first I just ran them all together. Initially you can do this but quickly you will see a way to organize yourself depending on what your goals are.
I would never cap it as it will sort itself out and you are smart enough to innovate anything if the program is popular enough to make kids want to show up. My view was more kids the better as they feed off each other. Try never to cut and pull on your teachers to do task stuff like attendance etc. Use the keener teachers who have no vision to help you organize and sort but you must keep things moving and avoid too much instruction. Find ways to get them doing things without thinking too much.
I would not work with different grades separately yet. Get started first as I said and then you will have the right answer.
Contact me and we will meet again and go through some ideas and see what works.