These days, there are countless options and opportunities for kids to pursue when it comes to athletic skill-building and training. On the skill side, kids have endless options when it comes to camps, clinics, and various other opportunities to take their game to the next level. Training-wise, most schools today offer state-of-the-art weight rooms (as do many community recreation centers), again providing limitless training opportunities for kids to get in great shape. Interestingly, while kids have more advanced training afforded to them today, most kids would benefit even more by getting back to the basics and fundamentals before racing to develop advanced skills, and doing simpler exercises before jumping on a complex weight machine. Accelerating too far ahead, too soon, can leave kids prone to injury, as well as lacking the solid skill base needed before moving on to advanced skill training.
Getting back to the basics
As kids mature and enter puberty, their bodies are growing quickly, and most have not yet become reliably efficient at their sports skills just yet. It is for these reasons that most kids should not be focused on pro-level sport camps, nor should they be using advanced weight training equipment. Instead, the majority of kids should approach their training by focusing on the basics:
- Appropriate physical training. Sure, all the new bells and whistles in the modern weight room are cool, but most kids (especially kids just starting to mature) will get more out of the basics, including rope jumping, jogging, pushups, sit ups, pull ups, and other similar exercises. Keep a running journal of daily activities, and before too long kids can move on to gradually using free weights and machines. When kids move too quickly and begin using weight machines not suited to them, the risk of injury increases, and kids limit themselves from the potential growth opportunities from other, simpler exercises.
- Foundational skill building. Rather than sending your youngster to an advanced pro camp, check to see how your child grades with proficiency of the basic skills involved in his or her sport. Hitting, throwing, kicking, catching…is she near automatic on all of those? Too often today we see kids fly past the early stages of development (read: lots of basic repetitions), in exchange for learning how to make flashy, ESPN-like plays! Building a solid foundation means doing the same skill over and over until it becomes automatic — like shooting free throws, or making precise goal kicks in soccer. There is no fast-forward remote control to use here, kids simply have to put in the work until they have the confidence to play automatically.
Do most kids and parents get excited hearing the message about basic skill building and physical training? Probably not, especially when you see advertisements for fancy clinics, or a new weight room being added to your school. Remind your kids that they will eventually work up to those things, but early on it is best to develop a solid base and foundation, for everything else will build on top of that in the future!
Final thoughts
While your kids might be super-excited to attend a camp with professional athletes, or try out that new state-of-the-art weight machine at the school, you might want to first have a discussion around the basics relating to strength and skill training. Moving too fast can leave your child lacking basic sport skills, or more prone to physical injury sustained using equipment not yet suited to him. Instead, work on the basics over and over until a solid foundation is set, then gradually work up to more advanced training and exercise.
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