Cool Stuff and Nine Year Old Kids

It is Saturday morning at the gym which means pure silence until about 10:30 at the earliest so to occupy my time I manufactured another blog masterpiece. Not really just my thoughts.

Stuff To Read 

Quick links to the articles I have been reading and think are important. The first one is pretty cool and I would really suggest taking a look at it. Helped influence the shoe purchase I am going to make today. The second one is more from a business/ marketing perspective but it transfers over to all areas not just a job in the fitness industry. 

http://impact-pt.com/2011/06/barefoot-training/

http://www.mikereinold.com/2011/05/what-we-can-all-learn-from-a-barbershop.html

Nine Year Old Kids

If you happen to read Mike Boyle's site you will know that he did an article on this a few weeks back, I really try not to cover a topic that I have read recently in another blog just for originality sake but I feel that this issue needs to be addressed. At the ACC we have a nine year old member, just one (maybe two now but I am not positive) the next youngest is 13. This is a 4 year age difference while the majority of our clients are between 16 and 19. Why is this relevant? I am trying to highlight that we do not train young kids here. The boy I am talking about comes in twice a week for an hour and it is a struggle to keep his focus for even half the time. His guardian came to me yesterday and said that he has been skating for 3 hours a day Monday - Friday, playing lacrosse and summer travel hockey starts next week, he is already active for somewhere between 18-21 hours a week. No kidding all he wants to do is sit around and play games. He has already been through 5 hours of structured practice that day. He then asked if we could shift him to more of a power/acceleration phase. I nodded my head while internally screaming, Are you ****ing kidding me? His power/acceleration phase should be off  the ice, running around at camp, throwing a football, kicking a soccer ball or playing with a dog.

Children are not miniature adults and need to be trained and coached differently, something that we do not do here. I will be the first to admit that I have a knowledge gap in reference to child development and appropriate training strategies. I hope to close that gap but at this moment my focus is elsewhere. I am in no way saying that kids do not belong at a gym, in fact I would encourage more parents to get their kids active based on the the growing obesity rates. However, find a place that tailors to your child and will give them the opportunity to run, jump, climb, crawl, and roll. The comparison I would use is that of a car mechanic. He deals with cars all day and his mindset when he arrives is car oriented. He knows how to approach each problem and improvise based on the results. Then you bring in your bicycle. The mechanic can probably figure out how to fix your bicycle and give it a tune up but it is unlikely that he will be in the correct mindset or be able to do the job half as well as a bicycle repair man.

One of our CIS football players said yesterday, "When I was nine I paid less for my babysitter" Perhaps it is a personal knock on my coaching but I couldn't help but agree. Find a gym that has program for teaching youth and where your child has coach, not a babysitter and it will be more rewarding for everyone involved.
V.

Want something awesome for your kid to do? See the video above and then call Mitch Fryia at Steel City MMA and Catalyst Fitness