Kids Growing Up Strong

by Kevin Kearns

As a father of two, I know how all of us feel. We want our kids to grow up strong and healthy, as well as limit the amount of pain and difficulty they are going to come up against.

When it comes to sports and life, we want to give them all of the tools to succeed, and I can think of no better place than team sports and individual fitness. The challenge is most people do not realize that if you improve your child’s level of fitness, you improve their performance. As an added benefit, their confidence improves. We cannot teach them the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat. They must learn that on their own. We can only help them to manage those emotions. For me as a coach, I can think of no better way to help them manage the latter, improve their performance, and help them to gain confidence, then with adding sport-specific activities and general fitness training.

The big challenge facing us all is we live in a “kid coddling” society. Very few people will step in and push children a little harder each time. I have seen it with my own children’s participation in sports. One plays basketball and the other plays volleyball. After watching a couple of tournaments of each, I noticed a few places to enhance all of the children’s performances.

They needed to warm up properly.

They needed to cool down.

They needed to add flexibility in their programming. They needed core strength.

They needed agility work.

They needed balance work.

They needed full body exercise for spatial awareness.

Now, I don’t claim to be a basketball player (trust me, I’m lucky if I can dribble), and I’m only a decent volleyball player; add to that, the fact that I was the kid who was “always picked last,” however, I do understand movement.

Children are not that hard to train. They can be trained just like adults. You just have to make it fun, short, and interesting. You take a movement like a plank and put it on a bosu and call it “Ride the Wave” and they love it. The wrinkle I notice is when we are being overprotective of our young people. Instead of letting them point and click, they should be out running, jumping, and climbing. I once heard a parent say that monkey bars are a bad thing. Really?

Here are some simple drills and skills for children for any sport.

The keys are simple; activate the 5 elements of fitness: push, pull, level change, rotation, and locomotion.

We suggest 30 seconds of an exercise, with 15 to 20 second breaks, and about 5 to 8 stations.

Monkey Punches - Stand in front of the bosu and squat down. Now, jump up in the air and when you come down, hammerstrike the bosu.

Whack a Mole - in a push up position, have the child start with hands on the bosu. Now, have them alternate lifting a hand off the bosu and whacking it.

Leap Frogs - with a fitness trampoline, have the child stand in front of the unit and then jump onto the trampoline.

Caterpillar Rolls - have the child lay on the stability ball in a prone position on their shoulder blades. Now without using their hands, have them try and roll over to their stomach on the ball.

Punch Crunch - while sitting on a bosu, have the child sit up and hit the focus mitts in alternating fashion.

We need to build confidence in our children because they are our greatest asset.

Overprotection is something we all need to look at and move beyond. Of course, we all want our most cherished to be safe, and yes, knowing when being caring turns into hovering can be challenging, but, in the long run, it is so important for children’s overall healthy growth.