CT as an expecting father and an expert on strength and conditioning are there things one can do to improve their baby’s motor control (balance & coordination)?
Klokov started weight training around 12 are there things one could do to help a child become more athletic and prevent overuse injuries until they can lift weight?
What are things youve witnessed over the years by parents and athletic children that you liked and disliked?
Lastly any nutritional tips for children that you think differ from adults?
If you don’t mind my butting in, I have a nephew who plays soccer, a nephew who plays basketball, and a niece who does gymnastics. I think my niece is the strongest. They are all in elementary school.
Paules is correct. While I don’t have a kid yet (still 2 months left). If everything is fine my plan is to get the kid into gymnastics as early as possible (there are classes for as early as 18 months). I believe that gymnastics is the best thing to learn motor control and increase neural efficiency. When a kid has done gymnastic for a while he can do pretty much any sport from a motor perspective.
My wife is a PE teacher and recently attended training on Bal-A-Vis-X. The stuff is amazing. It’s rhythmic balance/auditory/vision exercises for brain and brain-body integration.
The tests start with the eyes. If a child has trouble with the eye tests then they’ll struggle with motor skills and even reading! A few reps of the drills can show immediate improvement.
This stuff can take kids labeled with disorders and get them back to normal. Their “disorder” was that their eyes didn’t teach correctly, they struggled with their vision, and became frustrated.
It makes sense. Imagine going through childhood without being able to track a moving object. The kids who struggle definitely won’t do well with hand - eye coordination and things that work in opposition like throwing (step with left foot, throw with right arm).
If you can find anyone in your area with this training then take your child to them (it works best after they turn 6).
I can’t argue with the gymnastics approach either. My niece does competitive cheerleading (which I hate) and she’s strong and athletic from the lifting, jumping, and tumbling.
As the father of an 8 yr old and 6 yr old the best thing I ever did for my boys was put them into gymnastics. My 8 yr old was rather clumsy and when he started playing soccer fell a lot and just didn’t have great athleticism. After a year in gymnastics and only once a week at that the change was dramatic. He’s now one of the best kids on his lacrosse team. Gymnastics also made it fun for him so he now comes to the gym with me on occasion and just does gymnastic type exercises rings, pushups lunges etc.
I went to elementary school with a world-class gymnast. She put us all to shame on pull-up day. She had to be asked to stop in the interest of time.
Since taking up Brazilian Jiu Jitsu I’d put that up there for great ways to build an athletic base for kids too. Probably not as good as gymnastics for upper body strength but a great way to learn how to control your movement. BJJ probably has a much lower risk of injury compared to gymnastics, but that’s just a guess.
Ya Poliquin recommends martial arts for kids too but he also argues that balance and coordination can be learned up until 12 and encourages gymnastics.
