My Boy is Slow

Training
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[quote]sasquatch wrote:

[quote]mokaloka99 wrote:
Navin Johnson - Some of these people posting obviously dont have kids so ignore them. Their opinions don’t count.

You dont have to be that “AHOLE” dad to make your kid better at anything. You can find creative ways to help improve your kid in any part of life.

I love how the 3 clueless posters above said “let your kid grow up and let him be a kid, no pressure”. Wtf does that mean?

Lets apply that to school and see how great that philosophy turns out. “Well my kid keeps failing his classes and bringing home Fs but he is a kid, i am going to just let him grow up and be a kid”. Yeah that makes no sense what so ever.

Physical wellness/fitness may not be as important as school and learning but it is still an important factor in life. If you are concerned about your kid then do something about it. It is hard to get kids at that age to take interest in physical fitness so you have to think of creative ways to keep them at it.

I would suggest starting a “Family fun, test or day” maybe a few days a week. Where you and your son both do the exact same things. At that age he should idolize you and want to do what you are doing. So lead by example. Run some quick sprints or squats/pushups in the morning. have him compete against times or reps or against you. You will know what his limits are but by keeping it fun you can push him to be better and later he will thank you for it.

You arent going to make him the fastest kid in school overnight but what you can do is instill good physical fitness values in him and with the small changes listed above, he will be light years ahead of other kids when or IF he wants to play sports in school.[/quote]

You obviously don’t have kids or a clue to the post. He is concerned about the speed of his 8 yr. old and how that will limit him in future sports. Family fit test day is stupid. As is this poster.

He’s 8. WTF. Yes, you can increase speed at some level, but you can’t make a turtle a rabbit. The poster above who said speed is not everything hit it on the head. It ain’t! Many sports and many positions do not require speed as a main factor. In fact, in most sports, I’d take quickness and smarts over speed.

How about you let the kid mature while still letting him partake in the sports of his choice.
How about not worrying about what he can’t do and focusing on what he can. How about saying nice job instead of showing your disappointment in him. After all, he can only work with what DNA he was given.[/quote]

It’s not one or the other mate, you don’t need to be dogmatic about it.

You can direct him and help him without showing your disappointment or smashing the shit out him.

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test and dbol?

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I’d probably wait until he hits puberty.

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play hard, play fast…Does he want to get faster?

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make him play a ton of sports he’ll figure it out.

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sasquatch obviously was the fat 8 year old kid whose dad let him do what he wanted. My advice to the OP is sound advice. I will sum it up again since you apparently didn’t comprehend what i wrote.

8 is not too young to start having your kid participate in sports/events/working out. You don’t have to be an asshole dad that takes away his kid’s childhood to do it. The dad is concerned about the kid being slow at the age of 8 and asking for advice. The answer that some of you gave, to not do anything, let your kid be a kid, is asinine. You can use a family fitness day, idolization, any method you can find that will motivate and still be fun for an 8 year old.

For example, he probably wont want to run timed sprints in the backyard. However, he would probably be more inclined to play chase/tag/hide n seek. Something that gets him running and stopping on a dime and running in short bursts. Sure these seem silly but it is a way to get him to practice, and exercise, and will eventually lead to better habits down the road.

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I’m not a father so I’m not super qualified to be giving advice on this but from my experience as a kid I suggest you lead by example. I idolized my dad when I was 8 and wanted to do everything he did. He’d come home from work, do his chin-ups, push-ups and some dumbell stuff then go jogging and I would be there every day waiting to do it with him.

It was never forced on me, I saw that he enjoyed it and decided I would try it too. Maybe if you show that you value and enjoy the ability to run fast and you want to run fast he’ll catch on and join you. But then again maybe that’s not his thing.

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[quote]rumblefish wrote:
I’m not a father so I’m not super qualified to be giving advice on this but from my experience as a kid I suggest you lead by example. I idolized my dad when I was 8 and wanted to do everything he did. He’d come home from work, do his chin-ups, push-ups and some dumbell stuff then go jogging and I would be there every day waiting to do it with him.

It was never forced on me, I saw that he enjoyed it and decided I would try it too. Maybe if you show that you value and enjoy the ability to run fast and you want to run fast he’ll catch on and join you. But then again maybe that’s not his thing.[/quote]
And you became a great athlete?

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[quote]sardines12 wrote:

[quote]rumblefish wrote:
I’m not a father so I’m not super qualified to be giving advice on this but from my experience as a kid I suggest you lead by example. I idolized my dad when I was 8 and wanted to do everything he did. He’d come home from work, do his chin-ups, push-ups and some dumbell stuff then go jogging and I would be there every day waiting to do it with him.

It was never forced on me, I saw that he enjoyed it and decided I would try it too. Maybe if you show that you value and enjoy the ability to run fast and you want to run fast he’ll catch on and join you. But then again maybe that’s not his thing.[/quote]
And you became a great athlete?[/quote]

Mediocre at best.

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[quote]mokaloka99 wrote:
sasquatch obviously was the fat 8 year old kid whose dad let him do what he wanted. My advice to the OP is sound advice. I will sum it up again since you apparently didn’t comprehend what i wrote.

8 is not too young to start having your kid participate in sports/events/working out. You don’t have to be an asshole dad that takes away his kid’s childhood to do it. The dad is concerned about the kid being slow at the age of 8 and asking for advice. The answer that some of you gave, to not do anything, let your kid be a kid, is asinine. You can use a family fitness day, idolization, any method you can find that will motivate and still be fun for an 8 year old.

For example, he probably wont want to run timed sprints in the backyard. However, he would probably be more inclined to play chase/tag/hide n seek. Something that gets him running and stopping on a dime and running in short bursts. Sure these seem silly but it is a way to get him to practice, and exercise, and will eventually lead to better habits down the road.[/quote]

Obviously, you’d be wrong.

Your advice to the poster would be sound if the poster had asked what to do becuase his kid was overweight and had little interest in physical activity. Getting outside and moving is always good advice.

He asked specifically about speed and his concern was where that put him on his future athletic possibilities. In that parameter, let the kid be a kid is good advice.

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Race your kid to the car when buying groceries. Make sure not to park to close to the store

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Most great athletes played numerous sports. Build a love of sports in him and don’t worry about how slow he is. And strength is one of the easiest qualities for a kid to build so don’t worry about it.

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I’m surprised no one has brought up diet yet. What are you feeding him? If the kid’s weak, I’d look at improving his diet first.

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Not sure I’ve ever posted on this forum but here goes.
I run a kids fitness program (non-competitive) for children aged 3-12 and the biggest improvements they make is through learning and mastering basic co-ordination patterns. Stuff like locomotor skipping, hopping on 1 foot, any and all jumping activities. These can all be incorporated into play and games without parents being pushy at all and indeed most kids love this sort of stuff. Be as creative as possible, use as many different pieces of equipment as possible. Different challenges work well, try not to repeat them though, you’re not trying to see if he improves his 1RM of 40yd time on a week to week basis. Just different stuff like how many times he can hop on his left foot, how many times he can jump rope without missing. Children enjoy getting better at these sorts of activities and it gives them a real sense of achievement when they make improvements.
Improvements in co-ordination will lead to improvements in strength, which in turn lead to improvements in speed.
Bottom line, if more parents took the time to play with their kids and actually took an interest in their physical development, we’d be a much healthier society.

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run after him with a stick, if he cant run fast enough - he gets beaten. he will learn

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Have you tried hitting him?

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[quote]sasquatch wrote:

Obviously, you’d be wrong.
[/quote]

It’s nice to see this. Been a while sasquatch.

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Little kids love to play. dicko had good advice. Look into the IYCA; I have their cert and it gives a lot of insight into coaching children.

It’s possible to “let a kid be a kid” and still help them develop. The thing is, an 8 y/o is not really best served by developing “speed.” They are best served by doing a wide variety of activity, developing coordination (which is entering the critical period from 8-12 years old), and a lifelong love of physical activity. An 8 y/o is simply biologically incapable of developing the muscle mass needed to be truly “fast,” so there’s not a ton of point in true “speed training.”

Get him out, give him moving, get him enjoying sports and stuff. Set a good example and it will come. I don’t see how mokolaka’s advice was bad either.

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[quote]Navin Johnson wrote:

[quote]MattyG35 wrote:
Is he the fat kid? If so start feeding him better.
Is he weak? Get him stronger.
Just make sure things stay fun.[/quote]

Not fat at all, weak though.[/quote]

I suggest you get him into a CrossFit/Kids class, if there is one close to you. I have been coaching athlets for thirty years and haven’t seen a program have such a profound affect on kids as this one does.

If there isn’t an organized program close by, I would start reading up on the program on the CrossFit national site and try to have your son do a similar program.

General weakness at your son’s age should be addressed by overall training in basic gymnastic, strength and aerobic skills. He will get these foundation builders in that program. Simply lifting or running will not have much of an affect.

Good luck and good luck to your son.

CoachMc

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squats, dbol & hamburgers