Training young children

Annemieke

A few weeks ago my 6 year old ran his first race and enjoyed it very much. Now he wants to come and train with me, and ofcourse his 4 year old brother also want to join us.

Should I go for a couple of 100/200 meters with walking breaks? Or a slower pace and see how far they they can run? Also, do I let them set their own pace or make them run next to me?

I hope there are some parents out there who have experience with this. How do you keep them interested.

Thanks Annemieke

cougie

Cattleprods ?

Muttley

Damn, Cougie, you beat me to it!

Annemieke

Cattleprods????

Muttley

Yup. Cattleprods. The higher the voltage, the more the incentive to put some effort in.

fat face

Annemieke - I think they are very young to be doing anything specific. In my experience of young un's running, if you let them go at their own pace they will absolutely leg at first and then they'll be knackered. Whatever you do with them, make it Fun with a capital F. Short relays would be fun ie. you on one side of a footie pitch and children on the other side, then:-
child 1 runs to you, you then run to child 2, child 2 runs to child 1, child 1 runs to you etc

Annemieke

Sorry English is not my first language, get it now, those are the things they control the callte with right? Seem to remember something in a episode of "Bottom". LOL

Still hoping on some serious advice...

Annemieke

Sorry English is not my first language, get it now, those are the things they control the cattle with right? Seem to remember something in a episode of "Bottom". LOL

Still hoping on some serious advice...

Muttley

Short races - "bet you a jelly baby I can beat you to that lamp-post".

Silly runs - eg Morecambe & Wise (if you've seen the show, you'll know what I mean)

Crocodiles - you go slowly in single file, the one at the back peels off and overtakes to go in first place. Stretch your arms out as you do it, and you can fly in "Battle of Britain" formation, complete with "dagadagadagadaga" noises for gunfire in dogfights.

As FF says, structured training will only bore them. Something silly works best.

Annemieke

Hi Xeres, well done to your 2 year old. My 4 year old also outran his grandmother last week, funny really since she outran me 10 years ago, I was early twenties then she was 50, very embarrasing indeed.

Thanks for the advice skinny face, relays do sound like fun, I'll go out with them this afternoon and give it a try.

Annemieke

Thanks Mutley, we were typing at the same time..

cougie

My 4 year old used to run and run and run when he was two. Now he claims to be tired a lot more. I think the novelty has worn off.

That said, he is v competitive, and will run anywhere if you race him, (and let him win).

He's done a few laps of a 400m track. Had difficulty in staying in his lane mind. Wandered over to inspect the 'sand pit'. Sat down for a breather at one point, and yet still managed to beat me.

He did win his class 6 meter sprint though, so the intensive training works. ;-)

FF is right - just keep it fun.

Annemieke

I told my 6 year old before the race that all the children who passed the finish line without crying were winners and that he shouldn't try keeping up with the big 10 year olds. It was a 500 meter race on the beach, and he was so proud when he passed the finish line, however, just like his mum, not a great running talent I'm afraid.

cougie

Blimey ! 500m ! He did really well !

Do the England selectors know about him ?

[Deleted User]

Both our 6 year old and 10 year old run 15-25min up to 5 times a week. That amount of running does them no harm at all as long as it is aerobic. They should be comfortable and able to chat at all times.

Often it is tempting to push them harder if only to STOP the older one from CONTINUALLY talking...

[Deleted User]

My instinct is not to make it structured, and just allow your children to be in the conditions outside where they naturally run for fun. If you can mix in games that have running as a part of the activity then this should help.

My son played loads of football from 5 to 12 in boys clubs, but did no structured running training. He went to senior school last year, and found he was naturally strong at 400 and 800 metres. Went on to win the 800m for our city schools championship.
I also think it helps if kids see their parents running for fun and also being active.

Annemieke

Thanks for all the good advice: and what did I do? I took them out at three in the afternoon very hot, first a 200 meter warm up (ofcourse they don't understand warm up and went full speed ahead). Followed by 500 meters, tried to make it fun, not very succesful. My youngest stopped every 10 meters to pick up something interesting and then give it to me, a rock, a stick, a bug etc. My older son wanted to run in front of me chancing his speed every 5 seconds so that I would trip over him about 20 times. I took my drinking bottle and they needed a drink every 5 steps. We did 2.5k in total not bad, we walked most of it.
Hope next time I will be able to make it more fun, less structured.

Hilly

Hi Annemieke, here's a link to some running games that might be of interest. Young children love to play games and I think it's the way to go. I take a group of senior school kids out for cross country training and fun is the emphasis to start!

http://www.kidsrunning.com/krschoolgames.html

Annemieke

Hi Hilly, thank you very much, I just had a look at it at it sounds like great fun. Next time I will take some of their friends along and go to the park instead of the running track. Very hopefull once again.