Training for 8 year old for 400 meters

Well done DanielSon!

don't every stop someone from "wanting" to run at that age but you must control it. Teach her to enjoy running and 400m is not a distance that is "over doing it". Just don't train her to run faster than her race times, it will come with age/conditioning.

Teaching her to respect the training limits and enjoy the running will keep her in the sport for years to come.

I dont really see any need to train her. I started running at 8 but the only training I did was running once a week at the local running club and soccer practice once a week. If this is some sort off test for school then shouldn't she be doing a bit of training at school in PE (I dont know, I'm not from here).

If you feel you have to train her for this test then, like previous posters have said, make sure she enjoys it. You don't necessarily have to do running. Take her for a bike ride or a swim.

Training for kids her age (for endurance events) wont do much. You will tend to see the kids with all the natural speed win rather then those who put in all the work. I never won a race until I was 13 and now I can run 8.04 for 3km.

Would you/she rather be a fast 8 year old or 18 year old?

I remember when we were kids, we didn't have organized sports as the kids do now. But we were outside all day at the park, riding bikes, swimming, walking everywhere we went. We made our own obstacle courses; we even recreated the famous "Brady Bunch poster/building plans switch relay" out in front of our houses a few times (dorks, I know!!!). Think of all the core / strength training we got playing on the jungle gym. Back then, we didn't have to think about our fitness. It just came with the lifestyle. It's weird... more kids in organized sports these days, yet we are told our kids today (I have a few) are less fit. I think the problem is they just don't practice in between the games as much as we did (heck, we didn't have games - we just played). Who didn't spend hours in the backyard playing catching and running pass patterns? Different world today - it's ingrained in us not to let our kids out of our sight for a minute, which restricts the freedom we so enjoyed as kids.

Shame.

Back to your daughter... if this is something she wants to do - it was her idea - that's great. I would still keep it in the realm of play. Maybe romping around in the park would be a good idea. Do you have more kids - does she have some friends doing this? A fun relay or rousing game of tag could help on speed! If you are going to run around the block, definitely make it a Dad/Daughter activity. Pick a driveway or a light post you'll "race her to."

I didn't read through the thread, but here's my advice. Kids should be kids. Any kind of serious training is a real bad idea. However, kids like to achieve things, and many are willing to work pretty hard. The 400 is pure distance for 8-year-olds. Trust me on this. I worked a camp last year where the kids had to run 2 laps for warmup (not my idea), and many of them were totally worn out after 200m, and they weren't racing it. If the girl wants to train, have her run a mile once in a while. If she's playing soccer and doing normal kid stuff, she probably already has a bunch of "speed work" in her.

Good luck, and DON'T BE TOO SERIOUS WITH A LITTLE KID ABOUT TRAINING.

This seems really cool, I have to say - the idea of doing 100s and 200s at 8:00/mile pace with my kids, like other families go shoot hoops or throw a baseball around.

I have a 7-year-old daughter (and a four-year-old boy.) We do athletics once a week on Saturday morning. We meet up at the track with a bunch of kids (3 to 13) and their parents, split into groups and play games for about an hour like we would in the park except we are at the track.try to stay in groups. But some kids get bored. Some want their mom and dad. Some run off in every direction. But by and large we manage to play togteher.Afterwards we have a snack with fresh fruit, juice. Sometimes we celebrate birthdays. We try to use the whole track grounds where some wooded areas and trails provide even more environmental fun than the track itself. We set up obstacle courses with anything from cardboard boxes to plastic hoops, and find things to throw.A lot of kids gravitate towards the sandpits and highjump mats so we try and incorporate them into the games we play.The favorite is the 3000 steeple jump after it rained. On at least one occasion we succumbed to the fascination of amphibian creatures.At the end after the snack, kids often continue by themselves organizing soccer or rugby romps.Since Athletics started in september, once we played this game of going around the smallest red path outside the grass field we usually assemble on. We might have taken times, and realized some kids were fast, but i can't remember for sure.

Why are you guys pounding on this guy like that. My son at 6 ran a 1:23 in the 1/4 and a 3:13. What you want your child to run is realistic while she has fun. The biggest thing is to make the workout fun. Maybe even try and run with her it will make her work hard especially if you push her a little be by saying you don't want the old guy to beat you right. Key in that is to let her win. You can run like 100 with 1min rest and 200 with 3 min rest and make it short as the workout gets easier for her. The people that bash you probably couldn't run 1:50 even if they were in the best shape of there lives. By the way my son is now 7 and can run 1:13 and will probably run 1:09 within the next month. He's a special kid and we are enhancing his gift and he loves it!