My 8 year old is a prodigy. Ran an amazing 5k today. How to cash in on that? How to maximize his talent?

......+8.......... That fooled a lot of people. Very good!!!!

Best title ever...finally an honest parent

We are in agreement.

I assure you, I am only involved to the point that I keep them active. I let them (I have two sons) pick their activities, whether it is soccer, swimming, drama camp, or (gasp) baseball. My only 2 rules are 1. Do your best, and 2. Show good sportsmanship. That is it.

I appreciate your well-intentioned concern and will reflect on what you wrote.

Also have an 8 year old. Kid loves to run. Unfortunately for his old man, he hates baseball and has a passion for soccer. Don't much blame him. But all of this soccer training has him running pretty well. His last three 5k times are: Dec '17 (22:30), Feb '18 (21:40) and Mar '18 (19:59). All officially timed. In each race he was the top runner not only under 10, but typically tops under 14. Not until a cousin said something on Fbook did I realize a sub 20 5k is a legit number, let alone for an 8 year old. Taking the summer of '18 off to relax, except a couple of soccer camps. Looked up the US National Youth Track and Field club meets in the Phoenix area and he'd place very high in the 1500m if he wanted to (he doesn't). I figure if he can average 6:20/min miles in a 5k he could probably crank out a pretty good 1500m. But, he's now 9 and only wants to play center mid for his club soccer team so we'll stick to that and the occasional 5k.

We entered our son in his first 5K in 6th grade. He finished in 18:XX and finished 11th out of 800+ finishers of all ages. He was a soccer player and was on a break between when one season started and the next one began. He was driving us crazy bouncing off walls and we thought a run might be perfect to get his energy out. We realized afterwards we sent him off on his own to run a 5K without even knowing or having a concept of how far a distance that was! His competitive spirit took over and he LOVED beating out the hoards of adults that were running. He fell in love with running then and there...or with the medal at least. He kept playing soccer and didn't ever train until joining xc his

Freshman year of HS. He is now graduating and off to run D1 XC and track next year. Don't train. Have your kid continue to play soccer and have fun!

I understand where you're coming from, but I would suggest just keeping him in sports just strides if he likes it and wants too.

I did nothing but play hockey and then ran middle school XC and track starting in 7th. 10-15 mpw absolute max and almost zero workouts (the occasional 3x400 and 2x200). Ran 5:12 (time trial) & 10:59 (solely ran the 3200 during 7th grade meets) then ran 4:58 & 11:00 (on a double with an hour or two rest) in 8th with the same training and no hockey in the winter due to multiple concussions.

The point of that is I did well without any training until middle school.. actually, I didn't even run any kind of races/runs until 7th grade XC. So just let the kid be a kid, play soccer or whatever he wants to play and keep everything as is.

Friidrett wrote:

Train the kid like Jakob Ingebrigtsen

Jakobs sister Ingrid was not allowed to run on a regular organized basis until she was 10 or 11, doing her first competition this february I think, aged 11, doing really well.

Link to the results or this is bullish!t.

What if your kid is no good at, or hates soccer?

And, btw, the local "travel" soccer club (cost $2500/yr) that trains on the field while we train on the track? Yeah, it don't look like a whole lot of fun to be honest. They're out there every day M-F. We're only out there 3d/wk but sure, we're "overtraining".

But congrats on the D1 gig. Assuming he isn't a real ringer, I hope he enjoys his new job (yes, its a job) of running for the man. No doubt finishing 150th/300 in some meaningless college XC races will be very rewarding. And spending 4y (if he performs adequately for the man) running 70-90 mile weeks for a few G's in scholarship dough will never get old I assure you. lmao.

Soccer is dangerous. All that heading of the ball causes incremental brain damage.

Look all those soccer hooligans in Europe.

Swimming is repetitive and boring, most competitive swimmers have too much water on the brain.

Baseball players suffer from OCD. There's quite a bit of spitting, chewing, and other odd tics they acquire in all the downtime.

Football is not diverse enough.

Mixed-doubles tennis is your son's best bet for a sport to play until he starts running at 15.

M.A.G.A...

Wow, you sound bitter!

Did you even read the original post or this thread before commenting? OP said that his kid currently plays soccer so I am merely suggesting continuing with that since if he is playing now he prob does like it. The point was, keep him involved in what he likes...can also be rec soccer so not sure your gripe with the cost...OP wasn't even asking about that. The point is you don't need to formally train at that young age. Do what you love at that age and worry about formal training later.

My kid is fully aware that being a scholar athlete at the D1 level is a job and hard work. It is a goal he has worked extremely hard at for the last 4 years. He ran at NXN twice and is proud to be joining a team at a P5 school with team mates he likes and a coach he is excited to learn from.

johnny bean wrote:

keep him playing soccer until 6th grade. 5k runs are for fun. nothing more than 2 miles every other day if he wants. i used to be the same way when i was 5, only i didn't start competing until i was 11 and therefore I was enabled to drop time. i know of kids who are around 4th and 5th grade whose parents force them to run around the 20 and 21 min 5k area and they always burn out.

note: encourage competition, but don't make him work too hard. not until maybe 8th or 9th grade should it be really competitive. i know of many kids who turn out to be great athletes just competing within their school.

Yeah, that’s a great way to make him a soccer player, soccer mom. 5 k times mean nothing, marathons are tightly regulated , you will never get an 8year entered. I’d try 100 milers. Maybe Western States. Spin a story that your family lives off the grid out in the woods and junior has to run 15 miles each way to get provisions. EVERYONE will be talking about him.p

The only thing he needs to learn is that he better meet expectations or things gonna get ugly. A new class shows up every year and grass is always greener on the other side...

We did numerous events including: 50 yard dash and 400 yard run during our early grades. Starting in 5th grade we dropped the 400 yard run and added 600 yard run. Did this once a year in PE. Train for the three above events as a youth. No need to ruin kids training them for road races.

I have a 10 year old son who has a 20:34pr. An 8 year old with. 24:33 pr. I treat them different. My 10 year old talks wanting to win Olympic gold so I help him put a training program together (I usually have to draw the reigns back 25mile weeks tops and no more than 6-7 miles at a times). But he wants to do more. My eight year old asks what he should do and when I say an easy 2 miles he says how about 1.5. I say sure. Two different mentalities. If he wants it give him some guidance if he is casual let it be causual. But my 10 year old has dreams and wants to work for something, there are some great life lessons through it.

Very good, sir.

I also have son age 10 years. When he was 8, he start to do the running because he see Jinson in Olympics. We very proud of Jinson.

I encourage him run instead of to play the cricket which he was doing. He begin running maybe 40 or 50 kilometers per week. Unfortunately this cause him to eat too much Idli/Dosa all the time because he was hungry man. Later I obtain the Parle G biscuit for him and Proteinex to provide the nutrient.

Now, he run quite fast for his age in Mumbai, 19:30 for the 5 kilometre race. I hope he continue to get scholarship to college in States, maybe become American one day.

My kid hates soccer and just wants to run.

Ohhhhhh Skeller15... happy to amuse you. Like I wrote before, he's a soccer kid and therefore haven't been on this website since this May 2018 post. Copy/Paste these links below for proof, enjoy. Imagine you won't take the time to apologize, haters like you usually don't.

That is nothing. My 8 year old daughter ran 22:00 on a 5k.