What shoes should I buy my ten year old? Trainers or rcing flats.

trainers

Stick with the trainers for now don't worry about racing flat till your athlete enters late middle school or high school. Trainers will provide the support and the cushioning that his body will need. Training shoes can be great racing shoes.

Point #1: "very knowledgable" in a running stone is more than likely what is being taught in meetings with reps, what one might read in a training book and all the other science articles being done on runners who are wearing shoes thus skewing the results. They are right to cringe at running on pavement in any shoe as pavement in the devil.

Point #2: contrary to what is being taught, humans were built to run long distances at relitively slow paces. (even 4:30 a mile is slow for the rest of natures creatures) We have dulled the natural process of learning to run by adding shoes. Keeping young runners in as little shoe as possible will help make them more energy efficient (like the east africans) As children they are developing the movement patterns they will use for the rest of thier lives. Ever seen an adult who has never swum try to learn? Not pritty.

Point #3: Keep him off the pavement as much as possible. Let him run in the mud, he'll love it. get a few pair of shoes so you can rinse them off and let them dry between runs. If he needs to go to the pavement, the insole trick will work OK. maybe size up so his toes still can move naturally. Light racers are good as well. Light trainers are OK in moderation, maybe 20% total durration.

YOU WILL NOT HURT YOUR KID RUNNING HIM IN XC FLATS! you have a much higher chance of being an overbearing parent and burning him out or making massive training mistakes that hurt him. Make sure he is having fun and doing it because he wants to do well, not please you.

Your biggest concern should be that you are being a good role model and that the training is approprate for your child.

Point #4: I cant spell, tipe, or put together a reasonable sentance. Keep your kid in school and reward him for doing well or improveing. All positive, no negative. If not they end up like me, no HS deploma, grammer skills of an 8 year old, working in a shoe store spouting off on a message board.

Nike just released the Pegasus for kids. You should check them out they are a great trainer. It is about itme someone came out with a decent trainer for kids.

For the love of god, no trainers! It should be the opposite of what trand16 says! Neuromuscular develpment starts tapering down AFTER puberty. 6-12 are the development years, 12-18 the strengthing years, 18+ the hardening years. The body needs to LEARN how to cushion itself. NO TRAINERS.

Impact is the largest problem for all runners. When you train, trainers. When you race or do an interval workout, flats.

Running him in racing flats will allow him to get the proper stride along with good ankle strength and stability. Don't mess him up by giving him trainers.

But humans are dessigned to run with nothing on their feet. The more shoe the more interference to the body's biomechanics.

A human's foot and leg are perfectly capable of absorbing impact all on its own. The more time you spend in bulky shoes, the more time it will take to strengthen those areas shoes have weakened. By absorbing impact, shoes weaken the surrounding muscles and ligaments and make the runner strike on their heel (an unnatural way) making them more proned to injury.

train in what you're going to race in.

Trainers. The body has not finished developing its own cushioning yet. Too much impact will be detrimental.

Oregon East wrote:

Trainers. The body has not finished developing its own cushioning yet. Too much impact will be detrimental.

You must have missed the great documentary "Endurance" on Haile Gebrsekassie. Young Haile was running 70+ mpw without any shoes.

Humans can run barefoot. That's how they are designed and big bulky shoes interfer with their biomechanics and weaken the lower ligaments.

No question biggest problem with US running is self-righteous know it alls that proclaim they have the right and only way to coach, just ask them. Ego drives stupidity.

not self righteous, youth coach, just righteous, don't you want kids to have strong feet and ankles?

kids run barefoot whenever they get the oportunity, let that natural development continue with a light, flexible shoe with a very low heel and minimal cushioning.

what are you so afraid of? do you think kids will pound their poor little bodies into the ground if their shoes are too light?

that's just ridiculous nonsense. by overprotecting the feet with a heavy, inflexible, overcushioned shoe, kid's feet and ankles will get weaker, not stronger.

i never ran in trainers when i was a kid and i often ran barefoot too. last summer, age 40 i won races on the track, running barefoot, running times many younger runners could not match.

lighter shoes simplify the motions of the foot, heavier shoes complicate those motions and cause more harm than good.

I used to run every morning barefoot when I was in high school on a golf course. I picked a piece of glass one day. I had problems with my foot for years, because of the scar tissue. Real dumb idea running barefoot.

Why worry about impact? Stress fractures are epidemic in young girls, for example. Roads plus impact big problem for many people.

Incidently, Lawoof, my coaching philosophy comes from experience both as a runner (state champ, hs conference champ in college) and as a coach (college, high school and youth) not from a book. One thing I don't do is insist how important it is to follow my way. I just put it out there. If your training involves going to mars that's fine with me.

Back to the question, many people are durable to train with light shoes, many are not. I think it's necessary to run the quicker workouts (like track or hill runs) in lighter shoes for great range of motion and max speed muscle memory. For the base work and longer runs trainers is what we use.

Oregon East wrote:

Trainers. The body has not finished developing its own cushioning yet. Too much impact will be detrimental.

The cushioning in running shoes doesn't necessarily minimize the force on the legs and feet. With less shoe or by running barefoot, the body adjusts itself in a way to "land more lightly" (or should we say efficiently) to reduce the impact. Although people "instinctively" think that less shoe=more force on legs=more injuries, there's been studies showing correlations between heavier shoes and more injuries. Read below (as taken from "Lore of Running," p. 497):

"The softness of the midsole has no marked effect on landing forces during running (T.E. Clarke et al,1983b; Frederick,1986; Nigg et al., 1987). It seems that runners alter their gaits and muscle activation patterns (Komi et al., 1987) when running in harder shoes or when running barefoot. Thus, the degree of pronation is reduced when one runs barefoot (Frederick, 1986; L.S. Smith et al., 1986), a reduction due to changes in running patterns.... One problem with cushioning properties of the shoe is that the tendons and ligaments of the foot are designed to absorb shock when one runs barefoot (R.M. Alexander, 1987). Furthermore, these structures in the foot act act as highly efficient springs, converting as much as 93% of the energy they absorb on landing into elastic recoil at toe-off. Compared to these structures, the midsoles and outer soles of running shoes are relatively inefficient, because they convert only 40 to 50% of this energy back into elastic recoil (Alexander, 1987; Alexander & Bennett, 1989); the remainder of the energy heats up in the midsole."

Exactly the point: Stress fractures are directly linked to the areas of bone desensitized by the over-protective, nerve-numbing cushioning and so-called "stability" of today's trainers - in particular, areas along the fibula and tibia. Been-there-done-that. As a successful runner you most surely recall your best workouts and races were done in flats. Just think what you might have done if you had trained in them...

Jaguar... thanx much for posting the references - I saved them. Ever wonder if the shoe companies consider the data?

By the way, I've been testing the idea of training in basic flats, and I wished I had tried it sooner! After years of wearing heavy trainers and orthotics for my so-called "flat feet," I suffered one too many injuries, including 6 stress fractures. I'm light and efficient, so why not train in something light and efficient, eh? Same goes with kids-- why put heavy clonking shoes on their feet if the shoes simply lead to more problems (weak feet and leg muscles, injuries, hindrance of their efficiency)? Something else from "Lore of Running" related to what Sooner posted:

One way to check whether you may be injury prone is to try the "pinch test." The pinch test is effective because damaged tissues become tender to the touch long before they actually cause pain during or after running. A feeling of tenderness or discomfort when the Achilles tendon is pinched between the thumb and forefinger or when firm pressure is applied along the borders of the shinbone (the tibia) or the kneecap indicates trouble. If allowed to go unchecked, this symptom may lead to a debilitating injury.

Tenderness in any of these areas indicates, among other things, that the foot is being allowed to pronate excessively and that the shoe that a shoes that restricts ankle pronation should be worn.

I always had tender shin spots on my legs when I wore the heavy trainers and orthotics (even though orthotics are suppose to prevent overpronation). Since I've switched to flats and thrown out my orthotics, I no longer have sore spots anywhere. There is definitely something to heavy trainers causing more pronation and injuries.

You must have missed the great documentary "Endurance" on Haile Gebrsekassie. Young Haile was running 70+ mpw without any shoes.

How much on Roads? I agree that running in barefoot and soft ground is ideal, but how much of the training is on the roads?

On the team that I coach we spend 90-95% of our training on grass/dirt roads. I have had runners go to college and just have injury after injury because they are training on mostly asphalt.

Also, I have my kids do drills and light running on the grass almost daily.

Personally, I don't like being barefoot, even in the house!

Please don?t listen to the morons who advocate trainers. If you buy your son more trainers you?ll be dong him a great disservice. Just do your best to keep him off the asphalt and concrete.