good kush & alcohol wrote:
the fast 1% are getting faster and the slow 99% are getting slower.
THANKS, OBAMA
this. we are talking about the average kid becoming a fat slob, not elite high school distance runners.
good kush & alcohol wrote:
the fast 1% are getting faster and the slow 99% are getting slower.
THANKS, OBAMA
this. we are talking about the average kid becoming a fat slob, not elite high school distance runners.
For kids that age, a big factor is that the amount of time kids have for recess in public schools has been slashed over the years in order to try to pump test scores. Most public schools have reduced recess to a short 15-20 minute period during the day. When I was a kid in the 70s, we had a 30 min recess in the morning, 45 min PE, and another short recess in the afternoon. We were moving for over an hour a day in school.
The other factor is that many new suburban developments build houses from lot line to lot line. Kids do not have yards to play in anymore. They sit inside all day.
I also think that sports have become over-organized. It used to be that after school sports were for all kids and everyone got to play (especially elementary age kids). Now, even with little kids, leagues are hyper competitive. Kids who are not that good rarely get to play. Most kids are too intimidated to even join.
Yeah, In Elem school we had 30 min of recess a day and gym 2-3 times a week plus we went outside for lunch. In HS we had gym 2-3 times a week which were like 60 minutes. Even at our laziness we were half-assed playing volleyball. Our school was also pretty iffy at sports so nothing was too intimidating wise (though I did start track and XC becasue I couldn't get cut from them after getting cut from baseball/basketball).
Now if you don't play your sport 3 seasons a year you're not making JV.
M.C. Confusing wrote:Now nearly half the class is overweight or obese, parents wont let their kids go outside to play because they are so afraid of the boogieman stealing their kids (despite the fact that kids today are statistically far LESS likely to get abducted than 30 years ago)
I agree that a big part of it is kids no longer playing outside for a huge part of their free time, which they used to do - or mow lawns, rake leaves, etc. However, wouldn't kids naturally be less likely to be abducted if they are all sitting inside watching TV and playing video games? Overprotective parenting probably has that benefit.
I don't have any proof but another factor may be universal air conditioning. Lots of kids these days are downright uncomfortable with the idea of sweating. And they are just unfamiliar with the sensation of physically exerting themselves and it feels "bad" to them to be tired and sweaty.
aewfsd wrote:
Oh, the good 'ol days, when everyone was a 4-minute miler. Once overheard a co-worker tell a couple other co-workers that he's "not as in good of shape as when he was younger, but can still run a 4-minute mile" (he's in his 50s).
There was a Rob Ford (crack smoking Mayor of Toronto) news article that came out months ago where the reporter writes that, in order to make the high school football squad, each athlete had to run a mile in under 6 minutes. Apparently Rob Ford was the last athlete to make the cut but kept persevering and eventually made it. There was also a picture of Ford in his high school days and he was the fat kid even back then. Most of the media is clueless about running. Mile... kilometer.... what's the difference?
thin naked and alone wrote:
http://www.today.com/moms/generation-slowpoke-kids-dont-run-fast-parents-once-did-study-2D11603599
Who cares if Kid Average, USA, is weaker, slower, dumber. If our top 1-3 percent are as good as their counterparts in Germany and China, I am going to feel good about this.
luv2run wrote:
So when I yell at a kid to get off my lawn, I should expect it to take them longer.
POD
this is retarded wrote:
thats why more kids broke 9 in the two mile in the last 3 years than in the 80s and 90s combined. yeah. makes sense.
The upper 1% has gotten faster. The general population has gotten lazy, fatter, and slower. You are a dunce.
one of my friends wives was talking to my wife. my wife said mikes a good runner hes run like 32mins for 10k to which her friend replied yeh my gregs good as well he's run under 26 minutes but hes just like that good at everything. i later found out he had run 38mins
Hank Hill: Six O clock and already that boy ain't right.
It's because people think anything from 4:00.00-4:59.99 is a 4 minute mile.
I wonder how much the data would change if they analysed only girls. According to my mom, it was not normal for girls to exercise in her generation.
Not just the kids wrote:
Why do people focus so much on childhood obesity when the vast majority of adults are in horrible shape as well? We keep hearing about the kids of yesterday who played outside all day every day. Those kids grew up to be fat adults who sit all day at work and then sit in front of the television all evening. I constantly hear fat adults complaining about fat kids.
Who cares that you played outside all day when you were a kid if you turned 30 and decided to let yourself go? Do we just focus on childhood obesity because adults would rather ignore our own issues and just complain that other people aren't doing the right thing?
Because it's generally not something the kid can control without proper guidance from those around him, whereas barring BED, an obese adult definitely can. Also, going from obese to fit is much more difficult than growing up fit and maintaining it.
Logical progression wrote:
aewfsd wrote:Oh, the good 'ol days, when everyone was a 4-minute miler. Once overheard a co-worker tell a couple other co-workers that he's "not as in good of shape as when he was younger, but can still run a 4-minute mile" (he's in his 50s).
I hope you called him out.
I was working at an aid station at an ultra in a state park. A guy with a heavy Russian-type accent asked what we were doing. He tells me was a 1500 meter champion. I asked his time. "Three minutes." He did donate $5 to the charity supported by the race. So I let it go.
All the negativity here.
Kids are a lot more BUFF these days, they discovered the importance of resistance training which was neglected 20 years ago. How is this bad?
Let me be clear:
Kids today...they don't have the opportunities... everyone must have the chance...if you run a four minute mile...you didn't do that all by yourself...you didn't earn that...beginning tomorrow, you must give some of your time, a few seconds, to a slower person...
good kush & alcohol wrote:
the fast 1% are getting faster and the slow 99% are getting slower.
THANKS, OBAMA
Hilarious, but pretty much hit the nail on the head with this
Read This Like Obama wrote:
Let me be clear:
Kids today...they don't have the opportunities... everyone must have the chance...if you run a four minute mile...you didn't do that all by yourself...you didn't earn that...beginning tomorrow, you must give some of your time, a few seconds, to a slower person...
terrible analogy. Life is not like a running race. We don't all start at the same start line with equal chances of winning
Oh...! I get it, you are equating two things that have nothing to do with each other because you are afraid you may one day become the manager of the Burger King you work for and pay more in taxes. Clever!!
We were essentially unsupervised most of the time in the 1970s and 1980s growing up, so we spent much of our time roaming the neighborhood and even sometimes going from the D.C. suburbs all the way into the city, bit by bit through the Rock Creek Park system, and then home, or we'd wander the railroad tracks for miles. Even when video games arrived, we'd still go long distances on bike or foot to buy games or go to the movies at the mall, and so forth. By the time I was in organized xc/track they'd ended the high mileage and hard workouts of the 1970s and early 1980s so times were slow for the great majority but kids in general were a lot less fat than now, drank much less soda and ate a lot less junk food. Nowadays, parents don't think kids can be outside by themselves and the parents don't want to spend all their time outdoors with the kids, plus 1/4 of the kids are asthmatic and 1/3 or more obese. Putting a video on is a lot easier than parenting in any concentrated way. Then at schools, recess is the first thing cut with the testing mania. In kindergarten last year, my daughter frequently had zero recess or play time. The great corrective is the morning mile running program. Many of the kids at her new school run for up to 30 minutes before school every day. The only proviso is that they eat breakfast (which is free) beforehand. Many kids go over a mile while they are there and some go two miles (I'm not saying that they are not walking as well). A lot of the kids love to run and I race them on days I volunteer. The population is 90% African American and it is a title I school with high poverty rates, so if they can do it there, they can do it anywhere. You need to do something because the parents aren't going to let the kids out by themselves and recess is always the first thing to be cut.