4:46 mile, 10 years old.

There was an 11 year old kid in my area who went to USATF races and placed at the junior Olympics in the 1500. Great kid with a great attitude who wanted to be in the Olympics one day. He got bored with distance running and did not even run XC in high school. I also saw a study of kids who played elite U7 soccer that found that they were less likely to still be playing competitively in college than kids who did not get involved in elite club soccer until they were 11-12 years old.

Sports prodigies really only count in fine motor skill sports like tennis and golf. For athletics, there is a pretty broad window for developing talent with little benefit to early exposure to the sport.

Theoniongoat wrote:

Very impressive times for a young kid. That is really hard to fathom for a ten year old.

Now on to his parents:

- think the world should support them having 8 children

- homeschool those 8 children: you can imagine the quality education they are receiving

- have multiple children setting age group world records. I'm sure that is totally a coincidence and the parents don't push them at all. I'm sure it is all very healthy and balanced

Don't they have 11 kids? I seem to see a new one every year.

The kid is just a time trailer. I wasn't really impressed with his USATF 1500 or cross country races last year. I don't even see him entered in any USATF or AAU nationals this summer. Probably ducking slightly older kids in his age group this year. In a year or two when the competition tightens up and someone takes a race to him we'll see if he actually is for real.

skeller15 wrote:

The kid is just a time trailer. I wasn't really impressed with his USATF 1500 or cross country races last year. I don't even see him entered in any USATF or AAU nationals this summer. Probably ducking slightly older kids in his age group this year. In a year or two when the competition tightens up and someone takes a race to him we'll see if he actually is for real.

Huh? A 4:46 for a 10-year old is outstanding. That he is dodging competition is ridiculous. Against other 10-year olds he will have gapped the pack by the end of the first lap.

There is absolutely no need to have national or regional championships in track/xc for any kid younger than 7th grade. Kids and parents put too much competitive pressure at too young an age. Kids in grades up to 6th shouldnt train for t/f. Let them enjoy a few races, develop passion for the sport. All kids will be fine, even elite prodigies if they delay intensity until at least 7th grade and probably later

Theoniongoat wrote:

Very impressive times for a young kid. That is really hard to fathom for a ten year old.

Now on to his parents:

- think the world should support them having 8 children

- homeschool those 8 children: you can imagine the quality education they are receiving

- have multiple children setting age group world records. I'm sure that is totally a coincidence and the parents don't push them at all. I'm sure it is all very healthy and balanced

I think they have at least 11. Regarding the quality of home schooling. It depends on the ability and the time investment of the parents and whoever else they involve in the education process. My wife and I have so far achieved decent results with home schooling. We have 10 children and are expecting number 11. We home school them all. So far our oldest (son) graduated from college with an applied math degree at the age of 18. Our second oldest (daughter) entered college at the age of 16 and currently is a junior at BYU studying computer science at the age of 17. Our next oldest (girl) is 15 and is getting ready for college. She is scoring 26 on the ACT, we are waiting for the score to go above 30 before we apply. The next one after her (son) is 13, currently scoring 21 on the ACT. As you see, we are able to reach the average 18 year old academic performance at the age of 13 and get the kids accepted to a fairly competitive college (BYU) at the age of 16 or earlier with our methods.

This is not to say that merely choosing home schooling will give you comparable or better results. Only to say that there is a way to do it when home schooling even if you have the challenge of raising a large number of children. It is actually possible to turn the large number into an advantage. E.g. an older kid does not want to be outdone by a talented younger sibling, so he tries harder. Learning also becomes part of the kid family culture - the kids are talking to each other about what they learned.

Regarding training, from my experience - and I have a lot - we have trained all of our children starting at the age of no older than 5 - I believe that success at a young age is more a matter of your genetic code than the actual training, though training does help. Some kids just mature faster in subtle ways. If they happen to be training, this maturity may come out in the form of a record running performance. It does not necessarily mean that that kid, regardless of how you train him throughout his life, will be setting records as an adult. However, it is beneficial to start training consistently at a young age to develop the training discipline, be able to monitor the development by the current performance, avoid getting fat from inactivity, and just to plain learn how to run.

“However, it is beneficial to start training consistently at a young age to develop the training discipline, be able to monitor the development by the current performance, avoid getting fat from inactivity, and just to plain learn how to run.“

Whenever i see these comments i become dumbfounded.

Kids should play sports and not train for sports at a young age. Discipline is and can be acquired in many ways outside of sports - thru school, chores and more. You can monitor development without training. Just compare races and conditions over time. Kids should be protected from the youth athletic trainimg culture. Gym class can teach how to run. And finally kids can play pick up games of badeball, basketball, and all sorts of unstructured activities to maintain a healthy fitness level.

Scottykrutz wrote:

Just watched Daniel Skandera run a 4:46. Jakob who?

he ran a 4:53....not a 4:46

SDSU Aztec wrote:

skeller15 wrote:

The kid is just a time trailer. I wasn't really impressed with his USATF 1500 or cross country races last year. I don't even see him entered in any USATF or AAU nationals this summer. Probably ducking slightly older kids in his age group this year. In a year or two when the competition tightens up and someone takes a race to him we'll see if he actually is for real.

Huh? A 4:46 for a 10-year old is outstanding. That he is dodging competition is ridiculous. Against other 10-year olds he will have gapped the pack by the end of the first lap.

By USATF age standards he would be running in the11-12 age group this year. It's by birth year so if you're born anytime in 2007 you're considered 11 years old on January 1st no matter when your birthday actually is.

But it doesn't really matter. In two years other kids will catch up to him and we won't remember his name.

Their oldest kid is off to MIT this fall... combo of homeschool and local JC. I think their kids will be fine.

Theoniongoat wrote:

Very impressive times for a young kid. That is really hard to fathom for a ten year old.

Now on to his parents:

- think the world should support them having 8 children

- homeschool those 8 children: you can imagine the quality education they are receiving

- have multiple children setting age group world records. I'm sure that is totally a coincidence and the parents don't push them at all. I'm sure it is all very healthy and balanced

He ran a 9:54 for 2-miles last summer! That is even more impressive than a 4:46 mile. Just incredible. 10 years old??!!

Scottykrutz wrote:

Just watched Daniel Skandera run a 4:46. Jakob who?

that didn’t age well 😆

skandera is gone, jakob olympic champ

What happened?