Development for young runners

bump...I would really like to see some opinions on this subject. How could a youth coach best develop young runners for long term success? I think programs for young kids with long-term development in mind would put the US in a better position to eventually compete constitently at the world level. I think the other part of the equation is better leadership and promotion by USATF. We could get more interest in the sport if the entire organization wasn't run by unpaid volunteers.

bump

OK, step 1 is to get parents and kids interested.

Begin a program in your area where you meet maybe twice a week.

Teach kids (with parents looking on) about all the benefits of running:

a) Healthy activity

b) Lifetime sport

c) You can be part of a team, but do not need a team

d) progress is measured in personal records

etc, etc

Have them jog/walk around a track and/or surrounding fields broken up into groups by age.

Get local high school/college athletes to help. They can take the groups around.

Encourage them to continue on their own.

Have a "season" end goal of finishing a certain distance or improving times as the program progresses.

Structure it to the age and ability of the kids involved.

Then, have the local XC coach come around and encourage kids to join his/her team.

Don't overdo it, son't emphasize competitiveness (ther is too much of this in kids sports that burns them out).

First of all, thank you for responding to my post.

Most of what you have mentioned, I have done already. I have a local cross country program started for youth and I am the high school coach as well. I get the kids interested, get their parents involved and start them off easy. I try to get them hooked on the sport and convinced that personal improvement is the definition of success. I find maybe 25% try it out and just don't like it. I may never see them again. However, the rest usually get pretty involved and love running and competing. I don't emphasize winning at the young age, but I do try to get them to be competitive and accomplish their goals. A few of them even qualify for USATF Nationals every year and have a great time traveling for that.

I understand what you are saying about competitiveness, but at the same time, most kids at that age feel a need to be competitive and this can be a good outlet for them. Sometimes I feel lack of competitiveness may drive kids out of the sport. If a kid does both youth soccer and youth cross country, the soccer is often taken very seriously and cross country may be less focused. I think sometimes kids in this situation see soccer, or whatever else they are involved in, as a real sport and cross country as an activity that is less important. I realize that soccer has burnout and it's easy to burnout kids on running, but you have to admit that as hard as soccer is pushed, youth soccer is way ahead of youth cross country right now.

How much attrition do you risk? You can't water down a sport to make everyone like it. I'm still interested in hearing how the East Africans, Morrocans, etc. approach it from a developmental standpoint from ages 8-12. I would like to know about things such as how seriously they are pushed, compete, etc. as well as more technical information on how they train.

I am in no way arguing with your points. I am just giving my thoughts on it and looking for criticism, agreement, and/or general discussion from anyone else interested in the development of young athletes.

I live in an area that has very little running opportunity outside of HS teams. My kids, however, like to occassionally do what mom does, run. Right now I only let them run 1 to 2 miles and on days when they don't have soccer practice or swim team practice cause I think it would be too much. My 10 year old wants to try a 5k this fall and that would entail her training for that in conjunction with her soccer schedule and karate classes. She is a highly motivated kid and works her butt off. Is this too much or should I let her? We used to live in a town that had a great kids running program both in track and xc.

Get them to play more in unstructured situations. It seems to me that adults spoil the fun in games. Adults need scores, records, trophies, etc. a lot more than the kids. Neighborhood pick-up games of football, soccer, ultimate frisbee, tag, etc. seem to be declining in favor of specialization, league play, and travelling teams.

When kids are allowed to play, everything is self-regulating. They become very fit. They naturally learn to listen to their bodies - they stop when they're too tired. They have fun and because of that get in more physical activity than they would in most adult-structured training.

How do you create the environment for this type of play? I don't have that answer, but I think it's the key to the development of young "athletes" who may become great "runners". I think trying to develop young "runners" is heading down the wrong path...

If she wants to do a 5k, let her. It's good that your kids are self-motivated. I would even say letting her run 1-2 miles with you 4 or 5 days a week wouldn't hurt. I would think she could even run on days that she goes to her other practices so long as she wants to. She should be fine doing all her activities at her age. If she decides to get more competitive at something as she gets older, I would say she would need to drop something to focus on what she wants to do. As for now, let her do it if she wants to. Good luck!

That is part of the problem, she wants to be competitive at everything. Right now she is on her competition team in Karate. So I told her everything else has to stay at recreation level. Then she gets asked to be on a boys travel soccer team. We said no. She wants to swim year round but I told her summer only. Her karate classes are 5 days a week with some Saturdays. She wins in her Karate tournaments so she wants to concentrate on that. I think she enjoys the running mainly because she has me to herself for a short bit of time, no little brother or sisters. :)

Sounds like you are on the right track. Just let her try everything she is interested in and as time goes on she will get a better idea of what she really wants to focus on. If she wants to be great at something, she will probably need to put more focus on it during her high school years. Only you know what is best for your own kid. It sounds like letting her run with you and try a 5k in the fall would be just fine for her...especially if it's her own idea.

Still waiting to hear if anyone out there has any ideas on what the East Africans are doing to develop runners while they are younger?

Trail Running Mom,

I would let your daughter run the 5K. I will tell you from personal experience that I played every sport in the book as a kid (I am female) and it helped me become an All-American and professional in my sport. It also led to a well balanced existence because there was no pressure at a young age to decide which sport I would concentrate on.

I did road races as a kid and had an absolute blast. I had no idea about training or times -- I just ran local 5K's and 10K's. I also played on a boys travel team, ran youth cross country and track and swam.

I played 3 sports in high school and really concentrated on my speciality during my junior year. By my senior year, I had received a full athletic scholarship to a Div. I college and was in the National Team Program.

I think you should not constrict your daughter. Let her have fun and play everything and then if she wants to concentrate one sport at some point, let her!!!

Thanks for your input. I honestly do my best to let my kid compete to her hearts content. She has 3 younger siblings though so she has to learn that it is not all about her. My 8 and 5 year olds also take karate but don't compete. They also do swim team and my son is into baseball while the 5 year old is now starting soccer. (thank goodness the other one is only 1). Anyway, I think sports are one of the most important part of my kids' lives. I'll start taking her on her short runs again. I can't let her be on the travel team right now because it would conflict with her karate competition team.

I'll bet that most African runners are developed doing just this. Running a lot in unstructured situations, that is.

I think there is probably more to it than just that. I doubt all their development comes from just daily activity in unstructured situations.

But suppose you are right. If there is no structured training at ages 8-12, at what point do they begin structured training and what does it consist of? They are definitely starting before 15 or 16 when you see 17 year-olds running 13:0x for 5000.

I would like to see some input from someone who knows what is going in East/North Africa for development and not just speculation. I imagine they are doing something different than we are and we have plenty of unstructured activity here to put us at the highest level if that were the answer. I think we need something different...not necessarily copying what the Africans are doing, but at least examining what they are doing and finding out what we can apply to our own young athletes.

My observation from having travelled in East Africa is that youngsters there run for transportation and for fun. We were in the highlands of Tanzania, driving a Range Rover over dirt roads, and the village kids (probably 10-16 years old) would run after our vehicle - smiling, waving and laughing just for the fun of it - for several miles! When's the last time you saw kids in the US do that?

Of course there's more to it than that. Anyone who thinks American kids are going to become good runners by just running around in an unstructured environment hasn't spent much time with American kids lately. In this day and age, American kids eat too much and have too many non-athletic distractions.

The East Africans are extremely talented (genetics) but also live a more active lifestyle that has very little in common with the lifestyle of the typical American kid.

One of the best compensations we have for this is competitive swimming. As a swim coach, I might be biased, but I honestly feel all kids with athletic talent could benefit from swimming competitively from ages 7-12 or so. Swimming is a tremendous way to develop aerobic fitness without the stress of running at a young age. Soccer and tennis are also good, but nothing quite matches swimming.

One HS cross country coach I know told me the only kids who come to his school in any condition to take up running in a serious way are swimmers and tennis players.

Plus, swimming is quite popular with young kids. A fit ten year old girl with a swim team putting in 8-14 hours a week of training is completely normal. A ten year old girl running 20-40 miles a week is a freak.

I completely agree with you on the swimming. In our town, summer competitive swimming is hugely popular and probably 90% of the kids aged 6-12 participate. Not only do they get very fit, but its a huge social bonanza for the kids. A great introduction to organized sport. The bonus is the skill of learning to swim WELL at an early age will never leave them.

Also when I was a kid, it seems like we rode our bikes everywhere. I lived in a semi rural part of New York and we would think nothing of hopping on a bike and riding 10-15 miles in the course of a day in search of adventures. This seems to have fallen by the wayside due to concerns of abductions and the dangers of heavy vehicular traffic (maybe that's not the case in more rural parts of the US, but in certainly is in my area). Again, more evidence of the demise of the less structured outlets for physical activity for kids.

Your observation that children are less active today than even 10 years ago is confirmed by the statistics cited in this recent article:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-07-11-pastimes-childhood_x.htm

Having previously directed a youth club and 2 college runners (my son & daughter), I feel that youth running seriously ignores skill and form development.

Other sports like soccer, baseball, tennis and swimming (previously mentioned) spend a great deal of time in the early stages in form development and skill training. Youth running coaches seem to stress miles too much while ignoring form drills and development.