A crazy mom a few years ago wanted to hire me to train her baseball star son.  She wanted me to work on his rotational strength and forward speed.

No problem for the Lukester.  Until I found out she had also hired:

• a hitting coach
• a throwing coach
• a conditioning coach
• a lateral speed coach

And that was in addition to his normal baseball practice!

Oh, did I mention he was 8 freaking years old?!?!

I declined her offer.  (I tend to rub other coaches the wrong way )

Also, I think sports should actually be FUN for kids.

Before puberty is the best time to play all sorts of sports, to build a wide base of motor skills and movement patterns.  Kids who specialize too early are at MAJOR risk for burnout and injury before they ever get to college.

Here’s a quote from The Development Of The Russian Conjugate Sequence System (Myslinski):

“At an early age (approximately 6.5-9 years old+ 1 year), the initial preparation stage begins. This stage is the cornerstone in the pursuit of PASM (Process of Attaining Sports Mastery) and is characterized by the progressive development of motor skills through a traditional multifaceted motor preparedness and the creation of a functional groundwork for specialized perfecting of motor abilities. Its exclusive goal is to expose young athletes to a wide variety of physical skills, thus stimulating a healthy development and increasing their functional capacities, motor abilities and knowledge base. Additionally, exposing the pre-adolescent sportsman to a well-rounded curriculum negates the effects of early specialization and elevates their overall adaptation level”

Or, to put it another way, children should minor in all sports and major in none.

What practical advice do I have?  (This Fitness For 10 Year Olds Series could just be a rant about overweight kids, but I want everyone to have some things to take action on)

1. Sign your kid up for all sorts of different classes.  6 weeks of karate, 12 weeks of soccer, a volleyball seminar
2. Lock up the Wii and XBox.  WiiFit doesn’t count as exercise.  Make kids spend time outside playing to earn time inside sitting.
3. Play sports yourself.  Your kids will follow your example.
4. Understand that sports have winners and losers.  Learning how to handle a loss is a valuable skill, don’t let your kids quit just because they can’t handle losing.
5. Read the Youth Fitness Solution.  It’s a nutrition and exercise program for parents to use with their kids.

That’s it!  The take-home message for today is: Kids should play sports, and play a lot of them!