North Carolina State University Athletics
Training Question Answer From Coach Wayne
10/18/2005 12:00:00 AM | Pack Athletics
Oct. 18, 2005
Question: My son is 10 years old. What is the proper way to introduce him to conditioning with a mix of speed, strength and agility? Thank You.
Dave
Lake Bluff, Illinois
Answer: We always want to be very careful when beginning a fitness program for a child. I have had conducted strength and conditioning clinics for young athletes and have personally decided that the best thing to do in starting up a 10 to 12 year old is to start preparing a foundation that he or she may build on in the years to come. Kids of that age are sometimes eager to jump right into weight training and that can sometimes lead to doing too much too fast. I think that getting into a habit of working on stretching daily and doing situps and pushups and pull-ups three times a week would be a good starting point. Check out a book on flexibility, teach him how to stretch properly, and pick out two or three lower body stretches and two or three upper body stretches. Test him and see how many situps and pushups that he can do in good form. Have him do 4 sets of pushups, 4 sets of pull-ups, and 4 sets of situps three times a week. Let the rep target for each set begin at about 75% of the number that he could do on his test. For example, if he could get 15 pushups on the test, he could try to do 4 sets of 11 with a 1 ½ minute rest between sets. Use the same formula for the pull-ups and the situps. When the rep target can be attained on each set, move the rep target up a couple of reps. If you reach 4 sets of 20, then have him add a little weight by putting a book bag with a few books in it on his back for the pushups and hold it to his chest for the situps. To work lower body just start with some bodyweight squats and lunges. When 4 sets of 15 can be made in good form, get the book bag out again. On the squats, make sure that his heels remain flat on the floor and that the knees don't go out past the toes when at the bottom of the squat. If he can't squat down till the thighs are parallel to the floor without the heels coming up, just go as far as he can and gradually work it down. After 3 or 4 weeks of following this program, pick a couple of agility/movement drills and work them into the program following the strength development exercises to begin developing balance and movement.
I'd advise staying with something this simple for maybe 4 to 6 months, then, if things are going well and he has shown the ability to stay with the program on a regular basis, it might be time to step it up a bit.
Coach Wayne
