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by Tullio Tue Sep 18, 2007 7:01 pm
John,

Any advice/experience of dealing with Junior athletes?

My lad is nearly 13 and I've just got him his first roadbike..seems he was much inspired by the Clifton Road Race.

He's not new to sport; played football since 5, 3 years with an Athletics club and he rides a MTB quite a bit.

Whilst my attention at the moment is trying to improve his roadsense and keep him interested, eventually he'll want to do something a bit more serious.

-What should I limit it to at the moment?
-Does 'training' in the context of the material elsewhere on this site have a part to play at a young age or is it just about stamina?
-What precautions, if any, about potential damage to growing bodies?
-How do you build up strength, safely, at this age?

I saw a frightening program recently about some American parents (where else?) that had push their young son into bodybuilding and there were experts on saying how much damage it can do.


Thanks

Paul

by JohnGray Mon Oct 01, 2007 4:17 pm
Hi Paul

thanks for the question sir.

Its good to hear that your lad is getting into cycling. My main advice would be to let him be the guide in many ways.

Let him have a go at distances he genuinely fancies and you think are realistic, the thing is he will stop 'naturally' on the day long before any real damage. But obviously make sure it is not too far from the end to kill any motivation. Make sure he gets plenty of rest to avoid overuse injuries, i.e. not all out cycling everyday, but his own feelings of tiredness will guide you.

If you think that kids played football everyday at school and at weekends for years but the injury problems have only really started since the introduction of 'organised' coaching every night. The problem is the coaches often have an agenda and so up the tempo to find the best players. Kids are pretty resilient so to speak as long as you dont force them.

kids can weight train safely and effectively. I highly recommend body weight exercises - pull-ups, dips, press-ups. If you think of gynmastics at school, very good for children. A lot of schools have stopped gymnastic and climbing the rope like we used to not because they are bad for kids but because of insurance and lack of qualified staff.

Again there are some dangers in pushing children too far - as per the apparent current Chinese approach - but there is also a sense of cotton wool approach at the moment. Some of this has been brought about by myths such as weight training stunting your growth. This one appeared because the gold medal weightlifters are small so, 2+2=5, weightlifting made them small due to years of lifting as a child. Thats a bit like saying if you want to be tall be a high jumper. Its not weights that made them small but the fact that being small they dont have to move the huge weights as far and so can do so more easily.

In terms of force on the ends of the bones growth plates it can be much greater when playing rugby, football or netball etc than when weight training correctly. As I said my advice would be bodyweight exercises or if you are using gym equipment use low weight and higher reps so that he learns good technique before the ego for a beach body kicks in around about 15/16.

its funny you mention the American lad, a follow up story was in the observer this sunday. I have seen the programs and can assure you that the dangers the experts were talking of were to do with steroids and the psychological impact of the Hollywood idiots on young kids paraded for entertainment. Honestly physical exercise is not bad for kids and cycling is really good because it is low impact (except if you fall off obviously), involves high aerobic functioning and an element of resistance. Its also fun.
If you have some more specifics or want some more detailed advice on training sessions for fitness etc give me a shout but the principles of adult training apply to children except you need to drop the intensity (either speed, distance or both).
Hope this helps
catch you soon
John

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