While in Costa Rica, I put on a coaching clinic at the local Cloud Forest school teaching local and international students how to move and eat efficiently. Many of these athletes are soccer buffs and often times, learn as . much as they can in order to learn and adapt skills that will help change their lives for the better.
Simply getting kids back to being comfortable enough to play tag, hide and go seek, or even a pick up soccer game with locals around the block will be a huge step. Healthy habits can be benefited through sports: Showing up on time, knowing how to tie shoe laces in the midst of an event, learning to COMMUNICATE and so forth. Kids should be able to learn all of these while not having so much pressure to compete or worry about being judged.
When working with kids under 13, it’s extremely important to teach excellent, healthy habits as much as possible. As this is the prime programming age for habits. What we teach them will lay habit or “myelin” over their axons that they will most likely build on as they get older. The more solid and true the foundation, the better off.
If certain habits such as movement are taught incorrectly, kids will most likely build on this false structure that may often times lead to overtraining and eventually injury. We should all know and explain the importance of exposing healthy habits and positively influencing kids at a young age.
Movement and sports checklist
1. Teach and show importance of a dynamic warm-up
2. Get back to FUNdamnentals when playing sports
3. Take them through circuits (ladder, Sprint mechanics, triple extension drills, sprinting mechanics)
4. The importance of pre nutrition and post meal
5. The four important pillars (Above the neck MENTALITY, How we fuel NUTRITION, MOVEMENT, Recovery SLEEP)
6. Express the importance of a holistic approach when training or playing sports
7. Preach the importance of sports. Its not about winning! But the idea of gaining a sense of community, working on social and team building skills and overall having fun!
Example of a day while I train the youth
1. Pre Hab/Dynamic warming up (waking up muscles). With mini resistance bands, alongside some mobility movements
2. Speed work (movement quality, linear multi direction)
3. Power development (explosive work), frog leaps, box jumps, throwing med balls against walls
4. Low level unilateral type ploys to build proper proprioception (agility, balance, speed) “Lateral skater hops”
5. Will end with some sort of work, work capacity circuit (2 rounds)(Resistance training in a circuit style then go straight into post work recovery!
My goal was to get them in the right positions (especially with the squat) to the point where they could all teach me an efficient dynamic warm-up routine by the time I left. Eventually adding power on top of these fundamental movements, it was crucial that I taught them how to get fundamentally set up in safe positions.
Nutrition component checklist
– Keep it as simple as possible.
– Eat a rainbow often (lots of veggies, few fruits and high fiber)
– The “less legs the better” approach (fish over chicken, make sure your meet is moving! Their fatty profile will be high if your meat is sedentary)
– Do not get on the fads and all the popular trends. Stick to the basics! (Foods that your ancestors would be familiar with)
– High fiber, high nutrient density, healthy protein combo in every meal
– Will be a major goal of mine to inform them that can get protein from NON animal sources such as beans and lentils. It doesn’t always have to be animals. But when it is make sure you know where its coming from
– These all should happen most times a day as it will become a ritual eventually
**The most beneficial step is to make sure we have a good breakfast and lay a solid foundation to start everyday**
