When working with kids under 13, it’s extremely important to teach excellent, healthy habits as much as possible. What you teach them will lay habit or “myelin” over their axons that they will most likely build on, as they get older.
If certain habits such as movement are taught incorrectly, they will most likely build on this false structure and this often times can lead to overtraining and eventually injury. My goal is to explain the importance of exposing healthy habits and positively influencing kids at a young age in this article.
Sports in the U.S
In the last 20 years, there’s no argument that kids have flat out become less active. This could be due to technology advancing the way it has been, social media or Netflix taking over, who knows. In the U.S today, the word “sport” means competition many people and it’s taking away the love of the game. Sports should open up the eyes to kids to what they are passionate about.
When working with a group of kids under 13, the whole idea should be fun. They should have a strong diversity of the sports they play with a common goal to get into the “flow” state of mind. By doing this, they will naturally feel out what they like and what their good at! They’ll gain confidence that will then turn into courage and that courage will eventually fuel dreams.
Each child or parent should have the pressure for the child to be the next prodigy in whatever sport they are participating in. The fact that there are parents cursing and yelling at their kids for not wining is sickening. The actual fun has gotten away from us when playing sports and it’s changing the culture in a negative way. Kids should be excited about sports and not overwhelmed or pressured in any way.
The holistic approach
In my opinion, the greatest goal of science is to be able to apply it to humanity. Much research has shown that when it comes to training, there should be these four levels to consider when designing a program. These four pillars are:
1. Mindset
2. Nutrition
3. Movement
4. Recovery
When you put these four pillars into high performance it accelerates the performance and decreases the chance of injury more than ever. Please do not ignore the importance of these four steps.
The actual fundamentals
There have been major issues in the states these past couple years with sedentary lifestyle and ego when it comes to moving efficiently. Kelly Starett over at “San Francisco Cross fit” does a really good job informing folks on and bringing them back to a fundamental level to the simple motion of standing up! We need more people like this.
In Canada, you can’t even “volunteer” coach young kids in hockey unless you are certified by the government! It’s that serious up there. In the states, we have to a point where we let anyone come on in and start teaching these young kids the fundamentals. We get people who are ALREADY busy in their everyday lives volunteer teaching kids improper habits, I’ve seen this first hand. We have simply gotten lazy as a culture and its offensive top people like myself.
Coaching ques with kids under 13
Know what you are training for. Are you training to train? Training to compete?
Or are you training two win? After you narrow your program down to one of these categories you can then seek personalization, sincerely engage the kids and make sure they are in a situation where they will learn something. The last step is to make sure they will exert their energy! Make sure they are able to achieve these 3 then challenge them with clean movement.
Safety also plays a critical role. Not only the physical aspect, do the kids feel safe in their sport? Sometimes kids may get manipulated with all the control mechanisms from parents and others. Of coarse make sure they don’t feel any sort of sexual abuse at any point. Simply being a positive influence will go a very long way, kids will always be watching they will always be learning
When coaching, don’t ever tell the star athlete how they are the BEST kid in the group as this could easily disrupt their mindset as they get older. Instead, tell them you respect and admire their attributes. Like “I really admire your attention to detail and willing to have such a strong open growth mindset with training”.
Nutrition for kids
The goal is to keep it as simple as possible when advising any type of nutrition advice with kids. The most beneficial step and advice to give is to make sure they have a good breakfast in order to lay a solid foundation before they start the day. Eventually it will become a ritual for them to never skip breakfast when told over and over.
Mentioning things such as eat a rainbow often (lots of veggies, few fruits and high fiber foods) as well as the “less legs the better” approach meaning fish over chicken, and to make sure your meat is moving! (The fatty profile will be high if the meat is sedentary) Making sure they don’t get caught up in the fads and all the popular trends. I fully support sticking to the basics.
Embrace the importance of eating foods that are high in fiber has high nutrient density as well as a healthy serving of protein in every meal. I personally embrace the fact they can get protein from NON-animal sources such as beans and lentils. It doesn’t always essentially have to be animals when it comes to getting proper protein in diets. If possible, suggest that they know where their meat is coming from as well.
