Starting Infants

Anyone have a program or suggestions for starting infants?

I have my 27month old in 1x week gymnastics for 45min.

btw I have a gymnastics background.

Right now i am just having him travers obstacles/playground...everything is fun.

Jump on the running trampoline, skipping, pancakes, lots of wheelbarrow walking, forward rolls, some spotted planches.

He has huge quads from tons of bike riding, but I'm trying to activate more upper body work.

Lots of playing on monkey bars and whatever other sort of climbing activities are available at your local playground. For the littlest ones, in addition to the gymnastics etc., I also strongly recommend adding swimming lessons to their physical activities. It is wonderful exercise, alot of fun for them and is extremely important safety wise with the prevalence of home/neighbors swimming pools nowadays.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

The morality is the decision I have always had a problem with. It gives me the sense of playing god. Basically, where the does negelct end, and abuse (taking away free will) begin. I have personally achieved a lot in other sports without any push or outside discipline. My parents really didn't seem to care. I soon dominated most of the people with the nutcase parents. When other kids lost, it was like they awaited a big lecture from psycho dad. When I lost, my parents took me out to dinner. When I won, we did the same. I don't know what the right way is, there most likely isn't , except for what you can live with.

I struggle with getting my kids started early enough in something of their choosing so they don't feel like they missed out when they get older. The problem is I can't predict the future to know which sport they will really care about.

I remember being envious of those that had been wrestling since they were four years old when I started as a freshman in high school. Of course I had been generally active in sports of all kinds prior to then and so had a good strength/agility base to start with ... that may be good enough, but it didn't help me from lamenting when I started that I was 'so far behind'.

Some of coach's little athletes are not much older than my oldest, who is currently 6 years old. Yet my oldest is nowhere near capable of maintaining the type of focus necessary for progressing through the various exercises from the book or the things demo'd in the videos. He plays on the rings with me (and so does my 3 year old) but the focus is all over the map. With that in mind I think it is amazing that Coach's boys are able to develop such amazing skillsets ... must be some voodoo involved.

- Chris

The appropriate moral behavior on the part of the parent(s) involved is a completely separate issue from providing enough physically inclined activities to allow the child to develop adequate strength, coordination, balance and agility. With modern society's proclivity for computers and video games, I have noticed that it now takes me one year of twice weekly training for new students to physically match what students from ten years back walked through the door with .

As a side note, my seven year old daughter does gymnastics twice a week (with another instructor, not myself), ballet once and trips to the pool or playground whenever she can drag me out of the house. This past Sunday she learned to ski in a few hours with no problems at all. Fundamental physical preparation (running, jumping, climbing, swimming, throwing etc), on a relatively non-intensive level, was the key to her success. To my mind, requiring this fundamental physical preparation is no different than requiring your child to learn phonics or the multiplication tables.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Back when I was a kid, I was very active. I did my share of spending my nose in a book and hand-eye coordination training, but I played and ran around all the time. I was always very agile and so it was fairly easy to be able to move around and I never had a problem of being uncoordinated.

One simple way to determine how coordinated a child is simply by their cartwheel. Two different planes at the same time.

Teaching kids now, especially little boys, many of them tend to be so uncoordinated. They are train wrecks when running and this was something I never had a problem ( except slowing down my speed to not crash and burn ). Many of the kids who come in and are coordinated from day 1 are the ones are very active and play around all the time ( besides sometimes coming from dance backgrounds ).

As for very young kids, it's best just to expose to a varying stimulus of physical activity. Kindergym exposes them to so much thing which is very critical for developing both hemispheres the brain since most brain development is done before 6. I know of one local gym that has gymnastics, dance, and swim. Some other gyms offer martial arts and cheer all under the same roof. This to me is the appeal of CrossFitKids is that so broad.

By the way, if your kid turns out to be a good butterfly swimmer...sometimes they make for very strong gymnasts.

My former's owners little daughter had massive little upper legs, quads and hams from bouncing so much on trampoline from a young age ( she was 4-5 ).

More upper body work? Simply get him hanging and supporting. Animal walking, handstands on wall ( something from my friend does with his 2 year old while we were doing headstands ), swinging, climbing, etc.

One simple way to determine how coordinated a child is simply by their cartwheel. Two different planes at the same time.

An even simpler test is to ask them to run backwards. It still amazes me how many children today fail at this.

Society as a whole has certainly lost its way physically. By a show of hands, the majority of new students coming to me either never, or very rarely, go outside to the playground. If they do so, they must have sunscreen and a water bottle. They are not allowed to get dirty, tired or thirsty. They don't climb trees or even attempt the monkey bars. At school they are no longer allowed to play basketball, tag or even run during recess. One of my younger students actually got in trouble for doing a cartwheel on the grass.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Thanks for all the great replies.

My son is very active and plays for hours at a time on various play yards with climbing his favored activity. The amount of climbing(sofas, beds, tables) and bike riding outside of genetics is what I attribute his quad development to.

Thank you to all the concerned parents about morality and pushing a child. But my child like many needs a physical outlet and as was mentioned I am not willing to let that outlet become a tv or video game but one of productive activity which requires physical as well as mental ability.

My son goes to a playground daily and weekly to the library to balance his life. He prefers the playground which we stay for hours at.

An interesting story - I drove my son to a local park, we get out and I was rather tired from work so I walk to the picnic table while my son runs to the jungle gym and begins scaling an advanced obstacle. A pair of onlooking parents of a similarly aged child were so horrified. They continued to hover over their son within 2-3ft where ever he went. Saddly there child had much difficulty just climbing the stairs to the jungle gym, not to mention doing other activites on it by himself cause he had no agility or confidence aor cause he was not allowed to do it himself, to get dirty, or to fall. Before they left they asked me how old my son was.This type of event has happened 3-5 different times. I attribute it to not letting a chid be a child, as well as over protective skiddish parents. EDIT- Another issue I have is these parents teach the child to be fearful conciouslly and subconciouslly. over protective over reactive. I attempt to be stoic in my reactions to borderline activity, and usually just warn my child with 'becareful...you could 'fall(etc)' if something is dangerous like climbing on the couch. It is his choice to heed my warnings and if he gets hurt I merely remind him that to becareful and try again. Of course I do this with in reason and don't hand him a loaded pistol.

To those concerned about me pushing a child...

I am not using any form of compulsion in his activites the goal is FUN...they are merely coordination oriented aor development geared.

I do try to have him walk on his hands every other day. Usually when he asks to see his favorite toy the vacuum cleaner...so we walk to get the vacuum on his hands. Again everything is fun to him and there is also a reward of getting what he wants at the end. The planches(spotted) seem over the top for a 2yo, but they are simply a modification of a wheelbarrow walk done for time I count which also is helping him with his numbers. I also have him open store doors by himself by pushing those doors which ties his lower body and upper body together in sequence a key in correct power development required in any sport requiring forward pressure/drive.

I am a firefighter by profession and I see many children, almost daily on medical emergencies that are highly medicated with a cocktail of psychosis drugs(usually 6+). This saddens me in part due to the parents unintentionally neglecting positive outlets(sports) for their children to burn off the raging hormones as well as energy in their developing bodies. Instead video games, big screen tvs and diverse adult geared dvd collections often dominate these house holds. An understanding of the need for physical outlets as well as diverse parenting skills is often missing(from my limited perspective of looking out to in) when I get an emergency call to these homes, but is often confirmed during my patient interviews. Unfortunately sports participation often is the first to be removed when disciplining children, providing a conundrum.

Youth sports-

Psycho Dads and parents not caring were both mentioned. I don't agree with either and feel both are extremes. Parents should care taking an interest even choosing sports for children when they are very young. Today the psycho dad is very common, I interpret the first 3 years of sports to be learning the basics meaning lots of fun and competition if done at that time is merely an imprint. Around the 4th to 7year mark(depending on sport and age) training in a sport is a reasonable amount of time for more serious competition which should be after an innate drive is developed.

Parents training their children to equate success with love is not appropriate. Parents need to provide unconditional love, that is outside of sports. Being a good loser is inappropriate in my opinion, take the loss and learn from it. Train harder and smarter.

With regards to world class athletes and their parnets-

I think of Roy Jones Jr 6 time world champion...his father also produced 9 or so different world champions from scratch, but he does not have a relationship with his tyrannical abusive father. I also think of a tennis world champion telling the story with tears in his eyes of how his father ripped the second place trophy out of his young sons hands to throw it in the trash cause second place is first loser.

Finally I think of Tiger Woods who had a very good relationship with his father for his entire life.

As mentioned it is very wise to have an outsider teach/coach a loved one so as not to complicate the relationship.

Competition in life is the natural state of things. There is a winner and there is a loser. That is how life is. You 9 times out of 10 get what you put into it.

Competition breeds discipline to train which strengthens the mind and the will. The type of training a 3year old does differs entirely from a 8year old or a 16year old or a 20year old.

By providing a positive experience in the early stages provides the groundwork to produce an innate love of an activity. A love that doing the activity provides its own intrinsic rewards.

This article is very interesting on mastery...10000 hours for mastery on average

http://projects.ict.usc.edu/itw/gel/Eri ... cePR93.pdf

Swimming is a great activity as the skill will last a lifetime. Slightly off topic, but I read a study on competitive swimmers having less proprioception than other athletes...this was attributed to them spending so much time a base less environment.

(of course gmynast will likely have the highest).

With morality being mentioned it should be noted that I am attempting to provide a physical outlet for my sons developing body and mind.

I feel it more of a moral issue if I followed what I for see as todays typical parenting model... lots of processed food, television as the nanny, video games as a regularity, minimal reading, no Boy play(climbing/wrestling/war/getting dirty) for fear of injury, no discipline, treating boys and girls the same, not communicating with my child on a deep level.

This is so depressing...and what about child nutrition ?

I wasn't accusing any particular poster of abuse. It me just expressing my opinions and believes from my experiences. I have heard of Roy Jones Jr.'s father. I am more familiar with tennis, however. Guys like Mary Pierce's father, who was banned from tournaments. Jelena Dokic as well. I don't think Agassi is very close with his father. His father made up his mind that Andre would be a tennis player when he was in a crib. Another guy I spoke with, told me a story of witnessing a father come out on court and punch his son in the jaw for either losing or getting behind in a match. I've personally witnessed a guy drag his daughter off the court by the hair, hit her, throw tennis balls at her head, making her run while crying, and other forms of emotional abuse. Outside of tennis, I knew a guy who played pro golf. He was also a baseball pitcher in high school. He said he was not allowed a bad game, otherwise, he had to hear about the whole thing on the way home. He made up his mind to never be that person. The sad thing is, almost all the easy going people rarely raise athletic champions. The nutcases seem to win more than their fair share, which seems to promote it further. I know 100% focus on a given discipline is the key. I learned this a long time ago when listening to a lecture on competitive shooting, saying that once you pick a discipline (pistol or rifle), stick with. I don't think anybody shoots both air pistols and rifle at the highest levels, depsite it seemingly being nothing more than pointing an object. I guess the bottom line is, pinpoint focus produces, and most kids don't find a discipline (passion) quickly enough.

Here is a question I asked my parents. If a kid is doing something clearly wrong, that you know will not lead to the achievement of hi/her goals, do you intervene, or let life take its course? I never recieved an answer from them. I rarely comment, but if cornered, I will tell it like it is. Many people don't like to hear the truth. I will not lie to people I care about, so they can come back in ten years and tell me I didn't know squat, and it is all my fault. On the other hand, I get people telling me that I make them nervous, or just want to be critical. I'm like, you asked. Do you want me to misguide you? Sometimes, I feel people do. Maybe, so that failing isn't really their fault, it is always someone elses. When someone gives you the map, it is your failure to execute. Just my thoughts.

JL thnk you for posting your thoughts.

It was Agassi' who told the story of his father throwing his trophy in the trash telling him he was nothing cause he came in second place.

Gentlemen,

We have wandered far indeed from the original discussion of beneficial activities to aid a young child in their muscular neurological development. Let's bring this thread back on track with the original inquiry.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

That's interesting what Coach said back on the 3 February 2009. My son (and friends) were told late last year that they are not allowed to do handstands at school. I found it really quite bizarre. I considered contacting the school but decided that it would be a waste of time.

My son is very active and has always been that way. He watches very little television (his own decision) and is forever nagging his sister to come and play with him should she be watching television. My daughter is also very active. Like Coaches daughter she learnt to water ski this year (she is 5 years old). She popped straight out of the water and off she went. She thought it was great fun.

I'm also amazed how many times the school sits them down to watch 'movies'. If it rains - they have to be inside watching a movie, if it's hot they watch movies, if they're tired (eg. the end of the year) they watch movies. It's a form of torment for my son.

Kerry

Even though i do not have children i think it's a very interesting discussion,

I've added a link to one of Charles Poliquin columns at t-nation, search for the "Training for Coordination" question -

some interesting stuff that might relate to this topic.

link - http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_art ... tember&cr=

Cheers,

Ron

Update-

Training is continuing to be fun.

The hs are getting easier, wheelbarrows are a staple, stair walks(up) are up to 50 or so steps(2x this past month), planche progression thru hs are played with every other day(eod), counting and timed planches(eod), back extensions for 2-3sets for 1-3reps eod, a few straddles eod. Workload is spread over the day and integrated into play.

'animal walking'- animal mimicing, races, etc

I need to work on his core, his butt drops for an arch doing planches(spotted). a sit up is difficult,

Still working on pushing down for an eventual P bar type support. (light-fun only)

Child continues to view all as fun and once annoyance or disinterest shows up I back off, or do one more short drill.

I want to put a climbing wall up and a climbing rope for fun.

Unfortunately sports participation often is the first to be removed when disciplining children, providing a conundrum.

I have been teaching kids Brazilian jiu-jitsu (ages 5-12) for a few years and its my opinion that any kind of training (jiu-jitsu, gymnastics, swimming, etc) should be treated the same as school, you wouldn't "ground" your kid's from school. I don't have kids myself but I think I would restrict TV, video games, or something like that rather then physical activity. Whenever a parent mentions they have grounded their kid from activities including jiu-jitsu I always mention this to them. I think any physical activity should be encouraged. Growing up my parents always let me try different things like swimming, piano, and some others and now I wish I had learned gymnastics, jiu-jitsu, and the guitar as a child. I think it would be impossible to know what someone would be interested in when they are older but some sports seem to develop very important attributes over others and I think I would pick those and treat it like school as a part of a complete education since the educational system neglects physical education as a whole. I think I agree with the idea of a non parent teaching children as well. I always encourage these kids wether they win or lose in tournaments and I know what each child needs to work on when I see them in a tournament. The parents often don't know what happened if they are not into the sport themselves and don't understand how the sport works. I don't know about infants, in jiu-jitsu I like it when boys start at 6 and for a girl 5, girls seem to develop faster and tend to be mature compared to boys.

Love your posts everyone. Especially yours Peregrine & Mata_Leo.

I am single, dont have kids or a wife .. LOL.. Why the interest?

I love kids & have a bunch of baby cousins that I have helped raise in a big family

Mat_Leo - I have a cousing who is 13/14 but just not into physical activity except his minimal soccer time thanks to his mother & his Manchester United fanboyship. He spends tonds of time on the Internet, Facebook, TV, Gaming Consoles etc.

He is extremely LAZY & LETHARGIC when it comes to doing anything.

I figured I'd introduce him to the local Capoeria class. I was wondering if you have any ideas since he is not keen on ANYTHING remotely physical / good for him.

Sorry I just noticed your post here. It's hard to motivate someone if they have no desire to do a particular pursuit. The activity needs to be something enjoyable for him, I've found the kids being forced by there parents to do an activity tend to do the worst in class and progress the slowest. I think you should pay particular attention to the instructors and find one that can motivate the students to do the activity and I'm sure there is a physical activity he would enjoy. Any good facility will let a prospective student try it before signing up so I would recommend taking him to a few different activities i.e. capoeira, dance, martial art, etc. and see what he seems to like and can stick with for long-term training. I know I am motivated to train jiu-jitsu by watching high level competitors and try to reach that level myself. The same thing applies to training gymnastics for me, by watching videos posted on this site and youtube, especially free running, I am motivated to continue the progressions. If you were to do the activity with him I think he would feel comfortable training as well. I think when people first start an activity it can seem overwhelming and having someone familiar training can help with this. Ultimately though I think if he found an activity he really enjoyed he would be fine, just shop around at different activities and clubs an see what he seems to like.

http://www.maxwellsc.com/blog.cfm?blogID=20

How to raise a champion? Strength coach and BJJ champion Steve Maxwell shares his thoughts about the way he raised his son, who won the pan american, world and US national titles.

Very interesting and creative aproach, enjoy,

Ido.

Ido Portal said:

http://www.maxwellsc.com/blog.cfm?blogID=20

How to raise a champion? Strength coach and BJJ champion Steve Maxwell shares his thoughts about the way he raised his son, who won the pan american, world and US national titles.

Very interesting and creative aproach, enjoy,

Ido.

Nice Ido.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PndJi2Sia2w

I would disagree that this is how to start an infant. Far too sensationalistic with strong overtones of striving for captial gains for my taste.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Not only did that father have extremely distasteful sense about his son's training, but it seems he didn't even bother to go through correct technique with him in the urgency to "achieve" aesthetically impressive feats. I sense ego spill over as the prime vessel of motivation.

If this is truly the case, I wouldn't want ANY child to train in this matter. If you'd like to burn out a child, put their health at risk and have them resent you for life for a chance at personal glory though, that video might be a good model to follow.

I had a few very preschool classes myself and they were based on fun and exploring, we happened upon gymnastic ideas rather than training them. They were very happy and a few eventually got picked up by developmental teams.

5 and under classes really should be about learning and exploring with basic skill work. Sometimes, with the right kids you can engage in more directed skill work.

This kid has a lot of uber flexibility ( he's getting to manna besides did you see those HLL on the wall ).

His father has some base rudimentary knowledge. This could go far if he had proper instruction in gymnastics or other sports. He seems to have an awesome sense of balance even if his form is not ideal.