Hanro Roos Posted August 4, 2014 Share Posted August 4, 2014 Just for interest sake, broken fragile immobile adult zombies start with foundation one... where would a young flexible healthy child start with no issues i.e. where does coach start his 'normal' athletes? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Sommer Posted August 4, 2014 Share Posted August 4, 2014 At what age? Yours in Fitness, Coach Sommer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hanro Roos Posted August 4, 2014 Author Share Posted August 4, 2014 It's a hypothetical question. What is the age that your athletes normally start out training with you and where would you start them in the foundation program? PS: might be scary to find out how far behind we are... Thanks Coach for your time! You're numero uno Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farid Mirkhani Posted August 4, 2014 Share Posted August 4, 2014 I like this thread! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farid Mirkhani Posted August 4, 2014 Share Posted August 4, 2014 I might be wrong, but I don't think Coach Sommers athletes who are beginner (meaning very young I guess) would follow something like foundation that is build for adults (?). Kids can probably skip progressions and over all progress much faster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoldenEagle Posted August 4, 2014 Share Posted August 4, 2014 Actually, the foundation course is the same program Coach Sommer used for the athletes he taught in Arizona. The volume of workload may differ do to age and recovery ability. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hanro Roos Posted August 4, 2014 Author Share Posted August 4, 2014 The reason why i asked this question is because I heard somewhere in an interview (think it was the Robb Wolf podcast...) Coach mentioned when he initially brought out 'Building the gymnastic body' he confirmed that he grossly overestimated an adult's mobility ability. The words they used were: 'their bodies were glass'. So easy exercises for a child might be ridiculously difficult for an adult... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexander Egebak Posted August 4, 2014 Share Posted August 4, 2014 If one knows his true strength (in muscles, bones and connective tissue), his true flexibility level in all angels and have a perfect movement pattern, one can indeed, with deep knowledge foundation's programming (all the "why"s), one can indeed skip exercises. But when one meet all these standards, he can just structure his own program. Not being aware of the above and still skipping exercises can POTENTIALLY lead to not getting the benefits of a great program. No reason to take gamble against someone, who probably knows more about strength training than any one on this forum. SPOILER: he posted in this thread Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Pettit Posted August 4, 2014 Share Posted August 4, 2014 I work with children, young as 4, teaching martial arts. They have two advantages over adults. One is ridiculously stupid mobility in the hips. Things like the butterfly stretch (sitting on the floor, heels together as close to your body as possible, knees ideally resting on the ground) they can do without a problem. Heck, 80% can touch their heads to their toes as if it were nothing. Other hip-related stretches are also super easy. Hamstrings are a different story. Most struggle to touch their toes. That said, just about anyone under the age of eight can kick roughly head height, once taught the proper form. The second advantage is two-fold. One, they (generally) do what they are told. If you say we'll practice kicks for 5min and then do self-defences, they'll do that. They follow orders. Adults tend to pick and choose what they want to do, or do things the way they think it needs to be done. And second, kids tend to do everything 100%. You ask them to do a few laps, they run all out. Kicks, the hardest kicks they can do. Unless a child has no interest, they put everything into it. Adults and many older kids spend too much time worrying about looking stupid or uncoordinated, so they don't go all-out. This is why kids tend to pick things up so quickly: they do what you want, and they put maximum effort into it. They also don't tend to take criticism poorly, though that varies from child to child. Granted, this is just an after-school program, regular kids. I'm not working with the creme de la creme as Coach would. The main disadvantage I see in kids is lack of coordination. Doing a proper pushup is a minor miracle. Once they start over-coming that, though, they progress almost scary fast. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Burnham Posted August 5, 2014 Share Posted August 5, 2014 Actually, the foundation course is the same program Coach Sommer used for the athletes he taught in Arizona. The volume of workload may differ do to age and recovery ability.Based on the same program. From what I know the kids used something closer to what the wods are. Most kids also have relatively little problem with most of the "strength work" we are working on. For example coach didn't consider arch body hold or hollow body hold strength work. It was just something that they did for warmup. Have no doubt that the kids did have mastery of the elements in foundation. It just was formatted in the same way so that we can work through deficiencies they didn't have. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blairbob Posted August 6, 2014 Share Posted August 6, 2014 Not all kids are flexible by any means. Especially boys. I've seen plenty of boys 5-8 who are not flexible or not strong. A lot of them have trouble with bridges or splits and pretty much hate training splits unless they are reasonably flexible. But if you give me a young boy who has been doing kinder gymnastics 1-2x/week since he was 3 and joins preteam at 4 1/2 or 5, he'll be ahead of the curve. Same thing goes with the little girls on preteam doing gymnastics since 3 and joining preteam at 4 versus the girls who are just starting out at 5 or 6.The only kids I have seen that hit the ground running without starting gymnastics early on were very active kids. These were the kind of kids who were constantly moving even if they weren't in ballet or martial arts a few times a week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Sommer Posted August 6, 2014 Share Posted August 6, 2014 Infant to 18months/24months, I would recommend an infant/toddler swim program. Infants naturally hold their breath underwater, comfortably and without trauma. The act of swimming is also excellent for the development of concentration and focus for the simple reason that not paying attention causes you to sink! It is also easy on young joints, great for coordination and reasonably effective conditioning for that age.After swimming, from 2-4yrs or possibly even 5yrs, I would recommend massive amounts of unsupervised playground time outside; getting dirty, wet and rowdy. By unsupervised I mean allow them to play on their own; not in partnership with you. Let them learn to throw, climb, run, jump, explore and generally raise hell. Don't hover over them. Don't pick them up. Don't slather them in sunscreen every 15 minutes. Don't clap, smile or carry on over everything they do. This type of parental behavior creates dependency; not independence. Allow them to fall, get up and problem solve on their own.A once a week mommy/daddy and me gymnastics class during this time period is sufficient at this time for structured instruction.At five or six years old, you may want to check into a more structured gymnastics program if a good coach is available in your area.Yours in Fitness,Coach Sommer 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farid Mirkhani Posted August 6, 2014 Share Posted August 6, 2014 [...] At five or six years old, you may want to check into a more structured gymnastics program if a good one is available in your area.Yours in Fitness,Coach SommerLike foundation and handstand? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Burnham Posted August 6, 2014 Share Posted August 6, 2014 No like a coach led program. Part of the experience is working with other kids. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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