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Do Kids Adapt Faster?


jamesters
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I feel like I train so hard, pretty much as hard as my body seems capable of. In fact, today I seemed to have some sort of nervous system shock from overtraining, there was pain to open my mouth which was strange. But then I see a 9 year old kid doing planche legs together and one handed stands and the sort. Is it that kids can adapt faster that adults, or maybe just having a trainer helping you every step of the way really makes a big difference?

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I've been wondering about that myself. The other half of the question i've been wondering is will that same kid have those skills when he grows up?

I'm in no way an expert, but my guess is that kids who are put in a program usually start really young, so that nine year old may have been at it for 4 or 5 years already. With a coach no less. So the time they put in seems disproportional to their age, and then there is the simple fact - kids are LIGHT. Which gives them a big leg up!

My good friend's son is a really talented young man. He was naturally 'gymnastic' so he was enrolled in gymnastics at around 4 if i remember right. He could do an iron cross as a boy, but like most he dropped out at some point and now though he's quite fit, can't do it anymore.

Anyway i really hope you can find a good Coach, i know you put the work in and are really motivated. Can you get to Coach Summer's workshop? That could be really helpful for you.

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Pre-pubescent kids dont have near the testosterone levels that there 18-20 year old counterparts do, so I doubt it.

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Hayden Whealing
I feel like I train so hard, pretty much as hard as my body seems capable of. In fact, today I seemed to have some sort of nervous system shock from overtraining

You might just be overtraining

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Anyway i really hope you can find a good Coach, i know you put the work in and are really motivated. Can you get to Coach Summer's workshop? That could be really helpful for you.

When and where is Coach Sommer's workshop?

Pre-pubescent kids dont have near the testosterone levels that there 18-20 year old counterparts do, so I doubt it.

I think there's a lot more to skill adaptation than just testosterone levels.

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Anyway i really hope you can find a good Coach, i know you put the work in and are really motivated. Can you get to Coach Summer's workshop? That could be really helpful for you.

When and where is Coach Sommer's workshop?

Next weekend in Arizona. Wow yeah May is almost over. Click the Seminars link above.

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Older people (high school, college age, 20s+) have the benefit of being able to gain strength & mass faster. Like someone said.. testosterone.

The younger kids have the advantage of a good coach, plus years of experience learning skills under their belt, plus light weight. When you add that up they can do a lot of things that would take you much longer to learn in short periods of time.

Do not underestimate the 4-5+ years that most 7-9 year olds have of experience training... that's a world of difference in most cases. If you specific trained your deadlifting ability for 4-5 years you'd probably be up near 2-2.5x bodyweight if not some of us in the realm of 3x bodyweight. So why would you expect yourself to be able to do planches with such an analogy like that? Most of us cannot deadlift above 2x bodyweight on the first try.

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a child's brain is much more plastic than an adult... children are designed to learn...

this creates a trade off... i believe that kids can learn more skill oriented movements faster than adults... adults should have the advantage in more strength oriented movements for reasons already stated...

this is a generalization and as such i'm sure there are many exceptions...

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  • 4 months later...

I've never been gymnast, but I am a scientist and have assisted a little in my eight year old sons gymnastics coaching. For what its worth here are my views, though I stand to be corrected by those with more experience/knowledge. I think there are a number of reasons and I'll list six.

1. Power to weight ratio

As a biologist you can't ignore area to volume ratios because they crop up everywhere and I think its relevant here. To a very rough approximation, as densities of tissues are approximately similar then your weight is approximately proportional to your volume. Now disregarding all the issues of tendon strength, different muscle fibre composition, different leverage due to body proportion etc. etc because we're only talking ballpark, the strength of any muscle is approximately proportional to its cross sectional area. So the strength will increase as a function of squaring a linear dimension, while weight will be a function of cubing it. An adults body is much larger than an eight year old, so although his strength is much greater especially after the effects of increased testoerone after puberty, but he'll weigh proportionally even more. So with proper training the eight year old gymnast may simply have a superior power to weight ratio than the reasonably strong adult, though not than an adult gymnast. It would be interesting to hear Coach Sommer's view on the respective power to weight ratios of his younger boys with respect to his adult gymnasts. Its also why no matter how hard say an athletically gifted 6'5" 250lb linebacker or heavyweight boxer trained I suspect they aren't going to do a swallow on rings.

2. Flexibility

Children are more naturally flexible than adults, and a child who has been trained will have much greater flexibility. So for example my eight year old son can do a pike lift to handstand very easily because he can pike flatfold very easily. His ex-gymnast coach is not as flexible so he can't do it because he must take up a more mechanically disadvantaged position of his hips compared with his shoulders. In effect his coach has to have an even higher power to weight ratio to do the same move. In contrast, for a move not requiring flexibilty e.g. holding a straddle planche: his coach can hold it for much longer.

3. Length of body /limbs

A child's limbs are shorter than an adult. Lets assume the child and adult have the same power to weight ratio. Basic physics suggests that the moment required for rotation is proportional to the distance from the fulcrum. So long levers will make some moves more mechanically disadvantaged. The move will be easier for the child with the same power to weight ratio. On the other hand it makes circling on a mushroom harder for a child than an adult with the same power to weight ratio and knowledge of correct technique as they will have to move their hands more quickly as they'll rotate more quickly

4. Fear

Children are more prepared to "give it a go" more than adults. Even after they have fallen and hurt themselves. One additional explanation is that because they are so much lighter, the falls actually hurt them less. If you drop a cat say 10 feet from tree its fine. If you could drop a hypothetical elephant it would die from the internal injuries. So the child will learn the move more quickly beacuse he does not fear injury and is happier trying to do the move? Kids (at least my son) wouldn't assess a risk/benefit ratio of learning a move / getting injured trying in the same way either!

5. Coaching

Cannot underestimate the value of this. What adult except a competitve gymanst would get the offer of so much cheap coaching / encouragement as a gifted child receives? Given the close relastionships between coaches and their gymnasts, then the coach has more of a stake in developing the child.

6. Time training

What adult who is working apart from a professional athlete can spend as much time training gymanstics as a child who is doing gymnastics as their major sport?

Happy to be corrected by those who know better. Best regards

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