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Training for a little kid


Erin  Roepke
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Erin  Roepke

A few weeks ago my neighbor saw my BtGB book, looked very intently at the pictures, and decided he wanted to try it. My neighbor is two. His dad thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to let him try it, and he also wanted to try it himself after reading the introduction stuff, but he wasn't sure if the exercises would be too strenuous for a two-year-old. I was just wondering if anyone could tell me how young kids usually start training for gymnastics and how often they work out. i know the book says kids should do 1 set of 3-5 reps, but how many days a week is too much for a kid that age, or is he old enough at all? Can he follow steady state cycles? i looked through quite a few pages in this part of the forum but was unable to find any info on kids this young. How old were the little oylmpic kids in BtGB when they started their training?

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Yes Yes YES! :) Get him going, especially if the dad is thinking about enrolling him in gymnastics in a couple years, it will give him a massive advantage having a good basis of strength, and it will be extremely beneficial if you give a good bit of your focus to him doing HS's as I see alot of kids at my gym struggling with them. And that they are the most important move in all of gymnastics.

Nah, its not too strenuous for them, most times people will underestimate how good kids can be at stuff like this. The main thing is too be careful to scale it down far enough (When he gets to the WODs, and yes in like a year or two I would definitely have him on them, scaled way down of course) and to start him of somewhat slow.

And don't forget to make it fun for him, as if its not fun for kids a lot of them will lose interest in time if its boring.

Also remember that kids don't have as good recovery of most adults. So be careful not to overwork him.

I don't see a problem with him doing SSC's, in fact I would think that for the statics that would be the best option for him!

Kids start gymnastics at all kinds of ages, pretty much as soon as they can confidently walk. They can start learning gymnastics.

Anyways just start him slow. Make it fun. Make sure his training is well structured. And he should do fine, in fact I would not be surprised if his strength gains make you jealous :wink:

P.S. If you do start training him keep us updated! :)

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I think its less about the kid's ability to handle the physicality as it is the mentality.

It's hard to imagine a two-year old having the mindset to hold an l-sit, but if he has the patience, great!

My 7 year old boy is in competitive trampoline and honestly, I don't think he was ready to do anything regimented until last year, which is exactly when he started.

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I agree and disagree. At two years old almost any kid can mentally handle it provided 2 things.

1. He does not start out to fast/hard and you exhaust him mentally and physically. (his workouts should not be as mentally challenging as yours. He may be able to handle them physically but he probably won't be able to handle as much mentally as you)

2. And provided you are a good teacher, alot of things go into being a good teacher. And it is different when you are dealing with that age. (You might even want to go to your local gym and ask some teachers their who teach young kids, what makes a good teacher)

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Oldrich Polreich

Mimicking is a great tool!

I got a young brother (He's 5 now) and when i started gymnastic training, he just spontaneously mimicked me. It became a habit and he is "training" with me almost every time now. I don't stress him with sets, repetitions, etc. Just letting him decide what he want's to do (Wich is, most of the times, everything :D ). Of course, I'm trying to teach him some basics (like joint preparation) and spot him on potentionally dangerous moves (handstand). He was able to do a half tuck L-seat and tuck planche instantly. I believe that in the right hands, he could heve been a very good gymnast one day. (Sadly, no such "hands" here :( )

Like Newguy said, kids are suprisingly good when comes to a bodyweight strenght. And they are able to withstand even very strenous workout IF they do it voluntarily (= properly motivated) :wink:

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