Kids are Kids, NOT Little Adults

Things that piss me off in “Fitness”: Ohh how I loathe:

• CrossFit for competitive athletes and average people and for that matter anyone who doesn’t plan on competing in CrossFit…btw Robb Wolf agrees 
• Yoga/ Pilates to lose weight (and cure cancer)
• Group Exercise class, especially the choreographed kind
• The Bender ball
• Unstable surface training
• Distance Running
• Opinons passed off as scientifically tested truth: BROSCIENCE!

But

Nothing and I mean NOTHING pisses me off like training children as if they are adults.

That, my friends is the epitome of ignorance in physical preparation.

This morning I got an email from a friend who is coaching his nephews hockey team this fall. The kids are in late middle school years 12-14 so training is appropriate and a good thing to get them accustomed to, especially if these kids have aspirations of higher achievement in sport. Attached to it was the “training” program  they are hopefully NOT following now but were planning on.

The program was from the 1998 New York Islanders…

Yeah, Those Islanders

A Freaking NHL team…..and over 10 years old

Evidently, they found this on the internet and thought that it would be the key getting the kids in shape leading to a winning season. ….thing is, it’s not.

This program is meant for trained NHL quality players. Freaks of nature who had reached the top professional level in their sport. In what way would a program which is meant to improve NHL players be appropriate for KIDS?

The only common thread between the two teams here is that they play the same sport, that’s it. There are no other commonalities.

Here is exactly what I said as a response:

This program is meant for Elite adults. These kids are not adults nor elite (kids can’t be, there are no elite 12 year olds). Do easy things, body weight pushups, pullups, squats, lunges, step ups…have them run, jump, skip. Throw the Islanders program in the trash, it’s inappropriate and outdated.

He’s smart and was willing to ask before just blindly implementing so I’m betting they come up with something more appropriate.

Point is, why do people even think this is appropriate in the first place?

Doesn’t common sense tell us that you have to learn to walk before you run?

I think it does, but people get caught up in the hero worship culture and financial windfall that professional sport has become and have lost sight on how we develop kids to get there. Too often we’re trying to skip from algebra to calculus 2. Problem is, you need the prerequisites. The skills and qualities for higher success need to be developed……

This isn’t the first time this has happened, it’s actually quite common.

I’ve been asked about NFL training programs for high school aged kids. Hell, I’ve been given a program (3 days a week for a NHLer) which was literally photocopied from a book which said “this program is inappropriate for a non-NHL level athlete”….not joking.

They didn’t even read the book, just skipped to the back and photocopied the workout.

The only saving grace is that the correct (read based in empirical science) information is out there. USA hockey has adopted the Long Term Athlete Development Model the International Youth Fitness Association is out there and great resources like Canadian Sport for Life and the work of Dr. Istvan Balyi are all over the internet.

So really I think it’s just a re-framing of our mindset that needs to happen.

The question shouldn’t be “what is the conditioning program of an NHL team” or “what does Tiger Woods do to train” but rather “what are the physical qualities of an NHLer and what program can develop my child  into an athlete with those qualities”?

Buddy Morris said it best, “we want to slow cook our athletes”…..