Kid’s martial arts and conditioning

Conditioning and Kid’s martial arts

There are many different thoughts on conditioning for children in all sports, not just kid’s martial arts classes.

Adult coaches watching the kid’s martial arts class, watching the future.

Some parents think that we should start earlier rather than later, others believe that you should start later. Some coaches in youth sports believe you should run kids silly and others believe you should just teach skill. Other coaches think that intense short interval training is best for younger kids rather than longer less  intense training.

I recently read an interesting article by a local sports and conditioning trainer, Mark McLaughlin, that really interested me on conditioning for youth. His article was entitled Endurance Training and the Young Athlete. He asks:

Why do athletes believe they need to train so hard all the time? Is it the perception that harder equals better? Or do they believe if they are not working as hard as possible they are not improving? Is this belief an indication of the misguided notions of the coaches and parents who are mentoring these young athletes? Or did the athlete see a video of one of their idol’s workouts on youtube, leading them to mimic that elite athlete’s particular workout (but without understanding how that workout fits into their idol’s monthly or annual workout program, or its place in their idol’s long-term development as an elite athlete)?

This line of questioning was then answered with hard facts when Mark says:

Let’s look at the science involved to better understand how these athletes should be training to properly develop their heart to maximize performance, particularly at young ages.

Kid’s martial arts and what’s best for our kids

Reviewing in kid’s martial arts class

When it comes to kid’s martial arts and any other sport for that there is definitely a trap, at least for parents, to want the best and I know I have fallen into that trap myself. We always want what’s best for our kid’s but sometimes we have to really understand the developmental differences of a young child, an adolescent, and an adult. It doesn’t matter if it’s kid’s martial arts or any other youth sport, I think we all fall into the trap of “working harder is better” when it’s really “working smarter is better.”

I invited Mark to come see one of my daughter’s classes and reached out to him to do a guest blog post. He has many ideas based on actual scientific studies and development in youth athletics and feel his insight would be good for this blog on kid’s martial arts.

Look for it soon…

bu Luis T.