10 replies to this topic

[RogerRebar]

My daughter  started Little athletics last year upon which to my shame as a parent I discovered she couldnt run or jump (Note:Her BMI is spoton average she just doesnt do these things well). My fault, as a parent I havent given her alot of those oppurtunities not like when I was young. Despite this she is having a ball. Shes quite content to come last but is over the moon if she can beat her PB's. She has made some new friends and is excited about going to every meet and every friendly carnival.

Last year in a effort to get new PB's she asked for my help, not knowing anything of a technical nature related to athletics. We worked on eating healthier and doing regular athletic activites, such as going to pools, bike riding,playing soccer in the park, rock climbing plus many others, basically just increasing the amount of activites we did. She was enthusiastic about this and every week last she year she would get a PB in at least a couple of events.

We had abit of a hiccup this year though. In the past she has always finished last at school carnivals. This year she won at shotput and discus, then won zone at discus and then finished top 8 at regional for discus (despite having no discus technique). This caused her to want to focus only on discus but we've gotten over that, I guess deep down everyone wants to win, but she is now focused on PB's for all events rather than just one.

This brings me to the point where I need advice. She's already eating a good diet, and we exercise regularly in a Non-athletics way. So I want to know how to help her get PB's this year (shes asking me). I dont want to put her on a 5 day training program like some of the kids. Twice a week the club does training, this seems a good balance but the quality is not high unless your one of the elite athletes at the club. She has absolutely no technique (not even discus) so this seems like a logical point to start. So how do a improve/teach her technique for the events with just a couple of training sessions each week given I have no knowledge and the athletics club isnt a big help.

THe only options I can thing off are,

1) Find a coach. But havent been successful, they either are full/not available or are only interested in the elite athletes (Understandable).
2) Do a level 1 course for coaching myself. But I dont think this will help much without practical experience. Kind of like learning the theory of brain surgery by correspondence without the practical.
3) Change clubs. I have found one local club that has a much better coaching program (and all round better attitude to the kids IMHO), however, my child doesnt want to change. She has friends and bonds to the existing club.

I'm at a loss. I fear that if she stops improving or getting PB's she'll lose interest and not want to do it, which is OK from a parental perspective, but it is something she really enthusiastically enjoys and I'd hate for her to lose that.

Any thoughts??

[HillsAths1]

There are many coaches who take on those other then the elite, it is simply a matter of finding the right ones.

Check out the ATCA website and check your suburb and the ones close by. Perhaps take your daughter to the other Little A's club and talk to the coach there and explain the situation(if he has any sense he will realise that someone who can make it to final 8 with no real coaching must have some sort of ability)(in addition if she trains with the other clubs kids and gets to know them she may like them just as much as the current clubs kids).

I am not sure where you are located but I know that the Various State coaching bodies do some coaching clinics where you can go and learn from some of the other coaches. Also some of the senior clubs have a good network of coaches who can assist.

From what you have outlined you appear to be giving your daughter a good balanced upbringing and something that she will appreciate later on.

If you need more information please post your locality etc and I am sure that someone here will be aware of good coaches etc in your area.

[grimsey]

Roger where i'm at, we train our young kids twice a week, it doesn't matter what talent they have. At that age i think twice a week is sufficient plus little a's makes it 3 times a week. With our program at little A's , when the kids our young the emphasis is on working on their technique rather than how far they can throw.
It sounds like she is having fun and thats what it is all about, especially at such a young age. By all means you could do your level 1's, which would teach you a basic knowledge on throwing techniques for little A's and you might also be able to help out on the night.
Good luck with it

[walker1st]

oh this is going to be one of those controversial topics.

1 day or few days coaching seminar will not make you a coach,

you are better to educate yourself from other sources if you are into it.


at that age all round and general fun/sport/leisure activities are important and you seems to have covered that well, to add to it or to refocused in it, would require some kind of assessment or comparison of performances accross the events.

at this age there is no point to focus on strong apsects, there is no need to work on everything and pay notice to weak links and work on them.

However the psychological aspect is important. This kids generation is psychologicaly at very different situation to previous generations, so it is perfectly possible that the 10 year old is clearly aware of the preferencies or likes etc and so your daughter could be perfectly aware that it is dicuss
what is her event and forcing her into everything else could be counterproductive.

the very sensitive question is, why did she agreed with you on doing all events and trying to PB at all of them, instead just teh discuss ?

is this really comming from her or she simply giving in to the father authority ?

this is very sensitive and very difficult to answer and you the only one who can.

Even if she focused on discuss at the age of 10, she could be doing other stuff and she can understand that there is lots of stuff she needs to be good at to her discuss ability to come trough...

technique - the kid is growing in size and in the muscle strenght, so any technique which would be learned today would be useless tomorrow and technique learned at teh stage of nondevelped body
(this is not purely kids issue, goes for beggining adults etc) is actually a future problem not future solution.

so I would never attempt to teach kid some correct technique quite contrary I will use lots of exercises, drills to break up any technique which could be forming as not to become wired into the brain. This of course will result in not as good PB's at various age as theorethicaly possible to the same body but will make future that much easier.

If in her destiny is to become adult athlete, she will, if not forced into it or into anything related

if it is not in her, there is nothing you can do to arrange it.

[TrackRunner]

RogerRebar, on Oct 20 2009, 12:40 PM, said:

THe only options I can thing off are,

1) Find a coach. But havent been successful, they either are full/not available or are only interested in the elite athletes (Understandable).
2) Do a level 1 course for coaching myself. But I dont think this will help much without practical experience. Kind of like learning the theory of brain surgery by correspondence without the practical.
3) Change clubs. I have found one local club that has a much better coaching program (and all round better attitude to the kids IMHO), however, my child doesnt want to change. She has friends and bonds to the existing club.
Any thoughts??

Roger do the level 1 course, and as soon as you can do level 2 throws etc. Its not that expensive but they teach you from scratch.
I left Little A's last year as a U15 and felt that i had out grown the Little A's system. But it is very worthwhile as an introduction to athletics.
My dad is now a level 3 coach and started just as you are by trying to help me and now he loves coaching and has a squad of 20.
Each year there are many parents who want to help their kids and do so by starting in level 1. As soon as i am old enough i will get coaching acreditation as well.

Your daughter is to young to specialise even though she is best at discus, try to keep her interest in all events as she is only 10. I have an 11yr old sister who does little A's and guess what !! she is a solid girl and is best at discus and shot as well, but we still encourage her to keep fit by running often and she swims to. With little A's most events rely on running to some degree so running should be included in her weekly program but it must be fun. Something like a 1k jog through the bush on a sunday with dad should keep her happy, and build from there. Play training, general fitness building and skill drills is all they need at 10yrs.

The little A's club i was with had a pretty slack attitude towards coaching which is why my dad took it up to help me out, he now helps many kids and in a few short years has built a squad with many state and national reps on it.
Go for the level 1 course Roger you wont look back, and you wont be the only "newbie" on the course i can guarantee it.
Good luck

[RogerRebar]

walker1st, on Oct 20 2009, 04:26 PM, said:

the very sensitive question is, why did she agreed with you on doing all events and trying to PB at all of them, instead just teh discuss ?

is this really comming from her or she simply giving in to the father authority ?

this is very sensitive and very difficult to answer and you the only one who can.

Even if she focused on discuss at the age of 10, she could be doing other stuff and she can understand that there is lots of stuff she needs to be good at to her discuss ability to come trough...

It's not so much agreement as attitude. For a couple of weeks she was only interested in Discus. I let her run with that but did some extra training on Hurdles  and 800m with her (her weakest events). The result was her Discus improvements started to dry up and she got a bit down about that, the first time that attitude had happened I should point out. She then had the hurdles and 800m events in which she set new pb's in both. She picked up and then went back to trying to improve in all events.

She likes to track her progress, so this year we are tracking in on the whiteboard using a Multi-Event type points system. This tends to emphsise trying to improve in all events. She also sets her own goals in terms of overall points since it's hard to set event specific goals given our lack of technical knowledge.

Dont get me wrong, I'd love for someone to come along and say I'll teach her how to throw discus and increase her distance by a few meters but I also want her to keep putting the effort into the other events as well so that she still has fun at it.

[walker1st]

RogerRebar, on Oct 20 2009, 07:25 PM, said:

It's not so much agreement as attitude. For a couple of weeks she was only interested in Discus. I let her run with that but did some extra training on Hurdles  and 800m with her (her weakest events). The result was her Discus improvements started to dry up and she got a bit down about that, the first time that attitude had happened I should point out. She then had the hurdles and 800m events in which she set new pb's in both. She picked up and then went back to trying to improve in all events.

She likes to track her progress, so this year we are tracking in on the whiteboard using a Multi-Event type points system. This tends to emphsise trying to improve in all events. She also sets her own goals in terms of overall points since it's hard to set event specific goals given our lack of technical knowledge.

Dont get me wrong, I'd love for someone to come along and say I'll teach her how to throw discus and increase her distance by a few meters but I also want her to keep putting the effort into the other events as well so that she still has fun at it.

that is cool.

If the discuss was teh future, I would advise on taking up dancing - few differnt types of dancing - classes, fun comps etc, so she gets the twisting rotating tendons, joints muscles developed and teh space turning awareness, at teh activity where she needs to focus on other stuff (music rhytm, partner... so the turning space timing etc skills are developed in automatic - subconsious mode.

yoga and thai-chi also would be great, although some kids just can get interested in it, the martial arts being than perfect altrenative - all 1 legged dynamic balancing activities.

[twosheds]

Hi
Your daughter will  learn lots about life and herself through this. Learning to cope with disappointment is a big life lesson and one that is so safely learnt in sport.  She will learn that if she wants to succeed she will need to work at things- and even in regard to this- life isnt fair- others will have more  talent, others wont.
One of my proudest moments with my youngest daughter was after winning district 800m last year- and doing a moderate amount of training she didnt run well this year and missed out on even qualifying for regionals. i went to give her a hug as i knew it was something that was important to her. She said- "I dont need a hug- Mum- Im  just a little bit disappointed- but Im fine" then ran off to see her friends. I was so pleased. Resilience  will take her way further in life than a fast 800m time.
Let your daughter do waht she enjoys doing- if that changes week to week- it doesnt actually matter- as long as she is doing something active. If she has an underlying talent for something it will still be there whe she is older and more fully developed- and then  if she has a passion for it- she can really do something with it.
Ive found personally the less i know about the sports my kids play the more enjoyable it is for both parent and child. I can just enjoy them playing sport rathe rthan having to give them my little bits of advice etc which can feel like pressure and criticism. Im sure that is not everyones experience but it has been mine.
twosheds

[Jimboy]

I was never a great believer in LA for young children.However,the advice you have received on this thead seems very sensible to me.
You are obviously a very sensible and caring parent and your daughter will benefit immensely from your low pressure attitude to her athletics.May you both share many years of athletics together as I and my son did.
Having myself done the Level One coaching course I think that it could be helpful if you are lucky enough to get the help of a really good higher level coach for her events.Knowing nothing of the technical requirements of field events I was tremendously impressed by the teaching skills of the events coach who enlightened me about them,stuff you will never learn from a book or even a video.
Enjoy.

[Leaf]

Maybe also consider encouraging her to try ball sports as well? In highschool, the kids that only did LA seemed to be fit but they weren't very coordinated, whereas the kids that played some sort of ball sports had the fitness and the coordination. It also develops the body in all planes of movement rather than limited by just running in a straight line/throwing in the one direction.

Just a thought. I know it's difficult these days, you don't want your kids too stressed and busy with too many activities but at the same time you want what's best!

[RogerRebar]

Well thanks for all the input. Hopefully her motivation keeps the PB's coming. As mentioned I dont care if she does leave athletics but I've never seen her enjoy something so much, so I'd like her to keep at it, but in the end its up to her.

Re the Level 1 course. I may do it to get the basic instruction but not the accreditation. In reading the fine print, I'd have to coach for a season to actually get the accreditation (which may be fun, but likely not given the club environment), during which time membership of ATFCA would have expired and more money would be required.

It seems like I'd constantly being paying money just to stay accredited. Which maybe important if I was going to train other people, but not for just my own. I've picked up alot from books and videos and watching the approaches of other coaches. I just dont have the confidence that this is sufficient to train my little one (dont want to teach her bad habits that will come back to haunt her later). So hopefully doing the level 1 will give me that.

Thanks again for sharing.

HillsAths1, on Oct 20 2009, 01:53 PM, said:

If you need more information please post your locality etc and I am sure that someone here will be aware of good coaches etc in your area.

We live in parramatta, Sydney NSW