Should you let your children sleep in 

on the weekends

Yes as a teacher and a coach I have heard stories and studies of how the children's time clock is different than and adults.  

And I never pay attention to any of them. When I was a child our goal was to get it before our parents and get out of the house.  That meant getting on our bikes and going out to play sports, go explore out in the woods, or go find something fun to do.   Plus it didn't hurt that they couldn't find us for a while when they got up. That was sort of part of the plan we had a chance to play by ourselves and have fun, and start the day off early.

Plus if you have ever lived on a farm or ranch you know very well that you were up at 5 AM to do your chores.  And these are the people and the habits that were formed that helped build our country to what it is today.  In my lifetime I have known many rich and successful people, and I can honestly say I have never met one of them that sleeps in. And in fact the one thing I have found that is common among all of them,  is their high energy level

Now days there are not as many open areas for children to play in and is no longer safe for them to be on their own a lot of the time. That is understood. But if you teach them to sleep in,  then you are forming a habit that will continue as they get older.

And the classes I teach I want my students in before the bell rings and have them start their work immediately. That is a habit that will help them be successful when they get out of school.  I  have lost count of the number of people that I saw fired and penalized for coming into work late when I was working for corporations. It was a habit they formed when they were young and they had a hard time breaking it. 

I hold my practices at 9 AM. But I have already been out on the courts or fields from 7 to 9 playing or working out myself.  So I do not feel sorry for the young athletes to come to hours later.  I feel they are not only increasing their athletic and physical capabilities they are also developing mental toughness and discipline.

These are the habits that will not only ensure athletic success, academic success, but will also carry-on to having a successful life and both their career and with their family

Speed And agility training

I have started training my athletes in writing, agility, and speed drills as early as Kindergarten. Many of them run with students  who are at the high school level and they're able to keep up and run through the drills.

While they may not be able to do the specific skill at the same level as a high school player they can still start to learn to move and stop and start at that level.   And I don't care what sport you play you can never be too fast or too quick. And there's nothing tougher than playing a player that can get back every ball or is constantly on the move from the start of the game till the end of the game

And I believe as long as they're going to run the drills they might as will be catching, hitting, or throwing a ball from their sport at the same time they're doing it.   That way they are getting sports specific skills as well as strength and conditioning at the same time

Train at the speed of your sport

I cannot tell you the number of athletes I have worked with who train incorrectly for the sport they have chosen to play. 

With the advances in strength and conditioning over the past 10 years any athlete must create a scientifically designed workout routine is put together to address the sport they play. 

That means if you are playing tennis basketball or football you do not have and a running routine that has you running in a straight line or distances of a half mile or mile,

You are not going to run in a straight line using a long flowing stride when you play these sports. Instead you are going to be making quick steps, costly changing direction, and pushing off your outside leg to go the other direction as quick as you can. In other words you'll be shuffling moving parallel to your opponent and the quicker you can then change directions and maintain your balance the more effective you will be. 

You are not just born with this movement you need. You must develop it in your workouts. Therefore your workouts must include agility drills where you are constantly changing directions over a short period of space. That means you may run 10 to 20 yards change directions, run another 20 yards, change directions again and run another 20 yards. Whatever the movement that your sport will require is how you should be running when you were practicing.

The three sports I mentioned require fast twitch muscles and explosive movement. Yes you still must have endurance but it be far better development running a series of sprints or you are starting and stopping just like you will be in your sport. 

I like to use cones and my training where we are running forwards sideways backwards and diagonally in between and around those cones. We strive each week to move faster and to have better balance as we do these agility drills. Let me assure you any professional athlete you admire has ran through these cones over 1 million times. 

So if you want to perform at your optimal level I suggest you do to.

Can short-term high intensity interval training show results in children ages 8-11 

This article is based on a report from the Strength and Conditioning Research


Researchers in France recently investigated the effects of short-term interval training on fitness in prepubertal children. The investigators were interested in the effects on the children's aerobic performance and explosive strength.

They tested one hundred boys and girls aged 8 - 11 years. This group was comprised of 46 boys and 54 girlswho volunteers for the study, with the consent and approval of the parents. The same physician evaluated the sexual maturity of each child prior to the onset of training. There was a control group was comprised of 25 boys and 28 girls, and an experimental group involving 21 boys and 26 girls. Five field tests were performed at the beginning of the study to establish a baseline of fitness for the children. The tests included the standing broad jump, the 10 x 5-m shuttle run, the sit-and-reach, the 30-second sit-up test, and the 20-m shuttle run test.

The experimental group followed an interval-training program for 7 weeks. This group performed high-intensity, intermittent-running exercises 2 sessions per week for a period of 30 minutes per session. These exercises ranged from 10 - 20 seconds at 80 to 100% of their maximal aerobic speed. A recovery period of 10 ? 20 seconds followed each run. All exercises were performed on a short track and the children were placed in lanes corresponding to their maximal aerobic speed.

Results reveled that there was no significant difference at tests which were done at the start of the testing between the experimental and control groups. However once the experimental group started their training they did experience a significant improvement in their standing broad jump values and their maximal shuttle run velocity. These improvements were observed to be independent of gender and growth. No improvement was found in the control group which did not training at all. .

These results suggest that high-intensity, short-term interval training can elicit an improvement in some aspects of fitness for prepubertal children. It must be noted that children will perform better in a physical education environment when they are having fun within a group setting and when the instructions remain simple. 

So simply put children ages 8-11 can start training, train with high intensity, and get sigificant results from this training. But make sure you make their training enjoyable(by varying the exercises and routines) and in a group setting if you can!   

Personally I have seen tremendous results from students as early as  ages six and seven.  What I do is shortening the training time and always make sure all of the sports and strength and conditioning training we do is fun for them.  Do not expect a six-year-old athlete to go through a full 30 or 60 minute workout that will not happen.  Start with 10 to 15 minute training times maybe a then go up to 30 minutes.  Remember all of that time will add up each week and month and after six months you can see tremendous results

Baquet G, Guinhouya C, Dupont G, Nourry C, Berthoin S. (2004). Effects of a short-terminterval training program on physical fitness in prepubertal children. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 18(4): 708 ? 713.

Cook Healthy Meals For Your Children 

At Manhattan's Private Calhoun School Chef Robert Surles cooks healthy meals for his Kids. "Chef Bobo " as he is called, cooks from scratch, keeps the portion sizes small, and provides healthy food instead of the preservative loaded, high sugar junk that most students are asked to consume. 

He states that " studies have shown that it may take up to 15 times of tasting something before a child will like it." So rather than give in, Chef Bobo, will keep putting out his healthy food dishes until his students find the particular dishes they like. 

He also tries to avoid any food that has corn syrup in it. He feels this is one of main reason that diabetes is running rampant in our children is that corn syrup is so prevelant in all of our foods. One of his examples is ketchup. Ketchup has more sugar in it than ice cream and he will not serve it to his students. 

One of his recipes is for Rutabaga fries, which are tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper, and then cooked in a convection oven. 

So you parents need to get on the bandwagon. You need to buy healthy foods from the grocery store, like lean meats, fresh vegetables, fresh fruit each week. You need to cook your meals from scratch and avoid the frozen prepared meals in the freezer aisles, which are pumped full of preservatives and sugars. You need to take the time and effort to plan and out and prepare healthy meals each day. 

I would not only recommend that you eat most of your meals together as a family,  but also did you get your children involved in cooking and preparing the meal.  This will give them the routine of cooking and of preparing healthy meals,  and they should carry this routine for the rest of their life

Give your child the gift of health! All of your effort will be worth it, and they will be able to carry this habit of health with them when they go out on their own . 

Training on the Beach

Do you live near the beach, or are you traveling on vacation and will be near a beach

 I love beach exercises. You get create resistance work and you also get very little impact and stress places on your when training and exercising. 

These are some of the exercises I use beach training 

1) Place four cones in a square pattern, about 5 years apart. Now run short step sprint drills using different routes such as:

• Forward to the first cone and backwards and sideways to the back cone and the forward to the first cones and backwards and sideways to back cone again. Do this four times each
• Now run forward from the left back cone to the front right cone and then backwards to the back right cone and then forward to front left cone and then backwards to the back left cone, thus completing the entire circuit.  Do this four times each.

Make up your own routes but make sure that you go forwards, backwards, and sideways etc.

You want SHORTS STEPS, KEEPING YOUR BALANCE, AND DEVELOPING QUICK FEET ON THESE DRILLS! Do not let FORM GET SLOPPY. When YOU stop and change directions. You must learn how to plant your outside foot, bend your outside leg at the knee, and then push off with your outside foot. This means you were pushing off and powering off your outside leg into the turn while leaning your body towards the turn.  You then shift your weight to the inside leg and foot as you proceed in the opposite direction. They whole body must work together as one unit when doing this.

I use plyometric jumping boxes on the beach for  it is an excellent surface to practice your vertical leap on for the sand will cushion the impact upon landing.  

Any type of hill you can find on the beach will also give you great results.  The extra effort it takes to run uphill in the sand is going to make your body or twice as hard and also get twice the results.  In fact there's a I feel in Manhattan Beach that's so popular that only the residents can run on.  And even they have to make a reservation to run on the hill on their own beach.  So if you can find any form of hill on a beach or sandy area take advantage of it

So incorporate some beach or sand training into your workouts and I guarantee you will see some great results. 

How much protein do you need to compete

Read my new article at my new bodybuilding site

http://bodybuilderkent.blogspot.com/2014/03/how-much-protein-do-you-need-to-compete.html