Helping kids discover running

 

Adult running is a view of life through a wide-angle lens, with so much to see, to experience, to discover.

 

Youth running shouldn’t be any different. It rests on the shoulders of adults, those who work with young runners, to promote a vision of running through a wide-angle lens. It’s through the discovery that running is an experience to be realized, not just laps around the playground or completing a local 5K. That running is more than a clock telling them it is time to run, and that running fast is good but understanding how to run fast is even better.

 

For kids in running clubs, or who run with a parent, the opportunities for them to run in different places are limited only by the coach’s or parent’s imagination. For city kids, it could be running single file on narrow dirt trails like we have at Salisbury Community Park. For rural kids, it might be running in city parks or neighborhoods where they have never been. Or it could be simply making up the route on the run, a decision at each intersection. Let the adult and child alternate direction choices. And possibly a destination run, just picking out a place to run to.

Plan your runs on different surfaces ­– grass, trails, a running track, sidewalks or an asphalt bike path, or even on a treadmill (all supervised by an adult).

Help children experience running at different times of the day. Try early in the morning on weekends when their friends are still in bed, or in the evening under the streetlights (with an adult, of course). If it is raining, all the better! Most kids are not afraid to run in the rain. It is the adults who cancel runs. Please don’t! Just let them run. It is all part of discovery.

Kids like to run fast. When kids don’t routinely run fast, their body does not make an adaptation necessary to run fast. And running fast is central to running. If children want to run fast, they simply need to run fast occasionally. It’s the same for adults, if you are wondering.

For young runners, short acceleration runs, hitting three-quarter speed for maybe only 20 yards before backing off, is a good starting point. The short “pick-ups” permit the coach and the runner to concentrate on form and with young runners, learning the proper form for running fast is as important as is running fast.

• moving the arms forward and back “cheek to cheek” (face to hips)
• keeping the chin up and looking forward
• short, very quick strides — not reaching out, but pushing off
• pumping the arms to make the legs move faster
• standing tall with forward lean from the ankles, not from the waist
• running on the balls of the feet (no heel strike)
• hands, shoulders and face are relaxed

When thinking of speed, think of short relays like down-and-back shuttle relays, either in the gym or out on the playground. In a shuttle relay the runners don’t pass a baton. When the first runner crosses the start/finish line, the next runner goes.

With “speed” relays, runners need to be sharp, ready to explode, ready to run fast. This means avoiding relays where children run again and again with little rest between efforts. These build endurance, not speed.

 

If you want your kids running, and running well, try these things. And from my experience, the younger the better. Young kids want to run, so get them started while you can. A portion of this material comes from childrensrunning.org

 

Look for the Answer 4 Cancer, Run for Life 5K and the Goblin-Ghoul Challenge at www.salisburyrowanrunners.org