Coaching and Programming for Kids Today
Coaching and Programming for Kids Today
Programming for kids is not a very difficult task. Make them do competitive lift, squats, and some variations and they will already get better. It should that simple, right? Well, it’s not, kids have the attention span of a goldfish. For those of you don’t know the average attention span of a goldfish is 9 seconds. Humans are about 8 seconds. This not only makes it difficult to program for kids, but it also is hard to coach them, and even harder to keep them in the sport long term.
In today’s society, kids want to be strong and look good, but no one wants to commit to a 3-6 years plan to be very good and successful in weightlifting. Here are a couple of steps to help kids commit and be successful in weightlifting long term:
1) Have Fun
Kids should not be going heavy a lot, but if maxing once every couple weeks to keep them interested in the sport and have fun, do it. If you can, when you start young kids, try to celebrate and make a bigger deal out of making lifts instead of hitting big weights. If you do this enough while they are growing with the sport they will care more about the makes and less about the numbers. Numbers are great for a boost, but they can also be depressing if you do not hit the numbers you want to.
2) Encourage them In Their Other Sports
Most kids these days will not be just training in Olympic weightlifting. They will also be playing other sports. Yes, you want the young kids to train 3-5 days a week, but do not discourage them from competing in other sports. The only time other sports are an issue is if they stop training for months during the sport. As long as they are training 2-3 days per week during their season, you should base their program around Olympic weightlifting and sports-related performance exercises. Even if the kid doesn’t play a sport, this is still something you should do as a switch up to training and not allow them to get bored just snatching and cleaning every day.
3) No Cell Phones
No matter what age, cell phones should not be allowed in the gym while training. This is basically impossible to prevent your athletes from being on their phone, but it is a necessary step to increase the quality of training. The problem with being on a cell phone is that it takes away focus from technical improvements. Also, an athlete can get lost in staring at their phone so then a minute break turns into five minutes and then that next set is ruined.