John enjoyed my article on Raising Fast Kids and took the time to share thoughts that might help you.
John’s worked with athletes from school years through to the Olympic Level.
His voice continues:
Puberty is the key time in a young, promising athlete's life: It can play havoc with the mind and body, for girls even more so than boys.
The mindset (personality) and body composition traits of the parents have some predictable value, but this is not a guarantee.
Inner motivation is everything. Encouragement by parents is fine, but motivation needs to come from within.
Keep variety in training, including other (low risk) activities. Most kids don’t do well with monotony, even if they have to learn that monotony/repetition is part of the elite athlete's regime to be successful.
Junior champions who dominate their age group are not necessarily the champions of the future; it's probably better to be just below that, so they keep hungry and have something to chase, with the odd win thrown in to give a taste only.
At some stage in their career, fast kids will face some headwinds. How they deal with setbacks is more likely to decide their future than their successes.
Back to Gordo: For Mom & Dad, John’s point about “having a taste” and staying hungry…. Applies to us too.
Racing With Our Kids
My son & I sat down with the LöwTideBöyz to talk about Father-Son racing.
It’s unique because you hear from both Axel and me.
I think I heard you mention in the podcast of limiting kids to a maximum 5k distance running - any rationale here? And while I know there's not an exact formula, but any general rule of thumb for at what age it's okay to increase to 10k and beyond?