Wednesday Workout & The Problem That I Have With Training Child Athletes

I survived a crazy-busy day yesterday.

Morning clients, some writing and then taking the remainder of the afternoon off to take Joey, my 5-year-old, to the dentist.

Joey had to get 3 cavities filled. After a brief discussion, it was determined between myself and her dentist, Dr. Laurel, that the best route to go to help Joey through the agony of getting cavities filled was LAUGHING GAS.

After it all, she felt nothing and just remembered feeling like she was floating on a cloud. Too bad :-), I had brought my Flip Camera hoping that the experience would be something like this...



After the dentist we headed home and then my night really began.

I whipped up dinner in about 30-minutes and then AJ and I headed over to her soccer practice. I stuck around for a little bit only to watch her coach make the team run around a 400m track several times.

It was painful to watch. Partly because I can remember my old high school basketball coach force laps on us in the gym (more for punishment than for conditioning), but mainly because I don't think running around a track at sub-maximal effort for 20-minutes is congruent to the demands of soccer.

Soccer, and any other team sport for that matter, is a series of sprints and start-stop actions. You don't just run straight. You go forward, backward, side to side and every other direction.

The duration of these MAXIMAL EFFORT activities lasts only a matter of seconds. So, to force your athletes to run at slogging pace for 20-minutes is teaching them nothing.

The whole "building a cardio base" theory is a bunch of crap.

Sometimes I wish coaches would use logic when they put their practices together. Young athletes should be focusing on short sprints and agility drills to build power and speed.

Practice SPECIFICALLY to the demands of your sport.

After having enough of watching my daughter kill-off her fast twitch muscle fibers by jogging away, I hopped over to the gym for my own workout.

Here's what went down...

1a) Pull-ups (5 x 230, 6 x 230, 15 x bodyweight)*
1b) Standing BB Military Press (5 x 135, 6 x 135, 15 x 95)

2a) DB Rows (12 x 80, 15 x 80, 25 x 60)
2b) Blast Strap Push-ups (27, 22)

3) Dips (15, 12)

***I weigh 175lbs, so for the pull-ups, 230lbs = 175 (my bodyweight) + 55lbs on a weight belt

A good workout. But, I'm not used ot training at night, so I felt that my energy was relatively low. I find that mid-afternoon is my ideal/optimal time for training.

After the workout, I headed back to the soccer pitch to pick AJ up. We got home and started to bake some cupcakes for the kids in her class.

It's her birthday tomorrow!

Have a great day,
Chris
The FitAndBusyDad