Junior Advice

jmdsk

Help - I'm looking for advice from the more experienced posters.
My son wants to do triathlons; he is generally good at all 3 disciplines’ but doesn’t really train at any.
He swims and cycles sometimes with a local club and runs with clubs in other sports he does.
So my questions are if he went for a cycle or run on his own, how far should he do?
I have been told that he should stick to 2 hours max when cycling fair enough don't set a distance, just a time limit.
So with running would it be the same 1 hour max or would it be better setting a distance of 5km or 10km max? Should he be sprint training or distance training?
I know the best advice would be for him to join a running and cycling club, but I don’t want to dis-encourage him by forcing it on him. If he joined those clubs he would have to give up other sports he does and might lose the interest he has now.

geld

Jmdsk,

What age is he?

jmdsk

He's 13.

donothoponpop

jmdsk wrote: »

Help - I'm looking for advice from the more experienced posters.
My son wants to do triathlons; he is generally good at all 3 disciplines’ but doesn’t really train at any.
He swims and cycles sometimes with a local club and runs with clubs in other sports he does.
So my questions are if he went for a cycle or run on his own, how far should he do?
I have been told that he should stick to 2 hours max when cycling fair enough don't set a distance, just a time limit.
So with running would it be the same 1 hour max or would it be better setting a distance of 5km or 10km max? Should he be sprint training or distance training?
I know the best advice would be for him to join a running and cycling club, but I don’t want to dis-encourage him by forcing it on him. If he joined those clubs he would have to give up other sports he does and might lose the interest he has now.

Hi jmdsk,

while its great that you're seeking to encourage your son's talents, there's no better advice than to get him to join a running, cycling, or swimming club (anyone who knows if tri clubs accept junior members, please shout out their names). One-on-one coaching is going to be far more useful than generic internet advice- no-one here knows how your son is developing, so any advice about training times/distances couldn't be better than a club coach.

hunnymonster

I'm just thinking out loud here.

Where are you based? If you contact children@triathlonireland.com they can advise you. I know Elena Masalova (Dublin) and Mark Dempsey (Limerick) have both been working with teenage triathletes.

Quite a lot of races have a kids race in conjunction with the adult programme but these do tend to be directed at younger children.

If he is talking about taking it seriously, give TI an indication of his swim and run time (the talent identification program suggests a 13-14 year old boy should be looking at 2:30 for 200m swim and 5:00 for 1500 run, there is no cycle time as this can be worked on).

If he already does other sports, do you really want to add 3 more into the mix in a formal way though especially at 13?

triathlonireland wrote:

Benefits of Sport for Children Sport can be a powerful vehicle for developing life skills such as teamwork, dedication and goal setting. In a positive sporting environment, children have the opportunity to make new friends, learn new skills, develop new interests and have a lot of fun with new friends.


Our Aim
Our aim is to ensure that children receive the most positive experience possible from sport, learn the fundamental skills before entering into more competitive sports and provide an opportunity for children to have positive life-long experiences in sport. And of course, to have as much fun as possible along the way!


Code of Ethics
The Irish Sports Council and the Sports Council for Northern Ireland published a joint Code of Ethics and Good Practice for Children's Sport in 2000. This document ensures that young people are safeguarded in their participation in sport in Ireland and that their early experiences are positive and enjoyable, irrespective of their ability, gender, social class, race, etc.


Pleaseclick here to download the Code of Ethics.


Where to Next?
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jmdsk

Thanks, for the advice. I don't think he is good enough for the triathlon Ireland talent. Like I said the interest seems to have come recently however I'm not going to push him.
He has done a couple of duathlons and got on okay. However he is to young for proper tri's, he is not really intested in the splash and dash's that are assosiacated with his age group. He would prefer the sprint tri's. Maybe that way he would find out yes this for me or no i'll concentrate on other activities.
That's why I was asking how far should he be running in training or should I possibly leave him just keep running with the other clubs

hunnymonster

I'll look up the guidelines for how much his age group should be running from athletics ireland when I get home tonight (coaching manual is at home) and I would imagine these would be upper limits if he is also doing other sports.

jmdsk

THanks Hunnymonster

20D

Came across thread by accident so apologies for jumping in with my first post. Advice for cycling is to keep distance down but learn to handle the bike. 30 mins playing in the park, learning to brake (both brakes, particularly front, carefully at first!!) and turn, doing tricks, short accelerations etc., is far more useful at that age than 2 hours cycling in a straight line. If he wants to get serious there is plenty of time to get strong. As for running I would say a max single effort of about 30mins, but easy. If he cant already try to get him to do some skipping to teach him to get up on his toes and google "running drills" to see plenty of exercises for helping with technique. In general the best advice comes from within the individual sports until they get a bit older and start specialised training. Best of luck.

myflipflops

jmdsk wrote: »

He's 13.

I have little triathon knowledge but from a running point of view, surely at this age he should just be put on a path that means he will enjoy the sport and the training.

I suggest 13 is way to young to put together a specific program.