How young is too young?

RonanP77

Apologies if this has been discussed before, I searched and couldn't find anything. If it has could someone stick up a link for me please.

My daughter is 3yrs 8 months old, I've mowed a 25m strip in the back lawn shorter than the rest of it so it stands out and it's her running track, she loves it. She did a time trial today to win a jelly baby and was delighted when she was fast enough to get one. She doesn't get much of that kind of thing.

What age should you start getting kids into running? Should they be taught to be competitive from the start or should it just be treated as a bit of fun? I want to make sure she's fairly active so she doesn't end up fat but at the same time I don't want to do anything that's going to hurt her or effect her long term.

bicboy6666

one of the most controversial titles for a thread I've seen...

Chemical Byrne

IMO i wouldn't be pushing her into anything for a while yet, and there's certainly no need to be getting competitive with it!
FFS, a 3 yo should be having fun, not trying to set new personal bests for crying out loud.

If you want to prevent her from getting fat then feed her a good and healthy diet - exercise is about fitness and has only a relatively small part to play in regulating weight. Appropriate nutrition is the major determinant of weight.

average_runner

RonanP77 wrote: »

Apologies if this has been discussed before, I searched and couldn't find anything. If it has could someone stick up a link for me please.

My daughter is 3yrs 8 months old, I've mowed a 25m strip in the back lawn shorter than the rest of it so it stands out and it's her running track, she loves it. She did a time trial today to win a jelly baby and was delighted when she was fast enough to get one. She doesn't get much of that kind of thing.

What age should you start getting kids into running? Should they be taught to be competitive from the start or should it just be treated as a bit of fun? I want to make sure she's fairly active so she doesn't end up fat but at the same time I don't want to do anything that's going to hurt her or effect her long term.

Too young for any club, my daughter is almost 5 but I am holding off till she gets her first year of primary school(she be 6 then) out of the way and then she join a club and have fun

RonanP77

Chemical Byrne wrote:

IMO i wouldn't be pushing her into anything for a while yet, and there's certainly no need to be getting competitive with it! FFS, a 3 yo should be having fun, not trying to set new personal bests for crying out loud.

FFS relax, no need to get so excited about it for crying out loud. I'm asking if I should tell her to run faster than everyone else or just to go for a run.

average_runner wrote:

Too young for any club, my daughter is almost 5 but I am holding off till she gets her first year of primary school(she be 6 then) out of the way and then she join a club and have fun

I'm not thinking about clubs for a years yet, just encouraging her to use her new track and try to get her keen on it.

Chemical Byrne

Right, well in my view you should tell her to run and have fun. In moderation I might add, fanaticisation will do no good either.

No offence, but from you OP I just got the vibe that you might be a bit obsessed by it. She's 3.

average_runner

RonanP77 wrote: »

FFS relax, no need to get so excited about it for crying out loud. I'm asking if I should tell her to run faster than everyone else or just to go for a run.



I'm not thinking about clubs for a years yet, just encouraging her to use her new track and try to get her keen on it.

At that age they will do whatever they want really. Things will come and go with them. But once she is having fun there is no harm.

Sacksian

She still has a couple of months to beat Fanny O'Neill's 45:47 for 5k at 3years and 337 days but, at this stage, you might want to start thinking long term.

She has 3 years to target the 4:00:36 that Jennifer Amyx ran for the marathon at 6years 260 days!

Chemical Byrne

Off topic, but I notice a trend over the past few years of what I would consider "pathological running". ie, fellas doing 100 mile runs and 24 hour runs. In my view, that is going beyond healthy and keeping fit to the point of over stressing and damaging your body. A guy in work does this sort of stuff and he looks gaunt and wasted, bones nearly out through him like. I thought he was in his 60s but he's only 51.

RonanP77

Sacksian wrote:

She still has a couple of months to beat Fanny O'Neill's 45:47 for 5k at 3years and 337 days but, at this stage, you might want to start thinking long term.

Well that's an ambitious target I could set for her, possibly a little too ambitious ;-)

What I'm trying to find out is firstly should I teach her about winning on her little school sports days while she's still so young, so far it seems like I should just encourage her to enjoy herself.

Secondly, how many years do I wait to start teaching her the stuff I'm learning on here and I suppose at some stage get her into a club. Now I'm saying years because I know she's far too young for that kind of thing.

Ososlo

Chemical Byrne wrote: »

Off topic, but I notice a trend over the past few years of what I would consider "pathological running". ie, fellas doing 100 mile runs and 24 hour runs. In my view, that is going beyond healthy and keeping fit to the point of over stressing and damaging your body. A guy in work does this sort of stuff and he looks gaunt and wasted, bones nearly out through him like. I thought he was in his 60s but he's only 51.

I'd bet he's happy though.

I'm sure he's way healthier than the guy who'll be scoffing 10 pints tonight after work and will live way longer!

Enduro

Chemical Byrne wrote: »

Off topic, but I notice a trend over the past few years of what I would consider "pathological running". ie, fellas doing 100 mile runs and 24 hour runs. In my view, that is going beyond healthy and keeping fit to the point of over stressing and damaging your body. A guy in work does this sort of stuff and he looks gaunt and wasted, bones nearly out through him like. I thought he was in his 60s but he's only 51.

:rolleyes:

TFBubendorfer

Enduro wrote: »

:rolleyes:

me too

:rolleyes:

BrianBoru00

RonanP77 wrote: »

Well that's an ambitious target I could set for her, possibly a little too ambitious ;-)

What I'm trying to find out is firstly should I teach her about winning on her little school sports days while she's still so young, so far it seems like I should just encourage her to enjoy herself.

Secondly, how many years do I wait to start teaching her the stuff I'm learning on here and I suppose at some stage get her into a club. Now I'm saying years because I know she's far too young for that kind of thing.

Winning - I think you should but to tell her to be "the best that she can be". If you have a big interest and you're "coaching" her the likelihood is that she will be the best in her class and you'll need her to "win with class" not to be celebrating wildly. Essentially YOU have a duty of respect and class to the other kids in her class that they don't feel inferior at running or whatever they do (even thought they may be)

For #2 - again if its something you're into and you're indoctrinating a love of running into her and she loves it there is no too young. Any problems occur when children are being pushed towhere they aren't comfortable and don't enjoy it.

Bungy Girl

Ronan, as far as I know most athletic clubs will take kids from the year of their 8th birthday. The Athletics Ireland Forest Feast summer camps are open to kids 6+. The focus is on learning skills and team work, rather than competition. As others have said it's all about fun and enjoyment when they're this young. Maybe check out your local Community Games, my daughter is a similar age and really enjoyed her 'big race' this year.

RayCun

if a club has a Little Athletics programme they may take kids younger than 8 - we'll take them in senior infants
but Little Athletics is about playing games, and developing coordination and agility are at least as important as speed
Don't train your kid, play with her

Chivito550

Best thing to do IMO, is to forget about it for now, and focus on your own running 100%, and just let the kid be a normal 3 year old. If you keep running, and enjoy your running, this will feed down to her when she gets older. She’ll see you running, and will naturally want to copy you. At this point, get her into a club, maybe when she is 6 or 7 or so (or whatever age you are allowed join one).

I’d completely lay off the idea of her trying to beat PBs. That’s crazy IMO. You don’t want to go down the Andrei Agassi route where his dad had him hitting about 800 tennis balls a day from the age of 6. He grew to detest the sport, although he did turn out to be rather good at it. But it is sad to read in his autobiography how he truly hates tennis, and only stayed with it because he knew nothing else. He referred to it as a job that he hated, just like how many people might dislike their jobs.

libelula

Chemical Byrne wrote: »

Off topic, but I notice a trend over the past few years of what I would consider "pathological running". ie, fellas doing 100 mile runs and 24 hour runs. In my view, that is going beyond healthy and keeping fit to the point of over stressing and damaging your body. A guy in work does this sort of stuff and he looks gaunt and wasted, bones nearly out through him like. I thought he was in his 60s but he's only 51.

And imagine the state their joints will be in :eek:

dna_leri

Off topic, but I notice a trend over the past few years of what I would consider "pathological obesity". ie, fellas drinking beer and eating take-aways while binge-watching 24 hours of DVDs or Netflix. In my view, that is going beyond healthy to the point of over stressing and damaging your body. A guy in work does this sort of stuff and he looks fat and bloated, can barely fit in the door like. I thought he was in his 40s but he's only 31.

RonanP77

Thanks for the advice folks, I'll just make a game of it for her so, keep letting her see how much I enjoy it and get her into a club in about 4 years or so, provided she shows a bit of intrest.

Itziger

Fascinating thread with almost no tongue-in-cheek posting: the kind of thread I like. If it was me, I'd buy the neighbour out so you can extend the lawn running track. Also, even though many modern junior coaches now frown upon it, I find the Ruskie treat to work wonders for any competitive runners under 4. Any pb by my 2 year old nephew and he gets a Ruskie, wait for it, filled with Nutella.

He's down to 3.47 for the Half. That's hours like and the Half Marathon, not his pb for eating half the fuppin Ruskie.

Last bit of advice, if you really want the Young Athlete to improve, you might want to look to California or Turkey or Russia as a training base.

ultraman1

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JTC7aeK_qgY

Skip the night time stories and play this every night....fun is the name of the game at that age

rom

Play with you kid. Kick a ball and chase it together etc. Let her win most of the time. It will give her a sense of achievement and make her competitive and enjoying being good at something. Don't let her win every time as she also needs to deal with that. And the end of the day its a game for enjoyment (which is what sport should be at any level).

If this sort of friendly competition is small part of father daughter time and its completely on her terms (you ask her does she want to do it and if its no then its no. This forms part of play prob once every two weeks) then it is something she will enjoy. When she gets older she will associate being competitive in sport with great time she spent with her dad and your work is done.

There is loads of fun games that you can play with a 3 year old to encourage them to run but running up and down a strip of grass is boring without some sort of objective/game.

sillysmiles

I see with my nieces and nephews who play a lot of sport and train a lot that they are at 12ish age picking up a lot of injuries -back pain, joints. Possibly from over training.
At 3, i would be concerned about damaging delicate and growing joints.

I also read somewhere that the age of around 3-4 is when kids become habitualised to exercise so it's important to have active play.

Play not competition is important.

kit3

Most 3 year olds run everywhere they go automatically, just let her at it. Wouldn't put any structure on a kid that age in terms of physical activity