Sports & Fitness Running shoes for kids

My almost-7yo son is about to start his 2nd season of Little Athletics and we need to replace his old running shoes.

I'm wondering if anyone here is an expert on running shoes for kids?

He is a serious runner - was Age Champion in his U6 Boys division last season and was undefeated in the sprints (and 0.2 seconds off one of the club records which has stood for 22 years).

But either way, I'm not too concerned about special shoes for performance or anything - I just want something decent which will minimise the chance of injury.

He has been wearing the Asics PRE GALAXY 7 PS (ASIX617)

Failing any better suggestions, we will probably just get another pair of Asics - they seem to fit well and haven't caused him any discomfort.

 

Northern Suburbs LAC - based at Rotary Athletics Field in Lane Cove North.

He did 9.56 for 50m; 13.08 for 70m and 18.94 for 100m ... he also pulled out a 2.91m long jump towards the end of last season, only 11cm short of the club record.

I was particularly pleased with the long jump results, because I did manage to coach him past a problem he was having with his run-ups - we tried something new and it worked incredibly well.

I only wish I had worked out how to get him past his problems earlier in the season and I reckon he would have given that record a good shaking - his technique was so much better in the last few weeks of the season.

They don't get any formal coaching until U8, so it's just us parents at this level.

He's really excited about being able to compete at the Zone championships for the first time this year - go up against some of the other fast runners from the area and see what he can really do (would be good to give him someone to chase for a change!).

I'm not looking forward to all the early starts on Saturday mornings - but he seems to really enjoy the friendship with the other kids - so it's great to see them all having a good time.

 

Yes, we had 32 registrations for U6 boys - the U7's was a particularly large group last year, well over 40 registrations.

Hehe - the U6 girls group last year were a sweet bunch. Would rather sit around talking than race competitively. You almost expect to see them holding hands as they run down the track together

But then, that's kind of the point at this age - get them out doing something physical and having fun.

No, everyone from U7 and above can go to Zone, but there are limits on how many events a single athlete can enter.

Qualification at Regional Championships is based on your Zone performance.

Regionals are only open to U8 and above - U7 can't go beyond the Zone Championships

 

Thanks Ace, but they would be too small for my son and we ended up getting him a pair of GT 1000's yesterday (not waffles, just ordinary lightweight running shoes).

 

Weekend after next ... I'm age group manager for the U7 boys, so I'm usually there 7:30am or so getting set up. If we're on equipment-out duty (once every weeks), it's a 6:45am start. *sigh*

He was getting too focussed on making sure he hit the board (mat) correctly and so was taking several small steps just before he hit it - thus losing all his forward momentum. He was jumping high, but not long.

I was able to get him to forget about getting the launch perfect - he would do a practice run up from a marked starting position to see where his foot landed for takeoff, and if he was too long, I got him to move the marker back half a pace, adjusting his start position.

Fortunately he is very consistent with his stride, so once we got the starting position right, he was able to nail the launch pretty much every time.

We're launching from sand covered mats and measuring from the front of the foot mark on the mat - so he doesn't have to get it perfect.

He was then able to run at full speed all the way through to launch - and this single change got him jumping from his previous best of 2.60m immediately to 2.91m. His next two jumps were 2.89m and 2.87m ... so it wasn't just a fluke.

I haven't been doing anything specific with my son - he plays soccer over winter, so has been doing lots of running. Because he is so much faster than everyone else on the field, he tends to play both offence and defence (they don't play position in U7 - it's just 4-on-4 all on the ball) ... he'll be pushing forward trying to score and then if the other team manages to kick it down the other end, he'll be running down to block the ball.

His game last weekend he scored 3 goals and stopped about 5 or 6 attempts at goal by the opposition after running the entire length of the field to defend! It was actually comments from other parents in U6 last season about how fast he was at soccer that prompted me to suggest he try Little Athletics.

If the weather is okay this weekend he has asked me to take him down to the local park to work on his starts - he tends to hesitate at the start and must lose at least 0.1 or 0.2 seconds and always seems to start well behind the other athletes (but always overtakes them). He needs some formal starting coaching I think, but if I can just get him to react faster - I think he'll do well. We don't get to attend the club's weekly coaching sessions until he is U8.

 

No, we start tomorrow, weather permitting.

 

Hey Ace - carnival went well on Saturday, really nice weather.

I was expecting that my son would take a few weeks to get back to his previous PBs given that he's done no training nor had any coaching over winter.

However, he surprised me by smashing his PBs from last season (set in March this year) in all three of the 50m, 70m and 100m.

Looks like 6 months of extra growing time as well as a lot of running over winter playing soccer has helped with his development! He has grown quite a bit - legs are getting longer. The U6s look so small compared to the U7s - you don't notice how much they grow during the year.

Getting some proper coaching for long jump this season too - at least for the first few weeks, which will be good. Regular weekly coaching doesn't start until U8 next season, although if my son is keen I might see if I can get him some private coaching.

 

I'm looking forward to watching my son do the 200m for the first time in a couple of weeks - I'm hoping he has the stamina to really do well over this distance.

They do 500m for the first time this coming weekend too - he did well at the 300m last season, although he has a lot more competition over these distances. Will be very interesting to see how well he can do at 500m given he seems built for explosive speed rather than endurance.