Sports & Fitness Running shoes for kids

Hey Ace - 500m wasn't so good, came in about 16th ... but I think part of that was that he wasn't sure how hard to go out or how hard he could run. I think he'll do a lot better next time. He wasn't that fussed - he knows long distance isn't his thing and nobody is coming close to him in the sprints.

His 200m was a pleasure to watch - finished nearly 3 seconds ahead of the next fastest boy. He's not running flat out the whole way yet - but I think he'll get there by the end of the season once his endurance improves. Watching him turn on the speed over the last 50m and leaving everyone else in his dust was pretty amazing.

Because of the rain, we've only had two long jump sessions so far this season. He needs a bit of coaching I think - he's getting great height, but seems to be losing too much of his forward momentum in doing so and is only jumping around the 2.70 mark. We do have some coaches helping out at tomorrow's carnival, so I'm hoping we can improve his technique a bit.

He's decided not to nominate for long jump at Zone Championships (will just do 50, 70, 100 and 200 - U7s can only do 4 events), so he's only really competing against himself for long jump results this season.

 

Our Zone Championships are on 12th & 13th December at Barton Park in Parramatta.

Will have to think about whether we want to head to Dubbo in March next year for the state multi-event carnival. My son came 2nd in our club multi-event day last season, which he was pretty pleased about given he's not that keen on the throws events and messed up his long jump.

We have one boy who is consistently coming 2nd to my son in the sprints and long jump, 2nd to someone else in the pack start, but is completely dominating the throws - a true all-rounder. I think he is going to do really well at state multi if he can make it there (and keep his nerves under control).

 

They wouldn't need anything specific at that age would they? I'm not sure what the expectation is for cricket.

 

Not sure about cricket spikes, but at Little Athletics, they have recently moved the minimum age requirement for using spikes up to U11 - our number one cause of injury (to kids and parents!) is from running spikes.

I'd strongly suggest you try and find a box that fits - even at relatively slow pace, getting hit in the groin by a hard cricket ball can not only be very painful, it can cause permanent injury (ie no grandkids for you!).

 

Thanks @property world - Little Athletics Australia rules state that spikes are not allowed to be used until Under 11s ... and I think that age may be increasing to Under 12s next season.

We did consider getting waffles - but the advice we've been given from our club committee is that at this age, there are far more other things related to technique that will improve their performance well in excess of any gains that might be found from changing shoes.

@Ace in the Hole - yes, we're doing zone next weekend in Parramatta - my son nominated for the four sprint events - 50,70, 100 and 200.

He's actually going through a bit of a slow period at the moment with lower energy levels than normal - not sure whether he is getting ready for another growth spurt or perhaps he is low in iron (we've had trouble with that before). If he hasn't shown signs of improving his energy levels by the time we get back from holidays over Christmas, we'll be taking him to get some more blood tests done and check his iron levels and such. Hopefully it's just a growing thing.

 

Well it certainly did this weekend.

My son took 3 gold and 1 silver from his four events (200m, 50m and 100m yesterday, 70m today).

Silver in 200m in 35.62 (took 3.14 seconds off previous PB of 38.76)
Gold in 50m in 8.78 (took 0.48 seconds off previous PB of 9.26)
Gold in 100m in 16.87 (took 0.88 seconds off previous PB of 17.75)
Gold in 70m in 12.40 (equalled previous PB)



He's now only 0.33 seconds off the club record for U7 Boys in the 100m, which has stood since 1988 (27 years!). He did have the benefit of a decent tail wind at Parramatta - but I'm not sure how much that actually counts for.

Might have to get him out training hard over the Christmas break - 0.33 seconds doesn't sound like much, but at the speed they are running in the 100m, that's almost 2 metres behind that record! Realistically though - given they've had no specific sprint training at this age, there's a lot of improvement that will eventually come from technique over pure power - and that will only come with time and practice.

 

Yes - I was pretty thankful that the weather was relatively mild - it was still very hot out in the sun!

We were all very tired after that weekend.

That's the thing - if they are setting PBs, then you've got to be proud of the result ... it shows they are trying really hard and improving, which is exactly what the point of Little Athletics is.

Doing well at the championships is a nice bonus - but I think beating your own personal records is a great achievement too.

Awesome - I've found that discus is one of those events that is easy to do (fairly difficult to foul), but really hard to do well (technique is everything).

Yeah, I don't think we'll be doing that much really - we're going away for a few weeks after Christmas, so the plan is trips to the beach, some bike rides and general relaxing. Not sure how much luck I'll have getting him to do laps or practice his starts!

I'm not counting on the record being broken - it's just something to strive for. If he continues to improve, I'll be really happy.

I think I need to get the kid from the other club who beat him in the 200m (my son beat him by 1/100th of a second in the 100m) to come join our club - I think they would push each other and would both set amazing times

 

Yes, need to get my registration done this weekend.

My daughter will be starting in U6 as well. Will be interesting to see how she goes - she has a similar build to my son, so may end up being quite fast. Not sure she's as competitive as he is though. Being an August birthday, she will also be one of the youngest in her age group - only just turned 5 last week.

Main challenge this season will be that we're losing our athletics field just before Christmas - the council finally came through with funding to do the resurfacing, new drainage and such. Means we'll only get half a season - will need to make arrangements with other local clubs for the second half of the season to share their facilities. May have an impact on training for regionals and such. They've promised us we'll have the best grass track in NSW at the end of it all!

Speaking of regionals - my son had his school sports carnival a few weeks back, won his 100m final against kids quite a bit older than him (his birthday in October, so at the younger end of his age group). He blitzed his 200m heat (huge margin), but they ran out of time to do the finals so we don't know yet whether he'll be doing Zone for 200m - he's confirmed for 100m. Not sure if 8yos go to school regionals.

A bit surprised they're letting school kids (of all ages, including 8yos) run in spikes. The rules regarding spikes are supposed to be standardised Australia-wide now for Little Athletics - I thought it would make sense for them to do the same at a school level too.