We have a situation where there is a changing of the guard, but the old guard isn’t letting go of its post too easily. What I am referring to is the philosophy of distance running for exercises, improved conditioning and endurance, and setting a base for non-dominant aerobic sports. The other part to the story is should we have young kids involved in distance running programs. I have two thoughts on this ….
First off, I believe distance running for kids is very individualized with respect to success and enjoyment. Basically, just like it is for adults. I can remember when I use to team teach P.E. with a good friend of mine. Many times we would blast some fun energetic Golden Oldies music and have the kids run around the gymnasium for several minutes. The kids could run with their best friends, talk if they wanted, and even walk when they needed a break. It that particular setting, I believe we made it enough of an event where the kids enjoyed it, at least to some extent. As I look at it and realize how many kids (I would be willing to say 80%) were not physically designed to run long distances. They were not built to take the consistent step by step pounding. Many of these kids were rounded at the shoulders, big tummies, poorly aligned knees and overly pronated feet. I look back now and say, “wow, did we miss the boat by having these kids run”? Did we potentially create an unsafe atmosphere where kids could have developed even poorer physical alignments? The answer is, “I really don’t know”. But, if I had to do it over again I would have the kids perform long slow constant running. The positive to it was we made it fun by giving them a time frame and blasting upbeat music.
I believe if the kids are biomechanically designed with lighter bodies and good upright posture that the running exercises we did probably wasn’t so bad. These kids are economically efficient and have less stress on the joints than the not so biomechanically aligned kids.
The second part of my thinking is this…what benefits do we really gain by having young kids run distance? If a child likes to do it and they get a lot of personal satisfaction, then go for it. They might have to deal with the consequences, but if they are physically designed to handle the running they might be fine. As I look at all the potential gains a young person can achieve from performing more explosive anaerobic activities compared to the gains they get with simply running, I am not so sure there is even an argument.
Distance running develops a neurological pattern that is less powerful in the athletes gait and overall movement. They don’t ever explode as they would need to in most court and field sports or recess activities. The aerobic base they develop has little if any transfer over to the type of base they need for court and field sports. The important factors of gaining agility, coordination, deceleration and acceleration are not focused on so they are not developed when the primary source of conditioning is long slow distance running.
I believe we use running, like most other things we do in life, because we never challenged what we were taught over generations. I have talked numerous times regarding the old attitude that athletes shouldn’t use a “false step”. We now know it isn’t a false step, rather it is a forceful re-positioning of the feet to accelerate quicker. We have used running as a form of warm-up, pre-season conditioning and training for years because it was never challenged. It is time to challenge it with the youth population and look for better ways to accomplish the goals we originally thought distance running would.
I am not going to sit here and tell adults that love to run or kids that love to run to stop and never do it again. I will ask what their goal is? If there goal is too lose weight, I have a better way. If there goal is to get in better shape, I have a better way. If there goal is to get a “base” before the season, I have a much better way. If they want to just enjoy fitness and exercise, I have many other ways that are safer, more physically productive and useful.
Like anything else in life, you have to decide for yourself. Research will give you what you want it to give you. I can find research that says it is great for you and I can find research that says it is bad for you. The bottom line is I want kids that are athletic, explosive, mobile, stable, quick, and able to change directions so they can enjoy many sports and activities. I know long distance running doesn’t give young kids these things.
Have fun with this and see if it makes sense.
P.S. – Quick story… When Jenn and I first met in Lexington, KY she was a runner. I didn’t run. Because I was smitten, I decided I would become a runner so I could share more time with her. Keep in mind; I was a very good athlete at the time. I was only 26 years old, still able to dunk a basketball and run and cut really well. I never had any major injuries or pains to my joints. After roughly two weeks of running I developed severe IT Band tendinitis. I also developed angle pain. I tried to mask it but couldn’t anymore. Luckily, Jenn was an athletic trainer (ATC) and was able to work on my leg. So I look at running two ways. It broke down my body when all the basketball, tennis, racquetball, and football wasn’t able to and secondly it did get my future wife to put her hands on me sooner!
Lee,
I am an ATC providing coverage to 3 high schools. I have argued with some of my coaches about this very subject. If you have any articles or research regarding distance training and it’s over use for athletics other than distance running, it would be greatly appreciated. I still have coaches making their athletes run long distances in training for sports like football, volleyball, and basketball.
Lee:
Great article, as always.
Quick story: During my collegiate days, I volunteered to be a guinea pig for our Exercise Science majors. I was a soccer player and wrestler at the time. The testing was the standard physiology stuff done in the late 70s and early 80s, mainly MaxVo and anaerobic capacity stuff. I scored very high on the anaerobic test, but I was told I needed to do more aerobic conditioning, such as long-distance running.
My previous training was mainly interval training, sprints, and wrestling. I look back and laugh. I had no idea that I was training myself properly for the demands of my sports. I still hate LSD and will do intervals, sprints, circuit training, almost anything else to avoid those long runs.
Best regards,
BR
Lee
Great point and great post. I would love to hear your thoughts on some of the intelligent ways to achieve the goal of setting a good base for conditioning athletes for field and court sports. Now as a coach of young athletes, I often struggle to break away from the old ways that I was taught and conditioned through college. Great Post!
Regards
I totally agree with Lee and the other folks leaving comments. I love your thoughts on the generational forces at play here. It is now up to OUR generation to help reshape the ideology for future generations to come. I hate LSD, but could do suicides, interval training and acceleration/deceleration/re-acceleration work ALL day long. Thanks, yet again, for a post full of wisdom.
Lee,
I think that running is more than just a physical sport. The problem that we have today is kids are punished in a sport by running. In other countries, they are not and have healthier populations. After running marathons for the last five years, I can say that I am healthier now at the age of 44 than when I was playing contact sports in my teenage years.
Running requires discipline and acknowledging what your body is doing. Obviously, it breaks down muscle like any other sport. However, I think if you incorporate swimming, biking and walking with it, you will find the diverse muscle development will result in fewer injuries. If you want to achieve speed, endurance running takes time. I know that I am a lot faster now.
So if you want to accomplish mental discipline, long distance running is great for anybody. Also, I believe it provides a spiritual side to sport that cannot be compared. If you believe in God, endurance running provides the opportunity to talk to Him.
Hi Walter,
Great post. Please understand, I am not speaking about individual preference when it comes to running. If you like running or a particular child likes to go for a run- go for it. I am writing from the standpoint of the effects of running on athletic development (I could write at length why running is not good for a large majority of the population- another time).
Kids who start out running as their primary source of exercise and miss out on multi-directional speed are usually poor at court and field sports. They never develop the kinesthetic and proprioceptive input needed to feed the body correctly from a coordination, speed, and agility standpoint.
I appreciate your personal feelings and thoughts, but I am speaking from a developmental platform. I am glad running has worked out for you..as it has for many ADULTS. But if kids want to be safer in sports, have stronger bodies, develop much stronger anaerobic and aerobic systems, then they need to make multi-directional training and interval training the primary focus.
Mike Boyle (and many others) have said the following and I find it to be true:
“You don’t run to be fit, rather you must be fit to run.”
Those words have spoken to me in my short career very much. If people enjoy running long distances, then great let ‘em. But do not suggest it simply because either that’s what you were told, or that’s what worked for you. Some bodies are designed to run. These are bodies that have trained to run. People who are fresh off the couch do not fall into this category.
I have a 9 year old nephew who used to want to run with my brother (his dad). Whenever they went, he would either run or need to rest. He did not know how to jog. He may have been on to something. Looking back I realize that kids want to run and run fast. They don’t want to jog. So why do we make them jog for conditioning or even worse, as punishment?
Lee,
I agree with Khyle’s position. While I am not an ATC, I am a CSCS strength coach providing athletic development services for high school athletes in my area for 2 high schools. I have been able to make some changes to the approach for summer and in-season training for the football athletes, and I am sure have saved some over-use injuries to many of the kids for these vary reasons (less long distance running, more speed and explosive movement training which mirrors movements and conditioning for their sport). Great post and thank you!
Hollis
Lee, you,Mike Boyle and Brian Grase have some of the most innovaqtive and down to Earth posts and thoughts regarding youth training I’ve read. That is how I tend to work with the children I do, Interval sessions Circuit sesions and the like. When you work with the youngest generation, we have to keep it entertaining but still worth while. I’m glad to see websites, posts and people in general know that we have to take a proactive approach in our childrens lives.
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