Endurance

[Anonymous]

DS loves sports, but he lacks endurance at every sports. He can swim laps, but he is exhausted easily. He plays soccer for years, but he gets tired easily. The same goes for hiking, basketball and tennis. At every game/lesson/practice, he is excited at the beginning, getting exhausted before half has passed, and hoping the whole things done by the last half. Anything could help him?

[Anonymous]

If he's super motivated to improve his endurance then there's a lot he can do - but you didn't mention how old he is.
I would just make sure he's the one who cares about upping his endurance vs you.
I would focus on fostering his love of sports. If rec is the right place for him, great.
If he's mature enough to put in the work to increase his endurance, great - just let him direct that.

[Anonymous]

Fartleks or interval training is the best thing for this. Access to an outdoor track is great. When I was a college athlete we would be the following for endurance training and it worked SO well (even though you felt like dying and vomiting): 100m sprint, rest 30 seconds, 200m sprint, rest 30 sec, 400m sprint, rest 2 minutes. Repeat this cycle 3 times. Do each interval at max speed you are capable of.

If you don’t have a track that’s ok, just improvise with timed runs on a street, trail, wherever. Say: 30 sec sprint, 1 min sprint, 2 minute sprint..with same rest periods as above.

But agree with the PP, there is only so much you as the parent can do. He had to be self motivated to improve.

[Anonymous]

What is his diet like?
Is he low tone?
Any asthma?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS loves sports, but he lacks endurance at every sports. He can swim laps, but he is exhausted easily. He plays soccer for years, but he gets tired easily. The same goes for hiking, basketball and tennis. At every game/lesson/practice, he is excited at the beginning, getting exhausted before half has passed, and hoping the whole things done by the last half. Anything could help him?

There is not way to know, but I will throw out a few ideas to take a look at. It might be a combination of a few things, here it goes:

-He might just need a break, maybe he is over scheduled?
-Low iron content? Make sure he's eating a fortified cereal, Wheaties perhaps?
-Make sure he's getting both enough protein and simple/ complex carbs.
-How is his sleep?
-Does he wish it's over because he wants to go do something else?
-Is he wearing a smartwatch and his friends are texting and he can't wait to get back on his iPad to play a game perhaps?
-What is his body type? Is he slim, like a cross country runner? (Those kids can run all day and usually have endurance for any sport.) Normal, big boned?
-Can he run a mile without stopping? Maybe he gives up too easily and never truly develops any endurance?

I would make sure sleep and nutrition are covered, then work on a 30 day plan (logging the results) of jogging, building up to running a mile non-stop at a decent time. I find that kids who can really whip out a quick 1 mile run have developed slow twitch muscle fibers and have the fitness/ fortitude to not get pre-maturely tired at most other sports.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS loves sports, but he lacks endurance at every sports. He can swim laps, but he is exhausted easily. He plays soccer for years, but he gets tired easily. The same goes for hiking, basketball and tennis. At every game/lesson/practice, he is excited at the beginning, getting exhausted before half has passed, and hoping the whole things done by the last half. Anything could help him?

Assuming that he is medically healthy:
does he work on his endurance often? meaning aside from practices, is he running regularly? working on speed? running techniques? hill runs? anything?
does he have a balanced diet? is he getting enough carbs? enough protein at the end of the day to recover? drinking enough liquids? eat veggies/fruits?

Athletes need to consume A LOT of carbs because their body burns through them so fast. I think a lot of people forget the power of food. FOOD = ENERGY, FOCUS, ENDURANCE

[Anonymous]

Sounds like he's got good anaerobic endurance (sprints). He needs aerobic endurance (running a slow zone 2/3, 5k). He needs to practice a slower pace for longer periods of time.

[Anonymous]

There are many genetic factors involved. vO2 max, responsiveness to endurance training, etc all vary wildly from person to person. Some people improve dramatically with endurance training. Some don't. Less common but some appear to be good endurance athletes at first but don't respond well to training...and don't improve much..All combinations are possible. Your kid could be unskilled (or skilled) and responsive to training or unskilled (or skilled) and non-responsive to training. Just the way it goes..