Introducing U9 boy to running

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, our high school track coach told us not to let our youngest start a formal running program until 9th grade, and suggested to keep her active playing other sports that build athleticism and if she still wants to run in 9th grade, we'll go from there. He said a lot of kids (with an emphasis on girls) on the jr olympic circuit burnout young, and he prefers to take a 9th grader and start them on shorter distances and build from there so they have a long career including college running.

Thank you for sharing. I have a boy this same age and this matches up with what I was kind of thinking. He’s going to be starting travel soccer next year and his main asset is speed. I have a feeling he’ll end up doing running in a few years, as soccer will get more technical and speed becomes less of a factor. My instinct said let him do team sports for a while first because it seems young to start doing straight up running so much. He loves running but I don’t want him to burn out on it or get hurt. I grew up with a friend whose cousin was a really good runner when she was young and I remember that she ended up with terrible injuries that impacted her quality of life at such a young age. I think she got pushed too early because she was so fast.