How to get kids used to playing in the heat?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems like she's not cut out for soccer.

Op - it’s her main sport. She plays 10 months a year for a travel team.

Should she try and sauna? Just get in better shape and run outside in the heat?

Is she out of shape?

Op - she plays soccer 5-6 days a week. In the winters she does 2 days a week of soccer and 2 days a week of basketball. In the summer she swims all summer. So I don’t think she is out of shape. But probably could use help in her running conditioning. She has never went out and just run 5 miles or anything.

You are going to make her hate this sport. Just stop. It's too hot for anyone to be outside and running around. Why do you think they have indoor recess when it's this hot?!

Op - I asked her yesterday after the hot games and she said she still loves soccer. I want her to be able to continue to play the sport she loves. I just think she needs to put more time into conditioning in the heat.

I also wonder how hard we should be pushing our 9-10 year olds in the heat. Based on responses here it seems like she should be able to handle the heat if she wants to keep playing soccer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Then don't make her play. She's 9, not a Marine.

This. Seriously. You stop playing.

If it keeps happening she will get cut. What’s the point of being on a team if she can’t run in the heat. Be thankful your kids don’t play baseball or football.

Op - she doesn’t want to be cut. Therefore we want to find ways to get her able to handle the heat. I thought I was heat intolerant as well until I lived in a sub tropical location. Now I hate the cold and love the heat.

It doesn't necessarily help on the field but we send our DC with cooling towels and spray fans with ice water that get shared around the sidelines. It's a small thing but is a little boost during breaks and the other kids love it as well.

Otherwise, I think it's just continued exposure. Talk to the coach about it and come up with a plan. She's 9 so it may just be that she's still little.

[Anonymous]

To answer the OPs question, yes there are protocols for heat acclimation that lots of endurance athletes use. However, these are mostly for adults and 9 is far to young do be doing most of them. It is still very early in the summer, so some natural heat acclimation will occur over the next few weeks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems like she's not cut out for soccer.

Op - it’s her main sport. She plays 10 months a year for a travel team.

Should she try and sauna? Just get in better shape and run outside in the heat?

Is she out of shape?

Op - she plays soccer 5-6 days a week. In the winters she does 2 days a week of soccer and 2 days a week of basketball. In the summer she swims all summer. So I don’t think she is out of shape. But probably could use help in her running conditioning. She has never went out and just run 5 miles or anything.

You are going to make her hate this sport. Just stop. It's too hot for anyone to be outside and running around. Why do you think they have indoor recess when it's this hot?!

Op - I asked her yesterday after the hot games and she said she still loves soccer. I want her to be able to continue to play the sport she loves. I just think she needs to put more time into conditioning in the heat.

I also wonder how hard we should be pushing our 9-10 year olds in the heat. Based on responses here it seems like she should be able to handle the heat if she wants to keep playing soccer.

They aren't going to kick her out of the sport she loves because she doesn't do well with the heat. But if you keep "pushing" a 9 year old she isn't going to love the sport any more. Of course at 9 she's getting close to adolescence when lots of kids discover that the thing they thought they loved as kids isn't the thing they'll love in middle school and high school. So, she might drop soccer either way.

If you want to build her stamina for things in the heat, do things with her in the heat. Not "conditioning", but family bike rides, hikes etc . . . Either you'll both grow in your ability to handle the heat, or you'll develop a little more empathy for her.

[Anonymous]

After reading your responses OP, I think the best next step is to get advice from her pediatrician. See what they think is safe and feasible.

As for the advice from the coach, that’s asking a lot of a 9 year old. DS definitely wasn’t doing that type of training every day in the heat at 9. It would have led him to hate soccer. It wasn’t until the summer before HS that he was doing workouts as part of training to make the school team. Before that, he just spent time with some cones, a ball and a rebounder when he trained away from his team and that was self-directed. I agree with the above PP that it’s probably more appropriate to pick family activities that get her outdoors in a fun way.

[Anonymous]

OP- look at her nutrition. Lots of protein for breakfast and then lots of fruits and cucumbers during the day.

If she starts the day with carbs, she will burn through her fuel too fast. Add eggs and bacon ect to breakfast.

Our DD sounds like yours, and the big thing we found was nutrition helped.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP- look at her nutrition. Lots of protein for breakfast and then lots of fruits and cucumbers during the day.

If she starts the day with carbs, she will burn through her fuel too fast. Add eggs and bacon ect to breakfast.

Our DD sounds like yours, and the big thing we found was nutrition helped.

Op - yes we have to work on her nutrition. She is a horrible eater.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP- look at her nutrition. Lots of protein for breakfast and then lots of fruits and cucumbers during the day.

If she starts the day with carbs, she will burn through her fuel too fast. Add eggs and bacon ect to breakfast.

Our DD sounds like yours, and the big thing we found was nutrition helped.

Op - yes we have to work on her nutrition. She is a horrible eater.

+1. Eating and sleeping are the things I would focus on. Not "heat training."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP- look at her nutrition. Lots of protein for breakfast and then lots of fruits and cucumbers during the day.

If she starts the day with carbs, she will burn through her fuel too fast. Add eggs and bacon ect to breakfast.

Our DD sounds like yours, and the big thing we found was nutrition helped.

Op - yes we have to work on her nutrition. She is a horrible eater.

+1. Eating and sleeping are the things I would focus on. Not "heat training."

Op - sleeping is fine. Averages 10 hours a day during the school year and 12 hours a day during the summer.

Agree nutrition and eating definitely need to focus on!

[Anonymous]

I would not make her run 20 min in the heat. She’s only 9. Sounds like you should keep doing what you’re doing with fan, cooling rag, etc. And now look at nutrition on days leading up to games. She might get more tolerant as she gets older.

[Anonymous]

If you live in the dc area you’re going to have to play soccer in oppressive heat conditions. If you can’t handle that, your choices are to stay here and have her switch to another sport, or move to Maine or somewhere with a cooler climate and keep her in soccer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems like she's not cut out for soccer.

Op - it’s her main sport. She plays 10 months a year for a travel team.

Should she try and sauna? Just get in better shape and run outside in the heat?

Is she out of shape?

Op - she plays soccer 5-6 days a week. In the winters she does 2 days a week of soccer and 2 days a week of basketball. In the summer she swims all summer. So I don’t think she is out of shape. But probably could use help in her running conditioning. She has never went out and just run 5 miles or anything.

You are going to make her hate this sport. Just stop. It's too hot for anyone to be outside and running around. Why do you think they have indoor recess when it's this hot?!

Op - I asked her yesterday after the hot games and she said she still loves soccer. I want her to be able to continue to play the sport she loves. I just think she needs to put more time into conditioning in the heat.

I also wonder how hard we should be pushing our 9-10 year olds in the heat. Based on responses here it seems like she should be able to handle the heat if she wants to keep playing soccer.

I am not saying if your DD does still love playing soccer right now or not. I do not know her and only she knows her own mind.
But of course she is going to say that she still loves soccer when you ask, OP. She loves her parent and wants to please you. Just keep that in mind.

[Anonymous]

We went to a sand soccer tournament, and the kids that did the best in the afternoon sun and heat, (i.e. still running for the ball, vs just shuffling about w no energy) were the kids who ate a hearty breakfast.

We have 1 girl, who usually is not a fast runner, or who runs a lot during normal games. She was the only one with energy left for the afternoon hot matches. Her dad said she ate a full breakfast, pancakes, eggs and bacon. -Seems to have helped her to power through the heat vs kids who just at pancakes.

[Anonymous]

My DD is in the same tournament OP.
The Coach had been rotating all players so they’re only out there 10 mins then get a water break and shade break under the tent for a few minutes.

[Anonymous]

This is what we have done with my soccer player in oppressive heat.

1. take wet washcloths and freeze them. then bring them in a cooler with tons of ice. Use these to cool down during breaks, halftimes, etc.

2. make sure your team sideline has a tent, if the club doesn't bring one YOU BRING ONE.

3. Bring a cooler of gatorades/powerades for entire team, keep it by the team

4. Bring bananas, and possibly goos (the things that runners eat during races, can get these on amazon, Dicks or Pacers, banana flavor is the best one IMO, my kid is partial to gummies). Have them eat them at halftime. Not too many because can cause diarrhea in some people

5. DO NOT WARM UP IN HEAT SUPER EARLY (esp if on turf). My kid had a coach that would require 1 hour prior to tip off start warming up and the other teams would only start about 20 min before bc of heat. Guess which team was dead quicker.

6. Ice water, ice water, ice water. Your kid needs a giant water bottle, and you bring one too, esp to have in the car and with you on the sidelines bc whenever the whistle blows and there is a pause your kid can run up to you and get water

7. Eat a huge amount of food, carb and protein heavy.

As far as training goes, you need stamina, but heat is heat and there isn't too much you can do if it is too hot. Kids die every year from heat stroke (especially in football practices where they have to wear a lot of gear). No kid needs to suffer.