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[quote=Anonymous]Depending on age, running gait/balance can be helped much earlier than people think. When my son started at 4/5, he was slow and fell constantly. One evening, I ended up at a wedding and was talking to an HS track and field coach. I explained my son's running/falling issues, and he had some interesting suggestions. He went on to tell me half of his season is spent teaching kids to correct running technique before beginning any specialized event training. His thought was that because of changes in childhood behavior, the children are not getting enough experience in natural movement on the balls of their feet. He suggested that I play Hopscotch and make games where the kid had to hop on one foot to play. Any game, but the big thing was to get them hopping on one foot at a time. Then, he suggested breaking down the movement of just swinging your arms while sitting and pretend to answer a phone with each hand. Again, very little kid level. Nothing perfect, just get them in the ball park.

I tried it for a few months when my kid was 5. Nothing rigorous, just every once in a while if there was nothing to do in the house or they were bored on a weekend; we would play hopstoch or the floor is lava and hop across pillows to safety, etc. After while, and in the next season, I noticed a difference. Not as much falling, not always behind the pack. That would progress year over year, even without the games at home. I started a little earlier with my youngest at 2/3 and it worked just as well.

I've seen it at games a lot. The slow or unbalanced kid, and most times it is them being uncomfortable balancing on the balls of their feet when they run or have to turn quickly. So that changes everything else. Their knees do not come up because they are landing on their heels/outstep and there arms/body is working against them instead of with them. This is not a replacement for real agility training for correct form or anything like that, but a very basic level for a kid that looks a little uncomfortable. It's easy to see most times. If they are pretty comfortable, this won't help.

So, depending on the age (maybe under 10 or 11), you can do a lot to make a slow kid faster/balanced by just spending some time getting them more comfortable on the balls of their feet with little games like Hopscotch. I bet a lot of them do not even know how to play the game. I would really suggest not making it training. It is a game and play it just like the game; chalk, coins/rocks and all.
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