LITTLE ROCK — Just in time for the Little Rockers Kids Marathon and similar efforts to teach kids to run, the New York Road Runners club has posted a free library of coaching advice online.
Aimed at adults who train youngsters, A Running Start includes more than 80 video clips that explain fitness concepts tailored to three ages: kindergarten through fourth grade, grades five through eight, and high school.
The overriding message of this professional and detailed presentation is that it’s a terrible idea to push children into hard running.
There’s no evidence that achievement before puberty translates into accomplishment as a young adult or adult athlete. None.
On the other hand, plenty of evidence suggests that when adults aim to fire kids up to “be winners” or master physical skills, they burn out and their enthusiasm turns to ashes.
So the program urges adults not to show these videos to children. Possibly, the producers say, an advanced high school runner could gain insight by watching them.
But for the coach, they offer a wealth of ideas for games that encourage fundamental fitness and ways of talking about posture and other elements of form that kids will interpret as silly fun.
With high production values and original music,the videos convey widely accepted practices: running in shoes in a relaxed, upright posture while landing on the midfoot and balls of the feet (not barefoot and not on the toes or the heels). The producers acknowledge that expert opinions do vary; but they don’t delve into the relative merits of different theories.
The credits thank 20 experts, including youth coaches and physiologists, but the information was organized for producer Eric Weil by lead consultants Laurence Greene and Ed Poirier.
Greene, co-author of Training for Young Distance Runners, has a doctorate in exercise science and teaches integrative physiology and scientific writing at the University of Colorado-Boulder. Once a high school cross country champion runner in Florida, he has coached high school and college athletes.
In 1984, he ran the fastest half-marathon in the world (1:01:27).
Poirier is the youth wellness specialist and track coach for the Attleboro (Mass.) YMCA. A youth coach for 25 years, he’s a columnist for kidsrunning.com, part of Runner’s World Magazine’s online edition. As a masters runner, he has won nine gold medals and three New England 1,500-meter Masters Championships and was named to the USA Masters All American Team seven times.
The series’ on-screen personalities and form demonstrators are Neil Fitzgerald, manager of the Department of Education’s Developmental Track and Field Series in New York, and Wendy S. Rhodes, a physical therapist and personal trainer specializing in running biomechanics.
The narrator, Holter Graham, is an actor in New York who continues to run while undergoing chemotherapy for leukemia.
USING THE PROGRAM
Say, for instance, that you wanted some help planning a running program for a kindergartner or group of similarly bouncy and distractible moppets.
And more power to you.
First, you’d locate nyrr.org/arunningstart on the Internet (my web browser asks permission before it lets the page open, because it’s a redirection from the club’s main site).
The producers “highly recommend” that coaches begin their exploration of the offerings for whichever age group they’re interested in by watching clips labeled “Form 101.”
So you’d look to the lefthand sidebar under “Elementary School (K-4)” and click on “Form” - even though it comes second in a list that begins with “Warm-up & Cooldown” and also includes “Pacing” and “Games.”
Up pop five video clips, each less than five minutes long. They cover general guidelines, fundamental athletic skills, running posture, arm movements and leg movements.
The introduction’s four points:
“Do not be concerned with competition or performance. The main goal at this age is to have fun.”
“Running is a technical sport and sound running technique is a learned skill, not an innate ability.”
“Stay focused on the fundamentals of running form and efficient movement in general, including developing body awareness and skills such as balance and coordination. These basics are the building blocks for increasing overall athletic ability and the basis upon which good running form can later be taught most effectively.”
“At no time should you push your kids past their physical limits or level of motivation. Cultivating fundamental skills is important, mastering them is not. Pushing your kids too hard can turn them off to running and physical activity.”
Different guidelines are presented in the videos for coaches of middle-school and high school children, featuring most prominently less emphasis on play and more on drilling.
But continuing with the youngest age group, the “Warm-up & Cool-down” section includes three videos that take a representative group of little ones through simple routines that catch their attention and keep it. Then “Pacing” offers two activities for overcoming their natural tendency to sprint like rabbits and then sit down and tinker with theirsocks. And “Games” illustrates five suggestions that require silly-feeling, repeated motions that should eventually result in better body awareness, agility, coordination and balance.
For the two older age groups, the similarly labeled segments have different information; for instance, coaches see advice about strength and flexibility rather than the playful warm-up.
The video collection is not available on DVD and not keyed to any specific training program, book or shoe maker. Users can get more information about using the videos from the New York Road Runners’ A Running Start Facebook page, and an e-mail newsletter.
It’s all so classy and professional, I figured members of this running club must fork over vast sums in dues.
But, no, while their fees are steep by Arkansas running club standards, they aren’t bizarre. Membership is $40 a year for an individual, $60 for a family. But multiply that by the New York Road Runners’ 40,000 members, and you begin to understand how a mere running club can afford to offer such an elaborate video coaching resource for free.
The club also conducts professional footraces, including the ING New York Marathon, and it’s a nonprofit corporation with paid employees. No Arkansas running clubs are anywhere near that big-time.
ActiveStyle, Pages 25 on 10/25/2010