They Can't Skip Any More!

Baby Update:

Nothing yet. We have had several false alarms but he obviously has his mothers stubbornness- or he hates the winter and wants to stay where it is warm. In any event he is holding fast to his due date of the 30th.

KIDS CAN'T SKIP:

Yesterday I did probably my 300th marketing clinic since I have been doing speed clinics. If you want to learn more about marketing clinic you can sign up for the speed clinic empire webinar coming this February http://www.speedclinicempire.com/.

But what I was going to say was that the marketing clinic I did was for a group of athletes and their parents in Indiana. The entire goal of the clinic was to help gain awareness for proper training. The purpose was to have fun yet share some important techniques that will serve the kids well as they grow in sports and general activity.

When I got to the dynamic warm up aspect and was teaching the kids skipping-I was completely amazed- KIDS CAN'T SKIP ANY MORE! Holy cow. I had roughly 20 kids and I don't think 3/4 could skip. My two daughters where in the clinic and are great at skipping because they practice it in all directions all the time, there were a couple more that were OK and maybe one or two more that kind of resembled a skip. The rest were so off in there form of skipping.

Here were some of the problems I saw. Kids didn't lift their knee hardly at all, they were raising the same side arm as the knee lifting up, some were not using their arms at all- I mean like Irish dancing style, and some of them raised their heels toward their butt and never raised their knees. WHAT! What happened? Why can't kids skip?

So needless to say we did some extra skipping and within 5 minutes all the kids could at least do a skipping pattern somewhat correctly. The thing is- it wasn't like they just had a brain cramp and got screwed up for a second- they didn't know how to skip. What a shame.

I hate to say this because I was a Physical Education Teacher- but, PE is letting our kids down. they are not teaching kids fundamental skills that will help build a big foundation of movement skills. I had one young man that was obviously a wt lifter. He spent some time in the wt room. But his overall movement ability was low. He is an example of coaches spending time on building strength on a weak foundation. He will end up with an injury surer than sure.

Let's not forget that movement is the basis freedom. Strength is definitely needed to allow us to move- but if our movement is so restricted we will have injuries, low performance, and frustration. Let's get back to the basics of movement so we can build off a good foundation.

Gotta Get Going

I need to get a few more things done before the day is done. I will be talking to you in a couple days. Have a great upcoming week!

Yours in Speed,

Lee