From Child to Champion: LTAD experts share advice for parents & coaches of 6-10 year olds
Ahhh, childhood. That innocent time of life. Merely 70-100 or so months removed from the womb.
Just learning how to read, write, do arithmetic, and how to tie shoelaces. The latter comes in handy when skipping across the schoolyard without a care in the world.
And yet, many parents and youth sport coaches think that these youngsters should be preparing for a career in collegiate and professional sports! Or at the least, win the Tee-ball National Championship!
I remember starting elementary school in small town North Dakota. I’d hop, skip, walk, run, and/or bike to school, usually stopping along the way to throw a few rocks while I was already thinking about picking teams for touch football at recess and what neighborhood games to play after school. No coach or teacher to put me through drills to learn, practice, and master these fundamental movement skills. Just the natural environment, repetition, and perhaps some biofeedback that I didn’t even know about.
Ahhh, those were the days circa 1978. Carefree, no pressure. Much different than the youth sports landscape of the 21st century.
This blog is a continuation of the series on Lessons in Growth & Maturation. The focus here will be on the elementary school years, 6-10 years of age, roughly grades 1-4. A time when kids start formal schooling and organized youth sports. A real key age for cognitive development and for motor development, the learning of movement skills and sport skills.
I’ll stick with the usual format of the past blogs on middle school and high school boys and girls presenting changes in growth and physical performance. And for this blog, I have asked some colleagues and experts in youth athletic development and youth fitness to share some advice for parents and coaches.
Childhood growth: slow and steady
During the elementary school years, boys and girls grow about 2-3 inches (5-7cm) per year – some years more, some less, and will generally stay in about the same percentile range on the growth chart.
Besides getting steadily taller, they will also gain about 4-10 pounds (about 2-5 kg) per year usually increasing a little more every year from 6 to 10 years of age. The increase in body weight can vary as it is influenced by diet and physical activity. An imbalance in energy intake and energy expenditure can lead to excessive weight gain and childhood obesity which affects 18.4% of 6- to 11-year-olds in the United States.
Growth charts for height and weight in males and females. Available at https://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts/clinical_charts.htm
As girls near age 9-10, they may begin to enter puberty with the initiation of the adolescent growth spurt and appearance of secondary sex characteristics. Some early maturing boys may also experience the same.
Although we generally group this age range into the “pre-pubertal” category, there are still differences in biological maturity or biological age between individuals. That is, if we were to take hand-wrist x-rays and determine bone age, we would find differences even among younger kids. For example, some 7 year olds may have a bone age of 5.5 and others 8.5 years. You can also get an estimate (repeat, estimate) of adult height using the Khamis-Roche equation. And from this predicted adult height (PAH), you can also calculate the %PAH, which can serve as a proxy for physical maturity. See the example below.
Mom 5’7”
Dad 5’11”
Girl 9 years old, 4’6” and 60 lbs
Predicted adult Height = 5’8”
%PAH = 54 inches / 68 inches = 79% (Note: early phase of growth spurt is about 85-89% and mid-late growth spurt is about 89-95%)
Hey, just wait a few years. All of this is about to change abruptly with the adolescent growth spurt right around the corner!
Fundamental Movements and Physical Performance
During the preschool years (3-5 years), kids begin to learn how to move while exploring their environment and what their bodies can do. They are basically learning the ABC’s of movement - the fundamental movement skills, which have been divided into 3 categories.
Locomotor, in which the body is moving through space and time
Stability, in which specific parts of the body are moved while maintaining balance and stability
Manipulative or object control, in which objects like a ball or stick (bat, lacrosse stick, etc.) are moved by the body
Here are a few links to some great resources on Fundamental Movement Skills from Sport New Zealand along with a video series from ACT Health in Australia.
The development of fundamental movement skills continues into the early elementary school years as kids practice, fine tune, and hopefully, master a wide array of these skills. The figure below shows the stages of development for a handful of fundamental movements, and as you can see there are slight differences between boys and girls with most of these skills showing a “mature” pattern between 7 and 10 years of age. Being exposed to multiple sports and games in a variety of environments is helpful to this process.
The process of acquiring and developing a mature movement pattern is actually quite similar to creating an “artistic sketch”. It helps to develop “blueprints” of movement that can be continually refined. Exposure to multiple sports and games allows for improvisation and experimentation to occur, and this will ultimately allow for efficient and effective actions to emerge that can lead to athletic success.
Age at which 60% are able to perform a specific level for a selected motor skill. From Branta et al. Ex Sci Sport Reviews, 1984.
Again, I cannot emphasize enough that fundamental movement skills are the building blocks of participation and enjoyment of physical activity, games, and sports. Just as a lack of reading literacy in childhood can have far-reaching consequences, so to can physical illiteracy. Whether it’s the ABC’s of reading or the ABC’s of movement, getting off on the right foot (no pun intended!) is important. Informal conversations with many adolescent and high school coaches suggest that youngsters could possess better mastery of fundamental movement.
Becoming Bigger, Faster, Stronger
As the process of movement becomes better established and body size increases, so does the physical output of children. We see this age-related increase in physical performance on any given weekend at a youth sport festival (Rookie, 8U, 10U) that have been arranged by the $portpreneurs. The 10 year olds playing at field A are bigger, faster, and stronger than the 8U kids playing on field B, who in turn are bigger, faster and stronger than the 6 year old Rookies picking dandelions and day dreaming while coaches and parents shout multiple instructions at their still developing cognitive skills. This is a general or average pattern of development, and of course, there will always be exceptions with more naturally talented kids who might be “playing up” – but I’m sure his/her dad already told you that!!
Fatigue Resistant Machines
An important consideration for coaches is that children, in comparison to adolescents, possess better cardiovascular fitness, fatigue less, and recover quicker. Think about it – you (the adult), a high schooler, and a few prepubertal kids playing a game of tag in the backyard. You and the high schooler are the bigger and faster, but the young kids are like the Energizer Bunny – they keep going, and going, and going and going. There is actually a very well-designed research study showing that the fatigability – or the decline in power output – was greatest in men, then pubertal boys then prepubertals, who actually did not show any decrement in power output following ten 10-second sprints separated by 30 seconds, 1 minutes or 5 minutes. So, there is really no need to put them on the line and condition them.
Not much difference between Boys & Girls
Another key point is that the difference in physical performance like speed, agility, and jumping ability is similar in boys and girls during this age. Although on average boys will have a slight advantage, it is fairly small and in certain cases girls will outperform boys. We see this in youth leagues, where boys and girls play on the same team. In fact, the best player in my county Little League was a girl. BTW, she went onto play college basketball at Texas A&M.
Advice from the LTAD experts
I’m very fortunate to have some great colleagues in pediatric exercise science, youth athletic development and youth fitness who are altruistic and education-minded. A few of them were helpful in this blog by sharing 3 pieces of advice for parents and coaches of 6-10 year old kids. Everyone in this group has formal education in exercise and sport science along with many years of boots-on-the-ground experience working with young athletes either in research, sports, strength and conditioning or a combo.
Here’s what they have to say.
Rick Howard Professor at West Chester University; Leader in NSCA LTAD efforts; 25+ years in education, physical education, youth fitness, strength & conditioning
Champions are made on the playground, not at the stadium.
Your kids need you to model the behavior you want from them.
Get a jump on all fitness attributes at this age.
Erica Suter The “Fit Soccer Queen”; author, coach
Meet kids where they are in their development. It is critical to understand that a child will be faster/slower, stronger/weaker than their neighbor or teammate. Let kids be kids, focus on what you can control (free play, exposure to a variety of movement, ideally, and multiple hobbies). This ensures they optimize this window of motor skill learning and ability to be aware of their bodies in space.
Move more often than not. 6-10 year olds should be accumulating over 6 miles of movement a day. This can be through walking, crawling, sprinting, climbing, chasing, hopping, biking, or any other activity. Young humans are made to move, not just for their physical development, but so they can build neural connections in their brain, and learn to connect left and right hemisphere.
It is extremely hard to tell who will be a 'success'. Just because a kid is the worst on the field at age 6-10 OR the best on this field, doesn't mean they're going to always be that way. Child development is so dynamic, especially as kids hit pre-puberty, so expect rapid changes to occur in all areas of performance - speed, agility, balance, field awareness and so much more. Again, focus on the controllables (balance, coordination, stability, moving in all planes), keep training simple, and always keep it FUN! A young athlete is only a child once, so ensure they love it and leave every training with a beaming smile.
John Cairney Professor & Head of School, Human Movement & Nutrition Sciences, University of Queensland; Leading scholar in physical literacy; President of the North American Society of Pediatric Exercise Medicine
Encourage fun always. But remember fun is not only measured by smiles. Fun is also measured by engagement, effort and perseverance. Fun is also social - moving with others.
Give children a chance to lead - let them take ownership over their movement and encourage them in that leadership
Experimentation and sampling a variety of games and sports is key during this period. Give lots of opportunity to encourage the development of movement competences - don’t focus on single sport skills. Sampling all different kinds of activities should be the goal. If you’re coaching soccer make sure your warm up and other activities include upper body object control skills for example. Find ways to incorporate a broad range of movements regardless of the context
Wendy Glover 20+ years as an educator and coach; developer of the AthLeaders program
In general, I am still a firm believer on less emphasis on "sports" and more on movement and social and emotional skills.
- Instill a love of daily healthy risky play. This comes with opportunities to grow confidence from various experiences. This can be through many different ways and exposing children to as many as possible is helpful. These include but are not limited to: run, jump, throw, kick, swim, climb, skate, etc. This can/should happen often in diverse environments: snow, water, gym, river, pool, parks, trees/forests, etc. These experiences should mostly be unstructured and explorative and usually supervised, depending on level of risk in environment, as they are under 10 years old. Some of it can be supervised, but not instructed or structured. Structured risky explorative play happens in schools in limited environments. Examples include: swinging from a rope into a lake, climbing a tree, riding a bike on a path in the woods, doing a handstand (different planes), swimming in a backyard pool, skating on a backyard rink, playing catch with tennis/football/disc in 2 feet of water at the beach/off a diving board, walking on rocks through a creek, casting a fishing rod, etc. Basically, activities they will not get in school.
Build social skills through structured & unstructured healthy risky play. Provide opportunities for winning/losing, keeping score/not keeping score, winning by a lot/losing by a lot, including others in play with various abilities and disabilities (exceptionalities), creating own games/modified games, etc. Instill a love of all aspects of movement and sport/activity participation (such as the examples above). Instill strategies for coping with aspects of movement and sport/activity participation (e.g. frustration when cannot master a task such as casting a fishing line... to keep at it until it is mastered), (learn that frustration is a great feeling to have as it guides you to challenge yourself more and it is natural and not negative), be proud and not jealous of a friend that can do a gymnastics move, that you cannot master, (as jealousy is a natural feeling and needs to be addressed on how to cope with it). Learning appropriate behaviour management and life skills (social/emotional) for becoming healthy and kind humans should be a main goal for sport and activity participation at all ages, and beginning with the ages 6-10 is no exception.
Teach kids to listen to their body and mind. Teach and advise 6-10 year-olds to listen to their body and mind. Ask, ask, ask. Don't tell, tell, tell (so much). Is your body tired today? Do you think you need to give your body the rest it needs to feel better and grow? Would you like to lie on the couch and listen to ocean waves crashing the shore for 5 minutes before lunch? We also need to actively teach mindfulness strategies and ways to slow down, unplug and quiet the mind. Do you think your body needs healthy food? What are some healthy foods that you would like to try? Provide them with choice and autonomy to make decisions as much as possible when helping the child navigate their own health. Take them to grocery stores, have them help pick the healthy food they want to try, provide fruit and vegetables at all meals for them to try or add to a meal. And, model this behaviour for them. Did you give your body exercise today? What would you like to do to give your body the exercise it needs? Again, model appropriate exercise habits in many environments as well. Here are some ideas.. Provide opportunities for asking: how are you feeling today? Did you have a good day? What was good and what didn't seem to go well? When we walk the dog how does your body or mind feel? Should we go for a bike ride? A swim? Children often don't communicate as well as teenagers and adults, so having emojis as options to communicate sometimes helps. As do short phrases: Did you feel better after our bike ride today? yes, no or maybe?
Tony Moreno Professor at Eastern Michigan University; President of East Lansing Lacrosse Club; NSCA LTAD Advisory Board
Fun. I always say in the first minute of a parent program meeting that our number one mission is for your son or daughter to have fun while learning to master the game of lacrosse. It must be perceived as fun by the kids, at practice and at games. Period.
Lacrosse, like many forms of physical activity, is one sport that has the potential to improve the physical health and mental well-being of your child. As a parent you know physical fitness is important and linked to many positive social and emotional characteristics . We play, we get dirty, we might get hurt, and we won't always agree, but it's a great environment for kids to learn how to figure things out as a team.
The skills, abilities, and movements we learn from sport have the potential, if we are doing our job, to be carried into middle school, high school, and maybe beyond. And even if kids don't continue to play lacrosse, we hope that these same abilities and movements will carry over to other sports and/or physical activities throughout the lifespan so that your son or daughter can enjoy movement and physical activity throughout their lifespan and maybe generations beyond.
James Baker Lead Sport Scientist & Strength & Conditioning Coach at Aspire Academy
- Sample lots of activities, games and sports (not just traditional team sports)
- Engage in physical activity with your children
- Look for clubs/teams with the right ethos and appropriately qualified staff - where the child's enjoyment and development are front and center.
Mike Jennings Lead Athletic Development Coach at Athlos Academy
Lay the foundation with FUNdamentals. FUNdamental Movement Skills and FUNdamental Sport Skills are the foundation for not only the ability to participate in movement and physical activity, but without them the likelihood of a young athlete being confident in their ability and/or motivated to participate is very minimal. The key to a young athlete learning those skills are keeping the learning FUN!
Create the environment not the movement. At this age, the movements that we “want to see” in our athletes will come about naturally through unstructured and semi structured play. We will be hammering a nail with a screwdriver if we worry too much about creating a specific movement when athletes are young. Use the right tools to create an environment where the athletes will enjoy the experience and have ample opportunities to utilize the movement/skill.
Self-assessment before athlete assessment. The athletes will have their whole lives to assess themselves or have others assess them with regard to movement, skills, health-related fitness, skill-related fitness, etc. We should be assessing ourselves and our practices during this time, not the athlete. What is working? What isn’t? What can we improve? What do the athletes say they like? What do the athletes dislike? Are our sessions long enough? Too long? Taking the time to evaluate ourselves will help us give what is best to the athletes we get to work with!
Kevin Till Professor at Leed Beckett University; Leeds Rhinos Rugby Club
Don’t Let Kids Specialize. Encourage lots of different activities. Sampling a range of sports and activities is important for children! It helps them be healthy and develop multiple skills for the long term that means they will have more opportunities to take part in sport and physical activity as they grow up.
Develop General Athleticism. Athleticism is the “ability to repeatedly perform a range of movements with precision and confidence in a variety of environments, which require competent levels of motor skills, strength, power, speed, agility, balance, co-ordination and endurance”. Developing these attributes means children will be healthier and have more opportunity to participate in sport and physical activity as they grow up.
Forget about Talent – Let them have FUN! Too often we hear parents and coaches say ‘she / he has talent’. These phrases often result in points number 1 and 2 from above not being developed and it puts pressure on children to undertake more sport-specific practice. By forgetting talent, we can let kids have more fun and enjoy the physical, psychological and social benefits of sport! Because the fact is, very few will go on to professional careers in sport, but all of them need to continue leading a healthy active lifestyle. That’s what long-term athletic development is all about anyways!
What’s ahead – the throes of Puberty!
As mentioned, many, but not all, girls will start the adolescent growth spurt and puberty at 9-10 years of age (and some even sooner), as will some very early maturing boys. For insight into the adolescent growth spurt check out several of the other Lessons in Growth & Maturation blogs.
Girls, Growth and GAINZ! Training the Young Female Athlete
Lessons in Growth & Maturation: COVID Curves and the Adolescent Growth Spurt