![]() The trick is to encourage a variety of movements – swimming, walking or riding bicycles, for example. "Soccer can be an overload on the hips, and volleyball can be on the shoulders," Stafford says. His children, for example, are passionate about their respective sports: soccer and volleyball. It helps to introduce children as early as possible to many different sports, though that doesn't guarantee they'll want to play more than one. The key to a healthy, well-rounded young athlete is variety, Stafford says. "They may look at that and think that their kid's training is what's holding them back that's why they're not making the basketball team." "Kids will obviously be impressed with that, and parents don't know what they don't know," Stafford says. “If they’re smiling and sweaty, we knew we had done our job,” says Scott Stafford.įor instance, Stafford says he often sees videos posted by trainers or athletes encouraging high-level exercises, such as single-legged squats on a BOSU ball or 40-inch box jumps. Photo contributed by Scott Stafford / Following obstacle course work, two young athletes burn off leftover energy by tumbling and doing cartwheels. When he began looking around for training options, he was disturbed by the trend of training children like "little adults" - often perpetuated by social media. His 15-year-old son is a soccer player, while his 12-year-old daughter loves volleyball. ![]() His interest in youth training began with his own children. Professional baseball players have spent years building up to their number of throws each week, Stafford explains, "but are not ready for that sort of impact on their joints." "There's so much pressure - if your kid is not playing their sport 365 days a year, they can forget about a college scholarship," says Stafford, owner and founder of Chattanooga's Black Fern Fitness and Speed Made Simple, on a mission to promote multi-sport training in young athletes.Ĭhildren today, he says, are specializing in single sports at younger ages, and that can lead to a host of problems - anxiety, for example, as well as overuse injuries.Īccording to Nationwide Children's Hospital website, sports injuries have become the second leading cause of emergency room visits for children as their competitive careers begin at younger ages. He aspired to play professionally, and he remembers the anxiety he felt at the end of each season. Scott Stafford grew up playing rugby in New Zealand.
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