Kids Lifting

[DoctorWho]

TBone in another post mentioned that his 6 year daughter competed in a meet. I am looking for guidance about technique, training, and equipment for kids lifting. I was thinking of getting some microplates and making a bar from pipe from home depot, but are there better ways to equip? I plan to start 5 to 8 years old doing SS and work it out from there. Whatever I do, I will have to hide it from the lovely Mrs. DoctorWho.

All opinions are welcome, and I am especially interested in comments based on experience.

[IndividualThoughtPatterns]

Whatever I do, I will have to hide it from the lovely Mrs. DoctorWho.

None advice about training from me, but women are exceptionally good at finding out stuff. :-P.
You might wanna tell her and explain.

[DoctorWho]

None advice about training from me, but women are exceptionally good at finding out stuff. :-P.
You might wanna tell her and explain.

You're right, there is a confrontation in my future, but I want get a couple of workouts in to show its safety.

[jimmyc]

I too, have wondered about the same situation. I have two daughters, ages 9 & 11, who play competetive soccer and we train lightly together with weights. They really enjoy lifting so I bought a MDUSA aluminum 5 ft. bar and some bumper plates. Now I'm, also, thinking about starting them on SS but not sure of their age. Mrs. JimmyC is aware of my intentions ).

[Burnsie]

I have a 9 yr old son that has expressed interest in lifting. Planning on joining up with an Oly group on Sundays at a local Y. Just want to keep it fun and interesting for a while, then see if he wants to devote more time to it. It would give me a good excuse to start building a home gym, and no Mrs. Burnsie to obtain approval from.

[Tamara Reynolds]

I'm sure most people have seen this:
http://fairlawn.patch.com/articles/m...ld-powerlifter

I let my daughter lift when she wants to lift. However, once she decided to do the meet, I told her there were certain things she had to do (like come to team practice and complete a minimum number of training sessions) if she actually wanted to represent the team at a meet.

[Tamara Reynolds]

TBone in another post mentioned that his 6 year daughter competed in a meet.

Side note: I'm a girl.

[jimmyc]

TBone even though I'm fairly new to this forum I kow that you're a girl and you've been training for a while. I value your opinion and feel better about letting my girls go heavier. BTW, thanks for the linkk to the article and video, as I haven't seen them before.

[medwards]

TBone in another post mentioned that his ...

TBone is a female of the species. Might want to correct that, because I hope the thread has a long life ahead of it.

I would really like to know more about training kids. TBone has talked about her kids. Gymoser runs a club for kids that he posts about from time to time. And, there was this article earlier. It was also mentioned in one of the threads that kids don't have the hormones for effective recovery, so programming has to account for that. That's the extent of the conversations I'm aware of here.

[OCG]

I plan to start 5 to 8 years old doing SS.

Now I'm, also, thinking about starting them on SS but not sure of their age.

I'd say around about 15 is the earliest you'd want to start something like SS. Simply because their hormonal profile (lack of test mainly) will not support it. That and a ten year old or younger likely doesn't have the drive or focus needed to do well on the program. Certainly, there is nothing wrong with trying to progress, just be aware that you need to keep it fun and not to expect the same things from them you would from an adult lifter.