13 year old NY state record holder

[KirkB]

Karmen won her county championship today.

... She also lifted heavy and trained hard yesterday as we're not tapering or peaking until states. ...

May I suggest that you don't need to train her 7 days a week during peak season ... which is NOW. In fact, 6 days a week might be too much.

But if she's training 6 days a week (max), may I suggest that you train her hard (the "heavy" lifting) on the day AFTER the meet ... not the day before. Make your one day of rest the day BEFORE each weekly meet.

That will give her body the rest it needs in prep for the meet ... which is when you need it the most.

Actually, I even question why she needs to do ANY heavy lifting ... or any lifting at all ... on ANY day during peak season. That should be saved for the off-season, as I doubt that it's going to benefit her AT ALL before her 14th birthday. It might even be detrimental. In fact, for every hour spent lifting, that's an hour that's not spent running or doing gymnastics. Not the best use of her time and energy. Just saying.

Kirk

[altius]

"Actually, I even question why she needs to do ANY heavy lifting ... Totally agree.

[altius]

TO REMIND YOU AGAIN - "First do not chase records OR EVEN MEDALS. REMEMBER IF YOU HAVE ONE EYE ON WINNING YOU ONLY HAVE ONE EYE TO WATCH YOUR OPPONENTS SWORD. That can get in the way of longterm development and leave everyone disappointed if you dont get what you are aiming at. Usually those records are set by physically precocious kids and she is like a young giraffe -all legs -give her time!!"

[mjaubbs40]

May I suggest that you don't need to train her 7 days a week during peak season ... which is NOW. In fact, 6 days a week might be too much.

But if she's training 6 days a week (max), may I suggest that you train her hard (the "heavy" lifting) on the day AFTER the meet ... not the day before. Make your one day of rest the day BEFORE each weekly meet.

That will give her body the rest it needs in prep for the meet ... which is when you need it the most.

Actually, I even question why she needs to do ANY heavy lifting ... or any lifting at all ... on ANY day during peak season. That should be saved for the off-season, as I doubt that it's going to benefit her AT ALL before her 14th birthday. It might even be detrimental. In fact, for every hour spent lifting, that's an hour that's not spent running or doing gymnastics. Not the best use of her time and energy. Just saying.

Kirk

Ok, let the criticism begin...Karmen trains 4-5 days per week depending on if there is 1 meet or 2. She always gets 2 days completely off (usually Sunday & either Saturday or Monday). Training consists of vaulting (long runs & short run swings), plant drills, lifting (drop deadlift with hex bar, bench & core), pole runs (with mid-mark chart), high bar (cheat bubkas and swing into hip circles) & ring swings. Our practices usually run 60-90 minutes. Most of the time, a quarter to half of that is rest between reps/sets where we watch film, talk, listen to music and joke around. I've never had so much fun coaching as I have spending time with my own kid this season.

[mjaubbs40]

TO REMIND YOU AGAIN - "First do not chase records OR EVEN MEDALS. REMEMBER IF YOU HAVE ONE EYE ON WINNING YOU ONLY HAVE ONE EYE TO WATCH YOUR OPPONENTS SWORD. That can get in the way of longterm development and leave everyone disappointed if you dont get what you are aiming at. Usually those records are set by physically precocious kids and she is like a young giraffe -all legs -give her time!!"

She has scheduled competitions and tries to do the best she can at them because she is a competitive person. She is motivated by accomplishments/goals--those also help make it fun. Our focus is always on herself and getting better. Don't get me wrong, she is devastated when she doesn't do her best--but it is always a learning experience and the sun always comes up the next day. At the age of 13, pole vaulting doesn't define her, it's something she does for fun in the backyard with a bunch of club kids (age 13-21) who have become her best friends.

[dougb]

mjaubbs40


Don't fall into the trap of answering your critics. You and she are in charge, especially her. If she wants that record, ro for it.

Doug Balcomb

[dougb]

Go for it!

Doug Balcomb

[KirkB]

Ok, let the criticism begin...Karmen trains 4-5 days per week ...

Don't get me wrong ... I think you've done a GREAT job in getting your daughter this far.

My intention is not to criticize, but to simply offer a couple suggestions that you can EASILY make to improve her short and long term PV goals.

Short term, if she trains 4-5 days per week, I'm merely suggesting that one of her 2-3 rest days be the day BEFORE the comp. The day AFTER the comp should be the HARDEST training day ... then taper off towards the next meet. The importance of this should be obvious.

Long term, if she does too much lifting and not enough gymnastics ... remember that I'm just saying "IF" here ... then she could burn out at an early age. I also worry about the negative effects of lifting at such a young age ... using her body as the "weight" in gymnastics drills is sufficient "weight lifting", IMHO. Even too much gymnastics ... or too much running ... can cause her to burn out before her prime.

You can take my suggestions as criticism if you like ... but please take them as CONSTRUCTIVE criticism.

Kirk

[rainbowgirl28]

Herbert Czingon thinks it's good for young girls to do a lot of weight lifting, more than the boys, because (if they are clean), they don't have enough testosterone to "bulk up". Gymnastics training is good, but lifting weights is good too, and it sounds like she has a decent mix going on.

Burn out is usually part mental part physical (overtraining) and you can just as easily burn out doing gymnastics exercises as you can weights. I know more burned out ex-gymnasts than any other sport...

... and who said anything about HEAVY lifting? Just because someone is "lifting weights" does not mean they are overtraining or using too much weight. She could have been doing everything with dumbbells for all you knew.

[tsorenson]

Hey Kirk, I love your posts, but you're getting carried away with the logos...


By the way, this young girl is awesome, and keeping it light and fun for her is the best way to make her a success 10-20 years from now!

Cheers
Tom

[KirkB]

... She also lifted heavy and trained hard yesterday as we're not tapering or peaking until states. ...

OK ... maybe I misread that ... I thought she was lifting heavy weights. If not that, then the only other thing that "lifted heavy" can mean is doing a LOT of reps.

Even if she just "trained hard" the day before the meet, my advice re that still stands.

Kirk

[mjaubbs40]

... She also lifted heavy and trained hard yesterday as we're not tapering or peaking until states. ...

OK ... maybe I misread that ... I thought she was lifting heavy weights. If not that, then the only other thing that "lifted heavy" can mean is doing a LOT of reps.

Even if she just "trained hard" the day before the meet, my advice re that still stands.

Kirk

Our deadlift sets go like this: 2x5 one day, 3x3 another and 5x2 another. She never does more than 10 reps per workout. Always with 5 minutes total body rest between sets. Weight is always 85-95% of max. Heaviest weight is always 1st set and we work down if necessary. It has been the single biggest reason she has gotten faster this season and she LOVES lifting and takes a great deal of pride in it. I should have said she trained hard instead of heavy because she set a PR for deadlift. Bench is always easy--she does 65-70lbs 2 x 5 reps. Because that meet was not important to us and not our peak (the season is still 3 more weeks plus), she trained through it. We will absolutely be taking your advice to go easy (for the 1-2 days) before our meets that are more important. I'm not confident in training hard the day after at that time as she will need rest and recovery.