Kids Need a Fighting Chance: A post on the Weakness and Injury

Kids need a fighting chance just to keep up w/ the demands of their sport. Their body is growing way too fast for their strength levels to keep up. 50 years ago kids were doing physical labor, shoveling, carrying heavy stuff, and they ate less food that was better for them and didn't turn on the "fat switch" (not a real thing) so their strength levels kept up w/ a growing body. Today kids play their ds, ipad, ipods, sit in desks 7 hours a day, eat fast food, twizzlers, M&M's and have to be told to go outside and play. It's the complete opposite. But that's hardly the whole problem, b/c then they are expected to play in a competitive sport YEAR ROUND. Sometimes on more than one team at a time. 

This is too much of EVERYTHING. Too much bad food. Where does the school bus stop on the way home from a road game in junior high and high school? McDonadls, why? The bus driver eats free, at least that's how it was when I was in high school. But how else are you gonna feed 20 kids all at once and get back on the road? Give them meals to take?........Oh wait, that could actually work.

Yes, yes it would work. Then they could have:

      an apple, 

      2 turkey sandwichs w/ ezekial bread, spinach, tomato and some hummus, 

      some type of real fruit juice, 

      and a bag of broccoli w/ some more hummus to dip w/ 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22293771

It's also too much inactivity to throw a kid into the fire (by fire I'm referring to competition). Competition is open loop, it's unpredictable. We cannot expect a kid to jump off the couch, sit in a car on the way to a game, throw 80 throws to warm up, maybe run a pole or two, and then be able to stop and go, change levels and perform well on the field. 

Keep a pickle in mind. No not the edible pickle (which are fantastic for your body), but getting caught between bases on the field. Do you think a kid w/  15% body fat, that can NOT SQUAT HIS OWN WEIGHT is safe to be running and stopping? 

No, not for a second. Neither is an adult. This kid is unable to slow down safely. He's putting all that stress on his tendons and ligaments b/c his muscles aren't STRONG enough to ABSORB THE FORCE from the movement he's produced (acceleration) and his size (mass). 

Force = Mass * Acceleration 

Besides the fact that he's probably slow, can't change levels well, and is drastically performing under par. I know what a little strength can do for a kid, it doesn't take much to make a huge difference. But besides that, THIS KID IS A TIME BOMB waiting to get injured. And there is absolutely NO reason why it has to be this way.