Youth sports are as popular as ever. With a nearly estimate 30 million children participating in some form of sport in their early ages. This is fantastic news. Sports have been proven to shape a child’s bone structure, muscle mass and joints. Going further, sport and activity as a child helps activate brain activity while a lack thereof activity can increase risk of serious health issues like heart disease and cancers later in life. Additionally, sport creates comradery among the team and other athletes participating in the sport. In an increasingly sedentary and isolated world, this is wildly important.
All parents want the best for their children when it comes to their health, education and physical ability. When a child first enters a sport, it’s usually as a “testing the waters” activity. As the athlete starts to develop a love for their sport, the natural progression for most parents is to increase the time they play that sport with the thought being the more practice given for a given activity the better that child will be at said sport. However, after a certain point this path has diminishing returns.
A simple analogy regarding a high volume single sport athlete is to think of a baby crawling. Given no direction, encouragement or guidance that baby will most likely eventually walk. But with a multitude of exterior catalyst, the baby will walk much faster than its counterpart. More specifically, single sport athletes trade specificity for overall stability, strength and athleticism.
The sport of weightlifting allows us to increase the three stated above while introducing the athlete to a new sport. The snatch and clean and jerk are two of the most dynamic and explosive moments one can do. Combining in the balance, coordination and mental fortitude to complete competently results in some of the most athletic individuals competing in the world today.
Introducing an athlete to a new sport can be a challenge. To counter this, we’ve compiled a six week camp to bring a new lifter up to speed using proper mechanics and technique. The camp starts on April 13 and runs for 6 weeks on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s from 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM. All abilities form 8-18 are invited!
