Customer Reviews

Children and Sports Training: How Your Future Champions Should Exercise to be Healthy, Fit, and Happy

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

... Dr. Drabik has put together a masterpiece on children's development. This excellent book has practical wisdom as well as excellent drills that are easy to follow. I would encourage the author to include photos in the next publication -- this would give the book an even more effective educational appearance. I have found that the cover of the book was honest in terms of it's content -- very warm and caring.

As a parent as well as a coach of children's sports I found this book to contain excellent information that I can pass on to my clients in my fitness training business. May I encourage Dr. Drabik to come to the United States and do seminars with his excellent material that's contained in this book.

This book was recommended to me by a peer before I started work with academy soccer players, and I have to say that it has proved to be very useful. I had previously worked solely with adults so some research was much needed. Don't be mislead by the colorful and childish cover as it has some great content - both scientific and practical.

It is rare to find a science-based book that reads so well cover to cover, but is equally useful as a reference.

There are opinions of certain topics such as strength training that could be argued, but then what good book doesn't challenge certain ideas or practices. It is of my belief that children's training is often an afterthought or merely based on adult models when in-fact kids are our future, and so we need to invest more research and effort into programming for them. Getting this book should certainly help you in this process.

The ratings for this book below depend on the context of the reader:

Coach: 4/5
Athlete: N/A for child athletes
Sport Scientist/Student: 5/5

More reviews of books like this are on my blog, which is listed in my profile.

A very good book that gives you an idea when the best stages to develop a young childs physical abilities. Coodination, endurance, speed, strength and flexibility for different ages and sexes. It is good to know what children are typically able to handle at certain ages. I know I've seen over eager parents try to have their children train like adults in hopes of making the next Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan only to burn the child out.

The problem I have with the book is it reads too much like a text book and not enough info to help actually coach. Lots of bars and graphs come in handy when it comes to showing the "sensitive" times to developing physical movements when it comes to age and sex. They can get a little over whelming when it comes to coaching. If you are doing a research paper on training young chldren then this would be an excellent book. On the other hand if you are a coach hoping to use the info right away you are pretty much going to get a bunch of guidelines. There are exercises and activities listed in the book but I honestly think if you are a good coach you could come up with something more fun for a young child. Then again you are probably better off having your child take swimming lessons, low level gymnastics or even just giving them time to just just play outside with their friends then actually setting up practice times.

Another thing I had a problem with is that the book is a little too cautious when it comes to training. I don't know what it is about PHD's but when they recommend exercise intensities. It is always low intensity, low volume repetitive training. So basically do not let your child lift weights, play football, competitive gymastics or anything that might injure them. We don't want them to injue their growth plates so just have them jog.

The strength training part is worthless in my opinion. It is kinda silly that the book does not recommended young athletes squat or deadlift for fear they might injure their back. I'm not saying 6 year old needs to lift but if you have a high school kid wait until their 20 to lift as recommended you pretty much set the child back in physical training. I'd high recommend the books, "Starting Strength" and "Practical Programming for Strength Training" by Rippetoe. Lots of "real" coaching info you can apply to a young athletes training.

This is a good book but it reads more like a text book for college then a book you can use to coach. If you are writing a paper this is a great book. If you are a coach I think the general guidelines will help out but not much else.

Excellent book, very well written. It's progressively written in that it establishes the foundational theory and then elaborates greatly on the subject matter. I would also encourage Dr. Drabik to come to the US and do a seminar.