Crossfit and crosstraining for kids?

Is it ok for kids to lift weights or not?  That is a question that every parent will have to face sooner or later if they have kids who take their sports seriously.  And what age is ok?  Braden is one of those kids.  He just has a drive for hockey.  He would play it all the time if he could.  I would say his love for hockey is as high or maybe higher than my love for trail running and being in the mountains.  After his second season ever of ice hockey was over this past spring he asked Ashley and I what he could do to be better for the next tryouts in the fall.  Our answer- get faster, stronger, better hand/eye coordination and be more skilled.  So this summer we set out to try and give him all the advantages that we could. 

First he spent 2 months playing baseball for the first time in his life.  What better way to work on hand-eye coordination. Guess what ends up happening?  One of the best players on the team, NICE!  Here is a video of the very first time he ever batted in a game.



Yes you saw that right, in the park home run!


The next part of the evil plan that Ashley and I came up with is hockey camp all summer.  When this is all set and done he will have spent about 10 weeks of 2-3 times a week on the ice leading up to tryouts on Aug 18-19.  His skating skills like stopping, turning on a dime, and speed have increased dramatically this summer!

The final part of the plan was to get him functionally stronger and help him learn how to control his body's movements better.  This was Ashley's idea and I think it was brilliant! This is where people may strongly disagree with us but that is the differences parenting styles.  We put him in a Crossfit for Kids camp for 8 weeks at Ashley's Crossfit gym in Louisville called Crossfit Juila.  Man has he gotten stronger!  Most everything they do is body weight lifts like pushups, situps, running, get the O rings, ect.   He no longer does the worm when doing a pushup, instead now he knocks out a bunch of pushups keeping his body nice and flat like one should.  But they did throw in a little bit of deadlifting and tire flips for the older kids. I think that this type of lifting is ok for kids that are 11-12 years old and older as long as it is taught correctly and highly supervised.   Braden loved doing the deadlift.

His first time deadlifting

This is his deadlift PR of 95lbs!  Not bad for a 80 pound kid.

Well you may or may not agree with our approach to sports with Braden but one can not say that we did not give him all the tools he needs/wants to be successful!  Here's to a successful tryouts on Aug 18-19th while I am slogging through the Leadville 100.  Cheers!