 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
GAMES FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL
Cross-country
Dear Coach Ed,I found the kidsrunning.com Web site today and I was so happy! I am going to be coaching middle school cross-country for the first time in the fall. Do you have a week or two of specific workouts that you do with your kids? I like your idea of running games. What is your favorite and how does it work? Kristin Ostrander Galway High School Kristin, Congratulations on joining the ranks of youth running coaches. For middle school cross-county runners you will get kids that don't know if they can run the distance. Start off the first weeks bringing those runners over the distance they will be competing at. If they are going to compete at 1.5 miles have them run (it doesn't matter how fast) 2 miles at least once in practice to insure their confidence in finishing a race. As for games, the kids like "BIZARRO TAG" the best. It is played on a surface about 30 feet square. One kid is IT and they have 15 seconds to tag as many teammates as they can. Teammates must stay in the 30 foot square. As soon as the 15 seconds is over another kid is it. Keep it going non stop. Don't forget to take your turn at being IT. The second favorite is relay races. Form 6 person, 10 person, or any number of teams. Set a cone about 25 yards from the start line. The first person on each team will run around the cone, come back to the start and pass the baton off to the second person in line and so on. Keep changing the teams until they are just about even, competitively. Then surprise them and make them do the same thing but run backwards! This stuff is really fun. The athletes get good training and they don't even realize it. The gain speed, endurance, agility, and they build close team relationships. When everyone is tripping over each other in tag and tripping over themselves trying to run backwards fast it is impossible not to have fun. They look forward to practice because it is fun; a lot more fun than having kids run hard intervals. They will get that training when they move up to high school level. Best of all you get all the credit for being an innovative coach and all you did was play with kids. Kristen you're going to love this. Coach Ed
|
Ed Poirier, "Coach Ed", recently was invited by the United States Olympic
committee to attend a workshop and training seminar at the Olympic training
center in California. 