10 things to improve performance for young skaters in the summer
Have a young figure skater, speed skater, hockey player or ringette player? Here are 10 things they can to do get faster, get stronger, become more athletic and become better skaters.
1) Play at the playground Playgrounds are great for kids to work all parts of their body. Monkey bars, rings, gliders and climbing walls are great for building upper body strength. Running, jumping and swinging to different platforms and pieces of equipment are great for building spatial awareness and coordination.
2) Play tag and other running games Playing tag and other running games like dodgeball and British Bulldog help kids build speed, work on endurance, build anaerobic capacity, work on acceleration, deceleration and changes in direction and work on their positioning.
3) Play other sports There's tons of opportunities for kids to get involved in other sports over the summer. Whether it be football, baseball or archery, playing multiple sports as a child is proven to decrease injury rates while increasing athletic skill and physical literacy. Kids also continue to learn sportsmanship.
4) Learn to juggle Kids can increase hand eye coordination, work on their hands and arms, learn perseverance and have a cool trick to show off to people.
5) Skip Rope If your child is a figure skater they can start to intimidate and scare off the other skaters by showing off all their cool trips while they're warming up at the next competition. If they're not they should still jump rope to build their coordination, work on their conditioning and build leg strength and balance.
6) Play hopscotch While it may look simple it is not, Playing hopscotch helps kids improve their balance, coordination and leg strength. Basically it's a ladder drawn with chalk.
7) Slackline A huge part of skating is being comfortable with falling. Slacklining definitely helps with this as well as balance, core strength and leg strength.
8) Ride a bike While kids unfortunately probably can't carry their skating gear on their bike and alleviate you of driving them to the rink; they can build leg muscle, build endurance, get a great aerobic and anaerobic workout and gain independence by biking more and getting driven less.
9) Gymnastics One of the best sports for building body awareness and overall body strength. It's also great for learning cool tricks.
10) Jump on trampolines Jumping is great for building leg strength. If you don't have a trampoline at your house or a friend's house there's two trampoline parks in Calgary.
Bonus Learn to tie skates! True talent is having a kid that can tie skates before the other kids can.
Notice that all these activities (besides the bonus) are things that are fun and involve play. They're things that kids enjoy and would naturally do anyways.
Playing>Training
Fun> Hard Work
Things that young skaters shouldn't do in the summer
1) Get a personal trainer
2) Get on the ice everyday
