Let Kid's Adventure!

Hi everyone, Coach Jono here and this week I want to highlight all you parents who get your kids out and go on adventures. One of my clients recently sent me a picture of when he took his three-year-old son on fairly difficult hike and didn't carry the kid in a pack, he let his son go off and and hike on his own. The a picture was of him standing at the top with a huge smile and loving every minute. It made me think more about how nowadays we're so protective of our kids.

I don't have kids, but I see a lot of people that won't let their kids walk around barefoot or constantly hover over them all the time.

If they fall and get a little scrape then its “oh no, we're not doing that anymore” or if they’re climbing on something its always “get down!”

But this is how kids learn, this is how they learn balance and proprioception and and how to move their body in different directions, by climbing, rolling on the ground, moving in different styles and formats. So when they arent able to do that, it creates additional problems as they get older because they never learned how to do those things.

Same thing goes for if your kids do the exact same sport all year round. It's the same repetitive motion. I work a lot with sports med surgeons and so I see what happens. Some parents try to specialize their child in something, where that one sport is all they do so its the same repetitive motion over and over which can create injuries for that child. That's why we have seasons. Summer may be for soccer, winter may be for an indoor sport such as volleyball.

If you're moving your body in different directions, that creates different stimulation for the muscles, for the bones, for the mind, so they can learn how to balance correctly and move efficiently.

I see the people who are very protective, and I can understand that you don't want your kids to get hurt, but there are times when you let them walk around barefoot, which will build up the skin on the bottom of their feet so they can learn where to step and where not to step. Let them climb, and that will help them to learn dexterity in their hands and how to pull up and do all those kinds of things. So just wanted to highlight all you parents that take your kids on adventures and let them get dirty, let them fall down, let them get a little hurt. It's okay! They're going to learn and they're going to be better for it. So keep it going, make some comments below, I'd love to hear what you have to say and we'll see you next week.