Future gold medalist in "All You Can Eat Spareribs" competition
The other day Devoted Wife told me about a conversation between a friend of hers and another of their acquaintances. Her friend had invited the other woman's daughter to an activity but the mother was once again declining because of her daughter's vigorous sports training schedule. When DW's friend commented, "Well, its not like she's training for the Olympics, right?" the expression on the mother's face apparently said "In fact, she is training for the Olympics, and I'm a little insulted that you didn't know that." Her daughter is 7 years old.
I think Devoted Wife told me that story to illustrate the excesses of some parents. In reality, the story only convinced me of how far behind Kate is already. We've got some serious work to do.
So I started putting a list together of Kate's strengths and weaknesses, and how they might translate into competitive athletics.
Some of her strengths include:
Able to take a punch -- notice the shiner under her right eye from her recent Ultimate Furniture Fighting bout). A plus for boxing, judo or Ultimate Fighting (if they ever add it).
High pain threshold -- when we were barbecuing last week and a hot basket of vegetables slipped from the grill to the ground, she scrambled over in a flash and before we could get to her, she burned her leg. She yelped once and then shook off the pain without another thought. Sad? Absolutely. But impressive? Definitely. This will serve her well in endurance sports and, well, really any sport.
Aggression -- I thought this was going to be a weakness a few months ago, given that some of her slightly-older peers' size and strength advantages seemed to translate into Kate losing most of the tug-o-war battles for toys. But she's acquired a newfound aggression and can now defend her territory quite well. Here she is winning her latest battle (below, on the left -- apologies to Ben and Jen's little one who locked horns with a determined Kate). While we don't condone grabbing or taking from others, its good to see that she's at least got a little fire in her belly. You can teach control - you can't teach aggression. Once again, this should be an asset in most sports.
Height to weight ratio -- She's long and lean, checking in in the 80th or so percentile for height and the 25th for weight. Again, you can put her on a good training regimen and bulk her up if necessary, but you can't teach height. This combo will help in basketball, volleyball, tennis, swimming and a host of other sports.
Weaknesses:
Strength -- While she's got some good muscular endurance (she can keep going long after she tires her daddy out) I'm not sure she has much brute strength. I don't see her becoming an Olympic powerlifter. A good weight training plan can help here, but she'll have to work at it.
Focus and consistency -- Some days she seems ready to start running across the room; other days you can barely get her to stand up. Maybe we'll start her with the sports psychologist after her first birthday to help her focus. I still remember how hypnosis helped my buddy who was a three-time Idaho state wrestling champion. He'd had a hypnotic association implanted in his subconscious by a hypnotherapist, so whenever he heard the word "dominate", his adrenaline started pumping and he became intensely focused on, well, destroying his opponent. We'll just have to make sure we choose a trigger word that isn't commonly used in her playgroup.
Coordination -- While she can get going pretty fast crawling when she's in a hurry, sometimes her legs push her faster than her arms can keep up. When I get home from work at the end of the day, she usually makes a beeline for me the moment I walk in the door. Occasionally halfway across the room her body is moving forward faster than her hands and arms can keep up, and she does a face plant. Since her legs don't stop moving, this drives her face along the carpet for 6-8 inches (see "High pain threshold" above) until she can regain her balance with her hands and start crawling again. It usually produces in me a combination of adoration, concern and laughter. I'm not sure what skills training we can do here other than more fast crawling.
I'm working on a short list of potential sports that should capitalize on her strengths and minimize her weaknesses. After all, we're talking potential D-1 scholarships here, as well as Olympic glory! And she'll be watching at least 8 hours a day of NBC's coverage of the Beijing Olympics next month. Maybe she'll see something that catches her eye.
Aggression -- I thought this was going to be a weakness a few months ago, given that some of her slightly-older peers' size and strength advantages seemed to translate into Kate losing most of the tug-o-war battles for toys. But she's acquired a newfound aggression and can now defend her territory quite well. Here she is winning her latest battle (below, on the left -- apologies to Ben and Jen's little one who locked horns with a determined Kate). While we don't condone grabbing or taking from others, its good to see that she's at least got a little fire in her belly. You can teach control - you can't teach aggression. Once again, this should be an asset in most sports.
Height to weight ratio -- She's long and lean, checking in in the 80th or so percentile for height and the 25th for weight. Again, you can put her on a good training regimen and bulk her up if necessary, but you can't teach height. This combo will help in basketball, volleyball, tennis, swimming and a host of other sports.
Weaknesses:
Strength -- While she's got some good muscular endurance (she can keep going long after she tires her daddy out) I'm not sure she has much brute strength. I don't see her becoming an Olympic powerlifter. A good weight training plan can help here, but she'll have to work at it.
Focus and consistency -- Some days she seems ready to start running across the room; other days you can barely get her to stand up. Maybe we'll start her with the sports psychologist after her first birthday to help her focus. I still remember how hypnosis helped my buddy who was a three-time Idaho state wrestling champion. He'd had a hypnotic association implanted in his subconscious by a hypnotherapist, so whenever he heard the word "dominate", his adrenaline started pumping and he became intensely focused on, well, destroying his opponent. We'll just have to make sure we choose a trigger word that isn't commonly used in her playgroup.
Coordination -- While she can get going pretty fast crawling when she's in a hurry, sometimes her legs push her faster than her arms can keep up. When I get home from work at the end of the day, she usually makes a beeline for me the moment I walk in the door. Occasionally halfway across the room her body is moving forward faster than her hands and arms can keep up, and she does a face plant. Since her legs don't stop moving, this drives her face along the carpet for 6-8 inches (see "High pain threshold" above) until she can regain her balance with her hands and start crawling again. It usually produces in me a combination of adoration, concern and laughter. I'm not sure what skills training we can do here other than more fast crawling.
I'm working on a short list of potential sports that should capitalize on her strengths and minimize her weaknesses. After all, we're talking potential D-1 scholarships here, as well as Olympic glory! And she'll be watching at least 8 hours a day of NBC's coverage of the Beijing Olympics next month. Maybe she'll see something that catches her eye.
3 comments:
If none of that works out, why not modeling? ;)
I love it! You want to keep her well rounded and ready for anything. Your genes together = greatness!
So many options for Kate.....just two for our Harrison.....sumo or o-line.
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