Run-Down Forums

[Guest]

i have a bunch of new kids to running and want to introduce a little more fun into our workouts with some games. Any ideas?

[Dan]

How old are they? That will certainly affect what will appeal to them.

Dan

[Guest]

The kids are in two seperate groups. jr. high and high school

[Dan]

Ultimate frisbee is always a popular game with kids that age -- involved a lot of running around and there isn't too much risk of contact-type injuries. The thing to be careful of with the high schoolers is that they will tend to be more competitive and physical, so they are more likely to hurt each other (distance runners get hurt rather easily ) unintentionally.

Other than alternative sports, you might want to try things like scavenger hunts (running from place to place following clues), catch the tail (a soccer drill; jogging single file around the field, the front person runs until they catch the back person, then the next person goes...) activities, group interval workouts where each person is assigned part of the workout to lead but the rest of the group doesn't know what distance or how many, etc.

Dan

[Guest]

I was going to say "Indian Runs" but it sounds similar to "catch the tail" that Dan recommends.
In an Indian Run, you run 7 or 10 runners in a line, running an established pace - 7:00 per mile, 8:00 per mile, etc..., and the person in the back sprints to the front. When he/she gets there, the new person at the back sprints to the front. It is essentially similar to "fartlek", but it develops the team concept.

It is important to limit the number of runners in each group, because the slower runners tend to drag the group's speed down.

It is especially good to motivate slower runners to run with the group.

When I was in 1st or 2nd year of high school, my Cross-Country coach told me to do an Indian run with the varsity, or "A" team. (Up to that time, I had been running on the "B" team. The pace they set was much faster than my usual race pace. I was motivated to keep up, and at the end of the run, I had shaved 3 minutes off my 3 mile PR!

That was when I learned that a lot of running is mental. By having the slower runners run with the faster, it increases their confidence, and develops a team mentality. It is also helpful to do this with a relay baton.

Forgive me if the term "Indian Run" is not politically correct, but "Native American Run" sounds silly.

[Anonymously Posted by: 'Turtle']

[Dan]

Those are very good points. The mental aspect is very similar to what I was saying in the recent Prefontaine thread (greatest American runner) -- running with people faster than you is what keeps everything going. Each new person coming up in the sport always has someone faster to hang onto the coat tails of, and as they rise up, new faces use their ability/knowledge/experience in the same fashion. The team aspect is very important, as you said.

Back to the actual topic of the discussion... I meant to add Indian runs, but forgot to do so. It's actually just the opposite of the catch the tail "game." Instead of the trail person sprinting to the front, the lead person sprints until they catch the back. Doing it around a large loop can be murder.

Dan