How Fast Can Your Youth Athlete Run?

Photograpy Alexander Hill Coach LSI Northern California

 

This is a big question on every youth parents mind as we get into the swing of May. May is a big month of show me what ya got. May is the month we begin thinking about JO’s,are we going? Can we go? Can my child place top 8 , Medal top 3?  PR all the same. Do we go for the experience or the medal? Both?

 I don’t have your answer ,but I do have a neat little tool  I found on line a year ago when I was preparing to run in a  Masters Meet (Yes, Lauren’s parents run too ,not quite as fast but not to bad) It tells you where your time is compared to open if it was age graded ,and  the  percentage level you are at. Last year preparing for  AAU JO’s  we used this tool to gage Lauren’s progress,  as well as what she potentally could do . It worked very well and in all cases she was equal or a little bit better that the marks.

http://www.howardgrubb.co.uk/athletics/wmalookup06.html

Example Lauren’s a  Bantam age 81/2 (I will use 9)  time in the 100m is currently 13.93,200m 29.06 ,400m 1:08.83  the Age graded Tool has the following marks.  Based on 13.93 100m  the 200m 29.4 ,400m 1:08:83  This represents an over all percentage of 89.98 percent (which means there would be about 10 girls head of her in the rankings She is currently ranked 7th in the 100,200 and 19th in the 400m so It is very close over all.

Lauren isn’t running the 400 regularly,but is learning the race and building for the 200m. These numbers make sense to us at this stage in her development. Again it isn’t perfect,but just a tool to give you some insight.Obviously the girls in her division (Bantam) can range any where from 8.5 to 9.5 almost 10 so you have to use the ages with care.

You can also gage what those numbers would look like as the child aged based on the percentage she would perform at.

See if it works for you. We use it to set goals too.It’s not perfect, but it is a nice tool that is fun to see what if… I like to see what If, Lauren did run 13.3 this season .Well I know the the answer…Her Mom would be very  proud, just like I am right now.  

Until Next Time,

TrackMom

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4. Day 2 Complete…… Fast Final Sunday
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