Train With Your Kid

These fundamentals help in every sport. Before you dive into sport-specific drills, build a base of general athleticism that transfers everywhere.

The best part: most of this takes 10–20 minutes and can happen in the yard, the driveway, or the garage.

The Five Pillars

⚡ Speed & Agility First-step quickness, change of direction, acceleration. Short bursts matter more than long distance in most youth sports.

💪 Strength & Coordination Bodyweight exercises, balance, and movement quality. No weights needed at young ages — just control.

🧘 Mobility & Flexibility Dynamic warm-ups, cool-down stretching, and range of motion work that prevents injuries and improves performance.

🥗 Nutrition Simple fueling for growing athletes. What to eat before games, recovery meals, hydration basics.

😴 Recovery & Sleep Rest is where improvement happens. Sleep requirements by age, rest day planning, and avoiding overtraining.

📏 Tracking Progress Simple benchmarks to measure improvement. Times, distances, reps — not feelings.

10-Minute Driveway Workouts

These routines require zero equipment and work for any sport. Do them before practice, on off-days, or whenever you have a few minutes.

Workout A: Speed & Agility (10 min)

2 min: high knees, butt kicks, lateral shuffles (warm-up)
3 min: 10-yard sprints × 6 (walk back = rest)
3 min: lateral cone shuffle (or use shoes as markers) × 8
2 min: backpedal + sprint forward × 4

Workout B: Strength & Balance (10 min)

2 min: arm circles, leg swings, trunk twists (warm-up)
3 min: squats × 10, push-ups × 10, plank hold × 20 sec (repeat twice)
3 min: single-leg balance holds × 30 sec each, lunges × 8 each leg
2 min: bear crawl forward and back × 4

Workout C: Conditioning & Recovery (10 min)

2 min: jog in place, jumping jacks (warm-up)
4 min: 30 sec on / 30 sec off — burpees, mountain climbers, squat jumps, high knees
4 min: slow stretching — hamstrings, quads, shoulders, hip flexors

Rotate A → B → C across the week. Three days of conditioning + sport-specific practice days = a solid foundation for any young athlete.

Nutrition for Youth Athletes (Keep It Simple)

Forget complicated meal plans. For most kids, the basics matter most:

Before practice/games: Carbs + a little protein. A banana and peanut butter, a granola bar, or a turkey sandwich.
During activity: Water. Sports drinks are unnecessary for most youth activities under 90 minutes.
After activity: Protein + carbs within 30–60 minutes. Chocolate milk, a PB&J, or a real meal if timing works out.
Every day: Enough water, enough sleep, and real food. That covers 95% of it.

When to Rest

Overtraining is real in youth sports, and it’s on parents to watch for it.

Signs to back off: persistent soreness that doesn’t improve with rest, loss of enthusiasm, declining performance despite more practice, frequent illness, and difficulty sleeping.

The general guideline: one full rest day per week minimum, and at least one season per year away from the primary sport (playing a different sport counts and is actively beneficial).

Sport-Specific Training

Each site in the Sports Dads Network includes training pages tailored to that sport’s demands:

⚾ Baseball Training Agility, arm care, sprint mechanics, and conditioning for the diamond.

🏈 Football Training Coming soon — footwork, tackling technique, position-specific conditioning.

🚣 Rowing Training Coming soon — erg workouts, core strength, endurance building.

🥍 Lacrosse Training Coming soon — footwork, stick skills conditioning, sprint intervals.