Youth Cutting Weight For Sports

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  • trackercasey76
    trackercasey76 Posts: 780 Member
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    As a Youth football coach I say Move him up! I never encourage the kids to cut weight.
  • bamagrits15
    bamagrits15 Posts: 131 Member
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    Nothing wrong with them losing weight the right way. My 12 year old wanted to be under weight so he could run the ball again this year for football, currently 5'1 121. He lost about 7-9 pounds over serveral months. Just eating better, less fast food, not having two burgers for dinner, us buying lower calorie ice cream, and pushing water. He ran track in the spring but never dropped a pound because of bad eating habits. You can't workout enough for a bad diet, unless your going to workout 7 hours a day, 7 days a week.

    What would be wrong is starving thereselfs to lose the weight. or trying to lose too much weight too soon.

    That is the key factor I have been trying to teach him. As active as he is and what activity he has added recently like PE at school, full pads practice, and being at the YMCA playing basketball before and after school isn't a pass to eat more than he needs.
  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
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    At 9, he doesn't know how much he needs. I wouldn't restrict a child but I'd definitely keep the house stocked with no junk food and skip the drive-thrus and pizzas, most days. Usually kids don't overeat healthy food.
  • bamagrits15
    bamagrits15 Posts: 131 Member
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    As a Youth football coach I say Move him up! I never encourage the kids to cut weight.

    Wow! 1st time I have ever heard this from a coach! 4 yrs ago my kids played in a weight restricted league. I saw horrible things from coaches and parents that were down right dangerous. Think trash bags on an 11 yr old sitting in a car with the heater on full blast on a hot Alabama summer day.

    I would never, ever allow my child to do this. But he could stand to lose some of the weight he put on over the summer. So why not help him use this goal to get healthier?

    If he didn't have the fat to lose, I would never encourage or allow him to try to stay just to out perform others. His friends are in this group. I doubt he would feel very good about himself if he had to move up over weight. He would probably be very embarrassed.
  • huntermaz
    huntermaz Posts: 37 Member
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    As a Youth football coach I say Move him up! I never encourage the kids to cut weight.

    I also coach football, bigest problem is from 10-13 boys start hitting puberty, a 100 pound 12 year old that his hit it is no compairson to a 130 10 year old that hasn't. Much easier from a skill stand point to play with your age.

    I also think it is different for wrestling when coaches and parents are asking kids to lose 10-15% of there bodyweight, that is exteme.

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