At a Level 1 Cert, trainers break the med-ball clean down into five easily digestible steps. When training kids, you have to break things down even further.
With a complicated movement like the clean, it’s not practical to go through a host of progressions that will only confuse and frustrate the kid. Jeff Martin of CrossFit Kids says you only need a few simple and clear cues designed to encourage the most essential parts of the movement—in this case, hip extension.
His cues for the clean: dip-shrug and drop-stand. It’s that simple.
“You’ll have one kid in a hundred that’ll fully extend, do everything right,” Martin says. “Everyone else is going to be a mess, and you’re going to work with it, because that’s the way it is. They’re kids.”
He adds: “That’s how the process is with kids: we have a long time to fix things before we expect them to be perfect.”
Video by Again Faster.
7min 17sec
Additional reading: The Inherent Responsibilities of Training Children and Teens by Jeff Martin and Cyndi Rodi, published July 1, 2008.
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8 Comments on “Teaching the Clean to Kids”
1
Cody Limbaugh wrote …
Great cues as usual. Thank you!
I like the idea of the skills being "parishable". Great description of 'use it or lose it'. Something I need to improve in my program!
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2
wrote …
Cop out Duncan, you should have showed them how to do a pistol on that ball.
(Had to watch it again to see what your Dad was talking about.)
I really should ahver taken more notes at my CF Kids cert, at least these videos give me a reference for some of the cues. Thank-you.
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3
wrote …
Thanks to Jeff and the CFK team. I use the CrossFit Kids cues as much for my adults as for the kids here. Going to the Cert in Ramona has been invaluable to my coaching of both age groups.
We were Oompa Loompa-ing this morning in our skill training for the push jerk. Keep these coming, please.
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4
wrote …
The DSDS works great with the kids and yes with the adults. I usually start with the kids ques on adults, it saves time. Great job Jeff and CFK HQ!
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5
wrote …
that kid is a bad ass
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6
wrote …
i am entirely serious when i say that this is not how to teach kids, its how to teach almost everyone. no one these days has the patience to go through the progressions unless they're at a cert, and probably more or less know them anyway. i've already been teaching adults to squat with gorilla backs and the thumbs trick for their feet and so on... from now on, this is how i will teach the clean.
i always thought i'd do a gymnastics cert then this one, but i may reverse that order.
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7
wrote …
awesome, as usual!
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8
William Reuter wrote …
Great video!!!
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