I am in the process of writing a new series of articles that follow natural movement patterns and will be interviewing the founder, Tara Wood, as well as program director of Wildfitness, Lee Saxby. More info on them in the upcoming articles.

As a teaser, I am posting the question I asked them individually: how would you train kids, how young? It seems like preventing the societal inhibition of natural instincts needs to start ASAP!

The Answer To Training Kids is:
Lee Saxby: I wouldn’t “train” young kids. I would let them play in progressively more
challenging movement scenarios/environment.
Tara Wood: the younger the kids are
when they start moving naturally, the less coaching they will need.
The training could be much more in a playful context where kids
naturally do the movements we were designed for.

Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? Play time teaches kid social interaction, assertiveness, builds character intuitively. You can see a child’s temperament through actions. There are programs out there that focus too much on work and practice, taking the fun out that important (and ultimately very short) stage of a person’s development. After all, you don’t see lions doing pull-ups and sprinting without purpose, but you see cubs play-fight, pounce and have fun while slowly turning into deadly predators.