a question for PE teachers

[Labro]

Can anyone give me any ideas for increasing ds stamina please. He's 11 and will go into Yr 7 in September, he's generally not good at PE or games but teacher has said needs to work on increasing his stamina as seems to run out of puff when running anything other than a quick sprint.

Just get him active...maybe as a family so role modelling an active lifestyle...cycling, swimming, walks etc. If you really want to "train" him try a version of interval training to increase stamina so this means varying the speed (and therefore effort level) he is working at eg walk to one lamppost, jog to next, sprint to next, then jog, then walk and so on..the fast bits will help..do short intervals of high level stuff and lots of recovery and then build up from there. Also look at his diet maybe....lots of slow release energy food is needed (pasta, potato, wholegrains etc) and really importantly is he drinking enough to sustain his energy? Sorry if that sounds preachy and am teaching you to suck eggs but you asked and I genuinely want to help if I can! Anecdotally I also found lots of children that age give up on an activity when they arent actually lacking stamina they just cant be bothered to push themselves to break a sweat or get their heart rate up...if he is like this and you want to encourage him maybe try out HR monitors/apps/pedometers etc that might appeal to him if he is techy minded. Good Luck and well done, so many people look at reports and go "its only PE"...so from a PE teacher who really believes in the importance of active habits starting young....thankyou so much!

Thanks, I want to try and help him as they do a lot of sport and he is beginning to hate always being miles behind everybody else. I don't move well (physical disability to one leg) so its been very difficult to help. The walking then running between points is a good idea..

ahh bless him...go for it! A small amount of work will make all the difference!

Is it just in P.E. that your ds get out of breath or at break times too?

Without trying to frighten you Labro but my friends dc had this problem and the school suggested that they went to see a doctor.

In the end it turned out that dc had a hole in the heart - has since been operated on and is v v well but trying to rebuild stamina and for operation scar to heal properly.