Potential

[ChrisJames]

Do you think my son's an Apollon in the making ?

His name is Daniel and he's 7 years old.He's just short of 5 feet tall and he weighs around 116 lbs.He has 7 inch wrists already and his hands are 7 inch in length.He wears a size 7 shoe (British sizes).

Even though he's so big he's bullied by the older boys because he's so gentle and it really hurts me .I try to tell him that it will be different in the future but its hard for him to see that.

When he's a bit older i'll start him on thick bar , sandbag and barrell lifting if he wants to.

Sometimes its hard being a father.

[OldGuy]

My son was also somewhat of a giant for his age. By 15 he was 6' 2'' and 260 lbs. He is very easy going and gentle in his ways.  When he was younger some boys at school made the mistake of seeing how far they could push him. They went too far and he snapped and flattened them between classes. When the other boys saw that he could fight and also beat all of them at armwrestling, they stopped mistaken his easy going nature for softness, and now respect him.

[Jonathan McMillan]

Holy beejeepers that's a big boy.  I remember my school days and it's weird because it was always the big kids that got picked on.  I never had that problem as I've always been vertically challenged so the Napoleon types left me alone.

Your son could probably start with chins and what not if he wanted to do a wee bit of training like his dad.

Jon@han

[bender]

Wow, that kids hands are bigger than mine.   :crazy  

When I was a kid, I had the blessing and then the insult of being 5’11” when I was 13.  The insult is I’m now of  25 years, and am still 5’11”  My weight doubled, but it was tough watching all the "little" guys grow to be 6'2".

 

   Mr. James, remember that a child’s body is ultra-primed for adapting to it’s environment, and his body is super-charged for growing and keeping new neural connections.  It’s the kids that start training early that gain monstrous strength.  Think of how many strong men on your list grew up on farms doing manual labor at a young age.  From my experience, this is exceedingly true, as every 400lb bench presser I know started lifting at a very early age.  Also, I have had the delightful experience of watching a Drill Sergeant's 12-year-old daughter knock-out 32 consecutive push-ups.  That's a combination of a dicipline-hungry father and the natural abilities of a child. 

  This potential combined with your genetics and style of training, it is a frightening thought.

 On the other hand, we all know from experience that the best way to hate doing something, is having your dad force you to do it.  (cleaning the dishes, soccer practice, piano lessons…)

[Tou]

My friend, the one who deadlift cars from the front and came to 1/2 on his first try on the #4, was stronger at 12 than most of us are now. He was frequently the victim of sarcasm as he weighted over 200 at 6" at this age. He was hairy as a bear, which didn't help. He never replied to insults, knowing that he could do terrible damage. One of the bullies pushed the thing too far. He insulted my friend in front of many people.

My friend lifted the guy by the neck with one hand, squeezed his throat a little and throwed him several feet away. He always regretted that he did it. He is very gentle and is a smart guy. He always say that he doesn't want to fight because he's afraid of killing the other. And he really mean it.

Encourage your son to control his emotions Chris. Almost every super strong guys are very gentle and pleasant people. I've met Hugo Girard and some of Canada's strongest men and they're all very nice people.

Read the post on Brad Gillingham. He says that there's always someone to try you when you're super strong. You have to control yourself and not reply. It's hard but that's the way it is.

[ChrisJames]

Thanks for the replies and the support guys, i'll pass this down to my son.

Thanks again

Chris

[OldGuy]

It is great to have a son, mine is my life. He is not a chip of the old block, he is the whole block and then some!

[Tom of Iowa2]

In Iowa we start wrestling programs at age 5.Wrestling is a good way to increase strength!(when that age),improve control of leverage!,improve cardiovascular fitness!improve balnce and coordination! and even grip.

It also improves self esteem as kids find out early fights generally end up on the ground where even a mediocre wreslter can usually control somebody much larger and stronger.

Throw in a martial arts program at an early age might help all of the above also....but when really young the only one on one contact sport that can really be practiced at full speed(because wrestling DOES have so many rules to prevent chokes and KO's and other damage)is wrestling.

Having said that wrestlers tend to not fight as much in the street...as they'fight'everyday in practice.The down side is the ears...not pretty after 9 or 10 years.

It is a great sport and a good back ground for strength activities later in life.

I believe many succesful Pro strongmen have had wrestling 'back grounds'.Bruce Wilhelm comes to mind and modern American strongmen Steve Kirit and Brian Schoonveld were wrestlers....many others also.