Krazy Kevin's Kids Klub

Hello and welcome to our weekly column.  As usual, I’ve been out and about all over the place again. 

At the start of the week I saw a class act called ‘Hot Chocolate’ (not the eighties band with the bald lead singer!) This was a great South African band consisting of six musicians and four singers. During the show the performers did amazing impressions of Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder and Tina Turner, plus others too numerous to mention.  It was simply a brilliant show. 
Later on in the week I was privileged to go to Arad fort for the ‘Bahrain Spring of Culture’ presentation of Caracalla Dance Theatre all the way from Lebanon. The dancers and costumes were dazzling but I wished the singers weren’t lip-syncing! 
The very next night we returned to the Fort for Youssou N’Dour and his Super Etoile Band from Senegal. What a fantastic vocalist and an energetic band and a very special mention to the dancer who kept the audience happy with his incredibly fast dancing, fun and acrobatics too.
Now for this week’s interview … I was doing my exercises at the British Club with Adrian, the gym manager, ( with the funny accent ) and we were talking about how to train; when he told me about one of the kids he trains called ‘DJ’.
DJ is 12 years old and his real name is Darah Jeremy Boast, but he doesn’t like that so he just gets called DJ.
He goes to the British School, and when I asked if he liked school, he hesitated and said: “It’s educational!” We both had a laugh at that. I asked what his favourite subject was and he answered “maths” (mine was going home!).
DJ has started fitness training at the British Club and says that he “really enjoys sports, especially football and tennis”.  His team is Manchester United – Yeuk!
Adrian Hunt (the resident fitness trainer) has him doing a lot of running and basic drills for footwork, balance, coordination. They’ve been “working” on DJ’s base level of fitness and concentrating on basic foot skills, agility and flexibility.
DJ’s only been training for three months, but since starting he says he feels “a lot different”.
He explained: “I’ve lost three kilograms and about five inches off my waist through healthy eating and exercising. I’ve even thrown some old clothes away.
“I’ve also stopped drinking a lot of cola and eating chocolate; I used to drink two bottles a day.  I’ve started drinking lots of water and fresh juices and am definitely eating more of the right foods; lots of pasta and vegetables and cereal too. I especially like shreddies and banana shakes with milk and no sugar. I feel a lot stronger and train two days fitness and three days football each week”.
His training routine looks like this;
•  Sunday DJ does weekly circuit training – mostly cardio but not lifting heavy weights because this puts young joints under too much stress.
•  Monday he does football coaching
•  Tuesday is circuit training
•  Wednesday is football coaching
•  Thursday nights he plays football (five-a-side) with the grown-ups. When he first started playing the guys were too scared to go near him in case he got hurt, but they don’t make it easy for him any more.
DJ’s dad said that he was playing a lot less on computer games: “Now he does training first, then homework and then to bed”.
Even DJ’s school work has improved over the past few months. This seems to be because of the much more disciplined approach he has to how he uses his time.
Recently on a school sports day, DJ came second in the hundred metre sprint. He said: “Last year I couldn’t even run a hundred metres”. And he won the fitness test; which involved push-ups, sit-ups, and crunches against the clock.
However, DJ says that his dad and Adrian are not really “pushing” him to train, because he now “wants” to be pushed.  “They give me a lot of support,” he added.
In August DJ is going to the Bobby Charlton Football School at Manchester United. To get the most out of the experience you have to be fit as well; it’s not just about kicking the ball about. 
Adrian is careful about overtraining though and says that with kids you can tell if they’re doing it too hard because they start getting snappy and short-tempered. 
He continues that over the last fifteen or so years, people have been scared to let kids exercise in case they overdo it and get hurt. But during the same time childhood obesity has been going up. Some parents think an hour or three a week is too much for kids. 
“But when we were growing up we’d run ragged for three hours a night because there was no distraction from video games etc - there wasn’t much other option. We’d come home from school and run around and climb trees for three hours before dinner,” he said.
I agree; these days kids don’t do much on the fitness front and as parents we have to take some of the responsibility for this. So, encourage your kids to participate in this week’s competition and win some free football coaching lessons at the British Club plus T-shirts and caps.
This week’s quiz question is: Which football team does DJ support?
Well done to last week’s winner Nadia.
If you’re under 18 please send your answer to krazykevin@hotmail.com
Keep happy, Krazy Kevin