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Does my child need spikes?

Whether a child participating in athletics should wear spiked shoes is one of the most common questions we get asked. Here’s our comprehensive guide to the topic.

Spikes and kids is something that I first researched in great detail about a decade ago, when I was employed by Little Athletics Australia to conduct a strategic review. Part of my role was to develop standardised Competition Rules for Little Athletics, including at what age, and in which events, children can wear spiked shoes.

Standard Rules

Those rules say that children can wear spikes in the following events:

  • Under 10 and below: Cannot wear spikes in any event.
  • Under 11 and Under 12: In track events run entirely in lanes and long jump, triple jump, high jump and javelin.
  • Under 13 upwards: In all track events (except the walk – where they wouldn’t be of benefit in any case) and long jump, triple jump, high jump and javelin.

But that doesn’t at all answer the question of whether your child needs spikes, just if they can wear them. So here’s some further perspectives for you to consider:

Children

A child is not a miniature adult.

Children have different physiological, psychological and emotional needs and characteristics than adults.

Athletics as a skill and as a sport

Athletics is a set of skills – running, jumping, throwing – as well as a sport. Too often athletics – particularly Little Athletics – is too focused on competition, rather than on developing skills.

But considering the nature of athletics as a sporting activity, it is a late maturation sport i.e. unlike some sports, like gymnastics, peak performance levels in athletics don’t occur until an athlete is in their mid-20’s, or even older. For example, at the pinnacle of the sport (which less than 0.01% of participants will ever achieve), the average age of athletics competitors at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics was 26.

In all likelihood, if you are reading this article considering the needs of your child, they have 10 to 15 years or more in the sport before they would be achieving their full performance potential (which is for some a motivations to participate, alongside manner social, fitness and fun factors). Conversely, athletics is littered with the names of athletes who were record setters at a young age, who never continued in the sport as an adult due to pressure, injury or burnout.

Suffice to say, Family, Fun & Fitness can be a great introduction to lifelong participation but too often there’s unnecessary focus on Competition, Championships & Records.

Children should participate in a wide range of sports. If they are doing athletics, hopefully they have first been involved in a games based, skill development program, and/or have a great coach, before progressing to try a wide range of events, rather than specialising in just a few. A great first experience makes for a platform for lifelong activity. In recent years Athletics Australia has developed excellent Junior Sport Guidelines that provides some further information, or for a simpler, more dated-read, have a look at Little Athletics’ Development Policy (which I also wrote, at the same time as developing the standard competition rules).

Need

There’s a big different between a want and a need.

Really poor reasons to buy your child their first pair of spikes include:

  • You want to see them win; and/or
  • Other kids their age have spikes.

Some good reasons to consider buying your child a pair of spikes include:

  • Your child is really enjoying athletics, and has started to train a few times a week under the guidance of an Athletics Australia qualified coach.
  • They are starting to focus on achieving their personal bests across a range of events, as part of their enjoyment and motivation for the sport;
  • Your child has good coordination and is starting to progress from a working model of athletics events, to technical models with their coach.

What do we mean by working model and technical model? We’ll use a simplified example of the long jump to illustrate the point.

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This child isn’t, and shouldn’t be, wearing spikes.

A working model of the long jump might involve the little athlete using a run-up with the number of steps equal to the athlete’s age, focusing on not looking down at the take-off area, and landing softly, with knees bent, so as to not fall backwards on landing.

In contrast, some of what would be involved in a technical model for long jump would be: a run-up that involves gradual acceleration to the board without any deceleration, a longer penultimate stride and shorter final stride to lower the centre of gravity before take-off, a ‘hang’ or ‘hitch kick’ technique in flight, and a landing technique to minimise loss of distance on impact with the sand.

Quite the difference! Spikes aren’t useful when learning a working model. They are useful when performing a technical model.

To be crystal clear, wearing spikes while using a working model for an event just isn’t required. Even if you take a purely performance centric viewpoint, far greater improvements in performance will come from enjoying the sport and progressing to training under a technical model with the guidance of a coach, than putting on new type of shoes.

Spikes, or not?

For good measure, we’ll reiterate our earlier comment, that children are not miniature adults.

So while adult athletes might wear event-specific spikes for sprints or jumps, or fancy carbon plated spikes, your child does not need these as their first pair of spikes.

In fact, it’s not just that they don’t need these… they should not wear them.

Sprint spikes, for example, are rigid and without a heel, placing lots of stress on the Achilles tendon, particularly one in a growing body.

If my child isn’t going to wear spikes, what type of shoes should they wear?

Most major shoe companies produce a ‘waffle’ athletics shoe that are perfect for younger athletes. These shoes have a good sole and heel on them, while having the grip required for sprinting and jumping. Both Asics and Nike’s models are excellent.

A great first spike is one that is versatile

Children are best served by sturdy shoes suitable for a range of events. They will have a heel and will look similar to the ‘waffle’ type shoes that your child may be graduating from. Below is a great first spiked shoe – Asics’s Hyper LD 6. It’s designed primarily as a distance spike for adults, but also comes in children’s sizes. The extra support and stability required for distance running is also just what is needed by young athletes.

Advanced offerings – spikeless and with spikes

If your child is graduating out of the waffle shoes or first spikes above – perhaps as they are entering their teenage years – there’s some great options available that maintain support to the growing body. Like most cutting edge shoes, they come with a significantly increased price tag, but dedicated athletes say they are worth every penny. We recommend these shoes before progressing in their mid-teens to event specific spikes.

Okay, I’ve decided I’m going to buy my child a pair of spikes

Here’s a couple of things to consider to ensure it’s a positive experience.

Safety

Spikes are sharp. They can cause injury (punctures, cuts) to your child or to others if they aren’t careful. To minimise the risk of these injuries, spiked shoes should only be put on just before an event and then taken off as soon as practical after an event.

Having a bag to put the shoes in between events is useful. But even within a bag, the spikes can sometimes protrude, causing cuts if your child falls on to the bag or swings it around while walking.

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A good tip to avoid this is to buy a common kitchen sponge and have your child sandwich it between the spike plates of the shoes when they put them in their spikes bag. This way, the spikes will be facing inwards away from the edge of the bag. Additionally, it will help absorb any moisture on the spikes if they have been running on grass, preventing rusting from occurring (but please make sure they still air out the shoes when you get home!).

How to replace spikes and what to do if they get stuck

We have a detailed guide you might like to read, which also includes information on how to maximise the lifespan of spikes. It’s available here.

Pick a spiked shoe

Check out the full range of quality spikes that we endorse in our online store.

Type of spikes – the metal bits – our main expertise

By this, we are referring to the replacement metal pieces that screw into the spike plate of the shoe. There are different styles and sizes of spikes, for different events and surfaces. Some venues, particularly synthetic tracks, have their own rules about maximum lengths that differ from the rules of the sport (you can check out track specifications on our side project – the Australian Athletics Directory).

We stock Australia’s largest range and get them to you with fast & free delivery.

You can take our quick 30 second quiz to determine the best style of replacement spike.

But for an athlete’s first pair of spikes, you can’t go wrong with either of the below choices:

It is important to wear longer spikes on a grass track. 6mm spikes are simply too short to have any real effect on grass. We also suggest buying durable steel spikes, rather than lightweight performance alternatives, so that you maximise their lifespan.

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