Sports Training Has Begun for Babies and Toddlers

From left, Madeline Loorya, Rocco Schiappa-Gobee and Brendan Young, all 2 years old, awaited soccer class in Torrance, Calif.

By MARK HYMAN
NYT

As a fitness coach in Grand Rapids, Mich., Doreen Bolhuis has a passion for developing exercises for children. The younger, it seems, the better. “With the babies in our family,” she said, “I start working them out in the hospital.”

Ms. Bolhuis turned her exercises into a company, Gymtrix, that offers a library of videos starting with training for babies as young as 6 months. There is no lying in the crib playing with toes.

Infant athletes, accompanied by doting parents on the videos, do a lot of jumping, kicking and, in one exercise, something that looks like baseball batting practice.

“We hear all the time from families that have been with us, ‘Our kids are superstars when they’re in middle school and they get into sports,’ ” Ms. Bolhuis said.

(More here.)