Five Minutes with an Active SWV Kids Run Club Coach

Learn more about the Active SWV Kids Run Club Program by hearing from Coach Natasha Cook of Coal City Elementary Kids Run Club.

All Active SWV Kids Run Clubs are unique. Kids Run Club Coaches tailor diverse educational resources to suit the needs and interests of their group while maintaining core values essential to the program like instilling confidence, promoting healthy habits, team-building, and creating an encouraging, non-competitive atmosphere.

The Coal City Kids Run Club began in the fall of 2017 and is coached by a team of dedicated teachers and parent volunteers, like Coach Natasha Cook! Coach Cook is a second grade teacher at Coal City Elementary. Her children both participate in the Coal City Run Club.

What is the best part about leading a Run Club?

The best part of leading a Kids Run Club is getting to work with the kids and teach them about physical activity and healthy lifestyles. My own kids are being exposed to exercise through my life and now through Kids Run Club. Some kids’ parents don’t always have the time or ability to help their child learn to be active so our Kids Run Club helps the kids in our community. It also enables kids who don’t have the ability to participate in sports (because of money / time) to learn to be physically active! It really is all about trying to be more active. Our society has become one for staying inside and on technology, so hopefully our Kids Run Club will inspire our kids to get outside and get moving. It may even get the parents out with their children.

What are practices like?

Practices are held after school for about an hour. We start with a 5-7 minute warm up. Our routine usually depends on the weather. When it’s cold or rainy we stay inside and do stations. With at least 60 kids coming to our spring run club weekly, we have been splitting up into 4 groups. After 8-10 minutes we rotate so that each group goes to each station. We have done many games from the Kids Run Club manual and some lap running or other games from our coaches. The kids love every station. Some of our kids are into running longer distances so we hope to get in more distance running or lap running at the high school track when the weather breaks. When outside we have a larger area so can do a whole group game, lap running around the school, or centers too. After stations we come together and will do a group game like Captain’s coming or Simon says (if time and space allow) and then we do a cool down!

What is your favorite Kids Run Club moment?

The best Kids Run Club moment so far has to be our Fun Run in the fall. We did a spooky costume run since it was close to Halloween. The fun run also included some Halloween obstacles like a broom ride, hopping over stacks of hay, crawling through cobwebs, and a mummy wrap. We ended our Fun Run will a silly string finale. It’s just exciting to see the kids have fun and be active! All of our coaches are looking forward to having our Color Fun Run this spring and the MedExpress Kids Run Club Dash at Woodrow.