Young Writers Society

So. A character is thirteen years old, and not human, though humanoid. He's been undergoing physical training since he was three, and now, has been shipped off to the Old Master for some good ole' Training From Hell.

Nevertheless, I'd still like the aforementioned human to be realistic, albeit taken Up to Eleven.

So, any suggestions/handy site links for a training regimen that can match the physical capabilities of a thirteen-year old (keeping in mind the Willing Suspension of Disbelief, of course).

Thanks in advance ^^

If you have a character that has been training (I assume this is military training, not playing the harpsichord) since three years old, any sort of realism already goes out the window. You might as well have him swinging 3-ton swords. Can you imagine a 3 year old lifting dumbbells or fencing?

However, to answer your question -- at 13, I would say your best bet would be a 75% to 25% mix of cardio and strength, respectively. At 13 the muscles are not yet fully developed, and pressuring them with heavy strength training this early increases the risk of heart attack in your 50s or so. Cardio, on the other hand, develops your heart, your endurance, and your breathing, which is great to train early on -- this means that when you do grow older, you'll be set for heavy training.

In your case, what with an old master and hard training, I think this would translate to something like carrying sticks for the fireplace up the mountain before the hour-glass runs out -- there's the pressure of time, lots of uphill/downhill movement, but relatively little required strength for carrying the twigs.

A caveat: again, unless you know exactly what you're doing, I would chuck the "realism" bit completely. How different are your humanoid's abilities from a regular human? Why is he training in the first place? Was his village slaughtered in cold blood, and he swore to get revenge? Realistically, this would mean life-long depression, bed-wetting, and other assorted psychological problems. How's he training with the old master? Realistically, they'd get in a fight, the kid would storm into the forest (the old master isn't even his parent), and get eaten by wolves. Or, you know, starve to death. So tread lightly.

Your servant,
cC

Tough guy is supposed to be gruelling and physical. You could use that as inspiration... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tough_Guy/Competition

good luck with it anyway

carbonCore wrote:If you have a character that has been training (I assume this is military training, not playing the harpsichord) since three years old, any sort of realism already goes out the window. You might as well have him swinging 3-ton swords. Can you imagine a 3 year old lifting dumbbells or fencing?

Ooops, my bad. Yes, indeed, military, or quasi-military, training. As for the second part, training probably wouldn't be exactly what I meant. More like prepared for training. And obviously, age-proportionate.

carbonCore wrote:A caveat: again, unless you know exactly what you're doing, I would chuck the "realism" bit completely. How different are your humanoid's abilities from a regular human? Why is he training in the first place? Was his village slaughtered in cold blood, and he swore to get revenge? Realistically, this would mean life-long depression, bed-wetting, and other assorted psychological problems. How's he training with the old master? Realistically, they'd get in a fight, the kid would storm into the forest (the old master isn't even his parent), and get eaten by wolves. Or, you know, starve to death. So tread lightly.

The character's species has increased physical capabilities than a human, very much more so if trained properly. And no, he's training because it was imposed upon him by his father, as all high-born men -- or boys in this case -- of his age do. No trauma involved.

Thanks for the suggestions and advice man, much appreciated as always.

Annii wrote: Tough guy is supposed to be gruelling and physical. You could use that as inspiration... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tough_Guy/Competition

Thanks, Annii, though that wouldn't exactly be productive in these circumstances, and besides, I'm not sure there is an equivalent of that where the character lives x)

Well, *clears throat*

My best advice would be to go and research... do you know what physical training--- even light physical training involves? I swim, bike, run, and hike. Trust me, if I'm not in shape, even an "easy" workout seems impossibly hard.
So, my advice? Go grab a 25lb. backpack and hike around some steep woods and hills for a while. Heh.

Okay so your character is humanoid... (like an elf or something overdone like that) which means he'll probably have greater strength, speed, and endurance than your fit 13 yr. old human. But he's still only 13. If he tries to go through some really tough training (millitary/quas-millitary) he's only going to end up stunting his growth (stature wise and muscle-wise.)
Refer to cC on a more logical/believable training idea.

All that being said, I thought of the medieval knight, who went into "training" at age twelve or earlier. Granted, they mostly did a ton of menial tasks, but it still took years to aquire that level of skill.

So the question then is, is he training for strenght, or for skill? Skill is believable, strenght... well, I mean it's possible but he's still only 13.

(P.S., how exactly, does one train a 3 year old? 3 year olds are still trying to control their bladders and learn how to feed themselves and talk correctly... so, I suppose THAT kind of training would start then. )

Thanks, ED. That will be done. Although, you seem to have overlooked the 'From Hell' bit. It's meant to be not quite believable, superhuman, but not so unbelievable that it becomes a giant gaping plot hole.

As for the three year old comment, remember, I said proportionate to their age, so yes, bladder control would be a good start

In order to understand what sort of training would be given at what ages, you have to figure out physical development.

The closest type of training that started really young I can think of is ninja training (my source is a book, not a website, therefore, no link. The book's title is Ninjutsu, the art of invisibility). They started at about age 5, if I'm remembering right. However, the reason Ninjas started training so young was for tendon development; they wanted to create students who were as flexible as possible, which meant lots of flexibility training while children were still developing. They also started familiarizing children with weapons, so they could learn the high range of weapons ninjas used.

When it comes to standard knight training, that happened much later in life. Children's bodies get messed up if faced with too rigorous a training routine before they're ready.

Your race-building starting points are muscle, bone, and tendon development. You might also want to look into mental development, to figure out what children can understand and process at that age (altering where needed). What allows that race to start training at 3? What sort of things could be done without any damage, and how different is it from a human? Is there damage anyway, that the race has just learned to ignore/think is normal?

For some ideas, I'd lean towards learning a little about youth martial arts. That would make sense for a child who is expected to someday become a great warrior. That, and research historical background on the training of young noblemen, also known as knights, from the Feudal System in Medeival Europe. That sort of historical background could give a good amount of context and ideas as to how real-life training of the sort would work. I also agree that him doing grunt work-type chores makes sense, as that type of master would likely expect physical labor from his students both as a means of showing respect, and as a means of furthering his training by the physical labor involved. I don't think three is so impossibly young; in China today, children are chosen as athletes for the regime as young as four; so maybe not three, but at very young ages, children have been removed from their homes for compulsory training of some sort.

Thanks, both of you ^^ I'll be taking into consideration what you said, and I think maybe not have my character start training from age three but five, as Rosey suggested.

Okay, I don't have much to contribute here. However- since this could possibly be a science-fiction we're dealing with- does any of this training take place in null gravity?

If so, there's a book by the title Ender's Game. So as not to spoil anything, I'll just say it involves gifted children and a kind of zero-G laser tag.

Nah, medieval. And I've read Ender's Game. But thanks.