Eight Weeks Off Changed Four Things in 7 Year Olds, and Balance Was the One That Went Backwards; Your Child Is Off for Three Weeks. Here Is What the Detraining Research Says Actually Goes First.; Stamina Survives the Holidays. Balance and Ball Control Do Not.; What 39 Seven Year Olds Lost in Eight Weeks Off, and What They Kept; Before the Festival Break: Five Minutes a Day That Protect the Right Thing

After eight weeks off, 7 year olds kept their curl ups and lost their balance. What two studies suggest you should protect over the festival break.

By Champions Studio · Sun Sep 20 2026

Eight Weeks Off Changed Four Things in 7 Year Olds, and Balance Was the One That Went Backwards; Your Child Is Off for Three Weeks. Here Is What the Detraining Research Says Actually Goes First.; Stamina Survives the Holidays. Balance and Ball Control Do Not.; What 39 Seven Year Olds Lost in Eight Weeks Off, and What They Kept; Before the Festival Break: Five Minutes a Day That Protect the Right Thing

As the festival season approaches in Jaipur, many parents quietly wonder: will a few weeks off undo the progress their child has made in developing fundamental movement skills? Research offers a surprisingly specific and counter-intuitive answer to what truly erodes during a break and what remains robust.

The break nobody actually plans

Between Navratri (October 15-24), Dussehra (October 24), Diwali (November 12), family travel, and half-yearly exams, a child in Jaipur can easily miss five or six sessions between mid-October and mid-November. Often, this pause is not a deliberate decision to stop, but rather a schedule dictated by the calendar. The question that frequently arises, perhaps on the drive to a family gathering, is a quiet one: has she lost the skills she has built?

What the research actually did: Study One

A study by Faigenbaum and colleagues, published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research in 2013 [1], sought to understand the effects of detraining in children. They enrolled thirty-nine 7-year-olds and cluster-randomised them into two groups: an exercise group of 20 children and a standard physical education (PE) control group of 19. The exercise group underwent eight weeks of muscular fitness training integrated into the first 15 minutes of their regular PE class. Following this training period, both groups then had eight weeks of no specific intervention (detraining). After these eight weeks, they were tested again.

What held, what slipped, what went backwards

The findings from Faigenbaum et al.'s study revealed distinct patterns of retention and regression:

Measure	After Training	After Detraining
Curl-ups (repetitions)	27.9	27.3
Single Leg Hop (cm)	79.8	79.7
Long Jump (cm)	113.8	110.0
Balance (seconds)	2.0	1.5

Specifically, the children held their performance in curl-ups (from 27.9 repetitions after training to 27.3 after detraining) and single leg hop (from 79.8 cm to 79.7 cm). Long jump performance slipped back toward baseline (from 113.8 cm after training to 110 cm after detraining) in both groups. Crucially, balance performance went backwards past the starting point for the intervention group, from 2.0 seconds at baseline and after training, to 1.5 seconds after detraining. This suggests that balance, once improved, was particularly susceptible to erosion.

The authors' own conclusion was that “detraining in children is complex and characterized by different adaptations and regressions in strength, power, and balance”.

A second study, and the same shape of answer

A more recent study by Abate Daga and colleagues, published in Sports in 2025 [2], examined the impact of a longer interruption on the physical qualities of young athletes. They compared one hundred and forty-seven Italian boys aged 8 and 9 at a single football academy, looking at cohorts before a pandemic-related interruption versus cohorts after it. The post-interruption boys were found to have jumped further (+11.2%) and were faster on the 10x5 metre shuttle run (+8.0%). There was no significant difference in aerobic endurance or BMI between the two groups. However, one specific measure was notably worse: performance on the shuttle dribble test, which declined by 13.4%.

It is important to note that the Abate Daga study compared different children in different academic years, rather than following the same children through a break. This approach highlights a pattern rather than proving a direct cause-and-effect relationship for an individual child, yet the findings align with the previous study.

The pattern worth taking away

When viewed together, these studies suggest a clear pattern. Children tend to be robust when it comes to general physical attributes. They run, climb, use stairs, and engage in unstructured play, which means fundamental stamina and general strength largely maintain themselves over a few weeks. What appears more vulnerable to erosion during a break is the practised, technique-dependent, refined layer of movement skills. This includes skills such as balance and precise ball control—the intricate movements that remain smooth largely because they are regularly rehearsed and reinforced.

So what does that mean for a two or three week break

It is important to maintain perspective on the scale of these findings. Both studies discussed involve detraining periods of eight weeks or longer. A two or three-week festival break is not equivalent to eight weeks, and we should not equate them directly. However, these studies provide valuable direction on where to focus your attention, rather than prescribing a precise dose of intervention.

You can largely stop worrying about:

Overall stamina
General strength
Energy levels
Whether your child will "come back unfit"

Instead, focus on protecting:

The one or two technique-specific items your child is actively working on.
Core balance abilities.
Any specific ball control or object manipulation skills.

Five minutes a day, at home, no equipment, no guilt

Protecting these specific skills during a short break does not require elaborate setups or lengthy sessions. Here are five simple activities you can encourage for about five minutes a day:

Single leg stand: Encourage your child to stand on one leg, focusing their eyes on a stationary object, and time them on a phone. Switch legs.
Wall catches: Have them throw a soft ball against a wall and catch it ten times, using both hands.
Heel-to-toe walking: Practise walking along the line of a floor tile, placing the heel of one foot directly in front of the toes of the other.
Hops: Ten hops on each foot, focusing on control and balance rather than speed or height.
Your child's specific milestone: If you know the precise skill your child is currently mastering, practise that. If you are unsure what that is, that is a more significant concern than the holiday break itself.

How a milestone survives a gap

At Champions Studio, our curriculum is built around clear, single-sentence milestones that typically span 4 to 6 weeks. These milestones are precise, such as "can bounce the ball once and catch it" or "holds supported handstand for 5 seconds," making them verifiable by both coaches and parents. This checklist approach means that a break does not erase progress; it simply pauses it. When your child returns after the festival break, the coach can recheck the same specific milestones and continue from where your child actually is, rather than starting over. This commitment to documented progress is the fundamental advantage of a structured skill development programme.

Coming back in November

If your child is taking a break during the festival season and you prefer a precise re-assessment rather than a general guess upon their return, a trial session is available for Rs 500. Please message us on WhatsApp at https://wa.me/919509671632 with your child's age and the skills they were focusing on before the break. Champions Studio offers premium kids development programmes for children aged 6 months to 8 years, with small batch sizes of 8 to 10 children, across five levels of development, within our 7,000 sq ft facility at C-Scheme, Jaipur.