[MountainSports]

Now I'm definitely going against the grain when I say this but kids as young as 5 years old can and should strength train in conjunction with plyometric type movements. With that said kids should only learn about fundamentals and techniques involved for probably the first 2 to 3 years along with playing as many different sports as possible or desire. Never force a kid to specialize in any sport at any age.

I know injury may be something that you as a parent may be scared about and with good reason but if you focus on technique and safety first, injuries would be less likely to happen later in their sports career.

My recommendations would be start with learning how to do push ups, air squats, pull ups, chest passes with medicine ball, box jumps, and basic vertical jumps. Once they master those things start with different variations of those exercises without adding resistance. When they have completed all of that too, you can start adding some weight to the strength exercises. As another poster said kettlebells would be a great tool to start with. Lookup goblet squats with a kettlebell and go from there.