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Youth Training Goals
The youth training process should serve two primary purposes:
1) Facilitate long-term development – Start with basic training strategies that lead to consistent, incremental progress. Save advanced training methods for when the athlete has several years of training experience AND the basics stop working.
2) Maximize durability – Break the cycle of constant sport participation, and train in a way that improves the athlete’s ability to cope with and adapt to stress (i.e. build in rational exercise progressions, start conservative with training frequency, volume and intensity, avoid provocative movements, etc.).
The injury statistics above are alarming. We need to do better.
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Long-Term Athletic Development
Long-term athletic development models describe themes of training (i.e.,emphasis on fun vs. winning), and phases of accelerated development of specific physical qualities based on stages of development.
This model by Ford et al. (2011), is the most comprehensive I’ve come across, and is particularly valuable because it shows that the stages will be variable dependent on the individual athlete’s gender, biological age, mental/cognitive development, and emotional development (i.e., not all athletes hit the windows of accelerated development at the exact same age).
In using this information to influence training youth athletes, it’s helpful to understand the underlying mechanisms that are driving these accelerated stages of development.
For example, the first speed window is improved largely through rapid changes in development of the central nervous system – so in addition to performing short sprints with kids at this stage, it’s an optimal time to integrate a diverse range of movement patterns/skills, NOT just hammer the basics. This is similar to the shift toward teaching foreign languages at young ages.
Acknowledging these stages can help performance and sports coaches design training programs and practices that best facilitate development for their specific athletes, while also recognizing that a HUGE part of long-term development is creating an environment for kids to fall in love with the sport.
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A lot of attention has been paid to long-term athletic development and strategies to develop elite performers. The inarguable truth is… it takes time, and a lot of work.
Unfortunately, this fact has led to aggressive training and athlete development strategies being pushed on athletes at younger and younger ages, which is counter-productive.
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Why Kids Quit Sports…
A lot of attention has been paid to long-term athletic development and strategies to develop elite performers. The inarguable truth is… it takes time, and a lot of work.
Unfortunately, this fact has led to aggressive training and athlete development strategies being pushed on athletes at younger and younger ages, which is counter-productive.
A 2013 study revealed that kids reported the main reason for playing sports was to have fun, whereas the parents thought the kids liked to play to win.
30% reported the behaviors of their parents and coaches as the reason for quitting.
As adults, we have an incredibly skewed perception of why kids play sports. Kids are motivated by being involved and having fun. Winning is way down on the list. The message is very clear here for parents and for coaches; we need to emphasize fun more and winning less.
The reality is that the MAIN driver in athletic development is kids developing a passion/love for the sport, and WANTING to put in the extra time/work to improve. This can’t happen if they quit.
With youth athletes, our responsibility is not to rush development or maximize performance, it’s to create an environment for the athletes to develop a passion for sport.
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