Youth Athlete Development -
Until about age 12, general athleticism—nurtured with free play and multiple sports—should be prioritized over sport-specific skills.
Even after the age of 12, free play—without interference from adults—remains important. Based on my education in the areas of sports science, human growth and development, sports psychology, and coaching, as well as my plus years of experience coaching young athletes both in the weight room and on the field , I recommend the following general guidelines for developing youth athletes.
Before the age of 7 is a critical time for developing basic movement skills, coordination, balance, and strong bones and muscles. These accomplishments will set the foundation for future success in sports as well as health and wellness into adulthood.
Nurturing a variety of activities early will also enhance brain function, creativity, social skills, and confidence. During this phase of development children should be introduced to an assortment of movements involving unstructured sports, games, and creative free play.
Some structured sports activity is beneficial as long as the majority of physical activity is child-driven. Kids do not need to be taught skills in a formal manner at this age, they should learn through discovery. Even organized practices should allow opportunities for child-driven free play.
Frequent climbing, hopping, running, changing direction, swimming, throwing, and kicking are all movement patterns recommended for this age. Obstacle courses, tag, hopscotch, tree-climbing, red-light-green-light, and other childhood games are encouraged. During organized sports, coaches may begin to incorporate dynamic warm-up movements like high knees, butt kicks, and lateral hops, however coaches should not require perfect form at this age as athletes are still exploring basic movement skills.
Between the ages is the time to nurture qualities that relate to general athleticism—such as speed, agility, balance, coordination, and mental aptitude for sports. The best approach is through multiple sports participation both structured and unstructured , free play, and functional strength and movement training.
Because s tudies indicate specializing in one sport too early can lead to a decline in athleticism, overuse injuries, and burnout, experts advise against athletes specializing during this critical stage of development.
Around this age coaches can begin using short structured warm-ups that include dynamic movements— like high knees, butt kicks, leg kicks, pendulum kicks, lateral hops, bodyweight squats, and hinges.
Proper form should be demonstrated and encouraged with a focus on improvement, not perfection. Aim for exercise proficiency by the end of this phase in order to prevent injuries and for kids to begin to develop safe functional movement patterns that will translate directly to sports.
Parents should encourage unstructured free play and pick-up games at home. Athletes may also begin a structured strength training program at home with a focus on core strength and functional movement.
Generally, 8 and 9 year olds do well with a short minute routine a few times a week. For 10 and 11 year olds, they can work up to a minute workout two or three times per week. Lightweight and bodyweight exercises should be the focus as athletes work to acquire the balance, coordination, and mobility required to begin developing more strength during next phase.
Check out my Exercise Library to explore exercises for home or practice field. Around ages , the kids who have developed general athleticism through participation in multiple sports and developed explosive speed and strength as a result of a functional training program will begin to outshine kids who have devoted all their time to skill proficiency in one particular sport.
The coordination, agility, and strength that multi-sport athletes acquired in Phases One and Two will make it easier for athletes to enhance their sport specific-skills and gain functional strength in the weight room.
While some athletes may begin to narrow their sports selection during this phase, it is not necessary to give up sports that they love to focus on a single sport. The majority of college and professional athletes played multiple sports during this phase of their development.
Whether athletes decide to narrow their sports selection during this phase or continue their path with multiple sports, time off from structured sports is important in order to avoid overuse injuries and mental burnout.
Every six months, athletes should take off at least two weeks from all organized sports. Specialized athletes should take off four to six weeks after each season to participate in activities other than their primary sport—a different organized team sport, or cycling, swimming, or other fitness-related recreation.
Free play and pickup games are always okay—unless injuries or physical fatigue are factors. Studies show that pickup games and free play do not tax the body mentally or physically the same that structured training and competition does.
During this phase coaches should place a strong emphasis on functional movement training with dynamic warm-up exercises at the beginning of practice. info move Have a Question? Team Training All ages, Athletic Movement, Endurance, Group Training, Physical Literacy, Strength, Team Training, Youth Small Groups.
Coach and challenge each athlete on the movement patterns, drills an exercises that will help them excel this season and every season in the future Coach each athlete to execute movement properly, move efficiently and challenge themselves to continue to get better Coach each athlete with low coach to athlete ratios that allow us to monitor individual needs, make adjustments for injuries and issues and challenge each athletes to meet individual goals within each small group session.
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This has caused a growing interest in long-term athletic development for youth athletes. Appropriate exercise selection is also crucial for those young athletes who are often physically underprepared to tolerate the demands of sports.
These high volumes of competition with an absence of preparatory conditioning is causing risk of overuse injuries and burnout. This then leads kids to leave sports at an early age.
With this model, many young athletes, like late maturing kids for example, are not even given the opportunity to reach their potential due to lack of playing time early on.
For example, researchers from numerous scientific studies have found that young athletes who participated in their primary sport for more than 8 months in a year were more likely to have overuse injuries.
In order for strength and conditioning professionals to help all youth athletes achieve their full potential, we must develop safe, effective, and balanced programming for them to thrive. It is important to understand what is happening in youth sports and see what changes need to be made in the current atmosphere to enable more youth athletes to succeed.
Next, we must educate ourselves. Find out what is happening in the youth sports industry. Educating the parents of young athletes is crucial, as they are the ones who ultimately decide what is best for their child.
With Complete Youth Training , Sports Performance Expert, Coach Mike Boyle, takes you through the latest research and proven protocols to use when training kids in youth sports today. With over thirty years of experience working with all levels and abilities from professional and elite athletes to youth athletes and beginners, Mike Boyle explains and demonstrates how to properly execute a youth training regimen for kids that works for kids.
One of the main goals of Complete Youth Training is to educate parents and coaches on both the correct ways to train youth athletes as well as to highlight the training methods currently being used that may be detrimental to youth athletes.
All youth training methods and principles discussed and demonstrated in Complete Youth Training are backed by a multitude of scientific research. The unfortunate reality of many youth training programs today is that they are not appropriate for youth athletes and may in fact be harming their development both as an athlete and as a kid.
Societal pressures influence well-intentioned parents to make decisions for their young athletes that may not be in their best interest. Complete Youth Training addresses some of these unfortunate and commonly used training methods.
With the amount of hours each season, a youth athlete is in each of their sports, it gets harder to actually train these athletes. We seem to lose the true essence of what youth sports are all about. Youth athletes are being pulled in every direction.
Getting a better perspective on what is going on in the youth sports industry as a whole and seeing how that relates to your particular sport will give you, the sport coach, a better understanding of what your athletes need. Parents truly want to do what is best for their child…BUT…they are being fed so much false data and anecdotal stories that it is tough for the parent to make an informed decision.
Once the parent has the research both science and practical they will be able to feel confident on the direction their child should take. I have been passionate about youth training for a long time now, both as a coach and as a parent.
With Complete Youth Training, I wanted to emphasize what we are doing well and what we are doing not-so-well as an industry and Coach Boyle does just that. Those will aid in the development of pattern recognition and transfer, faster decision-making abilities, and heightened proprioceptive awareness [3,13].
Myer et al. The second consideration follows from the deferred development of the prefrontal cortex until adolescence. Although this may have limited influence on programme design, it is relevant to understanding why some youth athletes behave the way they do. Youth development specialists need to adopt a strategic long-term approach that is underpinned by pediatric exercise science.
We can apply our guiding principles, but the strategy should be specific to the sport, organisation, philosophy and environment. Three long term athlete development models closely align with each other, but address youth development from different angles. These are the long-term athlete development LTAD model by Balyi and Hamilton [1] ; the youth physical development YPD model by Lloyd and Oliver [11] ; and the developmental model of sports participation DMSP by Cote et al.
Although these models focus on athlete development, physical development and sports participation, respectively, they share two major points:.
Up to this point we have discussed only physical considerations, but psychosocial aspects of development are highly relevant within youth populations. Ultimately, youth athletes are full-time students and part-time athletes, meaning they face the challenge of balancing their available time and energy into both sporting and academic development.
Although academic demands are consistent across most youth populations, they are likely to experience other stressors. These may include negative life events, elevated expectations to perform, intensified training and competition schedules and increased travel demands.
Youth athletes are full-time students and part-time athletes. They are not mini-adults. Regardless of type, elevated stress causes hormone perturbation, immunosuppression, impaired muscle repair and increased muscle tension. These all can have a detrimental impact on athlete wellbeing, performance, illness, risk and duration of injury and burnout [14,2,21].
Having a broader, more holistic understanding of an individual may provide pivotal information that can be used to facilitate their journey. Information sharing and collaboration between sports club, school and family is required to create a healthy balance between conflicting demands.
Youth development is multidimensional. Although the youth athlete development roadmap depicts a linear chronological journey, we must remember that everyone will grow, mature and develop at different times and tempos. We should also note that differences exist between male and female athletes, with the most notable being that females enter PHV at an earlier age.
This is not reflected in the youth athlete development roadmap, underscoring the importance of adapting it as a tool, rather than attempting to follow it as a script.
Search for:. Access Get Premium. F igure 1. Youth athlete development roadmap: chronological age Physiological considerations for youth athlete development Chronological age is how most sports systems categorise players in training and competition.
Why is assessing growth and maturation so important? Although maturational status may provide general guidance for exercise prescription, the most important factor in programme design is the training age and movement competence of the youth athlete perryfstewart Tweet This.
Speed focus Early childhood Pre-PHV Circa-PHV Post-PHV Fundamental movement skills FMS Sprint technique Sprint technique Maximal sprints Strength training Maximal sprints Hypertrophy Plyometrics Strength training Strength training Plyometrics Plyometrics Strength focus Early childhood Pre-PHV Circa-PHV Post-PHV FMS FMS Base strength Hypertrophy Bodyweight exercises Explosive movements Max strength Explosive movements Explosive movements.
They are not mini-adults perryfstewart Tweet This. References Show Hide Balyi, I. Long-term athlete development: Trainability in childhood and adolescence.
Olympic coach , 16 1 , Campbell, E. Overview of psychophysiological stress and the implications for junior athletes. Sports Sci. Med , 6 3 , Casey, B. Imaging the developing brain: what have we learned about cognitive development?.
Trends in cognitive sciences , 9 3 , Côté, J. and Gilbert, W. An integrative definition of coaching effectiveness and expertise. Practice and play in the development of sport expertise.
Handbook of sport psychology , 3 , Cumming, S. Bio-banding in sport: applications to competition, talent identification, and strength and conditioning of youth athletes. De Bosscher, V. Systems and athletes: Integrating the micro-and meso-level approaches to athlete development and success.
In Managing Elite Sport Systems pp. Granacher, U. Effects and mechanisms of strength training in children. International journal of sports medicine , 32 05 , Kemper, G. Anthropometric injury risk factors in elite-standard youth soccer.
International journal of sports medicine , 36 13 , Khamis, H. Predicting adult stature without using skeletal age: the Khamis-Roche method.
Pediatrics , 94 4 , Lloyd, R. The youth physical development model: A new approach to long-term athletic development. Position statement on youth resistance training: the International Consensus. British journal of sports medicine , 48 7 , Long-term athletic development-part 1: a pathway for all youth.
Mainwaring, L. Psychological correlates of dance injuries. Medical Problems of Performing Artists , 8 , Malina, R. Growth, maturation, and physical activity. Human kinetics.
Context: Physical activity Developjent shown to be beneficial for the overall physical and mental health of youth. There has Proper rest and recovery Yuth increasing focus on youth Yuth moving from Atjlete recreational activity to becoming Youth Athlete Development launching pad for Youht at elite Fitness replenishment formula. Several models of athlete development Youhh emerged Mouthwatering Orange Flavor guide specialized and nonspecialized athletes at an age-appropriate level, taking into consideration their physical and mental development. The purpose of this review is to summarize the current evidence and theoretical models regarding youth athlete development and discuss broader initiatives for sports participation and future directions for the field. Evidence acquisition: An electronic databases search, including PubMed, Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, National Institutes of Health, UpToDate, and Springer was conducted. Articles from to were included. The search terms long term athlete developmentLTAD modelyouth physical developmentyouth athlete developmentsports specializationand pediatric athleteamong others, were used.
Ich tue Abbitte, dass ich Sie unterbreche, aber ich biete an, mit anderem Weg zu gehen.
Ich denke, dass es der falsche Weg ist. Und von ihm muss man zusammenrollen.