YOUTH ATHLETIC DEVELOPMENT
RICK HOWARD, MED, CSCS,*D, USAW
STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING FOR CHILDREN
AND YOUTH FOR SPECIFIC SPORT SEASONS
BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND
UNDERSTAND THE VALUE OF ASSESSMENT
As a strength coach or personal trainer, you are likely to receive
requests from parents and sport coaches to “get the kids ready for
fall competition,” or to “create sport-specific drills and exercises
for the U-11 team.” While you certainly want the aspiring athletes in
your care to enjoy success in their sport and in their strength and
conditioning programs, you must be able to frame any short-term
success within the context of their long-term success. The goals
of long-term success should be to continue skill development and
enjoyment in sports and training programs, which may lead to
lifelong participation in physical activity, sports participation, and
strength and conditioning programs. Since a coach or personal
trainer’s primary objective when training children and youth
is to develop positive, healthy habits that will be manifested
throughout their lives, the purpose of this article is to examine
the appropriateness of establishing seasonal and sport-specific
programming for children and youth.
Before engaging children and youth in a strength and conditioning
program, there are two important considerations that every
strength coach and personal trainer must require of participants,
both of which flow from the needs analysis: a pre-participation
physical examination and a strength and conditioning test
battery. Although a coach or personal trainer may not have direct
access to the results of the pre-participation physical exam, they
should be able to extract information regarding previous and
recent injuries, possible muscle imbalances (part of some preparticipation protocols), and recent levels of physical activity (a
recommendation for pediatricians to monitor). Testing of children
and youth should be used only for its intended purpose—as a
“snapshot” to identify areas of strength and weakness in order to
create long-term strength and conditioning programs that increase
fundamental motor skill competence and balanced development
of all fitness attributes (e.g., strength, power, endurance, flexibility,
agility, etc.).
INCLUDE THE ESSENTIALS
In order to provide evidence-based information to parents,
coaches, and athletes, coaches and trainers should frame their
responses in the context of the parameters established by the
National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) for
program design, with modifications for this specific population.
The parameters that lead to quality program design are the needs
analysis and program design variables of periodization. When
designing periodized strength and conditioning programs, it is
important to remember that the systematic variations in program
design are intended as a strategy to promote long-term training
and performance improvements (1). The program will not look
the same for a beginner, novice, or advanced athlete. The needs
analysis will reveal distinct differences in the assessment of the
athlete in not only training status, but also physical testing and
primary resistance training goals.
Appropriate program design can reduce the likelihood of overuse
injuries as well as provide the foundation of fitness and motor
skill competence. As compared to an athlete that has reached
maturity and can specialize in one sport will have one primary
resistance training goal to fulfill the needs analysis and periodized
program design, prepubescent aspiring athletes will need to
continue to develop fundamental motor skills progressions as
well as all fitness attributes. The focus for prepubescent aspiring
athletes, therefore, is to continue to develop all fitness attributes
throughout childhood and adolescence, rather than to focus solely
on one attribute of performance or fitness during any phase of
training (2).
The needs analysis requires understanding the energy
requirements of the particular sport. For youth that have achieved
full maturity a coach or trainer can implement program designs
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