Is your child athlete training?
First to answer this question we must define training? This definition is being provided by results from asking Chat GPT (AI).
Sports training for youth athletes refers to a structured program designed to enhance their physical, technical, tactical, and psychological skills in a specific sport. This training aims to improve athletic performance while also promoting physical fitness, motor skills, and overall well-being.
Key components of sports training for youth athletes include:
1. Physical Development: This includes strength, endurance, flexibility, speed, and agility training tailored to the developmental stage of the athlete.
2. Skill Development: Youth athletes work on sport-specific techniques and skills, such as dribbling in basketball, passing in soccer, or swinging in baseball.
3. Tactical Understanding: Training often involves teaching athletes how to make strategic decisions during a game, including positioning, teamwork, and understanding the rules of the sport.
4. Psychological Skills: This aspect focuses on building mental resilience, confidence, focus, and coping strategies to deal with competition and performance pressure.
5. Injury Prevention: Educating young athletes about safe practices, proper warm-up and cool-down routines, and listening to their bodies to prevent injuries.
6. Long-Term Development: Emphasizing the importance of a gradual progression in training intensity and complexity, considering the athlete's age, maturity, and individual needs.
7. Fun and Enjoyment: Ensuring that training remains enjoyable and engaging to foster a lifelong love for sports and physical activity.
Overall, sports training for youth athletes aims to create a positive and supportive environment that nurtures their growth, both as athletes and individuals, while promoting lifelong health and fitness habits.
My question that I ask about the above definitions to parents/coaches is what in the above are we missing? Where are we lacking, where are we meeting needs and where are we falling short? And are we helping these young athletes in the appropriate areas? - Scotty Smith owner of Synergy Sports Performance
To understand the above definitions let's look at them one by one. The first being physical development which in our business we feel is extremely important and the baseline to most athletic success. However, we also feel that is the most overlooked. We feel so strongly about the physical development piece because it ties into so many others. For example #2 on this list is skill development. You see skills are huge in today's sports world, BUT what most don't understand is that physical development can and does enhance skills. Working on core strength helps with throwing and hitting. Working on leg strength helps your speed on the court or the football field. Core stability helps balance which is evident in all sports. When these simple things aren't addressed even once a week it shows up in the skill level of athletes during play. Not to mention it helps with the psychological skills and teaches those to take breaks but yet also fight through challenges that are often difficult.
When it comes to skill development .....yes it's important, but it's not the end all be all. Skills are worked on throughout the athletes sports career. It's worked on in private sessions, camps, clinics, in games, and even on your own. In recent years we have seen it dominate however all of the above. Again as important as skills are it's important to not put all your training into one basket. A balanced athlete is healthy athlete.
Tactical AND psychological often both and can go together. Tactical is a great way to get kids aways from all the constant training or skills by simply offering up some film time. A great way to evaluate your skills is by viewing some film of you playing or practicing. The great athletes are some of the best by learning off the court.
Injury prevention ties in greatly with the physical. Due to the amount of time athletes spend playing and working on skill development we are seeing injury rates at an all time high in both male and females. Too many under developed athletes either doing too much with their bodies and the body can not handle the physical loads and demands of all the play. There is no time for the body to recover and in young athletes thats often where growth occurs. Tired muscles and joints are like bad breaks on a car. It's not a matter of IF, but rather a matter of when there's an accident.
LTAD or Long term athlete development was referred to in an earlier article. LTAD is the different ages athletes are in and what, when and how much should be worked on during those phases from you to adult.
FUN!!! Often lost in all of this is first and foremost is the athlete having fun! Recent studies showed 70% of youth athletes quit sports due to burnout or injury by age 13. We have to find more balance in the lives of athlete's. Personally I believe we can do that by balancing out all of what we have mentioned above. Remember when its your child sometimes you just have to say NO to certain things or the amount of things being asked in order to do what's best long term for your youth athletes.
For more info on correct training please contact us at Synergy Sports [email protected] or call 920-632-4185