How To Develop Better Athletes?

In part one of this blog, we discussed what youth sport specialization is and why it can be problematic. Read part one HERE.

In part 2, we will discuss alternatives to sport specialization and how we can support and develop athletes throughout their career, whether they specialize or not.

Alternatives to Sport Specialization

Some of these seem pretty obvious, but let’s put some options on the table. In part 1, we talked about why early sport specialization can make athletes more prone to injury and restrict their development. So, what can we do instead?

• Make sure kids of all ages have time for free/unstructured play. Let them be creative and explore movement in a variety of ways.

• Encourage participation in a wide variety of sports and games. This goes beyond the physical aspects of being a well-rounded athlete. If an athlete is going to eventually pick a sport to specialize in, we want them to have lots of choices and context.

• Evidence also supports that young athletes should be participating in a strength and conditioning program to prepare them for the demands of sports. More on this later in this article.

• Sport specialization should be delayed until middle or late adolescence. For most sports, early specialization does not seem to increase the chances of excelling at an elite level. Most successful (Olympic and Professional) athletes actually specialize later and participate in more sports before specializing.

You can see that this isn’t rocket science. Let kids explore, don’t pressure them to choose a specialty early on and help them be well-rounded. 

What If An Athlete Does Specialize?

So, an athlete has made a decision to specialize. This can be for a number of reasons. Specific competition opportunities, age or just personal choice. Specialization is not necessarily negative in and of itself, we just hope to provide some context and information to keep athletes healthy.

Best Practices for a Specialized Youth Athlete

Let’s go through some quick evidence based points around participation in sports.

• There appears to be a relatively linear relationship between higher training volume and injury risk (3). This is just a matter of risk vs. reward. Evidence based guidelines can help provide some context for decision making.

• For youth athletes, greater than 16 hours of formal sport participation increased injury risk regardless of age.

• Highly specialized athletes had a 2.25x greater risk of injury.

• A good rule of thumb is that athletes should not participate in more hours of organized sports than their age. (For example, a 15 year old athlete should be limited to no more than 15 hours per week). You can see how this would help delay specialization and overload. Once we get beyond 16-17 years old, specialization may be safer and more feasible.

• Phased in approaches should be used to introduce athletes to competition. This can be especially important for more individualized sports where early specialization is more likely (swimming, tennis, gymnastics, etc.)

• Professionalized, adult style practices are also not appropriate for youth athletes. These have not been show to improve talent development, can limit overall development and can discourage kids from participation. 

Resistance Training For Youth Athletes

A good, well-programmed strength and conditioning program is also a crucial part of good athletic development. We’ll cover some general concepts here, then get into a more specific model.

Regardless of when/if an athlete specializes, periods of isolated and focused work on strength and conditioning should be planned in order to enhance overall development and reduce injury risk (4).

Strength and conditioning programs will look different depending on the age of an athlete, maturity level, specific goals and specialization status, but in general they should include:

• ABCs for young athletes (Agility, balance, coordination)

• Strength

• Power

• Agility

• Speed

• General movement quality and variety

Multiple organizations and research studies have shown that resistance training in youth athletes is not only safe, but is effective and included in best practice guidelines. Going over misconceptions about youth strength training is beyond the scope of this article, but I will include references to articles at the end of the blog if you are interested in reading more about this. 

Additionally, appropriately designed and implemented youth strength and conditioning programs have been shown to improve (1,2,5):

• strength, endurance, power, motor skills, jumping, running, cutting, throwing, etc.

• vertical jump, long jump, hand grip strength

• general motor performance

• body composition

• reduced injury rates

So, not only is youth strength and conditioning safe, it is a crucial component of performance and injury risk reduction programs.

The Long Term Athletic Development Model (LTAD) 

This a model that was developed in an attempt to balance training load and competitions throughout childhood and adolescence. No model is perfect, but this is a useful one to think about how we are training and preparing our youth athletes throughout their careers.

Here is a graphic summarizing this approach:

The Long Term Athletic Development Model

The LTAD model has 5 stages/components:

• FUNdamentals

• Learning to Train

• Training to Train

• Training to Compete

• Training to Win

These stages are meant to set solid foundations to build upon and modify training based on age, maturity and goals. You can see from the graphic that we move from establishing basic physical literacy in young kids (6-9 years old) all the way to highly specialized, intense and individualized programming for athletes 18+ years old competing at a high level.

This model is based off the concept that there are “windows of opportunity” where young athletes will respond especially well to training and can optimize improvements. Intensity and specificity of training begins to pick up around the time most kids go through puberty.

Another important concept to understand is that we are not necessarily trying to make these athletes (especially younger ones) better at running, jumping, etc. That does happen, but the main goal is to build general strength, fitness and resilience to set the stage for sport specific adaptions and success. Strength and conditioning needs to become a year round habit for any athlete. We simply alter programming variables like intensity, volume and specificity based on practice schedules, etc.

Essentially, the earlier we are in an athlete’s life, the more general their training should be. The later we are, the more specific it can be. This does not mean it should or needs to be super specific but higher level athletes need more skill practice. It is important that athletes have physically developed enough to reap the benefits of playing multiple sports and developing multiple physical qualities before they specialize.

Physical Therapy For Youth Athletes

A Physical Therapist and/or strength and conditioning coach can be utilized at any point in an athlete’s development. For example, we offer both rehab services for youth athletes as well as strength and conditioning programming and training.

Obviously, a good Physical Therapist will fit in if an athlete ever gets injured. It is important that an athlete works with someone who understand the specifics of their sport, general training and takes an active, strength and conditioning based approach to treatment. Passive modalities and massage might be helpful early on to manage pain, but PT sessions should look like modified strength and conditioning as soon as possible. It is imperative to maintain fitness throughout the rehab process to ensure a speedy and healthy return to sport.

Pain and injury are just a couple variables that make the management of an athlete more complicated and nuanced. It is also appropriate and often necessary to involve a good PT and/or strength coach when athletes get more serious and specialized because their needs are more nuanced and require well-rounded care.

Here are another couple quick visuals that can be helpful in explaining how strength and conditioning and Physical Therapy work together in the management of an athlete. 

This image is a summary of strength and conditioning for young athletes.

Where should our focus be when training youth athletes?

The most important aspects of strength and conditioning are near the center of the diamond in bigger writing and more accessory based training are near the top and bottom. Just to be clear, this is the stuff athletes should be working on in the gym. Obviously things like sport specific skills are hugely important but they are mostly working on these with sport coaches.

Now, how does Physical Therapy fit in?

Sports Physical Therapy and Performance Training Work Together

Again, this is over simplified. However, when an athlete is injured or just needs more specific attention, we add more of a foundation to the diamond above. We start working more on things like: pain and stress management (BPS means biopsychosocial), range of motion, basic strength and motor control and detailed return to activity plans and guidelines. 

We hope this article (as well as part 1) was helpful in explaining a topic that can sometimes be confusing and a source of conflict. Our mission at Wagner PT & Performance is to help athletes of all ages get and stay healthy.

Injuries will happen and recovery can be fast and safe. However, more work needs to be put into proactive planning and preparation in the first place. This will help reduce injury risk and make athletes more resilient so they bounce back from setbacks quicker.

If you have any questions about this information or anything else related to physical health and wellness for yourself or any youth athletes in your life let us know. We would love to hear from you and help out. 

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References:

• 1. Paul Ford , Mark De Ste Croix , Rhodri Lloyd , Rob Meyers , MarjanMoosavi, Jon Oliver , Kevin Till & Craig Williams (2011) The Long-Term Athlete Development model: Physiological evidence and application, Journal of Sports Sciences, 29:4, 389-402

• 2. Lloyd et al. Position statement on youth resistance training: 2014 international consensus. Br J Sports Med. 2013; 0: 1-12

• 3. Myer et al. Sport Specialization Part 1: Does early sport specialization increased negative outcomes and reduce the opportunity for success in young athletes? Sports Health; 7(5): 437-442

• 4. Myer et al. Sport Specialization Part 2: Alternative solutions to early sport specialization in youth athletes. Sports Health; 8(1):65-73

• 5. Zouita et al. Strength Training Reduces Injury Rate in Elite Young Soccer players during one season. J Strength Cond Res. 2016; May; 30(5)