Strength and Conditioning for Youth Athletes

Strength and Conditioning for youth

This is a topic that has been doing the rounds for many years in the world of strength & conditioning and general fitness training for kids. I think there has been miscommunication in what coaches in the space believe is best for long term athletic development (LTAD), and what parents understand about strength & conditioning is for their children.

There is a lot to unpack for this topic and I’m no expert so I’ll just opine on what I’ve learned from coaches and what strength & conditioning should look like for the younger population.

The first distinction we need to make is determining what constitutes as a youth and what we should be aiming for. For the purposes of this post, let us assume youth is between 6-18 years of age. Dr. Istvan Balyi is an influential figure in long-term athletic development and through the Canadian Sport for Life program has come up with a continuum showing how LTAD is generally looked at, see below.

I like this model, but I think Vern Gambetta’s version in Athletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning, gives a more concise and specific outline.

Fundamental Stage

Chronological age: Males 6-9; Females 6-8

The goal of this stage is having fun, participating in games and I will add building movement capacity. There should be no periodization, but there should be a structured program with the emphasis on vigorous physical activity five or six times per week. Competition should also be informal in the form of play days, otherwise youngsters will lose interest.

Learning to Train

Chronological age: Males 9-12; Females 8-11

At this stage, the goal is learning sport skills and identifying talent. There can be single periodization with sport-specific training three times per week and participation in other sports three times per week. No specialization yet.

Training to Train

Chronological age: Males 12-16; Females 11-15

Learning sport-specific skills and selection. There can be single or double periodisation with sport specific training six to nine times per week. Competition should be formal but must be framed in the context of training to train. Training, not competition results, is the emphasis.

Training to Compete

Chronological age: Males 16-18; Females 15-17

This stage is even more sport-specific, now the focus is event and position specific physical conditioning and specialization. Now there is double and triple periodisation with sport-specific technical, tactical, and fitness training 9 to 12 times per week. The role of the competition in this phase is learning how to compete.

Training to Win

Chronological age: Males 18 and older; Females 17 and older

The overall goal here is maintenance or improvement of physical qualities and high performance. Multiple periodization with sport-specific technical, tactical, and fitness training 9 to 12 times per week.

These are not hard parameters to follow but it gives coaches and parents a better understanding of which stage children should fall into whilst developing.

Alongside this general framework, many sports have their own methods on how they progress youth athletes. For example, in football many academies use ‘bio-banding’, which is a way of grouping players based on their biological age rather than their chronological age. This is a way to make sure kids, who are maturing early are not held back but are also adequately challenged to continue their development. It also protects the kids who may mature later, from injuries and keeps them motivated to learn and compete. Many clubs also track an athlete’s peak height velocity (PHV), which is essentially how fast the athlete is growing per year and use this data to prescribe appropriate loads to minimize injury risk. Some research has shown some male youth athletes can grow as much as 10cm per year during early puberty.

This is where strength & conditioning can play a role in youth athletic development, by keeping them strong and prepared for their sport but also to mitigate the risk of injury, especially during times of growth/puberty. As children grow, they will have quite drastic changes in height, weight, strength and coordination, so it is important they develop a large base of movements and develop fundamental movement proficiency.

The aim is to think long-term, do not train children like pro athletes, train them with their current abilities, skill-set and long-term athletic development in mind.