Duncan Ogilvie (MSc, ASCC, CSCS)
I went to a great seminar this past weekend on youth training and strength and conditioning for youths. I took a huge amount away from it with the take home message of, If you get children and adolescence doing the right things early then you will solve many of the issues we have right now with obesity and injury in teenagers.
The presentations got me thinking about the role of a strength and conditioning coach and fitness professional in youth training and how best to get the benefits strength and conditioning for youths across to the schools and parents. Sometimes it can be a hard sell to a parent when you are asking for X amount to train what they consider the next big thing (their child). You highlight all the benefits of strength and conditioning for youths, such as the reduction in instances of injuries, the improved performance, better body composition and improved health factors, all which will lead to a more successful athlete. Yet they still debate if they have the money to pay for such support or if it’s a worthwhile investment. We are a culture of instant gratification and people want something straight away. Making the above mentioned progress takes time and the performance benefits may only been seen years down the line. Perhaps parents are not willing to invest in this as they want the results now. We should educate them that investing time and money at a young age will really pay off in the future.
So what if you don’t invest in quality strength and conditioning support for your child what are you faced with? (by child or youth I mean preadolescence ~8-13 years old). I’m not saying that hiring a strength and conditioning coach is the magical cure for all instances of injury and health issues faced by our children. I am saying that if you hire a good strength and conditioning coach you will reduce the instances and impact of a lot of the problems that our children face today. (I won’t touch on the issue of inactivity and obesity in our youths but effective strength and conditioning for youths can go a long way in reducing this also). However don’t just take my word for it check out some of the latest research in strength and conditioning for youths.
Here is an in-depth paper, in relation to strength and conditioning for youths –
National Athletic Trainers’ Association Position Statement: Prevention of Pediatric Overuse Injuries – some highlights of the paper where :
- Preseason and in-season preventive training programs focusing on neuromuscular control, balance, coordination, flexibility, and strengthening of the lower extremities are advocated for reducing overuse injury risk, especially among pediatric athletes with a previous history of injury.
- All pediatric athletes should begin participating in a general fitness program, emphasizing endurance, flexibility, and strengthening, at least 2 months before the sport season starts.
- Pediatric athletes should be encouraged to participate in multiple sports and recreational activities throughout the year to enhance general fitness and aid in motor development.
As children your brain is like plastic, you can mold it and ingrain things so they become hard wired. Having young children work with an educated strength and conditioning coach that can instill optimum movement patterns, maintain and improve joint mobility and improve strength, will go a long way in helping them reach and exceed their athletic potential. Kids need to play and do as many movements, jumps, twist and turns as possible. Having competent strength and conditioning for youths will enable these young
children to learn to perform such movements as the clean, snatch, squat, allow them to get in good athletic positions and have the strength to be able to hold these positions. Teaching them these fundamental lifting patterns at a time when they have very little tightness in comparison to teenagers, and when their skill trainability is optimal, will save you a lot of time and efforts in the future. It will also educate them that strength and conditioning is not some bicep curls and bench press (how many times have you seen a young teenager go into the gym and knock out some curls and bench and then leave, thinking they had a great workout). Getting a child into strength and conditioning when they become a teenager can be too late, the coach will spend weeks and months correcting all the weakness’s and imbalances that the daily life of a modern day child has caused, of course gains and progress will be made but just how much did they miss out on, and how much potential improvement was left back in the early years.
When approaching schools and parents of young children, you are faced with many barriers and concerns about strength and conditioning for youths, due to myths and unfounded assumptions. You can highlight all the benefits mentioned above but yet it always comes down to two big things – Time and Money. As stated above young children are so adaptable and can make huge gains and progress that will last well into their teens and adulthood. The scope for growth and adaptation is huge. Surely it makes sense to invest more money and time in strength and conditioning at this age? As strength and conditioning coaches all the money is at the top end with the elite athletes and teams, yet changes that can be made at this level are very small. Invest more resources at a young age and there will be huge improvements further up the chain as this more robust, competent, educated athlete progresses through the ranks of the long term athlete development model. (Find out more about LTAD HERE). In an effort to try and educate cautious parents that are reluctant to invest in a strength and conditioning coach, let’s look at some possible financial implications to a naive (uneducated from a strength and conditioning standpoint and young training age) athlete as they get older.
Injury
Injury reduction and prevention is like a carrot on a stick to athletes and sports coaches, it’s a great way to get some buy in and support, especially when trying to convince someone to allow their son or daughter to participate in your strength and conditioning for youths’ program. As coaches when we look at sports that involve lots of reactive running, jumping, twisting and turning such as basketball, volleyball, rugby, football, you will also be aware of the high injury risks involved in these sports. One of the biggest issues facing teenage athletes is injuries to the knee and the high risk of ACL tears. There is a ton of research about ACL tears and how to prevent and reduce them. To sum them all up we can basically say that if you improve your running, jumping, landing mechanics and muscle imbalances then instances of ACL tears will be reduced. Well isn’t all the above the role of a good strength and conditioning coach?
What’s the cost of an ACL injury? ACL or cruciate ligament reconstruction, in a UK private hospital or clinic is around £4,000 to £5,000, inclusive of private hospital charges and consultant’s fees. Now once you have had the operation you need that all important physio treatment, let’s say around £40 per hour. Rehab is around 6 months, so you are getting on for about £7000-8000 to fix your injury and get back to playing. There is of course the NHS, so 6 weeks to see a specialist, 6 weeks to get a scan, 3 months to get an operation, 5-6 months down the line you can finally get it fixed, now time to start your 6 months of rehab…Not idea for someone who wants to get back out there and play and compete as quick as possible.
Some stats and research for you –
- 80% of ACL injuries are non-contact, or in my language PREVENTABLE.
- Gilchrist et al. studied just under 1500 collegiate athletes and found that those who adhered to an ACL injury prevention program showed a 70% reduction in ACL injury with noncontact injury and a 40% overall reduction in ACL injury.
- In other studies a 6 week preseason training program, maintained with 2-3 sessions per week during the regular training season reduced male to female risk to 1:1, and reduced relative risk by 50-75%.
Maybe that small investment you make in the strength and conditioning coach seems a worthwhile investment now right??
So I beg the question then is it better to pay and invest early to help reduce the chances of paying later?? We as a society are so easy to throw money at the injury with surgery, physio treatment or drugs and “quick fixes” toward obesity and diabetes. Maybe it is worthwhile to throw some money at a good strength and conditioning coach and save yourself paying later, with the added benefit of becoming a better athlete. Maybe the governing bodies of elite sport should also sit up and listen, and realize that investing in a sound youth development programme, inclusive of strength and conditioning will be of benefit for their sport in the future. As previously mentioned, the majority of sports pay their strength and conditioning coaches very well at the elite end. The coaches of the top few in each sport are very well rewarded. In comparison, often the strength and conditioning coach at the academy level is a voluntary role, or deemed suitable for an intern. Perhaps this should be where we are placing our top coaches with at least equal remuneration to the coaches of elite athletes, given that this is where the greatest impact can really be made.
Please let’s debunk the myth that strength and conditioning for youths including olympic lifting is bad for young children, and that it will cause damage to growth plates, injuries and stunt your growth. There is some much research out there that advocates good sound strength and conditioning practice for pre-adolescence. Legacy is a word that was the corner stone of the London 2012 Olympics, so let’s create that legacy by producing competent, athletic, educated and skilled athletes by focusing on fundamental movement patterns and structure strength and conditioning programs with our youth and pre-adolescent children. They will thank you later.
What a read, I really enjoyed that and you have hit each and every point. I am an up and coming S&C coach working at Newcastle University and Gateshead College, It is easy to which athletes have been taking part in S&C and which athletes are new to S&C, and its scary.. I have friends who are P.E teachers and I have this argument with them every week, it’s time we as coaches go into schools primary or secondary and take P.E lessons at least once or twice a week. Educating the teachers and children on the fundamentals of S&C. We need to start this now before we fall further behind the likes of USA, China, ect, however we need the backing of the governing bodies. We need to start building an athlete and let them choose the sport, don’t force the athlete onto the sport. Better Movers makes better athletes.
Good read thank you.
Thanks for the email ross, keep having these conversations and you can make a difference. Persistence is key
Duncan
You are a Godsend!! I have several pre-adolescents whom I am steering through the rigours of early-stage strength and conditioning. I am extremely lucky as their parents are trusting and well versed with the science behind training, however, the misguided myth of avoiding resistance work with younger bodies still prevails. Strange to see local football clubs putting young bodies through gruelling plyometric sessions, but reluctant to (and even horrified by) engage in weights training.
Cheers
Fantastic info Duncan and you make some extremely valid points, particularly about the imbalance of financial support between top end sport and grassroots/schools and the preceived lesser value/quality of coaches working at younger age ranges when really this should be reversed. We need to get the best coaches at the bottom end and grow a much wider population base of fit, healthy young athletes who then feed into the different sports. Its amazing that people at the top, and often even many parents, cannot see all the benefits you highlighted. The question really is what can we do about it/ How can we make an impact?
From my own personal perspective I’ve worked at all levels of sport as an s&c coach from professional to grassroots and am driven to make a difference from the bottom up. To this end I’ve launched my own speed & agility company to help provide the tools and education for young athletes and their yeachers/coaches with a corresponding long term development model for speed & agility training. My key target area is primary and secondary schools. I’m also currently completing a Primary PGCE to allow me to more fully understand how children learn, how schools operate etc and have to say i’m pretty appalled at standards of PE/sport provision in schools – but which are not too surprising when you consider as a trainee teacher I’ve had 4 hours of study devoted to the entire PE curriculum over a one year postgraduate course!! I’ve obviously got a background in s&c so am confident in this area, but the majority of my peers have very little experience and this 4 hours does not go anywhere near far enough to help them.
Hopefully I can play my own part, but it really needs a more concerted effort from governing bodies, schools, government etc to get the right people and/or the right level of training for people working with in schools to ensure that every child has the opportunity to learn and develop their movement skills and athleticism. I’d be fully behind qualified s&c coaches working in schools but first the issues of funding and value of s&c coaches needs to be addressed??
A good read that Duncan. Very interesting points which have been well addressed.
I can’t agree more with the philosophies discussed in the document and the relationship in reducing preventable injuries.
Thanks for the info.
Al.
Well done Duncan for presenting this information.
As a S&C and rehab therapist and as a parent you can understand the difficulty in trusting trainers and coaches to develop your kids in such ways. Eventually you will hit this barrier both as a parent as will your kids in performance which is never mix ambition with ability. Studies into development of pro football players has shown that a high % of early growth and older in classes do better than smaller and younger, therefore we reduce the potential talent from our youth.
Minor injuries in growing up is part of life and can happen to anyone (performance v risk), but to perform and limit potential injuries you have to strengthen.
If you can I would like more information regarding best ages and what exercises you would use and if any relate to mainstream sports.
Nice to read something that will eventually have to change, well done.
David Craig
thanks for your response David, Its all about having very professional high quality coaches available to the kids and then trust shouldnt become an issue. One of the leaders in this field is Dr Avery Faigenbaum find his website here – http://www.strongkid.com
Hello Duncan. Thanks for the good read. As you know I have been working with young developing athletes for a long time now and try to influence where I can. A key issue is the amount of ‘competitive’ / pointless games they play trader than preparation – especially my athlete who are schoooled in the private sector – where it seems to be a PE masters one man mission to WIN, regardless of the child’s other sporting commitment or long term development. Parents need to be educated in managing this child’s level of involvement and training – funny how many seem to be scared of pulling kids from games. A personal issue for me in some ways as I overplayed as kid and then contracted glandular fever!
The other issue is the competitive schedule – why play every week? And also the lip service payed to multilateral development – the last two could be whole blog article in themselves. I have recently be asked to advise on Derbyshires talent plan – let’s see what I can do!
I deal with a similar issue with my basketballers, we have some of the best age group players in the country so they always play up. One girl will regularly play u14, u16, u18 and some times senior womens. there is no need what so ever for her to play u14 and to an extent u16 yet its all about her club coach putting the pressure on her to play and wanting to win, and enhance his reputation rather than putting her well-being and development first. Much smarter approach would be to play less games and focus on other aspects of her development i.e. S&C. Very frustrating when she hobbled in on monday morning having sprained her ankle in an u14 game that was won by 30. thanks for your response Nick and im always happy to assist in your projects so give me a shout if you need me.
Fantastic read, finally some people on the same wave length! Thank you for reinforcing my philosophy :-).