We condition our athletes to get more playing time by improving skills and preventing injuries. No matter your sport (soccer, baseball, golf, BMX, field hockey, you name it!), we teach foundations of fitness techniques in a safe and effective manner using the methods outlined below.
Youth Strength Training
While strength training may not improve sport techniques like memorizing plays, it can enhance physical abilities such as jumping to score that lay-up, agility running on the soccer field, or getting more distance off the tee box.
Youth athletes who strength train can improve gross motor skills, reduce body fat, increase muscle mass, and improve their psychosocial well-being. For girls, it even goes one step further by increasing bone mineral density helping to decrease the risk of developing osteoporosis later on.
Key Elements of Youth Training
While resistance can come from traditional means in youth programming (by using dumbbells and kettlebells), we also love to mix in tube bands, medicine balls, battle ropes, and the classic - bodyweight. This can help make training less intimidating and more fun!
Safety - We always prioritize the safety of participants. Guidelines are in place concerning proper clothing, shoes, and jewelry.
Technique - It is crucial that participants use proper form to prevent the risk of injury when performing exercises. If errors are detected, our team will give immediate feedback and guidance. The participant will not be progressed to higher weights until proper form is achieved and modifications to regress will be provided if needed.
Psychosocial - We take communication very seriously and make sure that our team properly communicates all instructions and form in an effective, yet fun manner.
Stages of Youth Resistance Training
Just like training adults, we progress our participants through levels of training to ensure their bodies are adequately prepared for the demands we are about to place on them. Depending on current skill levels and developmental stages, some participants may begin at a different level than others.
Stabilization - We focus on building ankle stability and core strength while building up the endurance of muscles and cardiovascular health using high rep/low weight/low rest resistance training. It is this stage that our athletes learn various exercises, and use mostly bodyweight to emphasize proper body positioning, form, and technique.
Strength - Once our athletes perfect exercise technique and have improved their stability, we progress them to this stage to boost their muscle strength. We begin to up the challenge on the muscles by increasing weight with a moderate rep count and more recovery between sets. These exercise are performed in a more stable environment to focus more on improving muscular strength.
Power - Only after building the proper foundation of stabilization and strength do we move into power using explosive movements. Here, we use a mixture of high weights/low reps and low weight/higher reps. Rest is also increased as the demands for power exercises are a bit more exhausting.
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