Specific Health and Performance Training For Athletic Development

The Foundations of Youth Athletic Development

By Coach Ernest Allen Founder of Atlas Pro Training LLC

In the ultra-competitive world of youth athletics sports specific training has become an important part of both the mental and physical development of athletes around the country. Off season training programs should be designed to address four areas of an athlete’s preparation and development which are:

1.       Mobility and Flexibility

2.       Strength Training and Energy System Development(sports specific)

3.       Nutrition

4.       Recovery

All great gains and achievements on the field and or court of play are made possible when athlete choses to dedicate himself/herself to the process of developing the work ethic needed to achieve their goals in the offseason, and between seasons if they are a multi-sport athlete to complete and win in the regular and post-season. The four areas of focus mentioned above should be the foundation of any comprehensive training program. There may be other elements that could be included but for the sake of time I chose to focus on these 4 elements that have shown results for my clients over the years. Let’s also keep in mind that this process is for long term growth and development of the athlete and there is no such thing as a quick and easy path to improving the physical and mental development of a youth athlete. Any youth training program should have the long term development of the athlete in mind, and address all areas that will improve their physical and mental performance.

So let’s briefly go over each of these training principles in detail to show how they all are dependent upon each other.

1)      Mobility and Flexibility Prep: This is set the tone for the training session and prepares the athlete for the stressors that they will experience executing during the session. Some would consider both mobility and flexibility to be one in the same NOT TRUE! Mobility training addresses joint alignment and how the parts of the joint (Bones, Cartilage, Muscles/tendons, Ligaments) moves in concert with each other. Flexibility training helps lengthen and stretch the muscles; ligaments and tendons in theory do not lengthen due to the structural limitations. Any strength imbalances and or core endurance issues are also addressed during this time in the training session.       

2)      Strength Training and Energy system development: These two elements go together in creating a training program that addresses the specific needs of the youth athlete. The key to any strength training program is that it be specific to the activity that the athlete is training for. For example a cross country athlete’s strength training program would differ from a sprinters training program. This is also true of the cardiovascular training for athletes which in the past decade is referred to Energy system development. During any activity the body uses three main energy systems:

                                                           I.         A-Lactate or Phosphagen energy system- Burns quick energy sources readily available to the muscles called ATP generated from the food we eat. This energy source lasts about 1-30 seconds; used during short bursts of movement, such as Sprinting, or throwing a shot put.

                                                            II.      Anaerobic Energy System: Burns glucose which does not require oxygen to be used for energy production. This energy source lasts 30 seconds to 3 minutes depending on the conditioning of the athlete.

                                                          III.      Aerobic energy system: Uses oxygen to convert lesser available energy sources into ATP, such as carbohydrates and fats.  These energy sources are then converted into ATP, which is done at a slower rate. This energy system is predominantly used during longer physical activities such as jogging.

Each of these energy systems can be conditioned to work more efficiently during specific activities. This goes back to the idea of creating a training program that is specific to the sport they are training for. For example a shot putters training program would in theory train the A-Lactate or Phosphagen energy system/Anaerobic energy system, and a distance runners training program would focus on the Anaerobic/Aerobic energy system. 

These four elements are the foundation of my training programing; every athlete that has dedicated themselves to these four principles during the training process has improved both mentally and physically for their sport(s) they participate in.