Sarah Walls 8/27/19 Sarah Walls 8/27/19

Developing Strength & Power in Young Athletes: Youth Speed Training Workout #002

Coach Sarah Walls shares another new developmental speed training session for children that is built around fun, coordination, strength, and speed.

In addition to speed and agility development, young athletes need to be allowed to develop musculoskeletal systems that are sufficiently robust to tolerate the repetitive impact forces commonly experienced during aerobic or anaerobic endurance activity. - High-Performance Training for Sports

In a nutshell, that’s strength training, y’all. In another nutshell, that quote also tells you EXACTLY why so many kids get injuries playing sports. You have GOT to get resistance training in the mix!

Below is a single session example workout that I used with my 9-year old daughter that provides lots of opportunities to work on change of direction, coordination, strength, and speed training technique. This session is scalable and appropriate for children in the 9-11 year old range who have adequate physical and psychological readiness:

Football Toss & Form Shooting 5-min

MB Side Throw 2x5/side

Hang 2x:15

Carry 2x1 trip

Alternating Side Shuffle 2x15yd

Side Shuffle 2x15yd

Overhead MB March 2x15yd

Overhead MB A-Skip 2x15yd

Overhead MB A-Run 2x15yd

Side Shuffle to Sprint 2x/side

Side Shuffle to Backpedal 2x/side

Side Shuffle to Backpedal to Sprint 2x/side

A1 BW Split Squat 3x6/leg

A2 Pogo Hops 3x5

B1 Band Assisted Chin-up 3x3

B2 Hands Elevated Push-up 3x6-8

C1 Trap Bar Deadlift 3x3

C2 Box Jump 3x3

Hang Snatch Technique 3x3

Below is a transcript from a recording on my thoughts behind this session:

“It's really important that fun is in almost every part of a kid's workout. Even If each movement isn't all that fun, The fact that you're just laughing and making time for a little bit of fooling around and joking is very, very important to long term adherence to a training plan. Right now, For my nine year old, she is in the Learn to Train phase of her development, which means that everything we're doing revolves around setting the foundation for later on when she's old enough to push a bit harder, be it with her focus, or the weights that she's using, or the intensity overall, whatever it is that we might be pushing. But right now, we're just learning about all those things and learning about consistency and learning how to move well.

For this session, we started off with a football toss and some form shooting for about five minutes. This was us just having fun and and throwing a football. Then we went into form shooting for basketball, and did that for a couple minutes.

Next we started a warm-up circuit that I like to use, which involves a throw of some kind, hanging for time, and a loaded carry variation.

For children who are not involved in a sport focused heavily on rotational power (baseball/softball and golf, as examples), it can be really tough to get enough “reps” and learn the technique. Rotational power is important for all athletes, but it’s complex for those who haven’t done it much in a controlled environment. As such, I've been putting transverse plane activity in pretty regularly so that they can eventually getting the hang of the sequencing. I think right now it's kind of a complex task for both of them.

That the hanging works on static grip and upper body strength; the carry, as well, is his grip strength and total body strength.

Then we go into an alternating side shuffle, and a regular standard side shuffle. This is more just to help them sequence the movement patterns and smooth it out over time.

From there, we went into an overhead medicine ball march, then the A-skip, and finally the A-run. These are similar to the overhead positions that we've done in the past for form running. And also on the front, front rack position with the dowel rod. The medicine ball is heavier, so it's more challenging.

Next we tried some transitions: side shuffle that transitioned into a sprint, side shuffle that transitioned into a backpedal, and side shuffle to backpedal to sprint. The purpose here is to get practice of changing from one task to the next.

For the resistance training portion, I start with the body weight split squat. I really like this as the primary movement for my daughter, in particular, because she's growing so fast. I paired this with Pogo hops for the purpose of Achilles tendon durability and to train the stiffness required for effective jumping.

A new movement for today was the band assisted chin-up. This was a big deal for all of us! From my perspective, I have to trust that a child is strong enough to hold their own body weight for around 20 seconds before we attempt a vertical pull. From the child’s perspective, it can feel like a mega accomplish that comes second to none.

The chin-up was paired with a hands elevated push-up. One note on the push up, you have to teach proper hip position and you have to teach the kids to know what it feels like to brace and move through a push-up before you can expect them to consecutive do push-ups.

We finished with trap bar deadlift and box jumps. The deadlift is looking really good now (meaning my daughter has reliable positioning and can receive coaching cues as needed), so I think we will start progressing it slowly with volume and load. The goal with box jumping was to land quietly while perfecting takeoff and landing form.

Off-the-cuff, I decided to check out her hang snatch with the technique bar (instead of a dowel rod) and it looked really amazing. This was a pretty major milestone, as her strength and stability is sufficient to begin working on this movement pattern.”

The catch position for the snatch requires overhead strength and ability to stabilize the whole body.

Teaching children to train, and build a foundation for a lifetime, requires a positive environment, a variety of exercises, and a lot of flexibility.

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Thank you! SAPT

Sarah Walls 8/20/19 Sarah Walls 8/20/19

Developing Strength & Power in Young Athletes: Youth Speed Training Workout #001

Coach Sarah Walls shares a developmental speed training session for children that is built around fun, coordination, strength, and speed.

For children who are physically and psychologically ready, this is a great single session example workout that provides lots of opportunities to work on coordination, strength, and speed training technique:

Overhead Stick March 2x15yd

Overhead A-Skip 2x15yd

Overhead A-Run 2x15yd

Front Rack Stick March 2x15yd

Front Rack A-Skip 2x15yd

Front Rack A-Run 2x15yd

PUPP Start 2-3x 15yd

3-Point Start 2-3x 15yd

2-Point Start 2-3x 15yd

Overhead Stick Squat 2x8

Hang Snatch with Stick 2x5

A1 BW Split Squat 3x5/leg

A2 Arm Mechanics from Seated Position 3x:10

B1 Suspension Strap Row 3x10

B2 Push-up Eccentrics 3x3

C1 Conventional Deadlift Technique 3x3

The marches, skips, and stick runs in the first portion are serving to provide a thorough warm-up. It would be totally appropriate to add in other ground based warm-up exercises beforehand, too.

Keep a close eye on children’s fatigue level throughout each set and always offer plenty of opportunities to take a break or get water. For kids not used to this type of work it can be very fatiguing and they may need time to build up their work capacity. We go through the whole session at a leisurely pace and have plenty of time for laughing, joking, and questions built in.

This entire session is predicated around working on technique and I am always ready with a regression or progression in case a certain exercise is not a good fit on any given day. For this particular session, my daughter has recently grown 3/4” and was struggling with the balance for the Split Squat. So, I quickly told her we’d adjust to using body weight (instead of 10lbs) and even gave her a bit of support/assistance by letting her hold onto my arm when needed. This approach got us the good technique I was after and helped to keep her feeling successful.

The development of strength and power in youth has previously been a source of great debate, yet despite earlier misconceptions there is now a wealth of evidence supporting the use of resistance training by both children and adolescents. Conceivably, if a child is ready to engage in sport activities, then he or she is ready to participate in resistance training. -High-Performance Training for Sports

To get all the above done in one session is the result of a slow process of building. Before using something so lengthy, please make sure the children you want to use this with are ready both physically and psychologically. They should have a good work capacity and be excited to embark on this type of technique training. If they are not ready in either area, work needs to be done to get both areas improved so they will have a better experience with this type of workout.

Thank you! SAPT

Sarah Walls 8/19/19 Sarah Walls 8/19/19

Advanced Average Joe: Wave 1

Do you train regularly and look forward all day to when you can finally get to the gym for a no-holds-barred training session? Do you already squat and deadlift regularly? Have you hit a plateau and need a little push to get over the hump? Coach Sarah Walls shares SAPT’s Advanced Average Joe training program.

Welcome to SAPT’s Advanced Average Joe program. This program is designed for guys and gals who have a fairly solid training age (foundation) already set. It’s not a struggle for you to get to the gym because you love training. But sometimes you feel a little haphazard in your training approach.

This training program will push you past your plateau and give you a feeling of direction and real progress.

Advanced Average Joe profile:

Age: 17 - 65+

Years training: 1-2 years minimum - if you’ve been training longer, that will still be a great fit

Exercise competencies: squat, deadlift, bench press, push-up, pull-up

Injuries: none

Day 1

You will be working up to a heavy single for each exercise and then doing back-down sets at the percentage noted. This percentage is taken off the heavy single, not your all-time best squat/bench/dead number.

Notice the RPE on the single is a 9/10. Does this mean you should expect to reach failure? Absolutely not! If you reach failure or a 10/10 you have not executed the set properly. Don’t be a meathead or a hero on this. Live to train another day (and reach many more PRs in the coming weeks).

Day 2

Pay attention to the RPE note and work up to a single set on Front Squat at that RPE. This will feel good and you will want to do another set, but don’t. Stopping while you’re ahead is key.

Bench Press to 1-Board works up to another RPE of 8/10. But then you will notice a note that says “load drop 8%.” This simply means you will do another set with an 8% reduction in weight for the same number of reps.

Day 3

Speed work: you’ll be using your Competition stance (or the deadlift stance you prefer if you have not competed) and pulling a 70% working weight for all the sets. This number is coming from the weight you worked up to on Day 1.

Same goes for setting your weight for the squat.

Later on in this session you will see some exercises that have a total listed number of reps. This means you will break them into smaller sets as your strength/fitness allows on that day.

Day 4

Speed Bench Press weight will be set off of your Day 1 work. After finishing all the speed sets, you will once again work up to a heavy single. Keep it at an 8-9/10 RPE and DO NOT expect you will exceed your Monday number.

Enjoy and post questions to our comments!