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

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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Designing Practical Warm-ups for the Overhead Athlete

To give a brief recap, if you missed Stevo's post on Friday: August is dedicated to training means, modes, and methods for overhead athletes (these are sports like baseball, softball, volleyball, swimming, and javelin). 

The pre-practice and pre-competition warm-up is extremely important for any athlete, but to an even greater degree for those athletes who need to give special consideration to the shoulder complex. As a strength coach, I've given numerous warm-up protocols to numerous athletes over the years and while, in a pinch, I could easily produce one that would be well-balanced and comprehensive, I've always preferred to plan my warm-ups in advance.

Preplanning ensures that every muscle, joint, angle, whatever has been taken into consideration and a decision has been made about how to address it for that day (or not). The important thing here being that you must give yourself the chance to make a decision about something ahead of time vs. simply overlooking the area.

Most coaches plan warm-ups on the fly, but like most things at SAPT, we tend not to do what "most" do... that's usually the easy way... and we know the right way! Thus, why we're the premier strength and performance training facility in the Fairfax, Tysons, McLean, Vienna areas.

Getting back to the practical warm-up: Over my time working with college athletes, I ended up developing an ever-evolving template of warm-ups that I would rotate and match to the first 15- to 30-minutes of the practice plan. For example, if the start of practice was going to be ripe with sprinting, the I would choose the plan to match. On the other hand, if practice was starting with quite a bit of hitting (volleyball) where I knew the shoulder needed to be totally warm and ready, then that would inform my warm-up choice.

http://youtu.be/IfJi8KLhtlg

This video is just showing the team warming up... keep that in mind while you watch the power + the height the guys are getting on the ball off one bounce. What's the warm-up look like before this part of the warm-up??? I bet it's a pretty good one.

Anything is an option: body resistance only, bands, medicine balls, actual sporting equipment (i.e. a baseball), weights, etc... Shoot, you can even use a sled/Prowler to do a fantastic total body warm-up that fully addresses the shoulders.

So, when planning a warm-up (or your own set of templated warm-ups) make sure you are addressing all the primary movers and in all directions - planes of motion - plus weaving in extra prehab that may not occur in the weight room and copious amounts of shoulder friendly mobilizations, stabilizations, and drills.