What Doesn’t Belong in Youth Strength Training

2024-06-11 12:15:09
By
nick@showtimestrength.com
June 11, 2024
What Doesn’t Belong in Youth Strength Training

nick@showtimestrength.com

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June 11, 2024

I’ll never forget when I was 14 years old and my neighbor got the best Christmas gift ever. A weight set and a copy of Husker Power, the Nebraska football team’s strength training manual from when they won the National Championship. I had discovered the holy grail to all my problems at the time. I was sure to gain size, be faster, stronger, and ready to dominate in football. Sadly, those things never happened from that period of time. There was likely nothing wrong with the manual, it was written by someone much smarter than me. The problem was the situation it was being used. I was finishing up middle school and trying to prepare to survive the tales of high school football two a days. I wasn’t a Division 1 football player. The exercises were more advanced than I could handle neurologically, the work volume was much too dense for me, and I didn’t have guidance that even in basic movements I was performing them correctly. This was my first time understanding that a program might be right for one person and horribly wrong for someone else. Here are a few factors to consider when assessing a program effectiveness for someone, say your youth athlete. 

  • Physical Maturity- Where are they in their maturation process?
  • Emotional Maturity- Training is a stressor to the system, how much stress is the applicable dose?
  • Mental Maturity- Are they mature enough to safely use external loads in their training?

Let’s look at some things that shouldn’t be part of a youth strength training plan.

Advanced Methods

Advanced methods are open to interpretation, but two that are commonly misused would be the Olympic lifts and Accommodating Resistance (bands and chains). While these are both great tools to have in your tool box, they’re not optimal for someone right out of the gate. Yes, there are certain scenarios where someone very qualified to teach these things in a 1 on 1 setting etc., but we’ll consider that the exception and not the rule. Most youth need to develop coordination before being exposed to the O lifts. This is where running, jumping, landing, bounding etc. can all build a huge base to have a bigger benefit when the time comes to exposure to the advanced methods. 

Number Chasing

Not sure why this has to be said, but likely it could be the ego of the coach or parents wanting to push numbers. If our goal is athletic performance, which encompasses a global set of skills and abilities, then pushing a bench press max from 50 up to 55lbs really doesn’t matter. There will be a time for all good things to happen, but number chasing doesn’t fit into the goals of long term athletic development. The athletes and parents who agree to a slow cook process might not receive the accolades right away, but they tend to see bigger rewards later in the process when it really matters. 

Training to Failure

Arnold once said that he started to count reps each set once he wanted to quit. That idea works for a highly advanced bodybuilder, but not for a youth athlete that hasn’t established the coordination to train in a fatigued state. Younger athletes need to train a positive state meaning always end on a good rep, likely leaving one to reps in the tank. This does two things for the athlete. One it it teaches them to expect success with their strength training. Secondly, it helps ensure that we’re recruiting the correct muscles to perform the movements. Those two things compounded over a long period of time make a profound difference for an athlete’s development. 

Intimidation/Comparison/Belittling 

This might be at the top of my “NEVER EVER DO UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE” list. As previously mentioned with the advanced methods and max effort training, in a very rare and unique situation there might be an exception to the rule. For this one, there is zero tolerance. We’re here to build athletes for the long haul and part of that is building their confidence and mental health. All of us struggle with new tasks and need help and practice reps to get better. We don’t like it when people yell at us or call us names or make fun of us and our struggles. Imagine your boss gives you a role in a new department that you’ve never been in and the established members sit and make fun of you from the time you clock in until you leave. No on enjoys this. We have amazing powers to help when we offer encouragement to try and learn. We just need to use our words correctly to build the bridge to athletic success. 

These are some of the most common pitfalls of youth training we see. Training youth athletes can be an amazing gift, but if implemented incorrectly we can push someone off the path of trying to achieve success. How we frame our words has the ability to change a life. There are many people who enjoy the idea of working with youth athletes, but this doesn’t mean that they should work with youth athletes. 

Nick Showman

Showtime Strength & Performance

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