How to train as a youth athlete

If you want a child to grow into a football player or a doctor, a business owner or even a doctor you would think the best way to help them is to make everything they do be focused on that one thing.

However, one of the best ways to help your child develop in sports is to let them play as many as possible while they are still growing.

The reason for this is that some sports will have more dominant skills than others. 

Tennis develops great lateral movement and hand-eye coordination.

Gymnastics creates core strength and body control.

Basketball involves more jumping and shorter and faster sprints.

These skills, while not heavily relied upon in football, may give your child an edge over their opponent when playing. It may also give them the skills, physically and mentally, to cope with different situations in football as they appear.

As a youth athlete it is better to generalise then to specialise.

As a general athlete you can still train physical skills that a child will use in most sports and in life.

The ability to run fast, be agile, develop strength and more all through strength and conditioning. 

Most people think that children are too young to train for strength but the risk of injury is less when lifting weights in the gym compared to running around at high speeds in most sports.

Strength and conditioning is a way to develop physical strength and ability in children as young as 7. That doesn’t mean they’ll be going as heavy as possible. It does mean that they’ll be learning to develop the physical skills and abilities that when they do progress in their chosen sport they’ll be at a higher level and have an advantage over their competition.

Give your child the best chance in football and sport by developing their all-round physical ability and exposing them to as many different sports whilst they’re growing up.

If you want help on developing your child physically through specialised youth strength and conditioning training reply to this email or visit the website.

From coach Tom