There may be people associated with young athletes that will find this article interesting.
Ideas for Young Talented Athletes
There are many very young (9-13yrs old) extremely talented
athletes out there. Some of them like Australia's Georgie Clarke can make great
progressions at an early age. 800m age 11 2:12 age 12 2:08 age 13 2:05 age 14
2:02 ....age 16 Olympic Semi Final in 1500m . In the early years she was on
a very minimal and varied program and still performed brilliantly.
You
only have to watch any young Athletics Championships. Some of them are showing
talent because they are simply early maturers or they have already done plenty
of specific training. BUT there are some that are showing the necessary
qualities required to really do something big and have done very little specific
training.
The Question is what do we do with this latter group of
super talented athletes?
The answer to this question is often full of
distractions most of them seeded in jealousy and rivalry. eg. Accusations of
athletes being trained too hard are common.Even when the athlete is a good
variety in training. We have to recognize that many other sports start
their preparation much younger than Athletics.
If we want athletes with
good qualities as adults our young athletes need good preparation. Siting down
all day watching TV or at school ,wearing shoes all day , only exercising in
competition and not having a variety of experiences of the positive effects of
exercise are just some of the obstacles we face. In African Nations the children
do alot of variety of activities as part of their lifestyle that gve them
strength and conditioning. If we want our athletes in any sport to have a
chance we have to provide them with variety when they are young or we will have
to play catch up later to keep our athletes healthy.
These super
potential young athletes need a broad base of training stimuli. They need
coaches that are willing to arrange it for them. Not Coaches that will focus
ONLY on the areas that give good results fast. Adrian Faccioni and Di Barnes
presented some great information at the 2001 Australian Track & Field
Coaches Congress.
http://www.faccioni.com/lectures/juniorcondition.PDF
Athletes
at this stage of development should have great variety in their
programs.
What follows are some examples and ideas:
Swiss
Ball - training sessions - great for mid-torso development and
balance.eg 20min session maybe 1-2 a week, follow videos or do a
class.
Pilates - do a floor class or follow a video -
similar to above. Maybe even integrate some of these exercises into a
warmup phase of a session. -maybe 1 a week
Gym - Train
with free weights only and avoid max weight lifts. It is important for young
athletes to develop strength. However, good guidance and supervision is needed.
Variety in the program is needed. Start with a small duration sessions - maybe
just 1 a week.
Steady Running - run on grass, dirt
and mixed uneven terrain at varied speeds, make it fun. Kenyan athletes who are
in their 30s in many cases are athletes that were playing on their farms
(strength training) and play running 100+ km a week to get tho school on uneven
terrain from age 6. The trick is NOT to structure it and have young
athletes pound out the steady continuos runs at an even pace on even terrain
(road) or on a track!!. If we got Kenyan youngsters to do this they would not
last long either. There is no reason why our young athletes cannot do
regular play like runs of 30min on uneven surfaces combined with walking or long
all day bushwalks etc. Make it as natural as possible - search out trails and
stay off paths and roads.
Bushwalks - a great way to
build base stamina and strengthen legs. A very natural exercise mode. There are
some great ones in any National Park.
Other Sports - Participation in avariety of other sports is good for all round developm both physically and psychologically. We just need to make sure that in whatever other sport they play that the training and competition should be very varied and appropriate. Many other sports are years behind athletics in using methods that are the best in training for running.
Athletes that prepare for Athletics following the general
philosophy presented here will be prepared brilliantly for other sports that may
play or later specialize in.
Medicine
Ball - med ball exercises can be performed that are good for everything
from balance, strength, power etc. Maybe even help our athletes not get
knockedover as easily. Be creative. (www.faccioni.com has some great medball
exercise ideas
also)
Foot/ankle/lower
leg conditioning - walking on toes, walking on heels , wals on
soft sand, foot strengthening eg roll up a towl, pickup pencils
etc.
Plyometrics - bouncing exercises of varied
intensity in different directions. Maybe over obstacles or up onto obstacles. Do
standing Long Jump tests. Play hopscotch.Ease into it gently and design other
fun games to play. Whatever athletes are used to doing will generally not be a
problem.
Competition - DO NOT overcompete. Young
athletes should enjoy the process of all aspects of this sport. It is common to
see under prepared athletes (that are supposedly being looked after)
overcompeting by going in multiple races a few times a week. Athletes
cannot work on technique when under pressure. Competing alot may be fun but is
the quickest way to create future problems.When athletes do compete compete in a
variety of settings against athletes of varied ages and levels, and in different
events. Spending all day at track meets or Gala daysis not everyones idea of fun
so try to spend quality time at the track. Not hours waiting for the next
event.
Speed improvement - this is an important age for
the development of speed. To not work on it now may mean missing the boat.
Increasing cadence and improving co-ordination are very
important.
Technical improvement- This is paramount to
longevity. Young athletes must spend enough time each week improving their
technique. The common way to compromize this development is to compete too much
(no athlete will be able to change an old technique during max effort
situations) or do too much of one type of training eg focusing only on aerobic
development.
There are many talented athletes that fail to make it or
develop chronic injuries that prevent them reaching their full potential. I
believe that with these athletes we can maximize their chances of avoiding
problems by providing them with a varied program and ALWAYS focusing on
improving technically and being patient. Never let one type of training dominate
the others. When the athletes are mature then it may be more appropriate to let
certain kinds of training dominate the program ESPECIALLY if as a young athlete
they were exposed to a few years of multi lateral training and now have
excellent posture/technique etc.
In the meantime athletes that train with variety will likely meet success off relatively small volumes of training in every area and show good performance improvements anyway.
The best way to judge a program is that the athlete should
improve steadily technically. There may be hickups as the athlete has a growth
spurt for example BUT generally the athlete sould be improving technically
throughout their foundation years.
"Saving kids for later" by
getting them to do next to nothing in a low key program is a myth that will
never produce talented athletes that are resilient as
adults.
regards
Steve Bennett
www.oztrack.com
