Training Young Athletes requires understanding the importance of external factors. A post By Brian Grasso.
My life and schedule still isn’t completely back to normal yet.
After traveling to and from Australia last week, I find myself jet-lagged and tired to this day.
I got to Melbourne on Friday morning (local time), presented seminars on Saturday and Sunday, had two days of rest and relaxation in a nice town called St. Kilda, and then traveled back State side on Wednesday.
Ever since I’ve been home, my sleeping schedule has been completely unpredictable and my energy levels come and go throughout the day.
From a training perspective, this past week would be considered an ‘unloading time’ for me – and I’ve organized a workout schedule that matches the way my body has been feeling.
I’ve been active everyday, but have been very intuitive about what intensity I should be training at.
Short, crisp training sessions that include minimal loading, limited rest time between sets and exercise coupling have been the ideal ingredient for me to keep my energy levels in check as best as possible.
This routine has also been imperative in making sure that my body hasn’t gone into any sort of over-training state.
And that’s been critical.
Now, consider that fact when it comes to training young athletes.
How often do you sincerely check how their lives OUTSIDE of sports and training have been going over the past few weeks?
- How have they been sleeping?
- What has their food intake been like?
- Have they been stressed emotionally?
These factors must be considered when deciding what kind of training intensity is required in a given session, week or month.
And it is one of the single most important factors in
training young athletes and progressing a young athlete properly.
In Complete Athlete Development, I explain my 4-month
protocol for keeping young athletes ascending and
improving.
Here it is in recap –
Month 1: High Skill/Low Intensity
Month 2: Moderate Skill/Moderate Intensity
Month 3: Low Skill/High Intensity
Month 4: Moderate Skill/Low Intensity
This 4-month progression takes into consideration
the need to evolve a young athletes’ skill in addition
to rotating the intensity at which they are working
from month to month.
It is an absolute fact that nothing in life can
ascend in a linear fashion.
There are peaks and valley’s in everything we do and
your training system must reflect that in order to
keep progressing and avoid any undo stress on the body.
It’s not about constantly training young athletes hard.
It’s about having a training system that accounts for
the natural highs and lows that life presents.
This 4-month system has changed everything for me in
terms of keeping my young athletes progressing.
And it’s something I absolutely guarantee will change
the success rate of your athletes as well.
Take a look at Complete Athlete Development and see
how this 4-month system can work for your training
sessions and practice schedules:
http://www.developingathletics.com/cad-short-copy.html
‘Till next time,
Brian