Young Athletes Strength and Conditioning

Traditionally Strength & Conditioning for Young Athletes was stymied because of concerns about injury or the potential for negative impacts on growth. However over the last 25 years extensive research has been conducted in this area and the overwhelming consensus is that children (6-12) and youths (13-18) benefit greatly in performing resistance training exercises, and that a well supervised and planned training program poses a lower risk of injury to the child than participating in sport.  In addition, a well run program poses no risk to a child’s bone growth, in fact the opposite may be true in that the stress of resistance training actually stimulates bone growth. Strength gains of approximately 1% per week are reported in Strength and Conditioning programs for youths.

If your child is striving to become an elite athlete then a well balanced Strength and Conditioning program that also focuses on Injury Prevention should be an essential part of their training program. The benefits for young athletes are listed below:

• reduced injury occurrance
• improvement in muscular strength
• improvement in power production
• improved running speed
• improved change of direction speed / agility
• improved coordination and general motor performance
• improved sport performace

FAQ

What age can my child start?

According to the Australian Association of Strength and Conditioning the youngest age of child starting resistance training is 6 years old. The main practical limitation being the maturity of the child to follow instructions,  and understand basic safety considerations around the equipment.

Will my child be lifting heavy weights?

The short answer is No. There are clear guidelines around the relative intensity of strength exercises for specific age groups and the ability of a youth to execute exercises with correct technique. Training commences with fundamental movements and progresses gradually with the correct execution of technique and the maturation of the youth.

How do I get my child started?

Each participant must attend a Young Athlete Initial Assessment. During the Young Athlete Initial Assessment we will discuss your child’s sporting goals, training history, injury and medical history and undertake some baseline physical assessment tasks. The specific physical assessment tasks will be relevant to the youth sports focus. Based on this we will formulate a training program for your child.

How do you know the program works?

The Young Athlete will generally be the first person to notice the improvements in their abilities. Each of the sessions are supervised and training results recorded so that progress can be tracked. In addition we periodically reassess the baseline physical assessment tasks in order to ensure that their training improvements are translating into performance improvements.

Are your trainers qualified?

The programs are designed and supervised by an Accredited Exercise Physiologist who is an expert in developing resistance training programs for all ages and abilities, and has a specific interest in sports conditioning.

Session Types and Fees

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