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Healthy Youth Sports

The Impact of Adolescent Development on Fitness and Conditioning Age and Stage

Nov 22, 2023
Rick Howard, an Assistant Professor and Sports Performance Coordinator, discusses the impact of adolescent development on fitness and conditioning in youth sports. Topics include strength training, variety in conditioning activities, energy systems, tailored training for different age groups, and the benefits of strength and conditioning for children and adolescents.
35:28

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

  • Strength training for youth athletes should focus on improving motor patterns and overall performance, while providing age-appropriate conditioning activities that target speed, agility, and different movement types.
  • Recognizing growth spurts in children is crucial for tailoring training methods, and incorporating strength and conditioning activities during growth spurts can bring various benefits, including improvements in cardiovascular fitness, muscle endurance, and body composition.

Deep dives

Importance of Fitness and Conditioning for Adolescents

Fitness and conditioning play a crucial role in youth sports but are often overlooked. It is important to consider the relationship between muscle strengthening and motor skill development, as they go hand in hand. Strength training for kids is safe as long as heavy weights are avoided. Strength training helps improve motor patterns and overall performance. Many coaches focus primarily on conditioning, such as running and long-distance efforts, but this limited approach does not address the varied fitness needs of young athletes. It is important to provide age-appropriate conditioning activities that focus on speed, agility, and different types of movements. Inadequate fitness and conditioning can lead to either overtraining or undertraining in youth sports, so finding the right balance is crucial.

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