The ABCs of Athletic Development – Training the U14 Athlete: Hands-On

In the second of this two part series, this article will discuss program design with an emphasis on integrating lower limb plyometric training into soccer training to enhance power actions, as well as, consider high school athletes’ biological characteristics and long-term athletic development (LTAD).

Learn how to coach various weight room exercises and understand the differences of “intention” between the various levels of football. In this session from the NSCA’s 2017 Coaches Conference, Pete Bommarito dives into the details of building strength in the weight room for youth and early high school football players, how to maximize all aspects of speed-strength and power by heavy variable loading, and advanced techniques at the elite and professional levels.

Growth and maturation are two important processes that occur throughout an individual’s childhood and adolescent years. The purpose of this article is to review the dimensions, proportions, stature, body mass, and maturational events of all female pediatric athletes in general. It also serves to identify how early sport specialization and different modes of training of the female pediatric athlete affects her growth and maturation.

Early sport specialization is often characterized by intensive training and is becoming increasingly common. Adolescent female athletes who train excessively and adopt poor diets are at risk of the female athlete triad, overuse injury, mental health issues, and overtraining.

The purpose of this article is to highlight the 22 fundamental motor skills and offer practical suggestions for implementing fundamental motor skill training into an activity plan.

As the second of a three part series, this article will focus on the Practitioner Pillars of LTAD, including relevant monitoring and assessment tools, as well as systematical progressions and individualized training programs for successful long-term physical development.

This book excerpt from Developing Agility and Quickness describes the windows of opportunity in youth athletes to time progressions in speed and agility training with their biological and chronological development.

Once strength and conditioning coaches have a better understanding of some of the differences between coaching and training philosophy, they can build their coaching philosophy and ensure it is a combination of both the “why” and “how.”

This article describes the long-term athletic development programming pillars and suggests practical applications for strength and conditioning practitioners.