Young Athletes

I tend to find two types of “kids” coming to me these days. One is not doing much in the way of exercise, and sometimes even movement. For the most part, this is an easy fix. You get them moving … you get them enjoying the moving … and you get them seeing the benefits and they do the rest.

The other group is young “athletes”. These are kids involved in EVERYTHING! If they don’t participate in every sport or activity possible, then they have already specialized. They are a “volleyball” or “soccer” or “baseball” athletes. Some of the trends I am seeing are no off-season, over focus on skill development, over-trained, and over scheduled. These are mini-stressed out individuals!

The problem here is more complicated. They tend to believe that this is the ONLY way that they can succeed. If they aren’t going at 100 m.p.h., then they are going to be left behind. When I tell them about “backing off” their training and using a model of periodization for their training, they look at me like I have more than one head. After all, according to one of them , “if we aren’t doing it 100% one hundred percent of the time, we’re not really doing it!”

I was reminded of this the other day when I saw this short clip - Over Worked Child Athletes & Young Pros – byPaul Chek at the National Strength and Conditioning Association’s Annual Convention.

As a parent, I cringe at what fate awaits them. Burnout … injury … resentment?! If you are a parent reading this, I encourage to take a hard look at your son’s or daughter routine and ask the question, “is he/she going too hard?” If the answer is even close to yes, I suggest you look to slow then down. It will allow them time to grow, recover, and really develop into the athlete that they can be!

It would be great to hear your feedback on this. Some that I have talked to about this, absolutely disagree with me. So how do you feel? Is this the “necessary path to greatness” or the “road to ruin”?