Strength training can be extremely beneficial for young athletes, but training goals should reflect the athlete's developmental stage.
Parents are often hesitant or even apprehensive about having a young teen, or even a younger kid, begin strength training.
Pre-pubescent athletes shouldn’t train as if they were just smaller adults. Watch Will discuss the topic here on instagram.
Before puberty, young athletes don’t have the same physiological potential to build muscle tissue as older adolescents or adults. They can absolutely get stronger, but much of the strength improvement at this age comes from neural adaptations rather than large increases in muscle mass. Because of that, the priority shouldn’t be on maximizing hypertrophy. The priority should be teaching athletes how to move, helping them understand different positions, and developing coordination, motor control, and kinesthetic awareness. Training at a young age is about teaching them to control their body.
Before worrying about how much weight an athlete can squat, deadlift, or press, they need to understand the movements. Can they control their body through a full range of motion? Can they maintain appropriate positions? Can they create tension where they are supposed to create tension? Can they recognize when they are out of position and make an adjustment? Strength training at that age is just as much of a skill as it is about training the tissue. And just like any other athletic skill, they improve through practice.
This is where eccentrics and isometrics can be particularly valuable.
Eccentric training emphasizes controlling the lowering or lengthening portion of a movement. Instead of simply performing a squat, for example, a young athlete might take three to five seconds to descend before standing back up. That additional time gives the athlete an opportunity to experience the movement firsthand. They have to control their bodies, maintain their positions, and coordinate their movements instead of simply rushing through them.
Isometrics provide a similar opportunity. Pausing and holding a position allows the athlete to feel what it means to create muscular tension and maintain a specific joint position. Instead of repeatedly moving through a position they don't fully understand, they get an opportunity to stop, create tension, and learn what that position is supposed to feel like.
Neither method is complicated. Tempo squats, paused push-ups, split-squat holds, eccentric pull-ups, and similar variations can all be incorporated into a young athlete's normal training.
The goal of pre-pubescent strength training shouldn't be to see how much muscle we can put on an athlete or how quickly we can increase the weight on the bar. They don’t have the physiological environment to support that yet. The goal is to develop coordination, motor control, balance, kinesthetic awareness, and an understanding of fundamental movement patterns. Teach them how to squat, hinge, push, pull, brace, jump, and land. Teach them how to create tension. Teach them what good positions feel like. Give them enough reps that these movements become increasingly natural.
Strength training during this stage is an opportunity to build the movement foundation that future strength and power will be built upon. If young athletes master these skills before puberty, they'll be in a much better position to take advantage of their increased potential to develop muscle mass, strength, and power as they mature.