Advancing Physical Development Through the Growth and Maturation Puzzle
The opinion that strength training is dangerous for children has slowly shifted over the last decade or so and it is now broadly accepted as a suitable form of exercise that improves bone health, cognitive and motor function, and builds confidence. It is now common to see strength and conditioning coaches being hired in the high-school setting, sports academies, and the private sector. However, the coaches moving into those spaces are usually starting out in the strength and conditioning industry and have not yet been taught the nuance of working with youth athletes. What is not yet accepted by the world of strength and conditioning is that youth athletic develop is its own respective subject separate from the world of performance. Professional athletes have a comprehensive physical profile, a stable training schedule, and injury history to guide decision making relating to training load and programming. Whereas, youth athletes have limited training background, a chaotic schedule, and are navigating the difficulties of maturation. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate why youth athletes require specialised strength and conditioning provision as well share solutions to some of the obstacles youth athlete must manage.
Youth athletes have specific training requirements at various stages of the pubertal growth spurt. Peak height velocity (PHV) is a period where children experience an increase in rate of standing height, this will happen to females at ~11-years-old and males at ~13-years old. When an athlete is pre-PHV it commonly viewed by the inexperienced coach that attempts to promote physical adaptations are futile. While the development of physical change is limited at this stage there are a whole host of opportunities to advance physical change through detailed training prescription. Early to late childhood offers an opportunity to develop and diversify skills as increased plasticity of the brain accelerates the learning process (Hensch, 2004). This stage should be dedicated to learning and upgrading motor patterns such as squatting, hinging, pushing, pulling, and bracing. This is not to say that these skills cannot be learned at a later stage of the growth, however, if this time frame could be leveraged to learn the key movement competencies this will reserve time post puberty to focus on maximising physical development. Now, what changes can be expected in relation to resistance training at this stage of maturation? Research observing the effects of strength training in youth athletes have seen significant neural changes in force production and rate of force development when compared to their untrained counterparts (Myers et al., 2017). The neurological changes were accredited to increased activity of high threshold motor units. While structural adaptation pre-PHV are limited, there were noticeable change in trained youths who had been consistent with resistance training for more than 20 weeks. Structural changes include augmentation of muscle volume, muscle length, and tendon thickness. It is through this physical adaptation during childhood that we can set the athlete up to maximise training prescription appropriate for a more mature physical structure.
During the onset of PHV practitioners can provide specialised training provision to target decline in the athlete’s physical capacity and movement literacy. PHV is better known as the “growth spurt” and its impact varies from person-to-person. However, it is normal to see temporary reductions in joint range of motion, movement skills quality, and performance (Storm et al., 2018). It is normal to see these changes because tendon and muscle are being stretched across an elongated bone which causes them to be less flexible. Reduced range of motion of the hips and thoracic spine impacts fine motor skills such as kicking and throwing which can impact performance across a variety of sports. Mobility training should be implemented during this point of the maturation cycle as it will aid in restoration of joint range of motion. A combination of proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) loaded end range stretching, and dynamic mobility have shown to be effective in restoring range of motion. These modalities can be performed prior to strength training so that gross motor skills such as squatting or hinging can be executed with greater range of motion which in turn maintains movement skill quality. Once the youth athlete has progressed to post-PHV, they have grown within centimetres of their predicted adult height, and they are almost a fully formed adult. It is during post-PHV that athletes have been shown to be more sensitive to strength training (Peitz et al., 2018). This sensitivity to strength training shows up in the significant improvements made in strength, jump and speed testing compared to their less mature counterparts. Post-PHV is recognised among youth athletic development experts as the prime opportunity to advance physical capacity. Therefore, it must be identified early using growth and maturation monitoring tools. Additionally, the athlete must possess sufficient range of motion to ensure key exercises such as squats and deadlifts can be executed competently. The challenges of the “growth spurt” can be navigated by the support of practitioners using growth and maturation monitoring tools and the appropriate training prescription. It is through correctly applying these tools that will not only allow youth athletes to survive the changes that occur through maturation but excel into a better place physically because of them.
Youth athletes require expert leadership to navigate training load during physical maturation. It is an oversimplification that all maturing athletes are at equal risk of a growth-related injury, as previously mentioned the growth spurt is something that effects all children differently whether they are growing faster or slower than their peers. However, what most parents, players, and practitioners do not realise is that just because a player growing significantly faster than their peer (>7.2cm) does not necessarily mean that they are going to get injured. In fact, it is the continuity of a stressful training load combined with the rate of growth that causes the increased risk of injury. Due to the changes in length to the feet, lower limbs, and torso, the tendon-muscle unit that is responsible for creating motion is coping with significantly more stress. Additionally, with a substantial increase in joint length the brain will take time to account for the additional joint inertia and mass which can affect movement mechanics across gross and fine motor skills (Williams et al., 2021). To reduce the risk of injury during accelerated growth, on-field training load can be reduced by up to half. This reduction in training volume will reduce stress being places on the common areas of growth-related injury such as the heel, knee, hip, and spine. Remaining active during this is essential as aid in restoring key movement skills and maintain fitness levels. Additional training that targets balance, coordination, and strength is when maintaining skills and improving movement capacity.
There is a paradigm shift required by the strength and conditioning community to recognise youth athletic develop as its own respective area of the performance domain. There is a common saying in the industry that says, “youth athletes are not mini adults.” Youth athletes are a completely different demographic that require solutions for uniquely complex problems. The purpose of this paper was to share some of those uniquely complex problems and share some of the solutions that help guide the athlete through those obstacles and put them in a better position to advance their physical development.
Citations
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Hensch, T. K. (2004). Critical period regulation. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 27(1), 549–579. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.neuro.27.070203.144327
Laube, C., van den Bos, W., & Fandakova, Y. (2020). The relationship between pubertal hormones and brain plasticity: Implications for cognitive training in adolescence. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 42, 100753. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2020.100753
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Peitz, M., Behringer, M., & Granacher, U. (2018). A systematic review on the effects of resistance and plyometric training on physical fitness in youth- what do comparative studies tell us? PLOS ONE, 13(10). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0205525
Storm, J. M., Wolman, R., Bakker, E. W., & Wyon, M. A. (2018). The relationship between range of motion and injuries in adolescent dancers and Sportspersons: A systematic review. Frontiers in Psychology, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00287
Williams, M. D., Ramirez-Campillo, R., Chaabene, H., & Moran, J. (2021). Neuromuscular training and motor control in youth athletes: A meta-analysis. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 128(5), 1975–1997. https://doi.org/10.1177/00315125211029006
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