Youth Sports Training

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Practice and training are a big part of any youth sport. In fact, the amount of time kids spend training will dwarf the amount of time they spend in actual competition. This gives rise to all sorts of questions about sports training for children and teens: How much is too much? How should parents and coaches go about it? What’s the proper training approach to take with young athletes? The answer to these questions will vary depending on the particular child and the unique situation they’re in, but this information will provide some helpful guidelines to go by.

Intense youth sports training regimens
As the level of competition in youth sports has risen, so too has the tendency for parents and coaches to push kids (or for kids to push themselves0 into ever more intensive training regimens in an effort to excel at a particular sport. Young elite gymnasts may spend 4-6 hours a day at the gym after school, and elite little league players may spend 20 hours a week or more split between the ball park, batting cages and backyard practice. Dean Smith, a former pro soccer player who now directs a youth soccer program, says some kids maintain a competition and practice schedule that’s more intense than what English Premier League players endure, training for hours each night year round (Freedman, 2019)

Such intense training regimens are not without risk. Too much time spent in training – especially if it’s all spent training for a specific sport – raises the risk of body strain and repetitive stress injuries. It also raises the likelihood that kids will b_rn out and lose both joy and interest in a sport they used to love. On top of this there’s considerable evidence suggesting that such an intense focus on a single sport may not even be the best approach in terms of raising a child to the pinnacle of their sport.

Sports training for children & teens: how much is too much?
I hesitate to tell parents of elite young athletes that they have to cut back and forego their dreams if a training schedule seems too demanding. Yet there’s also a very legitimate risk of pushing kids too far. Here are some things parents and coaches should consider in trying to strike the right balance:

A) The truth is that children are different on a biological and anatomical level just as they have different personalities. So some kids can go full out without experiencing any problems, whereas others under similar training conditions will experience injuries. Understand that some elite gymnasts can train for many hours a day and reach the Olympics, whereas other promising elite gymnasts working the exact same schedule are forced into early retirement from their sport (i.e., quitting competition at age 15 or 16) because their body is developing stress fractures or other chronic conditions that risk more permanent problems if they continue. It’s impossible to know at the outset which category a child falls into. Just understand that both outcomes are possible.

B) Does a child like and enjoy it? Are they the ones eager to put in all the work? If so, you should probably let them pursue their passion. But if they are complaining about a demanding schedule or being pressured to train more by adults, that’s a far unhealthier situation.

C) Are they developing chronic aches and pains? Sore muscles and periodic aches and injuries are part of every sport. But if they seem to be developing nagging aches that don’t go away or chronic pains and injuries, that’s a sign you’re pushing their body beyond its limits. If you have to ice down your kid’s elbow every night after practice to keep it from swelling up like a cantaloupe, that’s a pretty good indication it’s time to cut back.

The importance of cross-training

Training exclusively and relentlessly in only one sport raises the likelihood that your child will burn out as well as the risk of respective injury. So parents and coaches could help the situation quite a bit just by encouraging kids to dabble in more than one sport. This helps ensure more whole-body development and cuts down on some of the strain from doing the same repetitive motions over and over again.

Cross-training can also provide more well-rounded skills that help your child in their preferred sport. “Diversifying athletic activities in childhood likely leads to better long-term performance in team sports,” says Charles A. Popkin, M.D., a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Columbia University Medical Center. (Freedman, 2019) Some of the best players in professional sports came from multi-sport backgrounds. Patrick Mahomes, considered by many to be the best quarterback in football, played both baseball and football competitively and also dabbled in other sports. Deion Sanders was a multi-sport prodigy who excelled at both football and baseball. So was John Elway. Encouraging kids to cross train is not only better for their bodies, it’s likely to help them in their preferred sport.

The different paths to elite and the proper attitude to take toward youth sports training
In his book Range, David Epstein gives a comparison between the childhoods of Tiger Woods and Roger Federer. Tiger Woods, as many people know, was raised with a golf club in his hand. You can find TV appearances he made as a toddler. Wood, of course, rose to the highest echelons of his sport.

Roger Federer had a very different childhood. Unlike Woods, who was locked into golf at a really young age, Federer wrestled, swam, skied and played soccer and basketball. His mother, although a tennis coach, refused to coach him, fearing it would be awkward. Yet Federer also rose to become one of the greatest ever in his sport.

Richard Williams, Venus and Serena William’s father (and also their coach), once pulled Venus from the circuit during a stunning and unprecedented youth winning streak because he didn’t want his daughter to burn out. (Gregory, 2021) Many thought he was nuts and said he was railroading his daughter’s developing career, but we all know how that turned out in the end.

There are also many professional sports players who didn’t take up their sport until later in their teens or even in college. They were generally athletic and turned pro after being introduced to a sport after just a couple of years.

What’s the lesson here? Despite what many parents think, a childhood sacrificed to living, eating, and breathing a particular sport is not a necessary prerequisite to success. Nor is it a guarantee of such, especially if adults are the ones pushing this regimen. For every Tiger Woods, there are thousands of others who either burn out, never make it to the top despite all their efforts, or suffer a career-disabling injury – often precisely because they’re going all out for a particular sport. So lighten up a little. The goal should be to have fun and get some exercise while becoming more skilled at a particular sport. If a child shows promise and they want to put in the effort and enjoy the process, great. But they are not earning a paycheck yet, and if you ever want them to be, it’s important to take a balanced approach.

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