A Checklist For Designing Youth Strength And Conditioning Programs
Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to ‘coach the coaches’ and also learn from them. These coaches range from volunteer high school coaches with little educational background in strength and conditioning to well-educated and certified strength and conditioning coaches at the high school, collegiate and professional levels to academics teaching and researching in the vast field of kinesiology.
No matter one’s background or level of coaching, there are certain fundamental underpinnings to a well-designed, safe and effective strength and conditioning program, particularly at the middle school and high school level.
The 3 F’s: Philosophy, Facility and Flow
The first thing that I discuss when teaching strength and conditioning is the 3 F’s. Philosophy, Facility and Flow. These are critical to establishing an efficient strength & conditioning program. In a nutshell, the facility (equipment and layout) should match the philosophy of training and it should also allow for the safe and efficient flow of the room and training session, including the ability to coach and supervise the room.
In terms of training philosophy, it is my belief that young athletes should be trained in all facets of ‘athleticism’ and these athletic traits can be trained in an integrated manner. Athleticism has been defined as a composite set of traits that includes strength, power, speed, agility, balance, coordination, endurance and the ability to competently perform motor skills like throwing, catching, jumping, etc. In addition, strength and movement should be performed in all planes of movement (and in combinations) along with single limb (unilateral) and both limbs (bilateral). This idea is represented in the figures below adopted from Drs. Rhodri Lloyd and Jon Oliver from Cardiff Metropolitan University in Wales and James Baker, co-founder of the LTAD Network. Both provide an excellent overview of the key athletic attributes and movement competencies desired in most, if not all, athletes.
Based on the above which are also supported by the key tenets of the National Strength and Conditioning Association’s position paper on Youth Resistance Training, I have put together the following checklist for designing and conducting youth strength & conditioning programs.
Are you checking all the boxes?
Perfect, Joe. The design of training programs for the youth population becomes much clearer when we have leading scientific experts showing the way. The key principles should be applied without hesitation, and in my experience, there’s nothing better than well-structured training templates to support coaches during the early stages.