What's Ahead: Articles in the Queue for 2026
I left 2025 with A Day in the Life and The Year in Review.
With 2026 upon us, I want to share what I’ve been writing, thinking and/or working on.
In the coming year, this space will continue to explore the intersection of growth & maturation of young athletes, performance, and coaching practice. You should expect deeper dives into long-term athlete development, youth strength training, injury risk through a developmental lens, and the role of the hybrid coach in modern sport. This will hopefully expand your youth athletic development framework that helps you think more clearly and act more responsibly.
Here’s what’s in the queue:
Nurturing Healthy and Resilient Youth Athletes: An Audio Overview of the IOC Consensus
The Psycho-Social-Behavioral Aspects of Youth Development and Gen Z
Talent Identification and Recruiting of Young Athletes: A Collection & Short Course
Spring Training: Implementing USA Baseball’s Youth Development Plan
Injury Risk in Youth Baseball Pitchers
The Hybrid Coach: Integrating Sport Coaching and Physical Preparation
Microdosing Sports Nutrition for the Youth Athlete
Creating Movers and The Movement Wheel
Training Kids: Essentials of Program Design
Balancing Act: Training Balance & Coordination in Youth
A Parent’s Guide to Helping Your Teenager Navigate Sports
What is Training Load? A Guide for Youth Coaches and Parents
I also have a few academic and consulting projects that will likely find their way here. These include:
Survey on LTAD in the U.S. Participate here (must be U.S. practitioner)
Survey on Monitoring Growth and Maturation
Book chapter on “Athletic Development of Elite Youth Basketball Players”
Book chapter on “Growth, Maturation and Youth Athletic Development”
Continued development of a pitcher-specific testing and monitoring and hopefully branching out into youth baseball; potential site visits with pitching performance experts
A deep dive into lacrosse
Applied sport science projects for our graduate students including men’s and women’s basketball, female strength training, and jumping
Continued consulting with The Hill Academy
Developing a community-wide LTAD model
Thought piece on diversifying the movement portfolio (“filling all the buckets”) in the contemporary youth athlete
Most Importantly, What Interests You? Leave a Comment
… but I want to here from you. What other topics or formats are you interested in reading, listening or learning from? What ideas deserve more careful attention? And where does youth sport, training, and development need more clarity—and less noise?
Happy New Year, Joe. This looks good. As to 'movement' vocabulary: young people are physically illiterate. This is due to a complete collapse in physical education (in the UK, at least, but my colleagues say the same about the USA): too many p.e. 'teachers' come from sports science backgrounds. They can measure and organise competitions, but can't teach.
I have to start from scratch when keen young kids come to our club. Here's an example with the lateral lunge: https://youtu.be/ML69E4up85U?si=fzpR3sKwYyzvH6-g This could (should?) be a staple exercise in a well-run p.e. department, but if the teachers only know one way to lunge (forward), how can the kids learn?
I’m interested in nutrition for youth players