The Importance of Training Young Athletes — Beyond Team Practice

Youth sports focus on developing specific skills like cradling, passing, and shooting in lacrosse. While this is extremely important to an athlete’s development in the sport, overall youth physical development needs to be addressed for athletes to guard against injury and excel at their sport.

This is why we work with athletes age seven and up to develop fundamental movement patterns and basic fitness. We start by developing athleticism through bodyweight movements, unilateral work and light resistance. Once athletes demonstrate command of basic skills and have good movement form, we incorporate more resistance and intensity into the program.

Some movements we work on are push ups; pull ups; core strength and stability; sprinting mechanics (deceleration/acceleration); lunges (hip dominant); squats (knee dominant) and plyometrics.

Kids leave our sessions feeling confident in their athletic abilities and with skills that translate to increased strength and explosiveness on the field, court or ice.

Mastering these skills at a young age not only sets kids up for athletic success, but it also encourages a lifetime of movement and health.

We make athletic development fun and engaging. We don’t use negative reinforcement or believe in using physical activity as punishment. I never responded well to coaches who yelled, screamed and punished me with running or push ups. It’s not right to put that kind of pressure on kids. Negative coaching takes the fun out of the activity and could lead to kids quitting their sport or avoiding physical activity in the future.

I’d rather challenge my athletes to push and motivate themselves. By encouraging motivation through self-improvement and goal setting, we help our young athletes advance their physical development and improve their athletic skills in a constructive way.

Through this approach our athletes set themselves up for progress and success in sports; it also puts them on the road to developing positive physical and psychological health throughout their lives.

If your athlete could benefit from a boost in confidence and improved athleticism, let’s get them started!