What Parents Should Look for in a Youth Strength Program
Not all youth strength programs are the same. The quality of the coaching, programming, and training environment matters just as much as the exercises being performed.
Parents should look for a program that emphasizes development rather than simply making athletes tired.
Qualified Coaching and Active Instruction
Young athletes need more than someone standing in the weight room counting repetitions.
A good coach should actively teach movement, provide feedback, correct technique, and adjust exercises when necessary. Coaches should understand how training needs change based on an athlete's age, maturity, experience, and sport demands.
The goal should be to help athletes understand how to train, not simply tell them what exercises to perform.
A Focus on Movement Quality
Adding weight shouldn't be the first priority.
Athletes should demonstrate control and competency before exercises become heavier, faster, or more complex.
Good programs spend time developing fundamental movement skills such as squatting, hinging, pushing, pulling, jumping, landing, accelerating, and decelerating.
Once those foundations are established, resistance can progressively increase.
Individualization Within the Program
Two 14-year-old athletes may have completely different needs.
One may have years of training experience while another is entering a weight room for the first time. One may need more strength while another needs better coordination, landing ability, or movement control.
Even in a group environment, coaches should be able to modify exercises, resistance, and progressions based on the individual athlete.
Progressive Training
A good program should have a plan for progression.
Athletes shouldn't perform random workouts that change completely every session. Exercises may change over time, but there should be a reason behind those changes.
As athletes improve, the program should gradually increase demands through resistance, repetitions, speed, complexity, or exercise progression.
Training should build from week to week and month to month.
More Than Just Weightlifting
Strength is important, but young athletes need more than strength.
A comprehensive sports-performance program should incorporate appropriate amounts of:
- Strength training
- Sprinting and acceleration
- Jumping and landing
- Deceleration
- Change of direction
- Power development
- Single-leg training
- Trunk strength and control
The goal is to develop a well-rounded athlete rather than simply someone who is strong in the weight room.
Consideration of the Athlete's Sport Schedule
More training isn't always better.
A young athlete who practices five days per week and competes on weekends has very different recovery needs than an athlete who is currently in the offseason.
A quality program considers practices, games, tournaments, school demands, and other training when determining how much additional work an athlete needs.
Strength training should support sports participation, not compete with it.
Testing That Has a Purpose
Performance testing can be valuable when the information is actually used.
Movement assessments, strength testing, jump testing, speed testing, and other measures can help identify an athlete's strengths and areas for development. Repeating those assessments can then show whether training is producing the desired changes.
But testing shouldn't simply produce a page full of numbers.
The results should help guide the training program.
Ultimately, parents should be able to ask a coach a simple question:
“Why is my child doing this?”
A good youth strength coach should be able to provide a clear answer.
Every exercise doesn't need to look like the athlete's sport, but the overall program should have a purpose: developing the strength, movement skills, power, coordination, and physical capacity that help prepare the athlete for the demands of competition.
