In my last few
Blog posts I have tried to drive home the need for beginning all athletic development with the teaching of the
Fundamental Motor Skills (FMS) being the primary emphases during the ages of 2 and 8 years for boys and
2 and 7 years for girls.
One of the primary benefits of mastering FMS early in childhood is to
provide the fundamental building blocks of proper movement that will lead to
the injury risk reduction that results from lack of coordination, range of
motion, postural efficiency that result from inefficient movement
patterns.
One of the
problems with early specialization
is the development of overuse injuries that result from repetitive movements
involved in one specific sport. Good examples of these would be shoulder
injuries in Age Group swimmers, elbow and shoulder injuries in young tennis
players, baseball players (especially pitchers) and patellar tendonitis and
tracking problems with young volleyball players.
Decrease in
exposure to a variety of movement patterns because of early specialization is one of the major causes of overuse
injuries. In a 2007 study, Armstrong called the rapid rise in Adolescent sports
injuries “the silent epidemic”.
In addition to sports specialization by young athletes of 7-14 years of age,
there is also a growing problem with the rise in improper physical
training methods being employed to “give the extra advantage” in
strength and power that specific training can provide. Of course, this is also
a result of the rise in Personal Trainers and their need to increase their
clientele.
In the last 10 -15
years I have known a large number of parents who pay $6,000-8,00.00 / year for ELITE LEVEL SPORT CLUB dues and
travel expenses for their child/ children. Youth Specific Sport Clubs are
BIG BUSINESS with the coaches making their entire income from coaching these
clubs and providing “private coaching” to those deemed in need so as to make
the jump to the next level….whatever that is?
Personal Trainers
have also promoted the benefits of their training programs to make children
faster, stronger and more powerful to increase their sport performance levels.
The harm in all
this specialization from middle childhood to early adolescence is the
loss of critical FMS movement
education that provides the proper foundation for AMSC
education which, along with the properly guided training of the physical
qualities, (strength, power, speed, agility and mobility), will provide a
solid foundation for faster and more successful acquisition of specific sport
skills during the adolescent years.
In addition to the
FMS & AMSC (athletic motor skill competencies) skills listed in
the last Blog post, young athletes can use a variety of Training Methods that
best target the Physical Qualities (Strength/Power, Speed, Agility and
Flexibility/Mobility) that are
appropriate for ages 5-11 years.
Activities that
target these qualities include Body Weight Squat, Pull Ups, Push Ups, Plank
Exercises for the Core, “low” box jump, Body Weight Lunge and Split Squat and
then advance to use of Resistance Bands for Band Push Press, Band Squats, Band
Pulldowns, etc.
Practice of both FMS
& AMSC skills should continue with emphasis placed on advancing from FMS
to AMSC activities once a skill can be performed consistently at high
levels of performance. Even profession athletes have been given FMS and AMSC
activities to enhance their performance as many today are found to be lacking
in the fundamental movement skills and are the cause of their inability to
attain higher levels of sport performance.
In the next Blog I
will explain activities that are best suited to properly develop the Physical
Qualities of Speed, Agility, Mobility, Strength/Power and Flexibility for the developing
athlete.
Until then,
consider these wise statements regarding specialization and weight training for
middle childhood/ early adolescent athletes that lack FMS & AMSC
skills. I have taken these quotes from some of the best coaches in the world! Enjoy, Engage, Emote.
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“It’s no use
getting stronger if the movement precision isn’t there!” “Seriously, do you
want to load poor movement patterns with volume and intensity?” “It ain’t
development if all they do is play the sport. Coaches are responsible for ALL
the journey.” Every child is entitled to
a “movement vocabulary”. “The wider and deeper, the better.”-----Brendon
Chaplin
“Strength Training
is coordination training with appropriate resistance to handle bodyweight,
project an implement, move or resist movement of another body, resist gravity
and optimize ground reaction forces. IT BEGINS with development of coordination
in Foundational Movement Patterns (FMS).” “What is a functional strength
coach?” Are there dysfunctional strength coaches? How about just being an
Athletic Development coach? Simpler to build better athletes”.---Vern
Gambetta
“Beware of the myth of building a base…Always ask yourself- A base of what?”
“Static, mass-applied approaches to training often lead to injury, burnout,
and sub-optimal performances.”—Stuart McMillan
I WOULD HIGHLY
RECOMMEND READING THE STUDY BELOW!
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SPORT
TRAINING EMPHASIS BEFORE TEACHING MOVEMENT SKILLS;
RESISTANCE
TRAINING BEFORE POSTURAL INTEGRITY & RANGE OF MOTION ….. SETS UP POTENTIAL FOR CHRONIC INJURIES TO
YOUTH ATHLETES!!
A
study by: Haubenstricker and Seefeldt
The Growth
of Trainability : PASM (Pre-Adolescent Skill Movements)
At an early school age (approximately 6.5-9 years old ± 1 year),
the initial
preparation stage begins. This stage is the cornerstone in the pursuit
of PASM and is
characterized by the progressive development of motor skills
through a traditional multifaceted
motor preparedness and the creation of a functional groundwork for
specialized
perfecting of motor abilities. Its exclusive goal is to expose young
athletes to a wide
variety of physical fitness skills, thus
stimulating a healthy development and increasing
their functional capacities, motor abilities,
and knowledge base. Additionally, exposing
the pre-adolescent sportsman to a well-rounded curriculum negates
the effects of early
specialization and elevates their overall adaptation level.
For
example, an extensive range of calisthenics, exercises from many different
sports,
and children’s games are introduced at this stage. Particularly, preference is
given
to
the elementary movements that provide low neurological resistance, but serve a
foundational
role, such as running, jumping, climbing, tumbling, swimming, and
throwing.
The amount of sport-specific exercise is limited and constitutes only a 5-10%
of
the total training volume. Within this percentage, the objective is on
education and the
gradual
introduction of the sport specific basic fundamentals and techniques (24).
Harre,
from the former East Germany, conducted an experimental longitudinal
study,
while Nagorni, from the former USSR, carried out a descriptive longitudinal
survey
regarding youth developmental programs. Their results yielded similar,
significant
findings. Over a period of 14 years, Harre sampled a large population of
children,
from the ages of 9 to 12 years old, dividing them into two groups. The first
group
was exposed to the traditional North American, early specialization program.
While
the other group followed the general, multilateral approach and developed their
sport
specific traits simultaneously. The results, found in Table 1, conclude that a
multilateral
training regimen is superior in the early stages of development and promotes
a
strong, stable foundation for athletic success.
Table
1
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EARLY SPECIALIZATION MULTILATERAL PROGRAM
Performance improvements were immediate
Performance improvements were continuous
Best performances between 15-16 because of Best performances over 18 due to
physical and mental
early adaptation maturation
Performance inconsistencies within Performance consistencies within
competitions
· competitions
·By
18, many athletes quit or “burnout” After
18, many athletes were starting to “come into their own”
Forced
adaptation accounted for a Gradual adaptation accounted for a low rate of injuries
high rate of injuries
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Table
1. Comparison between Early Specialization and Multilateral Development
(15)(31).
The
authors Haubenstricker and Seefeldt state that, “…readiness to learn is unique to each individual,” and “Individuals are always in a state
of readiness to learn something
at any point during their lifespan. The challenge is to match an
individual’s readiness
with appropriate learning tasks (17).” In support of this view,
Filipowicz and Turowski,
determined that among children, physical qualities that determine
sport talent are poorly
differentiated, thus all athletic abilities highly correlate. As
the maturation process
begins, these abilities gradually diverge so there is a lesser
correlation among them. This
naturally occurring separation is similar to what occurs in the
initial preparation stage.
Initially, all abilities improve due to physical training and with
gradual adaptation over
time, the progress slows down and ultimately limits itself to the
specific exercises trained
(13). In other words, as the level of trainability increases, the
transference of physical
traits decreases resulting in specific adaptations (76).
Therefore, through the
incorporation of a multi-faceted physical education program, a
wide training effect is
realized. Prescribed exercises that are general in nature, but
specific in function, allow
improvements even though they are different than those of the
desired sport type. This
eliminates the hazards of repetitive stresses, early
specialization, and the potential losses
from focusing on short-term gains at the expense of long-term
goals.
In contrast, as the athlete matures and advances into PASM years,
the role of GPP
changes but the thought process “get fit to train before training
for competition” remains
the same. Gradually, the amounts of GPP exercises are reduced,
become more difficult,
and reflect the contents of the athlete’s specialty. Contents or
means, in this sense, do not
indicate sport-specific, but rather they are selected on the basis
of the changing needs of
the developing athlete (41). Medvedyev (28) describes the
exclusive role GPP plays in
the overall training regimen with the following three functions:
1. “the formation, strengthening or restoration of the habits
(skills), which play an
auxiliary, facilitatory role in sport perfectioning.”
2. “as a means of educating abilities, developed insufficiently by
the selected type of
sport, raising the general work capacity or preserving it.”
3. “as active rest, assisting the restoration processes after
significant, specific
loading and counteracting the monotony of the training.”
Essentially, these exercises consist of any means that elevates a
certain trait
developmentally required within the athlete, or characteristically
found within the sport
itself. This secures the multilateral development of physical
abilities, especially the
abilities neglected by sport-specific exercises (61).
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