3 Common Mistakes When Coaching Youth Athletes

1.Too Much Variety:

Have you ever tried to get really good at something? What approach did you take? The most obvious route would be to practice that skill repeatedly to improve. Seems pretty simple, but for some reason, this concept seems to have been lost when it comes to training.

People think athletes will get bored doing the same thing over and over. We have found the opposite. Athletes enjoy workouts that are structured and simple. It allows them to see and measure progress easily, which increases confidence and technical proficiency. 

I have found that coaches get bored and want to add variety much faster than the athletes do. Athletes need to be able to produce force, reduce force, maintain posture and position, and move through space. This can be accomplished by performing a handful of exercises really well. 

Next, most youth athletes don’t have time to spend 2 hours in the weight room. Oftentimes in weights class at school or at a private facility sessions are one hour or less. Cramming 10+ exercises in that time frame is a good way to ensure they will all be done poorly and rushed. 

Focus on 3-4 exercises that yield the most bang for the buck. Allow full rest times and they will get much more out of it.

2. Being “sports specific” 

This could be a whole blog article all on it’s own, so I will try to keep it brief. Strength is general adaptation. There is no basketball strength, baseball strength, or football strength. Strength is used to enhance the ability to perform a variety of skills needed for sport. 

The goal of the weightroom is to allow the athletes to get stronger so they are able to perform their sport skill at a much higher level that they would be able to without the strength and power that is developed in training. 

Need to jump higher? - Get stronger 

Need to run faster? - Get stronger 

Need to change direction better? - Get stronger 

Need to prevent injury? - Get stronger

You are much better off training for strength, power, and speed in the weight room, and let the athletes train sport skill during practice time. 

3. Over conditioning

It is important to athletes to be in shape, but it is unrealistic to think athletes need to be game ready at all times. Conditioning is very different from strength. Strength takes years to develop where conditioning can be developed rather quickly. It is actually preferred for athletes to back off on conditioning in the off season. 

The problem with conditioning hard in the off season lies within the adaptations that need to be developed for athletes to perform better. It becomes more difficult to get a youth athlete stronger, more powerful, and faster if they are conditioning 3-4 days per week. Especially when they are probably already under eating and not sleeping enough. 

The further the athlete is from competition, the less conditioning needs to be done. Typically if an athlete is staying in adequate shape by strength training and performing sprint work they can be worked into “game” shape in 4-6 weeks. 

Once we are 4-6 weeks out from competition and conditioning starts to take place it should be reversed engineered to meet the demands of the athlete. Physiologically it does not make a whole lot of sense to have field and court sport athletes that are sprinting, resting, sprinting, resting, etc. to perform long distance running as conditioning. But unfortunately, we see this pretty frequently.

When it comes to training youth athletes remember simple is usually better, and less is usually more!

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