Pioneer Valley Youth Sports and Fitness Institute

the source for sound athletic advice

Creating the Long-term Athlete

Athletic development is like educational development. We go to school for many years to develop our minds with knowledge to comprehend the world around us. Athletic development is much the same way. Yes, we can jump higher, run faster, and be a little stronger after a 6 or 8-week program, however, being in a hurry will increase the potential for non-contact injuries and not allow the athlete to progress over a continuum. My opinion is the athletes’ greater tendency to participate in functional skill activities (sport or position specific skills and movement) without having developed appropriate movement and performance skill which in turn, allows the athlete to continually progress as an athlete and better utilize the sport-specific skills necessary.

Today, parents, athletes and coaches are placing greater emphasis on sport achievement. More athletes are participating in one sport year round versus the multiple sport athletes of years ago. In part, the competition at the various levels of competition is greater, thus skills need to be in par with the competition. This is one of the reasons there are an increase in non-contact injuries. When multi-directional athletes participate in multiple games and practices with multiple teams in a season (i.e., high school team and AAU team) movements are continuously replicated, muscles become stiff without, movements become compensated thus leading to excessive wear and tear on the body which can create overuse injuries.

With young athletes quality of motion often surrenders to quantity of motion. Hips that become tight will reduce sprinting stride length and force the lumbar spine to do mobility (combination of muscle flexibility, joint range of motion and freedom of movement within a body segment) work for the hips. Because of this, poor body mechanics occur in turn reducing an athlete’s agility and ability to decelerate.

Athletes who become sound with functional movement create a balance or symmetry between left and right side of the body and eliminate weak links in the kinetic chain. They become free of restrictions and imbalances and allow the body to move with greater efficiency thus increase performance and decrease injuries. When athletes are then exposed to a proper, systematic, progressive workout program that is appropriate for there biological age, improvements in movement performance can occur. As movement performance improves the athlete’s ability to develop greater functional skill increases allowing for athletes to have greater sport achievement in addition to the overall increased health achievement.

To discuss resistance training and health/fitness programs please contact Len Haggerty at len@strideshpi.net.  Len Haggerty, MA, CSCS, YFS –Level 1 is a Sports Performance Coach operating STRIDES Human Performance Institute in Northampton MA. They provide an experience for youths, athletes, and adults of all ages and abilities to discover their potential.