Strength and conditioning for youths and adolescents part 2 with Dr Jon Oliver

Youth athletes rapidly develop skills and fitness, and as training progresses they can face burnout, overtraining or injury, which may take months of recovery or result in abandoning their sport altogether. How can you design training programs, monitor training loads and the effects on youth athletes to reduce the risks of injury and overtraining?

Youths also face the challenge of varying maturity rates. Early developing youths may be physically faster and stronger than other athletes of a similar age, and more likely to be selected for teams and representative teams. Later developing youths may then miss out on opportunities for higher levels of training & game play. How can we help to level the playing field and ensure later developing athletes have equal opportunity to develop their abilities?

Strength & conditioning part 2 with Dr Jon Oliver will help you develop an appropriate S&C program for youths and adolescents while avoiding overtraining & injury. You will discover:

• How to design a fitness and training program for younger, less physically developed athletes
• Movement screening & athletic motor skill competencies
• How to improve young athlete movement patterns and competencies
• Potential risks youth athletes face during development
• How to adjust training during growth spurts
• What is the relationship between height velocity, skill and strength gains in youths?
• How sport and team selection is influenced by physical development & rates of maturation
• The relative age effect of being born at different points in the year - comparing relatively young athletes with older athletes
• How can we overcome the obstacles of late maturing or relatively younger athletes being able to compete in sport
• What are burnout, staleness, overreaching and overtraining?
• What effect does non-functional overreaching and overtraining have on youth athletes?
• What factors are related to staleness and overtraining?
• How can training be adjusted to avoid staleness?
• How prevalent is overreaching in youth athletes?
• What are the warning signs before youths reach a state of overtraining?
• What questions can you ask youths to identify non-functional overreaching?
• Physical and psychological symptoms of overtraining in youths
• How can you help athletes monitor their training load and response to avoid staleness, burnout and overtraining?
• Common growth and overuse injuries, including Sever’s and Osgood-Schlatter’s

This is Part 2 in a series of 3 online courses on S&C with Dr Jon Oliver. Part 1 took you through common myths around S&C in rehab of youth and adolescents, and how to help them become quick, strong, powerful and robust. Part 3 (available shortly) will provide you with exercises & programs you can use to comprehensively rehab your youth & adolescent patients and prepare them for sport.