HOWARD (NBC 26) — For today’s athletes, the hunger to win starts early. But how soon is too soon? In the latest edition of Youth Sports: Beyond the Score, NBC 26 examines when adolescent athletes should start strength and speed training.
“We’re seeing specialization in sports much earlier and we’re seeing kids engage in activities at a younger age,” said Alex Tassoul, chief operating officer at ETS Performance. “It really creates a demand for (strength and speed) training because most people do it, so if you want to keep up, you almost have to.”
ETS Performance – an athletic training facility with locations throughout the Midwest, including the Tassoula facility in Howard – works with athletes of all ages.
“There is no real age to start,” said Tassoul, a graduate of Southern Door High School. “To be honest, I had some advanced seven-year-olds join me.”
Tassoul runs a class called Speed Plus, which is designed for athletes aged 8-11. This is a “core program” that focuses less on strength training and more on things like movement efficiency and running form.
“They already play organized sports, right?” Tassoul said. “So learning how to move properly and use their body correctly will help them hopefully avoid injury in the long run, but also just help them become better at their individual sport.”
Studies like this one from the Mayo Clinic say that children can start strength and speed training around the age of seven or eight.
However, it is significant for athletes in this age group to develop slowly.
“Do not confuse strength training with weightlifting, bodybuilding or powerlifting,” writes the Mayo Clinic. “Trying to build large muscles can place undue stress on young muscles, tendons and areas of cartilage that have not yet turned into bone, called growth plates.”
The Mayo Clinic further states that for children, “light weights and controlled body movements are best.”
What to pay attention to in adolescent athletes during training
In addition to the physical side, Tassoul adds that children around the age of eight are mentally ready to start training.
“We found that eight-year-olds have the ability to pay attention first and foremost,” he said. “That’s the first thing we really analyze. Can the athlete concentrate on 45-minute classes? Is he able to get the most out of the program?”
Well, there’s a generation gap involved. Athletes start taking sports more seriously at a younger age, and their parents take notice.
“I think a lot of us would like to start a lot earlier,” said Melinda Danforth, an Oneida mother.
Danforth recently enrolled her eight-year-old son, Wahalu, in the Speed Plus class at ETS Performance.
“Getting him involved in cardio training was important to us because it helped us build his character,” Danforth said. “To help him develop speed and be able to keep up with other kids his age.”
Danforth adds that the social element of the training classes is significant to her and her family.
“We all come from different corners of this community and it’s really amazing the diversity you can demonstrate, see other athletes, see their performance and understand how their body works,” she said. “It’s really important.”
Tassoul, who has a decade of training experience, agrees. He said the benefits off the field can be just as valuable.
“They just focus on building a solid foundation,” he said. “But also building character, learning hard work and discipline. We hope our athletes take these things with them for life.”
Tassoul said ETS’s Speed Plus classes provide a good base for adolescent athletes before strength training picks up around age 12.
He also added that the ECJ recommends adolescent athletes practice multiple sports rather than specialize in one and that parents should be on the lookout for “overuse injuries,” saying that if a adolescent athlete experiences pain, he or she is “overexaggerating it.”
