Train to Train | Males = 12 – 16; Females = 11-15
Boys and girls at stage are within the period before and after their growth spurt (PHV). At this stage, athletes need to continue their physical development by increased expose to power and strength qualities, while maintaining flexibility and work capacity.
Key Development Goals from Canadian Sport For Life:
- Make aerobic training a priority after the onset of PHV while maintaining or further developing levels of skill, speed, strength, and flexibility.
- Emphasize flexibility training given the rapid growth of bones, tendons, ligaments, and muscles.
- Consider the 2 windows of accelerated adaptation to strength training for females: the first occurs immediately after PHV and the second begins with the onset of menarche. For males, there is 1 window and it begins 12 to 18 months after PHV.
Note that both aerobic and strength trainability are dependent on the maturation levels of the athlete. For this reason, the timing of training emphasis differs depending on whether athletes are early, average, or late maturers.
- Learn to cope with the physical and mental challenges of competition.
- Introduce athletes with a disability to sport-specific equipment such as wheelchairs and athletic prostheses. For all athletes, the use of body-size and skill-level appropriate equipment remains important.
- Optimize training and competition ratios and follow a 60:40 per cent training to competition ratio. Too much competition wastes valuable training time and conversely, not enough inhibits the practice of technical/tactical and decision-making skills. Use talent identification to help athletes focus on 2 sports. Utilize single and double periodization as the optimal framework of preparation. Train athletes in daily competitive situations in the form of practice matches or competitive games and drills.
The Learn to Train and Training to Train stages are the most important stages of athletic preparation. During these stages, we make or break an athlete!
