Kids and training: When is the right age to start?

Every parent strives to give their child the competitive edge right? Well, we at least like to think that they do. The short answer to the above question is any age. Start as young as you please as long as you are taking the right approach to their training. Growth and maturation in pediatric populations is variable, which means that their physical performance will perform in a variable matter as well. It's not as simple as looking at chronological age and assuming a child can or can't perform certain movements/ functions. In reality you should consider 3 different ages for children when it comes to training: chronological age, biological age, and training age. Of these 3 ages the two most important are the biological and training age. Two kids that are the same chronological age can vary as much as 4-5 years in biological age. That's why some kids at the same age may look drastically more talented. In some cases it's not so much talent as it is nervous system development and cerebral maturation. That's the genetic factor/ growth and maturation factor that can't be controlled as much as we (parents) wish it could be. However, what we can focus on and control is the training age aspect. Regardless of age, all individuals should be able to demonstrate fundamental movement patterns before advancing to any type of load. As training age progresses and kids can successfully demonstrate proper technique then they can obviously begin to progress with load and more difficult movements. Growth spurts can slow things down when a child's body is growing faster than their neuromuscular control can keep up though. This leads to phases of awkwardness in athletes and present times to slow things down and go back to the fundamental movements to help the athlete adjust to their growing body. As biological and training age progresses so does structure and movement complexity. More focus can be placed on sport specific skills with training age whereas when an athlete is younger things are low structure and coaches can incorporate games that emphasize fundamental movement patterns.

Let's talk about different focuses for youth and what the evidence points to: Developing strength- there is no wrong time to incorporate resistance training as long as it is prescribed responsibly. Development of strength will always aid in an athlete's development overall. Developing speed- speed is also a trainable attribute at any age. Sprints, agility drills, and plyometrics are all great developmental tools for youth as long as they are also prescribed responsibly.

Developing endurance- endurance is something that developing you should not focus on until older ages or until they have developed the muscular strength to support prolonged activity. Increased injury rates have actually been displayed in endurance training for pre-pubescent athletes.

Developing flexibility- kids are made of rubber right? In all seriousness, flexibility is something that can be trained in you athletes typically starting around the age of 6. You can typically follow the same guidelines applied to any age with prescription.

Hopefully this is a helpful article for any parent looking to start their children out early or at any point along the age spectrum We have included some useful charts as provided by the Strength and Conditioning Journal. This is from "The Youth Physical Development Model" by Lloyd and Oliver.