The mission statement for the Youth S&C Programme at MD Performance & Therapy is to help young athletes and kids achieve success in their sporting endeavours and to set them up for lifelong engagement with physical activity and exercise. This is achieved by providing high-quality supervised training sessions in a controlled and non-threatening environment, in a manner that’s novel, challenging and fun!

The programme focuses on building key physical attributes including:

Strength: upper body, lower body and core

Speed: acceleration, deceleration and top speed including running mechanics

Power: plyometrics, jumping and landing, med ball throws

Change of direction and agility

Fundamental movement skills

Coordination and balance

Mobility and flexibility

Most importantly, a well-rounded S&C programme focusing on the above key physical attributes has been demonstrated to reduce injury risk amongst teens and adolescents.

We are currently accepting enrolment for kids aged between 11-17 years. However if you feel this class will be suitable for your child, or have any queries about the programme in general please get in contact and we would be happy to discuss.

Despite being provided with the greatest intentions at heart, there are still many young, energetic and enthusiastic kids deterred from engaging in strength & conditioning training, instead advised by concerned parents, teachers and coaches that it is “too dangerous” for them.

It is worth taking the time to address some of these common myths and misconceptions that still exist around the topic of strength training, whilst also highlighting the many benefits for young boys and girls that can be achieved by engaging in a formal S&C programme:

Myths:

Myth #1: “Weight training is too dangerous for kids”

There is no evidence to suggest that strength training is too dangerous for kids, whilst multiple studies have demonstrated that with the right supervision it is safe, healthy and beneficial (Behringer et al. 2010; Faigenbaum and Myer 2013).

There is also a strong argument to be made for the fact that given the ever-increasing physicality of sports even at the youth level, that perhaps it is even more critical to prepare young boys and girls to be robust and resilient to the knocks, bumps, twists and turns that will inevitably come their way in both sport and life in general!

Myth #2: “Weight training will stunt their growth”

This myth can be traced back to studies in the 1970’s in Japan that found that children who were forced into child labour tended to be shorter than other kids.

Unfortunately today this has translated in some circles as “no child should ever lift weights”, despite numerous studies highlighting that strength training does not negatively impact a child’s growth (Malina 2006; Barbieri and Zaccagni 2013).

Myth #3: “Weights will make kids too muscular and slow”

As we will discuss further below, when appropriately programmed kids will often become faster as their strength levels improve! Quite often kids will also become stronger without getting any bigger, which can be attributed to changes in the nervous system as it gets faster and better at sending messages to the muscle.

Myth #4: “Kids should only do bodyweight exercises”

This argument may be applicable and correct in certain instances. For example it is a good rule of thumb to learn how to squat or deadlift safely and effectively with bodyweight or low weight, before progressing to more challenging weights. However there are many instances where the opposite may be true. Take a comparison of two upper body pressing exercises: the pushup and the bench press. The conventional dogma of ‘bodyweight only before weights’ may argue that the pushup is a safer exercise for a youth than the pushup, however studies have demonstrated that a pushup from the floor is the equivalent of pushing a barbell weighing 60% of the young athlete’s bodyweight (Ebben 2011). Taking a young 13-year-old child weighing 50kg for example, this would be the equivalent of performing a bench press with 30kg when performing a pushup. In this case, it would be much more appropriate and safer for this child to perform a dumbbell bench press with 2 x 5kg dumbbells, before eventually progressing to the pushup.

Benefits:

Benefit #1: Improved performance

It is well established that a structured S&C programme can improve physical qualities that cannot be optimally enhance by kids simply playing their sport, including but not limited to strength, speed, power, agility jump performance, lean body mass, bone health and fundamental movement skills.

Benefit #2: Decreased risk of injury

Although it is of course important to note that of course not all injuries can be prevented, a seminal study by Laurensen et al. (2018) found that strength training programmes reduced sports injuries by an average of 66%! Many other studies looking specifically at adolescents have found similar results highlighting the protective nature of strength training for kids (Zouite et al. 2016; Zwolski et al. 2017).

A good way to think about this idea can be demonstrated by using Greg Lehman’s stress-cup analogy, which essentially highlights that pain and injury is the balance between all the things that can fill up our cup (which for a young athlete might come in the form of a collision, a wobbly playing surface, an awkward landing, or any amount of things), and the size of our cup. Unfortunately we can’t avoid a lot of the things that fill up our up, but what can we do? Rather than trying to concentrate on the things that can fill our cup, what if we try and build a bigger cup instead? That way we can build up this kids’ robustness and resiliency to tolerate these inevitable stressors that he or she is going to encounter on the playing field or in life in general.

Benefit #3: Self-esteem and confidence

A structured S&C programme provides a safe, controlled and non-threatening environment for young boys and girls to grow and develop at their own pace both physically and psychosocially, in a manner that’s novel, challenging and fun, setting them up for a lifelong engagement with physical activity and exercises.

As expertly put by Ryan Horn, Director of Sports Performance at Wake Forest University: “The weight room is special because it only rewards those that work. It values tenacity over talent. It doesn’t care about stars or playing time. It’s a sanctuary where athletes aren’t subject to scrutiny from the outside world. The weight room is an equal opportunity equalizer.”