By Jim Fanara, CSCS
The first principle of performance training for young athletes should be, “Does this exercise increase or decrease non-contact injury risk in their sport or during training?” Shortsighted training and coaching that raises non-contact injury risk can impact any athlete’s quality of life well after their playing days are over.
To help reduce non-contact injury risk, training programs for adolescent athletes should work toward reversing the damage caused by participating in sports, of training with misguided programs, making poor lifestyle choices and adapting to daily movement compromises.
Non-contact injuries are not only problems such as hamstring and ACL tears. Accumulated trauma caused by repeating sports motions with poor movement quality or years of playing a “one-side” dominant sport can cause non-contact injuries. So can misguided training. Lifting weights with improper technique, pushing weight training loads and volume beyond an athlete’s capacity and engaging in Olympic lift variations without informed coaching, are all examples of how training can cause non-contact injuries.
Sports, especially those with “one side” dominant movements like pitching, tennis or golf, create muscle imbalances that raise injury risk. Specializing in a “one-side” dominant sport at a young age is especially hard on joints since repetitions start adding up early in life. Check out high school baseball and MLB pitching injury statistics if you have any doubts.
It’s not just “one-side” dominant specialization that impacts development. Sport specialization at a young age can cause problems. A high school athlete who has only played offensive line, just swam competitively or only played soccer goalie since 6th grade is not engaging in the full range of movements offered by playing multiple sports. Without involvement in movement practices such as martial arts or dance, early specialization effects movement quality, raises injury risk and hinders athletic development.
Unfortunately, there is no longer much participation in unstructured sports for the average suburban child to offset the impact of a single sport approach. Unstructured sports with friends, like sandlot baseball, “two hand touch” football and school yard basketball, helps develop movement capacity and skills. No parents, trainers or coaches required!
Performance training programs that only focus on improving specific muscular components thought to contribute to sports movements further contribute to muscular imbalances. Such as the high school lineman whose program focuses on achieving heavier squats, bench presses and poorly executed Olympic lift variations.
Strength programs that offer more exercise variety but keep the sole focus on lifting more weight in lieu of working on proper movement patterns and lifting technique are no better. Does adding 25 lbs. to a 350lb squat really help the athleticism or reduce non-contact injury risk of a high school football player?
Sport practice is not movement practice. Hitting a tennis ball or playing baseball 2 hours a day, while being inactive for the rest of the day, does not improve overall movement quality. If movement patterns are poor, practice doesn’t make perfect it makes permanent.
An athlete’s training program that disregards poor posture and movement patterns caused by lifestyle choices and daily movement compromises is shortsighted. Relatively inactive lifestyles, too much sitting, poor breathing patterns, poor footwear choices and inconsistent sleep are examples of compromises that impact movement quality.
Training should work to improve and maintain the fundamental components of quality human movement patterns and reverse the damage caused by sports and misguided training programs. Training is not only about tomorrow’s performance. Most kids only play for a few years, taking the long term view toward a healthy future is the correct approach.