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Performance Training for Youth: When Should it Begin? Two of the most important questions a parent can ask are:
The National Strength and Conditioning Association’s official position stance states that a “properly designed and supervised program is safe for children.” It also states that if properly designed and supervised, these programs can reduce the risk of injury, improve performance, and will improve general health.
However, the key to all of this is: does your child participate in a properly designed and supervised program?
Only degreed and certified professionals should be working with your children when it comes to stressing the body. You wouldn’t want someone operating on your knee to repair an ACL injury just because that person cuts the turkey at Thanksgiving would you? Being qualified to write and implement programs takes many hours of academic training as well as many more hours of practical experience under professionals to fulfill requirements just to prepare to be credentialed.
Proper training programs are developed and refined over time and are based on research and results. When you are looking for someone to work with your child, there are several questions that should be answered:
As a parent, you deserve to be satisfied with these answers and more if you are going to trust anyone with your child’s health and well being. Once you are satisfied with those answers, there are many things that can be done at a very early age to help develop proper motor patterns.
However, the most important thing to pay attention to is the developmental age of your child. If they are physically capable of learning new gross motor tasks quickly, which usually occurs somewhere around the ages of 6-8, they are probably old enough to participate in an age appropriate program.
Train hard, play harder!
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