This document summarizes a webinar on maximizing training adaptations for youth athletes. It discusses the importance of training load management to improve performance while minimizing injury risk. It provides tips for monitoring training loads, scheduling practice and games to allow for recovery, and ensuring nutrition, hydration, sleep and mobility sessions support training adaptations. The document stresses gradually increasing training loads when returning to play after breaks to reduce ceiling effects and injury risks.

1. Kildare GAA
Youth Athletic Development
Webinar Series
Paul Divilly Ciaran Sloan
Mick Gillick Dave O'Neill
Session 5: Maximising Training Adaptations.
Fri 19th June @ 7:00pm

2. Introduction
• What is training adaptation?
• Off Field Considerations
• Player Load Management
• Covid 19 Return to Play Considerations

3. Training Response

4. Right Stress
Demands of the game Targeted Adaptations Session Focus

5. Optimal Amount
Minimal Effective Dose

6. Right Time
Scheduling

7. Off Field
Considerations

8. Nutrition
• Quality nutrition provides the building blocks for:
• Performance
• Recovery
• Healthy body composition
• Goal should be to establish good eating habits at a
young age.
• What? - Balanced and varied diet of whole foods.
• How? – Educate, Encourage, Involve.
(Jeukendrup & Cronin, 2013: Purcell, 2013)

10. Hydration
• Important to maintain fluid balance to optimize
performance and reduce risk of injury.
• Dehydration impairs cognitive function.
• Dehydration stresses the cardiovascular system meaning
endurance
• Aim to consume 3-4L H2O throughout the day through
primarily still water.
• Young athletes tend to not drink until they're thirsty, make
water accessible.
(Jeukendrup & Cronin, 2011)

11. Importance of sleep
• Growth hormone released during
sleep, vital for physical tissue
repair.
• Perceptual and motor learning
processes continue into sleep.
• Athletes who sleep <8 hours per
night have 1.7 times greater risk of
injury than those who sleep ≥8
hours.
• When athletes sleep <7 hours,
decision making, reaction time and
memory recollection all
• Inflammation is reduced during
sleep, so when sleep quality is
poor, athletes can experience
symptoms of overtraining
(Le Meur, Skein & Duffield, 2013)

14. People
Before
Players!

16. 100 Point Recovery Checklist
(Sample Suitable for Youth Players)
> 8Hrs Sleep 50
Relax Recreation (Cinema) 25
15 Min Mobility Session 15
Post Training Recovery
Nutrition (Milk & Fruit)
15
Walk / Cycle 10
Foam Roll 5

17. Player Load Management

18. Importance of
Player Load
Management
(Malone et al. 2016)
Adequate workloads required to
improve athletic performance.
Acute increases & high workloads
increase risk of player fatigue, injury risk
and mental burnout
The prescription of appropriate training
loads requires careful consideration in
order to maximise the positive and
minimise negative effects of training.

20. Monitoring Your Players Without
GPS or Heart Rates Monitors
• Educate Our Players on How to Use a Rate of Perceived
Exertion.
• Ask players how they felt the session using the scale.
• Multiply their score by the length of session in minutes.
• E.g. Session lasts 80 minutes and players found it very
hard, 7 x 80 = 560 Arbitrary Units (AU), (Assists us in
monitoring and planning training Loads)
• Monitor for any unplanned spikes in AU scores
throughout your training blocks.
RPE Scale
1 Easy
2 Light
3 Moderate
4
5 Hard
6
7 Very Hard
8
9
10 Maximal

21. Team - Weekly Schedule
Match
Sub Principle
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Training
Match
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700
1 GAME WEEK
Match Match
Principle Training
Match
0
100
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600
700
2 GAME WEEK

22. SubPrinciples
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Player – 2 Teams Schedule

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25. Practical
Implications
Kildare GAA Fixture Review Committee –
Ongoing.
Training Schedule -
During condensed fixtures
schedule, reduce or suspend
training schedules.
Periodise year that training
development focus may
occur outside competition.
Multi-Sport vs Specialisation.
Player Centred:
Development vs Competition.

26. Multi-Sport
⬆️
Performance
⬇️ Injury
Risk

27. On Pitch Considerations.
How Much? How Fast? How
Soon

28. Returning to Competition

29. TheCeiling
TheFloor
TheFloor
TheCeiling
Time Time
The Floor
(Current
Capacity)
TIME
The
Ceiling
(Game
Demands)

30. How incorrectly plan your return to play
High Speed Running (m)
High Speed Running (m)
How to correctly plan your return to train

31. 5 Tips to make sure players are prepared for competition
(Gabbett, 2019)
Maintain training load throughout the off season
Increase the floor
Know the demands of your sport and design sessions that prepare players for the demands of their competition
Know the ceiling
Know your players, long injury history, poor training history, low levels of strength and fitness. All these issues will lead to an
increase in injury risk
Identify and prepare your players for the worstcase scenarios
Map out the appropriate time to get from the floor to the ceiling. Progressive, gradual, and systematic increases in training load
allows athletes to safely progress to the ceiling, reducing injury risk, improving availability, and enhancing performance.

32. References
• Figueiro, M. G., & Rea, M. S. (2012). Short-wavelength light enhances cortisol awakening response in sleep-restricted adolescents. International
journal of endocrinology, 2012.
• Jeukendrup, A., & Cronin, L. (2011). Nutrition and elite young athletes. In The Elite Young Athlete (Vol. 56, pp. 47-58). Karger Publishers.
• Purcell, L. K., Canadian Paediatric Society, & Paediatric Sports and Exercise Medicine Section. (2013). Sport nutrition for young
athletes. Paediatrics & child health, 18(4), 200-202.
• Skein, M., Duffield, R., Minett, G. M., Snape, A., & Murphy, A. (2013). The effect of overnight sleep deprivation after competitive rugby league
matches on postmatch physiological and perceptual recovery. International journal of sports physiology and performance, 8(5), 556-564.
• Gabbett., T. (2019). How Much? How Fast? How Soon? Three Simple Concepts for Progressing Training Loads to Minimize Injury Risk and
Enhance Performance. Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy, 15, 1-9. DOI: 10.2519/jospt.2020.9256.
• Malone, S., Roe, M., Doran, D., Gabett, T., & Collins., K.( 2016). Aerobic Fitness and Playing Experience Protect Against Spikes in Workload: The
Role of the Acute:Chronic Workload Ratio on Injury Risk in Elite Gaelic Football. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance.
12(3). DOI: 10.1123/ijspp.2016-0090