Director of Strength and Conditioning (Jimmy Pritchard) for Ski & Snowboard Club Vail discusses the considerations and process of preparing youth athletes for elite sport.

1. Preparing the
youth athlete
for elite sports
performance
Jimmy Pritchard CSCS, USAW, XPS

2. Background
BSc in Exercise Science from Colorado Mesa University
MSc in Exercise Science (Strength & Conditioning) Edith
Cowan University (2020)
With SSCV since 2017 and currently serving as Director of
Strength & Conditioning

3. Acknowledgments
Coaching staff (Dan Linsacum, Mark Ryan, and Ryan
Swope) of CMU
John (JC) Cole, and Mike Benedict
Tom Buzbee (PGA)

4. Considerations
What is the cumulative stress
that a youth athlete
encounters through training,
competition, and daily living?
How does training youth
from adults?
What is the training age of the
athlete versus the biological
age?
Early sport specialization and
injury risks

5. Cumulative Stress
”Stress is Stress, no matter the form”

6. Unique Stressors
”A potential mechanism for non-
functional overreaching is the
additional stress placed on the
youth athlete through external
sources such as schoolwork,
relationship stresses, and pressure
from parents/ coaches along side
the fatigue derived from sports
training.” (Scantlebury et al. 2017)

7. Look beyond your impact, survey the
10,000 foot view

8. Monitoring
Load
becomes
difficult when
athletes
participate in
multiple
sports or
levels within a
sport

9. Some athletes may never have structured time off,
attempting to adopt an elite athlete model while
not recovering like one is a recipe for disaster!!!

10. Youth versus Adult

11. Youth athlete vs. Adult athlete
Youth
-Emphasis on coordination
and integrative
neuromuscular training
-Movement competency
-Maximal strength, aerobic
capacity, etc. haven’t
reached full potential
-Developing habits
Adult
-May handle higher
training loads
-Continue
coordination, but more
specific to sport
-Potential to maximize
physiological qualities
Both
-Progressive overload
-Injury reduction
-Increased efficiency
-Higher work capacity

12. Training age vs biological age

13. Training age
and biological
age
 How young is too young to start training?
 Never too young to start coordination
training!
 ”Just like reading and writing, physical
activity is a learned behavior that is
influenced by family friends, teachers
and coaches.” (Faigenbaum, Meadows
2017)
 Aim to increase training age in relation
to biological age.
 Do not limit nor progress an athlete
based on biological age, consider the
physiology but meet the athlete where
they are at.

14. Early Sport Specialization
Single sport specialization
not the answer, nor is the
addition of an extra sport
without a bit of subtraction
from the primary.
Attention must be given to
offseason training, new
stimuli, and recovery
Free Play and variability
Mental burnout is real

15. What the research
says:
 Three observations for German national
athletes in all Olympic sports (N = 1558)
have implications for specialization.
Successful athletes participated in more
than one sport either before or parallel to
their current sport (juniors 2.2 ± 1.4; top-
level athletes 2.4 ± 1.6). Approximately 64%
of international finalists and 53% of less-
successful top athletes participated in other
sports. And internationally successful
athletes continued training in other sports
to a later age (27). By inference, specialized
training in the primary sport began later.

16. Injury Risks
HIGHER RISK FOR
SINGLE SPORT
ATHLETES. (MYER ET
AL. 2015)
OVERUSE
IS EXTREME
ISSUE!

17. Elite at an early age, done right
• Continues to spend time
mountain biking, and partaking
in hobbies such as tennis and
soccer
• Structured time off of skiing
post-season with an emphasis
on S&C
• Monitors fatigue and
performance numbers derived
from force plate data collection.

18. What can we do?
We as
strength/performance/movement
coaches ought to provide the athlete
with everything they need for sport
and training, as well as everything
they aren’t getting.

19. Identify goals
Injury reduction Sports Performance Better overall athlete If you are not a sport
don’t attempt to be one!

20. The Approach
 Nick Winkelman: “Training athletes is like pulling
a racecar into a garage. I am not trying to
teach the driver how to race, rather, I am trying
to enhance the car and it’s components which I
hand back to him/her so that they have better
tools to perform.”

21. Huge Implications
We are molding these athletes often from a
fresh slate
Laying foundational movement patterns to be
ingrained for life, take your time and do it
right.
Understand the sport, what’s appropriate,
what’s essential. Do your needs analysis

22. Battle of the parents
Overzealous: wanting too much, too often, too advanced with their kids
Misinformed: still fear S&C as it “stunts growth” and hurts athletes
Understand how to educate, and teach about enhancing training age
from an early start

23. Our approach at SSCV
Meet the athlete where they’re at
Establish Movement screens & levels to programs
Spend time at practice and time with coaches to understand demands of the sport
(freeski and hiking)
Continuum for programming. What does our top tier elite athlete need in contrast to
U12 beginner?
Movement Skill Acquisition
•Movement session: Sprint mechanics, COD, plyos, gymnastics, etc. Not afraid to implement games of
other sports and do trail running, MTB, paddle boarding, etc.

24. Our approach at SSCV
Tailoring to the needs of
sport and
training/competition
loads
Empower the athlete to
take ownership of their
training and strive for
more.
Be the resource they
need

26. References
 Faigenbaum, A. D., & Meadors, L. (2017). A Coach's Dozen: An Update on Building Healthy, Strong, and Resilient Young Athletes. Strength & Conditioning
Journal, 39(2). Retrieved from https://journals.lww.com/nsca-scj/Fulltext/2017/04000/A_Coach_s_Dozen___An_Update_on_Building_Healthy,.5.aspx.
 Fort-Vanmeerhaeghe, A., Romero-Rodriguez, D., Lloyd, R. S., Kushner, A., & Myer, G. D. (2016). Integrative Neuromuscular Training in Youth Athletes. Part II:
Strategies to Prevent Injuries and Improve Performance. Strength & Conditioning Journal, 38(4). Retrieved from https://journals.lww.com/nsca-
scj/Fulltext/2016/08000/Integrative_Neuromuscular_Training_in_Youth.2.aspx.
 Malina, R. M. (2010). Early Sport Specialization: Roots, Effectiveness, Risks. Current Sports Medicine Reports, 9(6), 364-371. Retrieved from
https://journals.lww.com/acsm-csmr/Fulltext/2010/11000/Early_Sport_Specialization__Roots,_Effectiveness,.14.aspx. doi:10.1249/JSR.0b013e3181fe3166
 Myer, G. D., Faigenbaum, A. D., Chu, D. A., Falkel, J., Ford, K. R., Best, T. M., & Hewett, T. E. (2011). Integrative training for children and adolescents: techniques
and practices for reducing sports-related injuries and enhancing athletic performance. The Physician and sportsmedicine, 39(1), 74-84.
 Myer, G. D., Jayanthi, N., Difiori, J. P., Faigenbaum, A. D., Kiefer, A. W., Logerstedt, D., & Micheli, L. J. (2015). Sport Specialization, Part I: Does Early Sports
Specialization Increase Negative Outcomes and Reduce the Opportunity for Success in Young Athletes? Sports health, 7(5), 437-442. Retrieved from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26502420
 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/PMC4547120/. doi:10.1177/1941738115598747
 Myer, G. D., Jayanthi, N., DiFiori, J. P., Faigenbaum, A. D., Kiefer, A. W., Logerstedt, D., & Micheli, L. J. (2016). Sports specialization, part II: alternative solutions
to early sport specialization in youth athletes. Sports health, 8(1), 65-73.
 Scantlebury, S., Till, K., Sawczuk, T., Phibbs, P., & Jones, B. (2018). Validity of Retrospective Session Rating of Perceived Exertion to Quantify Training Load in
youth Athletes. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 32(7). Retrieved from https://journals.lww.com/nsca-
jscr/Fulltext/2018/07000/Validity_of_Retrospective_Session_Rating_of.23.aspx.
 Sugimoto, D., Stracciolini, A., Dawkins, C., P. Meehan, W., & Micheli, L. (2017). Implications for Training in Youth: Is Specialization Benefiting Kids? (Vol. 39).
 Thorpe, R. T., Strudwick, A. J., Buchheit, M., Atkinson, G., Drust, B., & Gregson, W. (2016). Tracking morning fatigue status across in-season training weeks in
elite soccer players. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 11(7), 947-952.