As I had stated before, I wanted to write a post about training middle school athletes effectively for their LTAD (long term athletic development). There is a lot of literature on the subject and it is very controversial, especially when you consider that there is still a wave of non-productive efforts going into training our young athletes.
Brian Mackenzie does a great job of breaking down the phases of LTAD on his website. One of the hardest things for coaches and parents to understand is that the larger the general base of athletic fitness and skills, the easier it is for the athlete to excel. The middle school athlete would fall into the category of "learning to train" and "training to train", which would mean practice is still a fundamental process of development, but by this time many athletes have competed endlessly without regard to developing skills. The cycle of club sports (club sports are not bad, but the clubs that emphasize all competition and no development stunt athletic growth) which is basically a money grab (I've heard of parents spending thousands of dollars over the summer for travel baseball) keeps the athletes from excelling long term and by the end of high school they have not developed the necessary skills to compete on a higher level.
Now someone may ask the question, "why wouldn't competition be a great learning environment for an athlete?" Well, it is. For learning to compete. But you wouldn't expect your car mechanic to learn his skill when you show up, would you? So why would you expect an athlete to master a sport only in competition. And the reason is, you need to learn your sport, and your body needs to learn (through training) how to excel at the sport. Repetitions in practice give a child far more opportunity to learn how to hit a ball than 10-20 pitches in a game which are spread out over several at bats. Repetitions of shooting free throws is going to give an athlete far more confidence when it comes game time, rather than waiting for a few free throws in competition only. But as far as learning about how to overcome adversity and learn to work under pressure, the competition aspect is important and it is why we don't only practice.
So now that I've done ranting, how should athletic training be structured for middle school athletes? Well, I hope you didn't think I would spell out a specific formula because one doesn't exist. Each child is different and therefore a coach needs to evaluate strengths and weaknesses and adjust the training accordingly. But mostly we must remember that we need a broad base of training at the younger ages without large amounts of specific work. Body weight strength training should be started at this point and the focus should be on form and fundamentals. Aerobic capacity is still not fully able to be developed yet, but studies show it can still be a great starting point in training for future success. Also, I would suggest doing training and exercises that target the whole body, and keep the specific training for the older high school and college athletes especially.
And finally, a word of advice. Be wary of the coach or personal training who approaches coaching youth athletes the same as coaching adult athletes. Don't confuse that with coaches who expect a young athlete to be able to handle moderately intensive and extensive training, an athlete is still an athlete who needs to provide an adequate stimulus in training to improve. But when a coach wants an athlete to focus simply on one aspect (such as only pitching) and expects that athlete to compete at a high level several times a week, or week in week out without a break, you have to consider the motives of the coach.
To sum up, the middle schooler is still in major development, not just as an athlete, but as a human being. To expect a young person to to devote themselves to only one aspect of their training hurts the long term development, regardless of if that specific aspect is the defining characteristic of the athlete. Build a large base, work on coordination and strength, and you will set the middle school athlete up for long term success.
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