Should young athletes aged 13-16 be doing weight training at low level clubs?

Being brought up playing rugby, we had an ex marine as a coach and with his philosophy our aim as a team was to out-strength our opposition instead of beating them by having a better skill set. At the age of fourteen we were encouraged to lifts weights regularly and did a lot of conditioning during training. Due to the coaches, our parents and ourselves being ill informed about the science behind growth and maturation of an adolescent athlete, we didn’t know whether we were doing more harm to our body then good.

I’m not saying that young athletes shouldn’t be doing any conditioning as the benefits of exercise at a young age is good for our physical and mental health. However lifting heavy weights at a young age doesn’t seem to be the correct manor of getting adolescent athletes more fitter, faster and stronger.

A study published in the “Journal of Australian strength and conditioning showed teenage rugby players under sixteens and under eighteens in preseason were put under a resistance training programme throughout pre-season to make the players more stronger for the physical and professional development and injury prevention. The results showed for the under sixteens players actually showed average overall improvements in their bench, squat and pull-ups by 17%, 34% and 45% respectively. Overlooking this journal entry it seems that with under sixteen athletes actually had a positive impact with their strength performance throughout their pre season training, however all of this are based on small short term achievements. The were no long term assessments and the athletes were not under any mobility programmes set up for these athletes to help their recovery and prevent injuries.

An Article in the “Athletic Therapy Today” about resistance training for adolescent athletes and promoted the risk and concerns of weight training such as damaging the growth cartilage or epiphyseal plate which is caused by poor lifting technique or heavy overhead lifts. Another risk for adolescent athletes are the repetitive-use of soft tissue injuries which is again caused by heavy lifts and poor programming from training. Reviewing this article, Their are positives within weight training but with poor coaching from grassroots coaches with no experience with strength and conditioning coaching with a team i personally believe that the risk outweigh the potential positives for adolescent athlete to partake in weight training at low level sports clubs.

let me know your opinions about this subject.

Early Sport Specialization: is this good or bad for athletes?

In a generation where young athletes schedules are filled with a wide variety of sporting activities either at lunch time and after school clubs or within the local community. On the other end of the spectrum, there are coaches and parents all wanting their athlete or child to excel within an individual sport, especially with talent scouts across the globe looking for the potential world class athletes. The main decision for our coaches, parents and mainly our young athletes is it better to be a Unisport athlete or a Multisport athlete?

Most professional athletes, and virtually all world-class athletes, are proficient (good at) just the one sport; for example “Tiger Woods” is a professional golfer, not an all-round athlete. Unisport Talent is an athlete that only competes in the on sport and has taken their chosen sport to a high level, such as professional level.

The Positives of being a Unisport athletes is being dedicated to a certain specific skill set to the be developed over a long period of time to aim to be the best football, rugby, basketball player the athlete can possibly become. However the negative side affect of this one dimensional approach to be the best at one sport could be whats limiting the player from achieving more but based on their athletic profile, for example in an interview with England Rugby and Maro Itoje where he expressed how rugby was a sport that others used to play and how he used to play football basketball and athletics. That was until he went to secondary school where he was advised to give rugby a go and twelve years later he became a British and Irish Lions Players which is the biggest achievement in rugby for any British Rugby Player.

The Maro Itoje type of athletes is called a multisport athlete which is someone that can play just about any sport at the highest level. Many coaches believe such athletes should be encouraged to play as many sports as they can before finally deciding to specialize in one sport. Unfortunately, multisport athletes are becoming unheard of, due to the high standards and commitments needed nowadays to play at the top level of a certain sport. The Multisport athletes however can adopt certain physical attributes or skills in one sport and transfer them into another so for example a Centre in basketball could easily transfer into a second row in rugby based on physical attributes.

What is your Opinion? Should coaches or parents direct their own athlete or child into one sport or should they allow the athlete to explore every sport for the best outcome?