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Building a world-class athlete is not an easy task. It takes years of hard work, practice, and to be honest, luck. But when speaking of World-class athletes, it truly is predetermined by Genetics and “God-given gifts”. This being said, there are numerous ways to maximize the abilities of young athletes to enable success even at the highest levels.
Advances in the Strength and Conditioning community have led to today’s athletes being bigger, stronger and faster than any of the athletes that have come before them. The NY Mets have an entire staff throwing in the upper 90’s; high school players in all four major sports are vying to go directly to the pros and high school weight rooms are starting to look identical to college gyms. Though these advances have done wonders for the field, we continue to look for the hidden secrets to unlock optimal athletic development.
Molding potential is an art form that parents, coaches and teachers have been participating in for years and quite frankly it is difficult to master. Being able to develop a child from a young age through high school is a monumental task. The reason being is that in the field of athletics there are three main major areas of focus. These areas include Motor Development, Maximizing Physical Potential and development of Mental Toughness, all of which are shaped throughout the child’s life through experiences and teaching.
Motor development in simple terms is the ability for an individual to control one’s body be that in fine or gross movements. To develop new motor programs, early and frequent exposure is a must. However, where most have turned to early specialization in sports, the belief should be more on early focus in generic movements that can be applied to a multitude of situations. Thus developing a well-rounded and capable athlete.
Fundamental movement patterns, squatting, lunging, pushing, pulling, throwing, kicking and gait, are the building block to all skill-based movements. Though many sports utilize a number of these patterns; no sport will include them all. Just as Nutritionists combine specific foods to allow for optimal nutritional coupling; multiple sports should be utilized during the child’s developmental period to ensure repetitive exposure to all of these patterns.
While sports gain all of the notoriety; an often forgotten aspect of Motor Development is Creative Play. Creative play is just that…play. As enrollment in town and travel leagues throughout the year continue to grow, many neglect exploration of the outdoors. When watching the stadium tours for the NHL this past year, it was amazing to see how many young hockey players have never played hockey outdoors, organized or not. When a child goes outside to run, jump, climb trees or even play a sport; they are independently developing their neuromuscular system. Their bodies are free to move and explore patterns not necessary utilized in an organized sporting event. Their bodies evolve to respond to these instantaneous stresses and performance continues. No coach or player instruction necessary.
By pushing their own bodies to the limit and utilizing the intrinsic feedback of the neuromuscular system, the child can and will accelerate their own athletic growth at rates that are not seen when they are “Between the Lines.” This is different from structured sports because of the addition of coaches, drills and predetermined goals. This makes most of the learning extrinsic in nature and when compared to intrinsic, research shows that our intrinsic systems are more powerful. This being said it is vital that the child utilizes both feedback systems in hopes for the development of authentic movement.
I hope this information has made you think more about how you can improve the development of our young athletes. Look for Part Two of this series when we discuss Maximizing Physical Potential. For further information on training, recovery, health or performance, contact the Integrated Sports Performance team with questions or concerns.