Youth Strength and Development

Sport and activity requires youth to move in a variety of movement patterns, while using various fundamental locomotion methods such as jogging, skipping, sliding, and running. “Playing is their Sport”, and in this day & age, they do not do enough of it. These fundamental motor patterns have different stages of maturation in the young athlete, and must be taught at a young age to allow for adequate development and skill acquisition.

It is essential in working with young athletes that we properly teach these fundamental movement patterns so that they become natural and fluent as athletes. Interestingly, one of the later motor patterns to mature is skipping. Young children typically begin to develop a mature skipping pattern at the age of 4, but it could take up to the age of 6-7 to fully mature.

Youth athletes must focus on “movement precision” before speed, so that “perfect practice” becomes the foundation for “perfect performance.” The tendency is to race through drills with little regard for strong execution, therefore, athletes must be taught to contain their competitive instincts initially until the motor pattern is well programmed.

Program Focus:

Our YSD program will build functional strength through a neuromuscular training philosophy, based on training movement, and creating healthy fundamental motor patterns (running/skipping/sliding). YSD is about building athletic movement, linked system strength, power, transitional balance, coordination, mind-muscle integration and sequential muscle firing from the inside out.