Hey Everyone!! I am a bit embarrassed to admit it has been over a month since I posted a blog, it feels like I’m in confession!!  In truth, I made a deliberate effort to disconnect for a few weeks on holiday and then I wanted to take my time to digest and reflect on the information at the UKSCA Conference I attended almost three weeks ago on August 5th/6th.   In this blog I will review the conference speakers that I enjoyed listening to the most and then talk about some of my ideas on how I am going to improve my S&C programmes.

I have to say I felt this was one of the best conferences in a while.  There was a nice blend of Academic research review, evidence based practice and coaching practicals.  I have attended almost every one from the beginning in 2005- and it is always nice to meet up with old friends and new ones.

I was particularly pleased for Chris Bishop being elected to the Board of Director’s who I have known for several years, as well as James Baker being awarded Youth S&C coach of the year- and it was great to meet many new acquaintances in person for the first time.

James Baker hosted a fantastic Child to Champion conference earlier in the year and I have enjoyed seeing the development of his Elite Performance Pathway at St. Peter’s R.C High School, Gloucester.  In many ways his training system at High School mirrors the APA training system I use in Tennis for our mini-tennis, junior academy and Pro Team squads.  His award was certainly well deserved and his work is mapping the way forward for other school based coaches.

Finally, I’d like to say how fun it was to meet some of the contributors to a Facebook page I am a member of ‘Youth Strength & Conditioning coaches’ and meet the likes of Rob Anderson, Nick Ward, Des Ryan, Simon Brundish, Howard Green,  Andy Bruce and many more.

Highlights of the Conference

Jeremy sheppard, Des Ryan and Loren Landow were my personal favourite presenters.  Here’s what I took away from some of their presentations.

Des Ryan- Arsenal FC Academy

I had the privilege to hear Des talk at the recent Child to Champion conference.  How could I put it? At the end of the presentation both there and at the UKSCA conference I had a strong urge to want to work for him.  He just came across as someone who understands both management and leadership.  In his 3-4 years there he has:

• Created a Team culture where coaches want to work there and players want to train there
• Reduced injuries in his teams to below the league average
• Created infrastructure to facilitate more individualised world class programmes by investing in staff and facilities.

Overall it was clear that Des was someone who wanted to invest in his team of coaches.  He reminded me of how valuable CPD is, done the right way, and I could see that he believed in his team and would support them in their decisions.  His does this by exposing them to world class coaches and then trusted them to use these experiences to come up with the Arsenal way, provided that they can support their rational and don’t make too many mistakes.

Loren Landow- Landow Performance

Loren gave us an energetic insight into how he coaches movement.  I was excited to hear him speak because a lot of his ideas spoke to my own philosophy.  He also echoed some of the points that Jay Dawes made in his practical ‘breakout session’ on Reactive Agility.  In the last few years I have questioned myself whether I have needed to do less technical coaching- use less coaching cues- use more chaos sooner etc but this restored my faith that first and foremost we need to learn the correct movement pattern.

• Loren put it out there that Tennis athletes are perhaps the best movers of all sports- certainly in the context of agility.  No complaints from me!
• He believes (like Jay) in building a movement competency base- before adding fitness and sport skill on top. Sure everyone (player and coach) wants a ball involved, or an opponent but sometimes they don’t have the movement skills to support the sport skills.
• Drill the movement skill first before adding chaos.  Bruce Lee quote

• We’re not talking about sports, we’re talking about laws of biomechanics: passive restraints (tendons/ligaments) are like the guard rails on a road.  We know they are there but it is the DRIVER who keeps us safe on the road- we shouldn’t need to rely on the passive structures to keep us safe.  We need to programme the neuromuscular system to perform movements akin to being able to drive with a degree of autonomy.
• Pronation is a good thing– it’s the body’s natural shock absorption.  The best athletes decelerate flat foot footed (promoting dorsi flexion) but the amortisation phase is very brief.  Too much eccentric pronation on the plant foot will create excessive torques!
• Whole-part-Whole coaching works best
• Technical model- Piston (acceleration) versus Acyclical (top speed)
• Programming- Linear day (high) versus Multi-directional (low) but if you want to emphasise high load eccentric work on the MD day then just do technique drills for the linear day to make that a low one.

Jeremy Sheppard- previously Surf Australia

• Look for patterns– think outside of the box to determine the most appropriate biomotor abilities and assessments that will give clues to what the best ‘surfers’ in the world can do physically.  Is your athletic profile sensitive enough to detect differences in performance between the elite and the sub-elite? Put another way, are there tests you use that the best in the world consistently do better than the sub-elite?  Jeremy said that he went with his gut instinct to help him make decisions about what to test.  He would eliminate tests that didn’t reveal anything significant and keep the ones that he thought showed promise.
• Reverse engineer sports performance– Jeremy shared with us some of his findings from analysing the surfers in training and competition on the water.  A ‘Needs Analysis’ is not a new concept but it was fascinating to learn more about surfing and see that for example, the best surfers consistently paddle at a higher speed.

What can we apply to Tennis?

So Jeremy got me thinking, what can I apply to my main sport of Tennis?  I talk about this in the first half of my latest Daz Dee TV Episode 14.

I am forever disappointed by the lack of available research on Professional Tennis.   I’m determined to uncover some physical parameters that discriminate between elite and sub-elite tennis players.    Yes we know that there appears to be no correlation between those players who score highest on an athletic profile (fitness test) and their ranking- meaning that the best athletes don’t seem to be the highest ranked players.

But there is hope that we can start to look for lessons from the competitive matches with the introduction of GPS and mechanical load monitoring which is a welcome addition to the physiological loading that has been available in Tennis for some time.

GPS in Tennis?

Rather than going into lots of details I am just going to post the Journal article here so you can read it.

Do Running Activities of Adolescent and Adult Tennis Players Differ During Play

I am really encouraged by this article because I had always assumed that GPS technology is inadequate for a sport like Tennis, where the maximal changes in velocity and direction over short distances are misinterpreted as low to moderate intensities because the attained velocities are not high.   I am going to try and find out more about what they did to overcome this but it seems they have cracked it!

This could be a break through in technology advancement that could enable practitioners to quantify the mechanical load more accurately and finally determine the physical demands of the sport.

Periodisation

I’ve written about Periodisation in several blogs before.  I am always refining my ideas and currently I tend to adopt two or three variations of cycles. Even though tapering/deloading wasn’t mentioned in any of the UKSCA conference presentations this is where my reflections took me!

At APA we talk about a preparation period which will be defined by the athlete’s training age and athletic profile.

Advanced athlete:

In an ideal world a more advanced athlete would complete a cycle with a focus on ‘General’ work and then progress into a cycle which has more ‘Specific’ work focus.  A general preparation cycle has more focus on strength.  A specific preparation cycle has more focus on power.  The more experience the athlete has the less time they spend on general work.

An optimal preparation phase would enable a build up to a peak over 12-15 weeks, this would include a taper period. In Tennis there will be usually only 3-5 weeks of progressive loading as part of a preparation cycle.

It is rare that I get more than 2-3 weeks of consistent training at base before it is interrupted by a tournament, so I usually have a week or so of more general work then go into several weeks of specific work which combines max strength, power and anaerobic conditioning. Some athletes I will use more ‘between session’ concurrent training- meaning I might do sessions with power and strength focus on different days.  Others will do more ‘within session’ concurrent training where the strength and power is in the same session.

I am still trying to see if I can get certain players to lift while at a tournament but this is not always practical or desired.

As Alex Natera said, ”I am concurrently working on the qualities that are important for the sport until it’s time to balance fitness-fatigue.” so the goal is to simply prioritise what they need and get on with it for as long as you have them but leave enough time so they leave you without being too tired!

Less experienced athlete:

Basic strength should be the main priority right up to competition in a weak, young or less trained athlete. Not a massive need to periodize and plan multiple phases of differential qualities in the weaker/less trained athlete.

Alex Natera says: ‘My preference would be to stay away from high reps of 15’s, 12’s and 10’s. I would prefer to transition them quickly to 5’s or 6’s and doing multiple sets at those reps. I would look at the speed of the lift and use a passive loading scheme (extensive loading and repeat cycles) to dictate when I increased loads. The development of power in this type of athlete will be looked after in getting them progressively stronger however I would be introducing them to forms of explosive/ballistic lifting from a skill perspective.”

Beginner strength cycle

The figure above corresponds to the progression of loading for a primary strength exercise.  These are the exercises that have the greatest capacity to be overloaded such as squats, deadlifts, presses, rows etc.

The best opportunity I have to use periodisation is with our 10-13 year old athletes on the full-time programme who train every day and usually only compete at the weekend and in school holidays.  For these athletes I may initially use a linear periodisation cycle where every 4-6 weeks we increase the loading e.g., 3×15 => 4×10 => 5×5 for our strength exercises.  In the initial stages of a young athlete’s career I feel justified in progressively loading them.  In the deload week we will keep the same programme but reduce volume of sets from three to two or even one.  If they can’t squat or deadlift etc at the beginning then they would be learning these lifts with less reps and load, and the 3×15 for the quadriceps for example, might be a leg extension machine, split squat, step up, lunges, even leg press or whatever they can do with good technique and we can load a bit.

Hopefully by the time they move up to 4×10 or 5×5 their technique on barbell exercises is good enough to load.

At the recent Child to Champion Conference Alex Natera said when speaking about novice lifters :’Even in early GPP I shoot through the higher reps ranges with each week and by week 4 or so I am already down to 5’s.’  I might do that in the second half of the year but in the beginning I feel more comfortable in doing at least 4 weeks at progressive loads.

Intermediate strength cycle

The primary strength exercise in the above example is progressively loaded over a 12 week period but the sets x reps is constant at around the 5×5 level.  In the final week of each 4 week cycle there is a deload of volume while the athlete attempts to lift the heaviest load of the cycle.  You then repeat the cycle but with a slightly heavier load.  The general preparation programme for an intermediate athlete would have a mixture of strength, power and muscular endurance exercises in each week, or each session. Therefore rather than being linear periodisation is now concurrent.  Again, I need to stress that most tennis players don’t train for 3-4 consecutive weeks without a break so the deload week would rarely come into play.

Advanced strength cycle

There are not many athletes that I work with that I consider to be Advanced but in their Training blocks they would probably get into a bit more heavy work with the primary strength exercise.  However, if they are only in for 1-2 weeks then they won’t!!  If they have not lifted for more than 10 days then they might need to do a few sessions or even a week with more General preparation exercises and loads.  Therefore pre-season is often the time when we can realise their strength potential as I don’t feel comfortable going straight into >85% 1RM with these athletes.  The example above refers to a percentage of 1RM rather than a percentage of 5RM or 15RM like in the previous examples.

General preparation

As stated earlier, for beginner/intermediate athletes I still think strength is the focus- so we use general preparation cycles.  The general preparation phase for a beginner athlete will be more focused on building a movement competency foundation, emphasizing muscular endurance, core endurance, speed technique and aerobic capacity.  APA employ more basic methods here.  A general phase for an intermediate advanced athlete will have more focus on maximal strength and resisted speed.  APA use more advanced methods here.

They might still be doing some explosive lifts in the strength session (although not in example below) and with usually do their plyometrics in a separate session in the mornings.

The session below is a General Preparation cycle which I might have the intermediate athlete do for at least one to two 4 week cycles before we go into a more Specific Preparation cycle.  The deload is not shown in the example but could be achieved by doing 3×5 instead of 5×5 for example.

Velocity Based Training

Again if you wanted to be more precise in your timings to increase load / introduce deload you would look for adaptation plateaus. Use VBT to determine this.  This is something I am going to consider looking at too.  Watch out for new blogs on this once I have experimented more!

Specific Preparation week

Suitable for more advanced athletes who are already strong and have a high work capacity.  The example below uses ‘within’ session concurrent training of strength and power.  You could make the Wednesday a slightly lower intensity/higher volume session if hypertrophy was more a focus.  Equally it could be more power focused if you added in more explosive lifts.  You could put lower intensity muscular endurance into the alactic and lactate conditioning sessions.

The training week now how more focus on Power.  We may do 2-3 weeks like this before the deload week.  For the deload week we would increase the intensity further and do some Post Activation Potentiation (PAP), dropping down to just two strength/power sessions on Tuesday and Friday.

Deload week- end of a specific preparation cycle

As a general rule the Preparation period is what ever the athlete needs- in most cases they will do more general preparation cycles to build the strength.  As their training age increases and they are stronger we can move more quickly and more frequently into Specific preparation power blocks.

Tapering / Deloading

Tennis can be challenging to ‘periodise’ for, as competition is year round.  The concept of a full taper ahead of a major competition is most suited to sports with long preparation periods such as track & field.

This slide is a good summary for those of you interested in getting the main points.  For a running based sport you want to decrease volume by 21-40%, maintain intensity and frequency and taper for 8-14 days.

It is rare that I get to take a Tennis athlete through more than 2-3 weeks of training before it is interrupted by a tournament.  So the concept of building up enough training stress/fatigue that they actually need to taper from is some times lost on Tennis.  However, the stress of year round tournament play and training can take its toll so we still need to monitor fatigue, which I do by asking the athletes to keep a training diary.  I also monitor acute responses of fatigue with the reactive Strength Index (RSI).

For week to week training load management I am looking at the response of the Reactive Strength Index (RSI) of our athletes and seeing if it can be sensitive enough to detect fatigue.  My plan is to give our full-time players a deload week every 4 or 6 weeks according to their response to the training and the intensity of that training.  Our younger ‘newbies’ 10-13 years old will probably be fine with a deload every six weeks.  Our slightly older beginner/intermediate athletes 14-16 years old will need one every fourth week I expect.

As I said in Daz Dee TV I have found that my tennis athletes are not the best at it and before I scrap it I will see if the RSI score responds better to fatigue once the learning effect has been mitigated.  As you can see this athlete’s RSI kept improving every week for the most part so there is still a learning effect taking place in my opinion.  Either that or the training was not tiring enough!

I will then use that as an objective guide along with my coaching instincts and programming to determine the best time to deload.  This way I hope to advise athletes on a more individual basis the right time to deload based on their response to the general and specific preparation cycles.

Hi Everyone.

If you’ve followed my stuff over the years you will know this isn’t the first time I have ever posted about Nutrition.  In fact Nutrition is an essential part of the three pillars of APA’s Philosophy.

APA’s training philosophy is a holistic approach to developing a Peak Performer.

1.  Develop a Peak Performance MINDSET
2.  Develop a Peak Performance ATHLETE (Body)
3.  Develop a Peak Performance APPLICATION (Lifestyle)

You could make a case for Nutrition being part of each Pillar.  We put it in the Application pillar as a ”Nutritional Strategy” is an essential part of the your application to achieve Peak Performance.  If Mindset is the attitudes and thoughts you have- what you think about setting out to do- then your application is your actions- the habits and behaviours you actually deliver on a daily basis.

I wanted to write a short blog on the topic because APA have recently started working with Adult clients again who want to improve the way they look, and they often ask for advice about Nutrition.  I’m always reluctant to go into a deep dive of their nutritional habits because bottom line, it’s not my expertise and I am not qualified to do so.

However, I do think we can give our clients basic advice about healthy eating and what types of foods to eat.  What we can’t do is prescibe an eating plan.  I spoke to Phil Learney, to get his advice on the matter.

”The only thing you can’t do is offer prescriptive advice for the treatment of conditions or to determine what someone should eat with respect to foods etc. Setting macros and helping people find foods etc within those macros is fine as long as you’re qualified to be able to give the advice and get insurance to do so”

I go into this in a little bit more detail on Episode 12 of Daz Dee TV.  Check it out below:

If you’re interested in Phil Learney’s Advanced Coaching Academy you can find out more about it HERE

I for one will be considering taking the APPLIED NUTRITION COURSE which includes the AfN Certified applied nutrition and supplementation certification.

If right now, you simply want to be able to give your clients some basic nutritional advice- in the form of a booklet that they can read themselves- or just use it as a reference for yourself then feel free to download my FREE Ebook on Nutrition which you can get below:

FREE EBOOK- NUTRITION

Click Here

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• If you’re not subscribed yet, click here to get free email updates, so we can stay in touch.
• Share this post using the buttons on the top and bottom of the post. As one of this blog’s first readers, I’m not just hoping you’ll tell your friends about it. I’m counting on it.
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Since you’re here…
…we have a small favor to ask.  APA aim to bring you compelling content from the world of sports science and coaching.  We are devoted to making athletes fitter, faster and stronger so they can excel in sport. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage the authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics. — APA TEAM

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This blog is one I am really excited to write.  I have been really enjoying being part of a Youth Strength & Conditioning forum on Facebook.  So in the last few days a couple of questions came in that got me fired up and excited to contribute to the discussion.  One question was about sport specific training for children and another was about endurance profiles of children.  I thought I would share some of the learnings here and I’ll address the second topic in this post!  You can also read more about this topic in my FREE Ebook:

To see the entire APA Stamina Training System download the FREE EBOOK below:

Click Here

Question:

”Random question…from an adaptation perspective kids are aerobic animals and can play all day quite naturally without much/any training…was just wondering if anyone could shed some light on where this ability (effectively work capacity or aerobic capacity if you will) disappears to as kids get older? Is it simply that their aerobic system has adapted faster than their body size so relative to bodyweight they’re aerobic system is in better shape than it will be when they reach adult weight/height?

Just wondering why most kids can seemingly play all day if given the chance despite no/minimal training yet most adults can’t? I’m sure there is plenty more context (young kids are much less sedentary than adults for example) but interested to hear what literature people have come across…”

I have underlined two statements above which I want to focus on.  Let me start by setting the scene.

Long term athlete development

Youth Training is one of my passions.  I think practitioners like Rhodri Lloyd have done great work to pave the way for new understandings of the training process and long-term athlete development (LTAD) principles.  It’s thought that when working with children certain biomotor abilities such as speed, strength and stamina have ‘windows of opportunity’ wherein they seem to develop at an accelerated rate in response to growth and maturation.  However, I’ve never been comfortable calling them ‘windows.’  First of all it implies that the opportunity is only open in a discrete period- ie at any other time the development of these abilities will be less.  It also implies that growth and maturation status should be the determining factor for tapping into a specific biomotor- ie. don’t focus on strength and stamina until after peak height velocity (post-puberty).

Figure 1. Lloyd, R. S., & Oliver, J. L. (2012). The youth physical development model: A new approach to long-term athletic development.

The YPD model above highlights that all physical qualities can be worked on all of the time but with a different emphasis.  This model was acclaimed for showing that strength should be focused on THROUGHOUT the training journey.  As it relates to Endurance and metabolic conditioning, it suggests that Endurance should receive more focus toward mid to late adolescence, in the years post Peak Height Velocity (PHV).

This supports the argument that children respond better to endurance training once they are physically mature.

What does the Research say?

As a headline I would be more inclined to extrapolate the same findings on strength training to endurance training- namely endurance capacities are trainable throughout childhood.

Take a look at the article below:

The influence of training status on the aerobic and anaerobic responses to exercise in children: A review

Muscle fibre type

Are children aerobic animals as the coach points to in his opening question?

I have always been taught to view children as ‘metabolic non-specialists.’  This means that young children are equally happy and adept at running a school cross country event or a 100m sprint race, and show a capability to do both well.  They can respond well to training of both the aerobic and anaerobic energy systems at all ages as the research paper above shows. However, once they reach PHV the body will develop the muscle architecture and energy pathways that favour accelerated development of these systems.

So what did the coaches make of this debate?

”I wouldn’t say kids are aerobic animals adolescents and adults will still out perform kids. Kids anaerobic system is yet to develop meaning they rely on type l fibres. Kids show increased aerobic enzyme activity (SDH & ICDH) & decreased anaerobic enzymes (PKF) compared to adults. A result of an under developed anaerobic system means decreased anaerobic byproducts leading to fatigue.”

One of the coaches kicked off the debate by talking about muscle fibre type

”From what I know, it is linked to muscle fibre type, kids can’t develop type 2 fibres, only type 1, so they’re naturally built (in a way) for aerobic activity.”

Another coach adds:

”Their lack of an ‘anaerobic’ system means that they are reliant on predominantly aerobic substrates for energy. As they hit PHV, type II fibers grow and neurogenesis/left and right brain hemisphere cross education brings more of a balance between aerobic and anaerobic contributions to a task.  It’s down to muscle type differentiation, so type II fibers exist, but they mimic the characteristics of type I pre PHV and transition with maturity.”

Click on the PDF Link below for some fascinating insights into this topic.  This concurs with the observation that children are not fully capable of utilising the recruitment of type II muscles so they mimic the characteristics of type I.

Child Adult differences in muscle activation

This might explain why younger kids hit top speed sooner because their anaerobic systems aren’t as developed, and that’s what impacts their sprint speed over longer distances? They have type II fibres but they are not yet efficient in being recruited maximally.

The UKA Athlete Development Model speaks to the Physiological adaptations in more detail and says that the anaerobic glycolytic system does NOT fully mature until after puberty.

It also says that there is little variation in the ‘alactic’ system with age.

In terms of the Biomechanical factors it shows that the capacity to utilize the energy return is a function of improved strength through firstly coordination (recruitment) followed by cross sectional area.

On this point a coach says, ”Plenty of studies that show kids do adapt to anaerobic training and it isn’t contraindicated at any age….I have no doubt that in years to come science may tell us how these adaptations occur differently in a child vs adult. I think of sports like 400m and boxing that will come with high lactate regardless…but then I also think if kids aren’t very powerful…they won’t be producing much lactate anyway...”

In addition to the discussions on muscle fibre type there were a few interesting discussions on some related topics such as fat mass and role of skill in running economy.

Running economy

Body composition:

Children have less visceral fat and also less muscle.

Role of Skill:

Check out this article below.  Despite the above advantage of the older children having larger body composition (and probably more muscle mass) the results indicate that in both females and males, individuals with larger body composition had faster speeds but individuals with smaller body composition and with greater technical skill were as fast as or faster than those with larger body composition regardless of technical skill.

The Relationship between Speed and Technique in Young Speed Skaters

Enzyme Utilization

There is also a reduced ability to produce anaerobic enzymes?

At this point I’d like to get involved in the discussion.  I majored in Exercise Physiology as an undergraduate and did my Masters in Exercise physiology so I’m passionate about this.  As I have stated before in the previous blog about misunderstanding of principles biomechanics and motor learning, there is also a fair amount of misunderstanding about physiology too!

Aerobic Endurance

All data from personal communication and presentations by Alex Ferrauti, ‘Characteristics of the Endurance Demands of tennis,’ European Coaches Symposium, 2008.’

Biochemical profile: children in comparison to adults

Anaerobic markers • Similar resting values for muscle ATP and PCr • Lower glycolytic enzyme activity (e g PFK) lower adrenergic stimulation • Smaller glycogen stores, less fast‐twitch muscle fibres? • Lower maximal blood lactate concentrations • Better regulation of blood pH and blood [H+] Schwankungen

Aerobic markers • Quicker VO2 response • Higher relative volume of muscle mitochondria and aerobic enzyme activity • Lower RER with better fat utilization

Children ‘seem’ to have lower anaerobic capabilities (in terms of enzyme activity, glycogen stores and blood lactate concentration) and a good capacity for aerobic exercise on the first view of their biochemical profile, but this has no implications for aerobic and anaerobic fitness and endurance training!

Let me explain!!! Research has now shown us that while children have a better aerobic profile than adults in as much as they can attain steady state quicker than adults, the biochemical profile does not correspond to aerobic performance.

The fact remains that older children always outperform younger children on running tests even when matched for VO2max relative to body mass.

VO2max related to body weight has no indication for aerobic performance. Running economy in children is lower (force production, co‐contractions).

In spite of a high biochemical capacity, the aerobic performance has biomechanical limitations!

Anaerobic Endurance

Just as with aerobic exercise, anaerobic capacity is adapted to body composition meaning adults always outperform children in terms of the absolute amount of power that they can produce repeatedly. Evidence to support this inability of children to work anaerobically comes from the research which shows that children produce a lower concentration of Blood Lactate ([BLa]).

However, as the figure depicts below, children have a lower relative and absolute muscle volume and a relatively higher blood volume.

As a result of having less muscle volume and more blood volume children will not produce as much blood lactate. But this is no evidence of a lower anaerobic fitness– if you define anaerobic fitness as ability to repeatedly work at a high intensity within a defined drop off of power. Adults will continue to produce more and more blood lactate as they repeat the same anaerobic work whereas children will only produce so much blood lactate. They have a smaller engine but they produce smaller emissions. They are efficient at being able to reproduce fairly stable levels of power!

But what is interesting is that even with this smaller but stable amount of blood lactate in the blood stream children are still able to regulate their pH at a constant level. This compares to adults where as the [BLa] increases there is a reciprocal decrease in pH. Consequently during repeated sprint activity children will achieve lower absolute power output values in every bout but the drop off in performance will be relatively lower as a percentage and they can maintain a higher overall level of performance!

Training Application

Develop their aerobic system fully or try work on improving what they aren’t as good at naturally (glycolytic)?

According to one coach:

Develop the aerobic adaptations through high intensity aerobic games.

”It would be a bit of waste of their time to develop their lactate system as you wouldn’t see a great deal of adaptations. As others have noted, the FT fibres aren’t recruited as much so they wouldn’t adapt to the stress. I would imagine that hormonal changes after puberty have a massive impact on glycolytic enzyme and LDH production after this longer high intensity work, but in pre-pubescent children, we wouldn’t release anywhere near the amount of hormones to cause significant increases to their ability to utilise the lactate system. This type of work would impact on mitochondrial density, the heart, blood and vascular system… but you’d be better off getting these adaptations from repeated high intensity work with shorter rests (e.g. playing a tag game), or longer duration work at a low intensity.”

I personally wouldn’t say it would be a ‘waste of time’ but I understand the sentiment.  I would however agree that playing some high intensity aerobic based games would be well suited to the younger athlete.

To see the entire APA Stamina Training System download the FREE EBOOK below:

Athletic Performance Academy EBOOK Stamina

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• Share this post using the buttons on the top and bottom of the post. As one of this blog’s first readers, I’m not just hoping you’ll tell your friends about it. I’m counting on it.
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Since you’re here…
…we have a small favor to ask.  APA aim to bring you compelling content from the world of sports science and coaching.  We are devoted to making athletes fitter, faster and stronger so they can excel in sport. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage the authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics. — APA TEAM

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We have had some seriously hot weather these last few days.

I’m not used to it and have found it hard to concentrate.  But with summer upon us it is also making me think about getting myself in a bit better shape.  I recently did a bodyfat test and I was at 15%.  I have been as low as 9% two years ago and would be happier walking around the beach if I could get closer to that this summer.

I have to be honest I’ve not been as disciplined with my nutrition these last few weeks so took inspiration from a few places on the internet and came across a few interesting sites.  I’d also like to point you back to some of my previous nutritional blog posts which I will link up below:

Best of the Blog

Fat Loss

The following blogs are based on specific strategies I have used to decrease my fat percentage.

How to lose 10% body fat in 8 weeks

So how did I lose 7% bodyfat in 2 months?!

How recovery can help you lose weight and gain strength

Smoothies, Salads and Stir Frys

In addition to targeting fat loss strategies I have also written about general nutrition principles.

Nutritional 101: What supplements should you take?

Nutrition for Dummies

Proper nutrition can help my athletes stay focused especially when it is very hot.  It’s a good time of year to encourage them to try more fruit and vegetables.  Salads are the order of the day when it’s hot.  No one wants to have the comfort food we normally have in winter.  So foods like egg, salmon, kale, tomatoes, nuts, avocados, berries are great foods to eat as snacks or have as part of a smoothie, a salad or even a light stir fry.

Here is a good article I found on Ways to Improve Focus Naturally