Q and A

A little Q&A for you today.

Shoot me your youth performance questions. I or one of our coaches will answer them the best we can. Might take some time. But we will get to them!

QUESTION

Hey Milo...

I love following your FB feed. I have a topic that I would value your feedback. My youngest son turns 10 in a month. He is just like I was growing up, the smallest guy in every grade at his school. But also like me, he doesn’t let that change his motivation to compete. He LOVES baseball. He is much better than I ever was at his age. Hell, he’s better than I was when I was 12. Anyway, his coaches want home doing light weights. I’d like your thoughts and suggestions, if you don’t mind? 

ANSWER

B.B. thanks for the chance to chat about this.

I am all for young athletes participating in resistance training with one caveat - their bodies must be prepared to do the movements that will be required.

The body does seven primary movements: it flexes, extends, rotates right, rotates left, supports on the right foot, supports on the left foot and squats. So, making sure the athlete can efficiently do those movements and their consequent combination should be paramount before beginning a more advanced resistance program.

Is his breathing sound? How about his primitive and postural reflexes, are the retained or integrated? Does his brain have good communication with his core and glutes? How are his movement mechanics? How about his stabilizing mechanics? Does your son have proper hip hinge and squat mechanics? Is there knee valgus while jumping or landing from a jump or while sprinting or slowing from a sprint? How is his vestibular and kinesthetic awareness?

These are all questions and issues we answer and take care of before we get into advanced resistance training with our athletes.

As a 9-year-old, from a biological standpoint, he is about the enter a time period of exponential mental growth. So, if you have the time and financial wherewithal to get him the best coaches (sports and strength) possible, now is the time to do it. His capacity for learning over the next three to four years will be insane. Motor control and motor patterning will be at the height of importance. Having somebody teaching him the proper movements now, however, will seriously matter in about five to six years.

The coaches should mentally throw copious amounts of information at your son. You should understand that he will not be able to do it all. But that doesn't matter. What matters that he learns the mechanics of how to do it all. Because next comes puberty. Mother Nature will take him on a trip, and nobody knows where it will end. But what we do know is that she will give him the magic of testosterone at about 14.5 years old.

Combine the strength that hormone will give him with the motor patterns he learned back at 10-13 years old (both on the baseball field and in the gym), and he will have the potential to maximize his athleticism.

Right now is more a time to learn the intricacies of lifting and training than it is a time to try to get strong. In the gym, right now it is all about learning how to get strong.

Hope that helps.