Youth/Junior

Bob Seebohar, MS, RD, CSSD, CSCS is a leading sports dietician, triathlon coach, and strength coach who has worked with some of America’s finest Olympic sport athletes.   He is the author of several books and DVD’s, such as Metabolic Efficiency Training, Nutrition Periodization for Athletes, and Nutrition Periodization for Athletes.   For more information on Bob along with his products and services, please visit his main website at Fuel4mance.  

How old are you?  I can't think of a more loaded question in sports, other than "how much do you weigh?"  Sports in general take a superficial view of age, whether with young kids or with masters aged adults.  Mostly we think of age in terms of years having lived.  For training purposes, there are three general ways to think of age:

Only one session on Day 2, but there was so much good information flowing that the program ran more than an hour long.  One of the unique things about this conference was that each presentation complemented the others.   

Earlier this week I crossed paths with a friend as he was doing some work. He had a bunch of work papers scattered around, but amongst them I noticed what looked to be a stack of football plays. Here's a glimpse of the conversation...

Me: Do you coach football?

Him: Yes

Me: Nice. At one of the high schools?

Him: No. My son's youth team. I'm the defensive line coach.

Me: How old is your son?

Him: Seven. The team is aged seven to nine.

The Learn to Train and Training to Train stages are the most important stages of athletic preparation.  During these stages, we make or break an athlete!

-Canadian Sport for Life

Old school multisport...Triathlon hadn't yet appeared in the Olympics when this picture was taken!

If you haven't done so, please see the first two installments of this blog series at: