NEW School of Youth Fitness and Conditioning - NY & NJ

A brand new School of Youth Fitness and Conditioning has opened its doors in Suffern, New York. The school will be moving children and youth between 7-13 years of age with goals of health, fitness and athleticism.

School of Youth Fitness and Conditioning operates within the walls of Movements 4 Life -training facility at 47 Chestnut Street, Suffern, NY. Join us for the common GRAND OPENING on May 21st.

The school will be giving group lesson from the fundamentals of fitness and exercise to the mastery of movement for young athletes.

Here is the sample curriculum for the ages 7-10.

Why fitness and conditioning needs to be AGE-specific?

How to build a successful Youth Conditioning Program -article written by Tommi Paavola, Discover Movement LLC. (First published in Athletic Business magazine)

Athletes First, Players Second
Coaches are often tempted to teach and practice game-specific skills more than general athletic skills, since game-specific skills are the ones that eventually determine which team wins and which loses. Limited training time and people's high expectations of success can also lead to this exaggerated emphasis on developing sport-specific skills. Development of general athletic skills, such as jumping, landing, skipping, lunging, twisting and hopping lay the foundation for game-specific skills and is vital to becoming a healthy and successful athlete. Narrowing the variety of movement skills before the athletic foundation has been laid can risk a child's long-term development and suffocate his or her true potential.

An Age-Sensitive Approach
Coordination, balance, speed, flexibility, agility, strength and endurance are all important components of human movement and sport performance. The different stages of a child's growth and development determine which motor skills should be emphasized in training programs. For example, speed and agility progress optimally during the "skill hungry" years of 8 to 12, whereas strength and endurance become important in subsequent years. A 10-year-old boy is at his peak period to enhance acceleration speed and change of direction through games like tag or short shuttle runs. Drills that incorporate multidirectional hops on a single leg are well absorbed by children age 8 to 12.

You can read the whole Discover Movement Youth Conditioning article here.

Conditioning the youth female athlete

Training and conditioning a young female athlete needs to concentrate in at least three important aspects:

- General fitness and movement skill development

- Injury prevention

- Conditioning for the sport performance 

Here is general philosophy of Discover Movement youth conditioning for female high school athletes

Athletes first, players second! Movement skill development.

What are most sports made of?

Running, hopping, squatting, turning, avoiding, jumping, landing, lunging...
Balance, coordination, speed, agility, power, strength, mobility...

Most of the sports develop these fundamentals. Some sports enhance one attribute more than the other. That is why engaging in different sports and activities can improve the overall athleticism more than just by training one sport.  

 
MOVEMENT SKILL TRAINING PROGRAM       

Athleticism is an outcome of several factors. Some of them we are not able to influence (genetics etc.) but most of them we can improve. Every athlete can become faster, stronger or more flexible.

The goal of Movement Skill Training is to ensure the integrity of the movement foundation.

Movement Skill Training:  

1. Aims to find and fill the missing links in athletic development.   
2. Improves all the fundamental movement patterns and skills
3. Covers the development of all motor components such as balance, speed or strength.

Other important objectives of Movement Skill Development for Youth are:

- To support healthy growth and development and to ensure a healthy future
- To introduce supplemental movement to the most physically passive generation yet  
- To compliment the psychological, emotional and social development of the youth

How to pick an effective and safe fitness program for your kids?

What you should know when choosing a fitness program for children and youth?

Read this great article by Katherine Hobson fo tind out.  http://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/on-fitness/2009/11/18/kids-fitness-training-programs-6-tips-for-picking-a-good-one

Take care!

Tommi the Trainer