Simple Strength Training for Young Athletes
I was chatting with a client the other day about his son and how we could add a little bit of strength training into his life, without a huge negative impact to his other training, and while fitting in around his already busy life. His young boy is a rugby player, and his father, who has been around top athletes for a good chunk of his life, thinks that his boy could end up being a decent player. So while we chatted, we came up with a back of the napkin plan that we thought might just work for his boy to make him stronger, faster, and more resilient... Not bad for something that should take 20 minutes 2-3 times per week.
Key Considerations:
He plays a contact sport, so we want to improve his stability and his ability to take a bump.
He plays a contact sport so it'd be nice to increase his point to point speed and his ability to give a bump...
In other words, I want him faster, stronger, and more responsive on both one and two legs...
Basic Plan
Here's the basic plan that we ended up coming up with:
A: Hill crawling (facing the bottom of the hill all the time) for 5 min resting when needed.
(This is just done once, typically, but you could progress to 10 minutes or to two lots of 5, will also likely be both forward and backward if you don’t have a mega hill)
B1: Goblet Squat Carries - 20m forward
B2: Goblet Squats x 5
Repeat "B pair" five times
I like hill crawling because it will increase shoulder strength, facilitate hip-shoulder connection, and make stability demands of the system because you have half your limbs in the air at any given time. It's also a movement that most people who don't have shoulder issues should be able to do because it's not looking for a crazy range of motion overhead, instead, almost everything is happening below your body, and around 'fend' height.
The goblet carries are great for strengthening the centre of our back - all the musculature that we tend to rest all day when we sit at our desks or computers. When these muscles get stronger our ability to stand tall like a human should is greatly enhanced. This should help to facilitate long-term health by encouraging that good posture.
Finally, goblet squats are a lovely movement to strengthen and mobilise everything from our midsection to our ankles. Maintaining a good squat should help the athlete be quicker and stronger which will help them as they practice more explosive activities more closely related to their sport.
This is a solid plan for a young athlete. It covers a lot of bases, it’s simple, and it is controlled enough that it shouldn’t invite injury - which is a key component of any good programming. It’s not particularly tailored and could definitely be improved upon for individuals, but this plan should give someone who hasn’t done much strength training a cracking start and significant, measurable improvement to how they feel and play, and long term, should reduce the injury risk of most of the folk who would do it.
At QLD Kettlebells, our members range from 16 to 65 because our training is not just a one-size-fits-all model. Our group classes are programmed with every single member in mind with regressions for those who are new to our crew or progressions for those who have been training for 5-10 years already. The focus, when you train with us, is to improve all the extra stuff you do when you’re not at the gym because that’s a pretty solid win. To find out more about our group fitness classes or find out how we run things, come along to our next beginner kettlebell workshop, or get in touch for more info.