Who needs this workload monitoring the most? I sometimes think our adolescent athletes do. Does this sound familiar? This was my reality 20 years ago. Talented 17 year old netball athlete who was in her final year at secondary school. Played school netball (2 trainings and game per week); club netball (2 trainings and game per week); provincial netball 2 trainings and game per week); and, the school basketball team wanted some of the action also.
Fast forward 20 years and we started a soccer research with some U15 soccer players a couple of weeks back. We had an injury, so we were concerned that the intervention we put in place caused it and therefore did some investigating. We found the player: practiced 3-4 times per week for his school plus game; practiced 3 times per week for his club plus game; and, Olympic lifted at home 5 times per week.
It bemuses me we haven’t been able to change this practice over 20 years. The talented youth athlete in many cases needs somebody to help them negotiate the competing demands of the many. Somebody who has a holistic overview of their development and is working with parents, school, club and provincial coaches to prevent player overtraining, injury and burnout. Most likely a profession here.Thoughts?
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