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The Dynamics of Coaching Youth and Juniors

What's the difference between coaching youth and coaching adults? USA Triathlon has established recommended age-appropriate distances for young athletes entering the sport of triathlon. Starting as early as age seven; the 7-10 year olds compete in the 100 meter swim, a 5K bike and a 1K run. The 11-15-year-olds compete in the 200 meter swim, a 10K bike and a 2K run, while the youth elite ages 13-15 compete in the 375 meter swim, a 10k bike and a 2.5k run. The juniors age 16-19 compete in a 750 meter swim, a 20K bike and 5K run; this is equivalent to a sprint distance race. These distances offer a transition into longer races as the athlete matures. Many race directors will not allow anyone under the age of 16 to compete in adult races; some do make exceptions with written request from parents or coaches.

From a developmental standpoint, the young athlete should not compete in the sprint events unless they have had at least one year, or better yet two years, of youth elite distance training and competition experience. The physical requirements necessary to jump from the 11-15 age race categories of about 30-40 minutes duration to the adult sprint race of approximately 75-100 race minutes can be a big jump. Triathlon is not like other sports such as football or basketball where you have quarters, half time and timeouts. The physical demands of triathlon are continuous.

Athletes who race in age-specific distance competitions naturally mature as they gain experience. This rate of adaptation is highly individual and this is where coaching plays a key role; even more so than it does with adult athletes

The Maturation Process-Early vs. Late Developers

Maturity of the young athlete varies greatly; there is an individuality of the development process. This is mainly due to the maturation process. Every coach should understand that there are "early bloomers" and "late bloomers." Trying to identify this phenomenon is guesswork at best, but it plays an important role in bringing athletes along the competitive continuum.

One of the best ways for a coach to evaluate this is through observation. This means that the coach has to observe each athlete over a few seasons. A 12-year-old might not be able to compete against kids their own age because they are facing athletes that are early developers. They can realistically be overpowered by this group of maturation-advanced athletes. However, they come back and are able to compete with them the next year. Some coaches have experienced this first-hand. When you have a 12-year-old who never was able to finish above seventh the prior year but was unbeatable the next year. This can be somewhat amazing to watch, but it can only happen with a coach's observation, ability to encourage the athlete and the athlete's ability to stick with his or her training that will proved to be successful.

Another observation point is muscular development. Some athletes are more "muscled" than others at a given age, be it youth or adults. They look older even if they are the same age. If an athlete is the same age as the others but has a slower maturity level he/she simply does not possess the speed or power that goes with that of their peers and may struggle to compete that season.

An additional factor is training; here's an example: a coach has a 13-year old who has been involved in youth triathlons since the young athlete was 10. She lost to a competitor who was more experienced two years ago. The following year that competitor did not come within two minutes of this same athlete's time in the past years. It is the opinion of most coaches that the difference is that this athlete's growth and racing experience caught up with her. More importantly, training experience has enhanced the athlete's maturation process. She is a more mature-looking 13-year-old than the other girl. While this addresses as unique situation coach should not be as concerned with the athlete's results as much as with overall improvement. This can be applied to any triathlete. A coach can watch her over the years to monitor her improvement. You are on the right track if she is steadily improving.

She will be ready to reap the fast gains that come with this when the maturation process takes hold. Place does not matter nearly as much if we improve in performance. Another issue to consider with maturation is that it is not flat line or straight up. Youth have growth spurts, plateaus, slight down turns and more spurts. It all happens at different rates, times and frequencies. This process is different for males and females. Athletes are trying to understand what is going on with their bodies. They are not mature enough psychologically to understand all of the physiological things that are going on with their bodies. Coaches should talk their athletes through this and really listen to what they say. Athletes are motivated to train some days but not others. This goes beyond periodization models. The coach should decide whether or not to push it or to talk about what is going on.

The Psychological Aspect of Maturation

There is a psychological aspect that goes along with early and late blooming beyond the physical process of maturing. Results vs. performance take center stage here. Athletes who are "king/queen of the hill" at 13 may find themselves moving down the podium at 14 when late-maturing athletes find themselves on the upswing. The psychological aspect of this is an important issue that must be considered by the coach because it plays a key role.

Coaches can observe development's big picture. Parents are much more focused on the here and now, results over performance. This also becomes a big psychological issue with the athlete. As a coach you should talk to the kids about their performance. They may not have won like last time, but they improved if they were a minute or two faster than last year. Talk to athletes about the different rates of maturation so they should not get too caught up in comparing themselves with the others. You as an experienced coach should also talk to the parent about this.

Kids, who want to win so badly and have a history of only focusing on that goal, tend to get discouraged when they do not win and may fall away from the sport. What will happen to the kids who hate to lose if they do not win? Normally, they will try to figure out what they did that lost them the race and see what they can do to improve themselves. This is something most coaches that deal with elite athletes have seen; they seem to have a common theme; they hate to lose more than they want to win. On the converse, coaches have seen youth that want to win so badly that if they lose they leave the sport. This is a big psychological issue is from the athlete's perspective and requires a good coach and parent to help them through it.

Youth Triathlon Club Training and the Social Aspects

Most people talk about triathlon as being an individual sport. Technically it is, but if you look at the ITU (draft legal) approach, there is a team concept. Kids like to be involved with other kids doing the same thing. One of the things USAT discovered out at the sensing sessions in 2006 with kids at the youth nationals in Wisconsin Dells, WI, was, our kids are somewhat unique when they are around their classmates. They do not necessarily feel isolated, but they feel different in their school settings. The youth club offers camaraderie not found at school and they do not get that "outsider" feeling. Beyond the social aspect, clubs provide kids with structured training opportunities. This really helps their motivation. There are days when the athlete does not feel like training, so having a group commitment really helps during the rough days. This works well for both young male and female athletes. However, the boy's group setting must be somewhat restrained because it is simply their nature to turn everything into a race. They should be constantly reminded that it is a training session and not a race. Improvement can be made in individual training sessions, but a group setting works the best with young athletes who want to maximize training.

The club is also an excellent outlet for the parents. If a parent has little or no background in triathlon, they can learn through the club's training sessions that more is ot necessarily better. Parents oust understand, "More is not better. Better is better." Here's a unique situation with an athlete's parent you could find yourself providing a counseling session: a 13 year old running a marathon. A good coach will explain to her why this was not a good idea from the standpoint of potential injuries or overuse. So as you can see, the club setting is a great environment for parents to become better educated about smart training and the risks of overtraining a youth.

One way to avoid parent interference during training is to have workouts in our club where the athletes train a distance away from parent immediate access but within their view. You could have a club administrator talks to the parents during this time about certain aspects of training and what you want to accomplish. Parents want to help but they do not know how. The parents with marathon or triathlon backgrounds are surprisingly the most difficult to deal with. They have a tendency to want to advance their son or daughter faster than normal. This push is even harder if they have a child who is maturing quickly. Clubs for young triathletes offer unique advantages. They provide a sense of camaraderie, training motivation and parental education. I cannot think of anything more beneficial for young athletes!

Training Considerations for Youth & Juniors

As most youth triathletes don't have a dedicated coach; the question that seems to be asked of me the most is, "how should I be training my child or how should my child be training for triathlon?" Most youth that compete in triathlon do so with little or no training and if they have some training it is often done by a parent with little knowledge of training for young triathletes. In some cases it may even be done by a coach that has little true understanding of coaching youth in this sport.

Here are some of my thoughts, advice and recommendations to the above questions. First, we must understand the dynamics of youth versus adults. This is critical because children, especially our young under 13 or pre-pubescent youth don't have the same physiological make up as an adult. Therefore; children should be trained in a different manner.

Interesting facts

Children for the most part seem to recover faster from intense physical exertion than adults do in the same form of exercise. Research suggests that children can recover quicker than adults primarily because they (children) can't generate the same amount of power as an adult; therefore, they have less to recover from during an exercise. It has also been found that children possess anaerobic (without oxygen) power capacity lower than adults so their ability to recovery from high intensity exercise is far superior to that of adults.

Another difference between youth and adults is the ability to go long distances. Children are naturally aerobic and are better at burning fat than adults; which is why I suggest children's training should be focused on intensity than long sessions. We want to build their ability to use the glycolitic system (burn carbohydrates than the fatty acid system (burn fat) to improve their overall fitness and ability to race fast. I don't want to get too scientific in this discussion so I will now just address how I believe we should train our youth for success now and in the future.

Endurance versus High Intensity

This has been a debate among some of the parents of the children that I have had the pleasure to work with over the years. Some parents believe, "if my child can do a 5k, they should start to train for a 10K and if my child can win the local kid's triathlons they should move to the longer distance adult races to keep their competitive edge." Well, most youth coaches disagree with this thought process primarily because of some of the things mention at the beginning of this article. Children should be training in a way that improves their speed and recovery; this is exactly what high intensity training does. On the other hand if a child is training to go long; essentially you are training the child to go slow. While a child is young we should focus on good technique; they should understand the "WHY" of what they are doing and then we should focus on their speed. Young athletes speed is something you want them to develop and increase as they develop into young adults. If you spend a great deal of time getting them to go long distances in their developmental years they tend to slow down to accommodate the distance and as they mature into young adults it is extremely difficult to develop the speed component that was neglected as a youth.

Recommendations for Training Youth and Juniors

Focus on general training first which includes good skill and technical training and as the young athlete develops incorporate speed and intensity into their workouts. This is more beneficial to the child than long endurance type training. If you can remember to have consistency, variability (which includes training the whole body), make the training progressive and add rest and recovery you will have a great start to a healthy form of training for the young triathlete. I always include a good warm up, drills (plyometrics and specific skills), a main set and recovery to include stretching in all of our training sessions. Plyometrics is a type of exercise training designed to produce fast, powerful movements, and improve the functions of the nervous system, generally for the purpose of improving performance in a specific sport. It is also used to increase the speed or force of muscular contractions, often with the goal of increasing the power. To build good balance, strength and stabilizer muscles incorporation plyometric training.

Train for speed and good technique.

Youth training (7-12 & 13-15 non-draft)

This is the group that general training best suits; they are the entry level athlete that truly needs to understand the simple basics of the sport. Safety is paramount; it's not an option. A coach must evaluate the level of fitness of each young athlete, be current in CPR and first aid. Coaches should evaluation the training environment to include weather and facilities. Training does not need to be strenuous or regimented. Fun and interactive is best for this group of young athletes. It's important for a coach to remember the younger athlete clearly doesn't have the same attention span of the teenager or adult.

Communicating with the young athlete includes verbal versus non-verbal messages, positive reinforcement; but be honest, talk at their level of understanding, clear voice; repeat often (repetition is good), body language; facial expressions. As a coach of our young athletes; improve your listening skills; pay close attention and provide positive feedback.

Basic entry level skill development includes:

Age appropriate training focuses on skill development, is participation focused (must keep their attention) and having fun.

Coaching this group has to be "Having Fun versus Success Focused." Fun has to be a huge part of the training of this group, remember they came out to have fun and you must never forget this part of the experience. This must be a positive learning experience for them.

Fitness testing our youth elites and juniors (13-19 athletes)

Many coaches will have their own opinions as to whether fitness testing our youth elites and juniors is really necessary. After all don't our young athletes grow and change physiologically at varying rates? Each young athlete matures at different rates based on a number of factors such as age, gender and genetics. While this is true, there is value in conducting some basic fitness testing on young athletes especially our youth elite and juniors. These are termed our committed athletes; they tend to train more specifically and have a greater level of skill, determination and measured endurance.

In some areas of the country for instance the Austin/Round Rock, Texas area, most kids at the age of 13-15 that are physically fit have essentially picked their primary sport. The high schools provide quite a bit of support therefore parents don't need outside clubs as much unless their children desire to compete in more than one sport. Triathlon fits this category because it is a dynamic sport that kids are drawn to and can't compete in school so they look for other opportunities. They normally have a running or swimming background and a moderate to high level of aerobic base.

Why do fitness testing?

Fitness testing provides coaches with a wealth of information. The ultimate goal is to identify strengths and weaknesses as well as set realistic and attainable goals over time. With the results of these tests you as a coach can now create appropriate and individualized training programs for real performance results.

Fitness testing becomes more important when you are dealing with our committed athletes; this establishes a baseline of their current fitness level as well help you as a coach develop a periodized training plan to enhance your young athlete's performance. These athletes are racing the International Triathlon Union (ITU) style of racing. The swims are fast, the bike is draft legal (read fast and technical) and the run is usually in a pack until the sprint finish. In 2000 Triathlon officially became an Olympic sport, even though the first run at it was in Atlanta at the 1996 games. USA Triathlon realizing that we needed to develop our future triathletes formed the Youth Elite and Junior Cup races. Since ITU racing is the gateway to the Olympic pipeline (meaning the resident training center) it is prudent to prepare our athletes for the future.

A simple definition of what can be considered fitness testing for our young athletes. Fitness testing for the young is more about field testing than lab testing. Lab test can tell you a great deal about an athlete's fitness but normally requires plugging the nose while the athlete will breathe through a mouthpiece connected to the metabolic analyzer while wearing a heart-rate monitor. The analyzer measures the volume as well as the percentage of carbon dioxide and oxygen in the expired gas. This is known as the VO2 Max test. The other test is a blood lactate test which requires drawing blood from an athlete at specific intervals during exercise. Most experienced coaches already understand these tests; the point is these tests are not really necessary for the young athlete. These tests are first invasive (read liability) and can be intimidating for some of our young athletes. Secondly, the young athlete is still growing and maturing and VO2 MAX can change rapidly for youth all the way up until the age of 18-19 so your results will vary over time unlike an adult. Don't think VO2 MAX is a necessary or critical test for our youth; while it does provide you some information/data, knowing maximum heart rate and lactate threshold (invasive) anaerobic threshold (non invasive) provides better information and lactate threshold or anaerobic threshold is a better gauge to determining an athlete's overall increase in performance.

Field testing is not an exact science but if gives you a good snapshot into your athlete's current fitness level. As we all know coaching is an art and science and field tests actually entails a little of each. You can at least establish a baseline and modify training and future tests. Field tests are invaluable tools and are not invasive.

Here are a few of examples of field tests you can conduct to determine your athlete's fitness:

These tests are just a few of many field tests available to coaches. I don't proclaim to have the answer but I do believe these tests are useful and will give you valuable information and insight into where your young athlete's current baseline of fitness stands.

Testing is truly beneficial for you and the athlete; it's not a comparison to any other athlete and should never be used to compare an athlete to another. I strongly believe that with our youth and juniors it's about personal improvement (something they can control) and not about improvements based on another athlete (something they can't control).

Remember as a coach, especially with our young athletes, we are part coach, part sports psychologist and part encourager. What and how we say it has a major impact on our youth.

Coach Boris is a youth elite and junior specific coach. He is the director and head coach for T3Multisports Elite a USAT High Performance Team and featured coach for TrainingPeaks.com. He has written youth and junior specific training plans available at TrainingPeaks.com

He can be contacted via email at: Coach Boris