The 3 Phases of Training
March 17, 2010, By Sports Performance Director Erik Kasabuske
Coaching young athletes and helping them develop into the athletes they want to be is a very rewarding experience. From the 8 year old Youth to the 18 year old Developmental 2 athlete there are a lot of the same goals but very different approaches to how we reach them. Everyone wants to get faster, stronger, and more explosive but training an 8 year old†the same as the 18 year old just doesnít work. Young athletes have 3 main phases of development that takes place.
Phase 1: Learning how to Train.
This is the phase that most of our Youth class athletes fall into. During this phase athletes have a very difficult time doing anything at a high intensity and a lot of their improvements in performance are based on motor learning and doing a lot of repetitions. The biggest problem is that most athletes want to be too specific early on and miss out perfecting the basics.
Phase 2: Training to Train.
This is the phase that most of our Developmental 1 and some Developmental 2 athletes are in. At this stage athletes have hopefully built a solid foundation of training and are ready to add in a few specifics but still focus on the basics. They are able to push themselves harder than before but still require a lot of repetitions to become good at anything. It is still very important to do a few things well instead of many things poorly.
Phase 3: Training to Compete.
At this stage we can perform the basic movements correctly and are able to train them at a high intensity which means we canít do as many repetitions. This allows us to focus on a lot more specifics than before and follow a more individualized program.
You come to Velocity because you want to improve your performance. Our highly trained coaches know how to assess an athlete design a program based on what training phase you are in. It is important for parents and athletes to keep these phases of training in mind when you watch another athlete do something and wonder why you arenít doing it. It is very possible that it may not be what you need to get better.