New Position Statement on Youth Resistance Training

www.dailymail.co.uk

In this month's issue of the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, a group of experts representing the National Strength and Conditioning Association updated the NSCA's recommendations for youth resistance training.
The group, let by Dr Avery Feigenbaum , concluded that:

"A properly designed and supervised resistance training program":

• is relatively safe for youth.
• can enhance the muscular strength and power of youth.
• can improve the cardiovascular risk profile of youth.
• can improve motor skill performance and may contribute to enhanced sports performance of youth.
• can increase a young athlete's resistance to sports-related injuries.
• can help improve the psychosocial well-being of youth.
• can help promote and develop exercise habits during childhood and adolescence.

Safe to say that I agree with all of their conclusions, but before you run off and buy some big weights for your U12 team, I highly encourage you to read this report's recommendations about how to train, how much to train, how often to train, and how important it is to eat and sleep properly so that the body can best benefit from a graduated resistance training program.

For best results, work with a certified strength and conditioning coach who has experience in training youth and not just some trainer who makes kids puke by overdoing it on workouts designed for NBA players.

Basketball Medicine (Ball)

Beth Biscoff

One of the reasons I write this blog is to support the idea that there should be a specialty devoted to the science and practice of optimizing health, preventing injury, and enhancing the performance of basketball players.

There's already the STMS (The Society for Tennis Medicine and Science). There should be an SBMS (Society for Basketball Medicine and Science) as well, don't you think? I do, but we're getting off the subject here...........

Usually, when I want to see what other folks are up to, I perform a google search for "basketball medicine" . What comes up? Well, this blog, for one, but otherwise, mostly ads for medicine balls that can be used in training for basketball (and an ocassional reference to the Medicine Hat College Women's Basketball Team - Go Rattlers).


It's time to recognize the use of Medicine Ball Drills for basketball training.

And, personal allegiances aside, I can think of no better person to offer a list of medicine ball drills for basketball than Jonas Sahratian, the Strength and Conditioning Coordinator of the UNC Men's Basketball team.


Here's a link to the article that appeared last year in Men's Health.

Remember, though, this workout is really for older (ages 16+ for girls and 18+ for boys) players who are more physically mature. If you're in that older age group and want to increase your core strength, and power - this would be a good addition to your current workouts. Start slow, increase your load, and measure your results (how you feel, how you move, how you improve your performance on the court).