At Maki Performance Training our belief is that athlete’s general training should improve before specializing in any sport. Our goal is to develop a strong, well-rounded foundation. Motor skills (movement patterns), muscular, and soft tissue development become paramount to ensure that the athlete enjoys a life long participation in sports activities and to develop a high performance level in a specific sport.
To help an athlete achieve sporting success we believe there must be a progressive, multilateral approach. For developing youth athletes, growth and maturation must be taken into account when designing programs, instructing and coaching them towards their potential. The long held belief in destructive, painful training sessions belong to the past. Intelligent, goal-oriented training is critical.
Many youth athletes do not posses the basic motor skills and bio motor abilities required to exceed in their sport of choice. As a result, muscle imbalances and compensation patterns are created.
Unfortunately, in today’s society many parents are still held in the grip of the false notion that high-intensive training will stimulate greater training adaptation. This is a failure to acknowledge that each phase of development plays an important role in the child’s sporting life. The end result is a child plagued with overuse injuries that only worsen with time. This can be overcome when the proper emphasis is placed on building up fitness skills.
Fundamental movement skills are of utmost importance when establishing a child’s development in sports. Skills such as running, jumping, twisting, turning, balancing, throwing, catching, kicking, and movement awareness--knowing how to move one’s body in relation to objects and other children.
It is important to adopt a long-term view when considering the development of a child in his/her sport.
We train up young athletes according to the stages listed below:
Phase 1– The Basics
Age: 6-9Objective: To introduce the child to fundamental movement patterns and drills.The goal of this phase is to introduce, and teach a variety of movement patterns in the form of games, team or group-based drills and simple bodyweight exercises.
Phase 2 – Putting into practice what has been learned.
Age: 9 – 12 Objective: To learn to apply the movements and drills taught in Phase one to more complex drill and exercise patterns. Core awareness and posture are emphasized along with an introduction to metabolic conditioning.
At this stage, it is important to ensure a solid base of movements and drills has been established, and learned so that the transition to, and application of the new drills and exercises are successful.
Phase 3 – The Training Stage
Age: Males 12 – 18
Objectives: To train the athletes to increase strength through weight-lifting and various other activities. To match their physical conditioning with the specific demands of their sport.
One of the reasons many athletes have trouble with the third stage is because of an over-emphasis on competition rather than on training during the latter stages.
Other variables accompanying each phase are the selection of exercises used, the volume of drills, coaching style, and intensity.
At Maki Performance Training we look at the designing and implanting of programs that build up the youth athlete. This ensures they will enjoy and exceed in their sport and move on to accomplish all their sporting goals.
