Phase Training To Build Faster, Stronger, Better Youth Athletes

Once again I was watching a youth athlete team and surprised at the actions of the coaches in regard to building their skills, athleticism and enthusiasm.

This team had lost a game the day before… and the coaches weren’t happy.

The coaches spent the first half of practice wearing the kids out with straight cardio exercises to burn out…

Apparently this was to “help them” with the previous day’s loss and make them better?!?!  To me, it was more of the coaches frustration within themselves manifesting to the practice as revenge.  

Personally, I would approach this a bit differently.  In fact, if the coaches would approach their complete training and workouts differently they may not have lost in the first place.

Let me explain…

Most youth athletes never realize their true athletic potential because they never get to tap into their potential when the time is right…

As a young athlete grows and develops, their bodies will respond to certain types of training in each stage of development much better than just “working out.”

If you want to maximize the speed, strength, power and long-term athleticism in your youth athletes then you might want to consider age-appropriate phase training…

Phase training is simply doing different types of training for a limited amount of time before switching to a different phase.  The purpose of phase training is to maximize different components of athleticism by concentrating on that component for a month or two…

With that in mind, here are the 5 phases of training that we recommend for our youth athletes here at YAT:

1. Bodyweight Mastery Phase.   Gaining control of one’s own body is primary when developing athletes.  Bodyweight training is essential for reaching your true athletic potential.  Bodyweight exercises allow you to move your body through open space and this leads to the functional strength development needed for moving with more speed, power and skills development.  Performing the right bodyweight exercises, in the right amounts in terms of volume, frequency, duration and intensity will set the stage for better long-term athletic development.
2. Athletic Preparation Phase.   This is the phase that so many coaches and athletes neglect.  The Athletic Preparation Phase of training builds a foundation of strength and support in not only the muscles but the tendons and ligaments.  It’s kind of like bullet-proofing your joints to prevent non-impact injuries while maximizing speed and quickness potential.  If your athletes are training with a proper preparation phase they will also improve their mobility and conditioning at the same time.  
3. Muscle Building Phase     Any time you add lean muscle tissue to an athlete you have the potential for more strength, power and speed.  That’s why we have our athletes enter a phase after their athletic preparation phase that will intentionally layer lean muscle tissue on our athletes.  More muscle is also protection for the body and joints during athletic competition.  Now don’t get me wrong here…. we aren’t trying to build mini-bodybuilders.  That is not the goal at all.  What we want to do is add some muscle that will set the tone for more strength and speed increases in future phases.  The best part about the muscle-building phase is that you’ll not only see increases in muscle in the right places… but there will be improvements in overall strength, speed and power in your youth athletes.
4. Max Strength Phase.   Once you’ve layered lean muscle tissue on the athlete’s body through the muscle-building phase you can take this muscle and add more strength to it.  The hypertrophy training while in the muscle-building phase provide the volume of muscle.  Now we maximize the strength of this new muscle by concentrating on exercises that build strength rapidly while manipulating the volume, frequency, volume and intensity of the workout for optimal strength gains.  The strength phase is where an athlete will realize progress not just in the weight room but the carry-over to sports performance become real.
5. Peak Performance Phase.   Once our athletes have successfully completed their bodyweight training phase, athletic preparation phase, muscle building phase and max strength phase, they are ready to enter the peak performance phase.  Essentially, this is the phase where the athleticism magic is created.  This is the phase where the most gains in explosive power, strength, speed and pure athletic development are created.  By properly preparing the body with the phases prior to this phase, the athletes are primed for progress that will show on the field, court or arena.

As a coach or parent of youth athletes you have to prepare them correctly for optimal performance.  Knowing how to train with phases will allow you to get the most out of your players in terms of natural abilities.  

When you prepare yourself as a coach or parent and train your youth athletes with effective systems, the results will show.  

If this is at all confusing to you don’t worry…

We created a complete done-for-you system to building faster, stronger, more powerful youth athletes with the goal of long-term athleticism.  It’s called the Complete Athlete System.  You can check it out by Clicking Here.