Topic: Thoughts on Pre-adolescent Training

[andy tysz]

Many people question the efficacy of not training preadolescents like adolescents, my answer to that would be, they are not adolescents so why train them that way.  Many people have tried to train children as teens and had success at that level, my question to this would be, where are these preadolescent phenoms now?  To my knowledge, many have gotten hurt, burned out, or chosen another sport.  All of which are detriments to our sport.  Children get involved in sport because it is FUN, not because they want to be world champions.  At such an age, children do not even have a concept of what it takes to get there.  How many times have you heard a child say, “I want to be president of the United States when I grow up”?   What is the response the adult gives them at this point?  I would say the typical response would be a laugh or smile and a shrug of the shoulders and say the encouraging words of “Well, if you study and work hard, you might get there some day”, but not take the statement seriously.  I have never seen anyone hand them a political science book and say, “Get crackin’.”  But, when they say, “I want to be world champion”, we load their bar with more weight and say, “If you fail, you will never get there.”  What is the result of this?  What if the child fails?  Are they forever scarred and convinced of the impending doom of their goals?  Now, I am not so foolish to believe that a failure statement is actually uttered, but the resultant consequences are often the case.  Why give them something they are not ready for?  Why not tell them after a solid successful attempt, “That was great, remember how that felt and lets practice it some more.”  What is the point of going to failure at such an early age?  All it does is create doubt, and at that age (the age of extremely high impressionable psychological molding); doubt is often an incurable travesty.   The phrase “success breeds success” is a tenet to be followed to a fault at this age.  There are so many differences in their physiology, mechanics, and most of all psychology, that I believe it is a detriment to their progress to train them in such an aggressive manner.

Let us delve into the first condition, physiology.  Now, I am not going to go into citing papers and whatnot about this, so you guys who are all about wanting proof, go do your own research and take your own courses.  I am not about to try to defend myself to people not willing to learn or have not already studied these concepts AT LENGTH.  I have learned that preadolescent children haven’t the hormonal conditions to develop additional muscle through the same pathways that would be akin to excessive loading.  The testosterone levels just are not there to adapt the muscle to the greater load (i.e. larger cross sectional areas of muscle to produce more force).  So why load them excessively?  Let us train them in a manner that will allow them to handle such loads when the conditions are in place…. this takes PATIENCE and foresight.  A willingness to put away our own ambitions to create an immediate champion for one down the line.  Another precept to follow according to the developmental stage of the athlete physiology is found in motor development.  The nervous system will only function as fast as the genetic growth has manifested itself.  There will be some progress in teaching the system to recruit more motor units, but even this has its own ceiling of improvement.  So how can we train them in this manner?  Here, the concept of riding a bike comes to mind.  When a person learns to ride a bike and does so for many years afterward, and then takes decades of layoff, they can still come back and ride the bike with usually no problems, after a bit of practice.  Why is this?  The answer lies in motor learning.  Again, this is the age of impression, not only the mind, but also the body.  When you learn to ride a bike, kick or catch a ball, or swing a bat, you do not start off by riding as hard as you can, or swinging the leg or bat as hard as you can, or catching a 86 mph curve ball.  All of these activities will ensure immediate failure, discouragement, or worst-case scenario, injury.  Learning of these activities take time and a slow development of the refined skills of timing, rhythm, balance, and coordination to name a few qualities.  If we take our time and develop quality positions and a smooth rhythmic movement at this age, it will evolve in the body, become second nature and stay with the athlete throughout their career.  This cannot be accomplished through consistent heavy training.  People will say, “Well the Bulgarians train heavy at an early age, look at Naim.”  I refuse to believe that the Bulgarians train their preteens heavy without the proper development of movement.  The only information we ever hear of Bulgarian training are concepts used with their junior and senior national team members.  By the time we heard about Naim, he was already into the third and fourth (approx.) years of his training and at a state of physical maturity not found in most children his age.  What did he do before this time?  My guess would be, thousands of repetitions with weights that were relatively easy to handle, yet heavy enough to provide some kinesthetic feedback indicative of a clean, efficiently movement.  These smooth, efficient motor patterns cannot be established by a short learning period followed by consistent maximal training.  The finer points, the millimeter differences in balance, position and timing are learned by repetition with light and medium resistances.  The heavy choices are too daunting to recognize these minute, yet success altering, details.   It is my opinion, that teaching a beginner regardless of age SHOULD take time and patience to develop these qualities of lifting and the benefits will be reaped in the long run.  When teaching and training a preteen, I believe a teacher must stick to these concepts until the appropriate maturation cycles begin to manifest themselves.

The second condition to be addressed would be mechanics.  During the preteen and adolescent years, the skeletal system grows at intermittent rates.  This can pose a problem for the efficient movement of the body.  During these times of bone lengthening, the movement patterns of an athlete can change dramatically.  Trying to impose a heavy load on an inefficient movement pattern is certainly a recipe for disaster.  It would seem to make perfect sense to continue to refine the proper movement qualities during these times.  Loading to the extent of failure will do nothing but frustrate the athlete and increase the likelihood burnout or injury.  Again, these are situations that should be avoided.  I understand there will be misses during training and competition, but at this stage they should be of a technical or mental lapse nature, not due to attempting maximal loads.  The technical and mental lapse mistakes can easily be address in training and competition conditions to help ensure a future successful attempt.  But if an athlete is hurt because they just tried to come up from a clean with a bent back and buckling knees because the weight just slammed them into the bottom position, how can that be addressed in the next training session?  Clearly, in that scenario, the selected weight is too heavy and should not have been imposed on the athlete.  I think this happens too often during training and competition with the coaches who chose to train under this type of loading scheme.  

The last issue to address would be the psychological ramification of such training.  Constant heavy loading can take a toll on elite level athletes with mental strength developed to move mountains, and someone would chose to impose such demands on a child whom has not even learned how to deal with a simple social matter properly?  I wonder if the coaches who choose this method have ever thought of why most Bulgarians weightlifters do not last past one Olympic cycle.  The training is too demanding to bother with the continued pounding.  They either get hurt or burned out and retire.  If adults do not last very long, how can a child (whose main goal in life is to have fun) last?  They won’t.  They will gravitate to something that provides them with the self-satisfaction of personal achievement.  A constant barrage of unsuccessful and many times painful attempts will almost ensure drop out of an already shallow pool.  Personal achievement at this age is many times not even the singular motivating factor.  Young athletes, especially girls, have other factors that concern them.  They are at an age when pleasing others is of paramount importance to them.  The opinions of parents and coaches and how they react toward success and failure of the child do not go unnoticed by children.  With every attempt, the child will, consciously or unconsciously, read the body language and interpret the response of the adult, which can be devastating in some of the cases I have personally witnessed.  Even with adoring and consoling reactions, many children will feel like they have let their coaches down when failure occurs.  Why should a coach put a child in that situation on a daily basis?  I understand the need to develop the child’s ability to deal with adversity, but should it be done in a constant manner?  I believe this type of adversity should be given to the child on a piece meal basis and only when the child is ready for the next level of intensity of adversity.  If a coach is attune to their athlete and paying attention to personality traits and all of the aspects of acting as a simple human being, then they will have a pretty good idea as to when and where to apply these types of learning opportunities and have the ability to explain the situation to the athlete in a manner that provides a rational and positive outcome to the continued growth and maturity of the child.  These concepts would apply instruction at all levels, but certainly are most important to the long term development of an athlete whom we all would like to see stay in a sport for a long time.  Which, in my opinion, should be everyone who enjoys what we do.  Just some will lift a bit more than others will because God gave them better tools with which to work.

[Mike Wittmer]

Interesting stuff, Andy.  Where do you stand in regard to the new policy banning 13U from competition?

[andy tysz]

Mike,

I do not necessary agree with the ban of twelve and under lifting from national competition, but I understand why it was done.  As you know, politics is a funny business and we do not always agree with just falling in line with the higher ups, but sometimes it needs to be done.  In this case, it seems we can ultilize alternate methods of participation with this age group and yet not slap the face of some of the most powerful people in the sporting world (I am not talking just the sport of weightlifting here either) at the same time.  Not a bad situation, if you ask me.  I think we can continue to promote our sport with various events, be it at the local or national level, to this age group, even though some may not be "sanctioned" by the USAW.  I will continue to train the little critters and see where and when we could get them into a competition, but then I guess I have a bit of an advantage, being that I get to select these athletes from an athletic development pool who are already training anyway.  Thank you for your inquiring and I hope this note finds you and your family doing well!

Your friend,

Andy

[Grant Gardis]

Mike:

Andy probably already knows my position on this, but I think the U13"s should be a 6 for 6 meet.  Let's combine the 6 lifts and come up with a total.  I would even say that if you go 4 for 6, that it would be considered a bomb out.  I believe that this will put the emphasis on technique and making lifts in competiton when it counts.  At the Schoolage Nationals, the U13 boys only made 70% of their lifts which for this age group I think is very bad.  There was some very bad technique exhibited and I think most of it was due to the fact that the weights were to heavy for the kids to do properly.  

The girls, by the way, only made 80% of their lifts which I also think is very poor.

[Mike Wittmer]

Andy, I think I understand where you are coming from.  I wish our elected representatives would make their reasoning known.  This issue is a double edged sword, it can cut both ways.  I know many kids that were ruined by a youth coach, and I'm not speaking about our sport.  However, if you are to have any success in sports in the later years, it seems imperative that you start young.

Grant, I don't think I could go with one missed lift disqualifying the lifter from the competition.  I could see counting four, five, or even all six of the attempts towards the total.  That might accomplish what you are after.

Jeff lifted in his first meet three months after his 11th birthday.  He asked to.  I don't know if he would have been interested in weightlifting as a sport if he had to wait until age 13 to compete.  Traveling to meets, meeting other kids and making friends, experiencing a little success, making progress, etc., it's all part of the development process.  

Personally, I think it's a mistake to exclude the kids.

[andy tysz]

Mike,

I agree with you, I, too, would like to see them start young and build a good foundation with which to improve on in later years.  Nothing is set in stone and not having an official national championships does not kill the pipeline.  Would it help?  I am sure it would, but a new beginner would not know the difference, they still get to compete in locals and regionals, which is a good thing and certainly better than nothing.  I think in time with a bit of smart lobbying and logical conversations, we shall have a proper meet to address this group.  The people who are reacting like the sky is falling are going a bit overboard.  Things will work out fine in the end.

Andy

[Grant Gardis]

Mike:

I also believe that you have to start the kids young.  I coach a kid that I started when he was 7 or 8.  And he has competed in a lot of meets.  In all the meets he has competed in, he has only missed 1 lift.   He to enjoys the traveling and meeting the other lifters and seeing how they are doing from meet to meet.  I don't have any problem with that.  I don't even have a problem with a National meet for them as long as it is a 6 for 6 format.  I will even host it if anyone is interested.  

We had a qualifying meet right before the School Age Nat. and I had a new kid who is 9 compete.  He had just started doing the lifts so I let him power clean and power snatch from the knee.  He made all 6 lifts and everyone cheered and clapped and you would have thought he won the Olympic Gold medal.  He is still cranked up about it and can't wait for the next one.  He had success.  Doesn't matter that he only lifted 5 and 7.5 kg.  

So I say  let the little ones lift.  Get them involved.  But do it properly and we will retain them longer and we will have better lifters.

[Michael Hartman]

I see a few problems with this issue.  

I think ideally every lifter under the age of 13 should attempt to go 6 for 6 at every meet.  I have also seen a few instances of lifters missing lifts with horrible form, but sometimes the weights or technique isn't an issue.  Sometimes kids (and adults) just get nervous when they walk out of the warm-up room and 100 people are staring at them.  To have a lifter bomb out by missing one lift because of nerves doesn't seem like the best idea.  I like the idea of total of the 6 lifts, and a miss would just count as 0kg for that attempt.  There is also the other issue of changing the rules, but thats probably for another post.

I also think there needs to be a more clear distinction between lifters aged 10 or younger, and those 12 or 13 years old.  At 13 I was in high school, and did not turn 14 until midway through my freshman year (December birthday).  I think most everyone agrees that a high school student should be able to participate at a national meet.

Which leads to another, unrelated problem.  Because of the small size of our sport there really isn't much in the way to look forward to besides the national meets.  For a lifter who is 11 or 12 years old, and has been playing other organized sport for a few years, there needs to be some type of competition and progression to keep them interested.  Quality local and regional meets are pretty sparse.  Most kids want and need to compete against other people, especially if they are use to playing in leagues or for teams that have a progression of local, state, regional, and in some cases national competiton of high quality.  I have always thought the AAU Jr. Olympics is a great meet for young lifters, its just a shame that it will be the only option.