Training The Young Athlete
At The Underground Strength Gym we train athletes ranging in age from 11 years old through college and sometimes beyond college (if they still have the eye of the tiger).
With my focus being on the training of wrestlers, I often times get a lot of e mails from a concerned parent who is confused as to when they can begin “training”. To the typical parent, they view training as doing things such as back squats, deadlifts, bench press, curls, etc.
For the parents who take my advice, such as what I give in the video below, their child ALWAYS ends up becoming a better athlete. Pay attention and spread the word. Our young athletes of today are the potential superstar athletes of tomorrow.
Check the Video Below…
Don’t shut off your mind just because this video was geared towards youth wrestlers. In essence, it is geared towards ALL youth athletes.
With my background of 11 years teaching Elementary Physical Education and spending many years coaching youth wrestling, the training we do HERE, in the states, is WAY behind the times compared to overseas athletes.
The schools in the town I worked for threw away ALL their gymnastics equipment, removed climbing ropes and several schools even removed monkey bars, parallel bars and playground equipment.
The next Underground Strength Gym will be revamped and larger so I can commit to training young athletes the RIGHT way. I will have an entire section of the gym portioned off for training youth and it’s time to take The Underground Strength Gym to the next level! Working for the schools didn’t work, so I went out on my own, to teach REAL Physical Education.
Question For You: If you want me to take this article / video even further, please drop a comment below. If you have any other areas you want me to tackle for future blog videos / articles, drop a comment. I’m ON it!
In Strength,
–Z–
Recommended Resources:
The Underground Strength Coach Certification
The Underground Strength System
Kettlebell Training for Athletes
Wrestling Strength Secrets FREE Course
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Filed under Articles, Q & A, Strength Building, Success, Underground Strength Show, Videos by on Dec 20th, 2010. Comment. 
Comments on Training The Young Athlete
Good Stuff! I think for any parent looking to develope their child and nuture their child’s desire to compete should take your Mantra phrase seriously, “Lead from the front.”
If they see you doing it they will do it. Good and bad things!
You might not want to wrestle, but many of these training techniques work well for the individual looking to stay healthy.
I have family members get on my case about having my boys (3 & 5yo) lifting stones, doing push ups, flipping tires and pulling their electric cars. (Actually we put that on our Xmas card and we had some comments) They see me doing all that and they copy me. Could be worse! It isn’t a workout (although they call it one) because they do what they want to do and when they stop they’re done. Engaging them in physical activity at a young age will only help them. It builds confidence and both mental/physical strength. Having nephews that are older you can see the difference.
Turn off the idiot box! Throw the video games in the garbage! And take Zach’s advice-”Lead from the front!”
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Z,
I agree with you totally !! Kids need to be kids
and do other things and just be a 11 year old
kid. Gymnastics is probally THE BEST activity
any young athlete could do !! Any sport needs
to be accompanied with strength to really get
optimial performance.
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Very True, Hope A Lot Of Parents Get To see this Video
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It’s so sad the state of physical culture in the states has declined the way it has. Everyone seems to misinterpret “training” and my favorite word, “fitness”, as something it is not and unfortunately this has lead to the obesity epidemic we have. When I was young the playgrounds, nevermind the school gymnasiums, were littered with rope ladders, monkey bars, and parallel bars. Nowadays everything has to be “safe” so the kids won’t hurt themselves. I say F#CK THAT!! I allude to one of my favorite articles u wrote Zach, “The Pussification of America” — classic and profound. Not for anything but it definitely deserves a re-post.
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Dustin, NO doubt brutha, my kids love being active b/c they see my wife and I always being active.
Makes it easy to show them how it’s done!!!
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Franco, ha ha, I will repost that article fo sho, that one struck a nerve that’s for sure!
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Here in UK our government tried to axe all funding for school sports, but this provoked such an outcry that they’ve had to do a partial u-turn.
It’s a shame that so few governments are prepared to lead from the front when it comes to the health and fitness of the nation.
Have a great Christmas Zach!
Dom
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Awesome post, there is so much mis-information and confusion about how/when to “train” kids. Totally agree with letting kids be kids and having an “off-season” to prevent burn-out! Heck, I would say most would really benefit from their training being less “work” and more “play”! Athleticism is all about using your body!
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Yeah I think this is a good point in general, not just for the kids although they do tend to have less patience and “stickiness” to workouts. So I definitely believe some diversity is needed everywhere, not so much that you change the complete workout every week but change things up so YOU’RE waiting for your next workout, the WORKOUT is not waiting for you.
The gymnastic rings, KB, if it’s a nice weather it’s cool to just take off and do some parkour, it’s cool if you put kids in a park on some of those climbing things they have and just tell them to chase each other, I really love the idea of like 5 min streetball warmup, if the court is near the park with some simple accessories like the rope, it’s gonna be a fun full body workout.
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Awesome post, there is so much misinformation and confusion about how and when to “train” children. Totally agree with letting children be children and having a “low season” to avoid burnout! Heck, I’d say really benefit from their training is less “work” and more “game”! Atletico has to do with your body! nose huggie review
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