The “five Ss” of trainability and performance are critical periods of development that all youth strength and conditioning coaches should consider when creating a training program. Coaches should take advantage of each window to maximize a youth athlete’s potential and help ensure a long athletic career.

It is important for coaches to understand the relationship between commonly measured variables (e.g., displacement, velocity, and force) and their relationship to the derived variable of power.

Elite sport often gets more attention, but youth training gives strength and conditioning coaches an earlier chance to build athletes’ competence and confidence. Kelli Brightwell specializes in youth development and brings more than a decade of sports training experience, including four years at Michael Johnson Performance. Brightwell defines peak height velocity as the period during which height increases fastest. She then explains why its timing can differ among teammates of the same age. So what should strength coaches test, and what do the results mean? The answer changes with each athlete’s maturity and training experience. Brightwell addresses the growth-spurt “awkward phase,” when familiar movement patterns can break down as an athlete adjusts to a changing body. She also considers how sport sampling can expand children’s range of physical skills and help them discover what they enjoy. Learn how maturation can affect movement, testing, and programming — and why young athletes need foundations before specialization.

This article in NSCA Coach discusses how machine-based testing can be used to gather data and improve training. Visit NSCA online to learn more on sports science and exercise research.

This article applies LTAD principles to guide the process of generating an athletic profile (part 1) and sample program design (part 2) for a middle school athlete and a high school athlete.

This second article of a two-part series continues the discussion of long-term athletic development (LTAD). This article provides practical application of the LTAD principles by examining two sample programs.

The administration and measurement of youth power development has become more available and familiar with the advances of technology. This excerpt introduces varieties of testing and administration practices to assess power in the youth population.

This article seeks to provide some insight to optimal biomechanics in running technique and why normal gravitational techniques may not suit tactical athletes while load-bearing.

This excerpt from Developing Power explains how to use bands for variable resistance training.

This article demonstrates how strength and conditioning coaches can coach power through non-traditional weightlifting exercises that can be taught quickly, to large groups, with less extensive technique correction.