Sports Training Is Different From Adult Fitness
The fitness world certainly has changed radically in the last 15 years.
It is crazy to think that back when I first started coaching back then there were really no ‘small gyms’ to speak of. Your options were to go to a big gym and train on your own, hire a personal trainer who often worked out of their home, or hire a trainer at your gym (but very few did that as I recall).
Today?
It feels like we have a gym on almost every street corner. It is getting to the Starbucks/Dunkin Donuts level of saturation.
Most of these facilities cater to adult fitness, but there are also many like ours that focus more on athletic development for ages 18 and under.
At first glance we appear to be very much the same service.
- The equipment is roughly the same.
- We do lots of similar drills.
- We sweat, grunt, and yell a lot.
To the general population the idea that ‘fitness is fitness’ seems quite prevalent today.
But here’s the thing that I strongly believe is being seriously overlooked….
Athletic development training has more differences than it does similarities with adult training.
Unfortunately that doesn’t mean kids are always getting a different service. Too often we see the exact same programs used for adults that are just marketed towards kids. Or you’re seeing a slightly watered down training, but not one that takes into account the vast differences between the needs of the two populations.
The differences do not always stand out, but they are critical if you are at all interested in doing right by kids who train.
The fitness world certainly has changed radically in the last 15 years.
It is crazy to think that back when I first started coaching back then there were really no ‘small gyms’ to speak of. Your options were to go to a big gym and train on your own, hire a personal trainer who often worked out of their home, or hire a trainer at your gym (but very few did that as I recall).
Today?
It feels like we have a gym on almost every street corner. It is getting to the Starbucks/Dunkin Donuts level of saturation.
Most of these facilities cater to adult fitness, but there are also many like ours that focus more on athletic development for ages 18 and under.
At first glance we appear to be very much the same service.
- The equipment is roughly the same.
- We do lots of similar drills.
- We sweat, grunt, and yell a lot.
To the general population the idea that ‘fitness is fitness’ seems quite prevalent today.
But here’s the thing that I strongly believe is being seriously overlooked….
Athletic development training has more differences than it does similarities with adult training.
Unfortunately that doesn’t mean kids are always getting a different service. Too often we see the exact same programs used for adults that are just marketed towards kids. Or you’re seeing a slightly watered down training, but not one that takes into account the vast differences between the needs of the two populations.
The differences do not always stand out, but they are critical if you are at all interested in doing right by kids who train.
Having been in the industry for almost two decades while working with both sides, I see 10 major differences in getting the most out of training between adults and younger athletes.
