Research articles

Training for young team athletes: What should be taken into consideration for optimal development?

October 28, 2024

🇳🇴 Summary in Norwegian

Lars M. Tingelstad
Norwegian School of Sport Sciences

During puberty, young athletes experience significant physical, psychological, and identity-related changes that affect both training and participation. The period of fastest growth is called peak height velocity (PHV), and it is also during this time that we see the most rapid development in physical performance due to growth, hormonal changes, muscle growth, and neural adaptations. However, there are large individual differences in when this period occurs and the extent of development. This significantly impacts the physical performance level of athletes in a given age group, leading to considerable discrepancies. It is crucial to be aware of this in order to adapt training and load based on the athlete’s maturation status, ensuring optimal physical development and reducing the risk of injury.

The doctoral project PLAY included 471 young football and handball players to take a closer look at how physical performance develops during puberty, with a particular focus on sex and age group differences among young team sport athletes. One key finding was that boys already from early age outperformed girls in physical performance, and also had a more pronounced development compared to the girls. Another important finding was the considerable individual variation in both performance and development across all groups. This indicates that there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to training for young athletes. Instead, the findings emphasize the importance of tailoring training programs that account for individual differences in growth, maturation, and motivation.

A balanced training program that considers individual differences in growth and maturation, alongside injury prevention measures, can reduce the risk of injuries and promote long-term development. Especially for girls, early strength training can help reduce the performance gap with boys. However, more research is needed on the long-term effects of training load on development and injury risk to better understand how to best facilitate training and development during adolescence.

Download Tingelstad’s article in Norwegian

LARS M. TINGELSTAD is a PhD student in sports science at the Department of Physical Performance (IFP) at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences. His doctoral project investigated sex and age differences in the longitudinal development of physical performance among adolescent team sport athletes (football and handball), as well as sex and age differences in training load. His primary research interests are physical training and performance, growth and maturation among youth, and training load, with a particular focus on team sports. He also has many years of experience as a strength and conditioning coach for a top women’s team in Norway.