How To Develop A Youth Athlete: What To Focus On At Every Age
One of my most frequently asked questions is, Coach, what should I be focusing on at each age with my athlete? Sports parents are wondering how often should their athlete be practicing and training, if they should be in private lessons, or should they be focused more on skill development or maybe athleticism? And when is it time to start strength training? Sports parents are constantly searching for the next thing they should be doing to help their athletes succeed. But what your athlete should be working on depends on multiple factors. Today, we're going to walk through the three stages of youth athlete development.What you're focus should be at each stage and how to help your athlete become the best athlete they possibly can be real stories real insight real talk about what it takes to reach the next level this is the next level athletes podcast with nate daniels Welcome to the Next Level Athletes Podcast.
I'm Coach Nate Daniels, and today I'm sharing the roadmap I use to help sports parents understand exactly what matters most at every stage of their athlete's development. Let's get into it. youth athletic development in three stages. And to be clear, when I say youth athlete, I'm referring to athletes before they get to the high school level, roughly 13, 14 and below. Every stage has a purpose.And if you understand that purpose, you'll make much better decisions for your athlete at each stage of development. Stage one is the foundational stage. That's from ages approximately two to five. Now, I know when you hear two, you're thinking, what could you possibly be doing with a two-year-old or two or three-year-olds even considered after?
Yes, they are considered athletes because that is setting this foundation for everything that will come after. But when we're in that stage, what we're trying to focus on is helping these kids fall in love with the game, fall in love with sports. And that will include things just sprinting, jogging, jumping. throwing a ball, catching a ball, nothing that's overly regimented.At this stage, you're just trying to have an absolute blast. It's not a bunch of regiment. It's not a bunch of structure, but you want these kids so in love and so looking forward to playing their sport or practicing their sport with you that they can't wait. That can include little palm ball basketballs that they're trying to dribble, challenging them. How many times can you dribble it?
Three or four times, five times, help them to be competitive with themselves so they want to get better. At this stage, two to five years old, you're not trying to create a super athlete or some elite athlete. You're trying to create.a kid that loves movement, loves to be active, loves to play sports, because that foundation will set up everything that's coming after. Stage number two is what I call the educational stage. It's from ages six to approximately nine years old. This is the stage where you begin to teach the fundamentals, techniques, and strategies it takes to be good at their respective sport. Also, this is the ages where competitiveness becomes a part of what these athletes will be taking on each day when they get to the field or court.
A lot of times in ages three, four, five, these leagues won't even keep score. They definitely don't keep standings, but now they do.And kids need to be taught, competitiveness needs to be embraced, and competitiveness needs to be rewarded. You want kids trying to do the best that they can do. You want them to practice as hard as they can practice. You want them to play as hard as they can play. And this is also where structure begins to take hold in the household as far as practicing. You need to implement some type of structure, and that structure doesn't have to be over the top. It could be as simple as, hey, we're going to go to the basketball court Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
We'll work on ball handling and shooting on Monday and Wednesday, and on Friday we'll talk about defense and rebounding.This child will begin to understand if I want to be good at this sport, it's going to take consistency and it's going to take routine in order for them to fulfill that potential. Now, some athletes at this age will even start playing travel sports. Travel athletes are beginning to get younger and younger. But regardless of whether your child is in travel or at the rec stage. Structure needs to take place at this age and you need to be at the forefront of helping lead them and guide them so they know exactly what that means. At this age and stage, you are at the forefront of structuring their practice routines outside of practice.
You are teaching them how to practice and how to train.important, how to take care of their bodies, how to eat right. All of this is an effort to build a great foundation for all of the stages to come. Remember, At this age, we're not trying to create a professional athlete. They are not professionals. We're building a strong foundation and habits for what's to come. The final stage in youth athletic development is stage three. I call it the separation stage. It's from approximately ages 10 to 13, 14-ish. Now, I call this the separation stage because during this time, families and athletes have decided and made a decision that, hey, I want to try to maximize my athletic potential. I enjoy this.I've shown some type of prowess or some type of ability in it.
And now we want to try to be as good as we can, because like I'll advise. every youth athlete and every sports parent we want to have these kids as close to varsity ready as possible when they walk on that high school campus now every athlete will not be ready when they get to the high school level. But that still should be our goal, because if there's an opportunity to play early, we want to be ready to take advantage of that opportunity. In order to do that between these 10 to 13, 14 years, we have to become more intentional with our training. We have to have more structure. higher expectations.If you've laid the foundations correctly at stage one and two and your child loves the game and wants to be as good as they possibly can be, at this stage, you no longer should have to beg or make your child train or work out.
They should have self-motivation to want to be able to do that and they should be vested.in this training process meaning by this stage they can even do some workouts on their own they can hit balls in the cage on their own they can take a soccer ball and do workouts on their own by 12 13 years old now you're still there for support you're still there for guidance they should have a vested interest in this process even to a point where they're writing out their own workouts. They're asking you to go to the ball field to train with them, not the other way around.At this stage, one of the emphasis should be athleticism and developing your athlete physically so when they get to the high school level, they're ready to take on that challenge, polishing their technical skill and also...
preparing them mentally, their mental toughness and resilience, so they're ready to take on that challenge when they get to the high school level. Now, whether they play varsity as a freshman depends on a multitude of factors. The personnel when they get there, the opportunity that would be available, coaching philosophy, and more. But regardless of what happens, we want to do everything we can to be physically, mentally, and fundamentally ready to take advantage of whatever opportunities are there.I want to emphasize at this stage, the athlete should be leading the way. When they were three and four, it's different. When they're seven and eight, it's different. But at 13 and 14, you should no longer be leading the way.
have to lead the way and motivate them they should be self-motivated there's nothing wrong with a little bit of encouragement but by this stage if they are not showing initiative that is a conversation that you guys need to have to understand exactly why or why not your youth athlete taking ownership of this journey is so important because by the time an athlete reaches high school, that ownership and individual initiative and drive to get better becomes one of the biggest indicators of how serious they are and how good they ultimately will be.Because by the time an athlete reaches high school, that ownership and individual initiative and drive to get better becomes one of the biggest indicators of how serious they are and if they're going to be able to ultimately reach their full potential.
If you want to know what it actually takes for your athlete to succeed at the next level, I put together a free training video on the Next Level Athlete Success Formula. In this free training, I'm sharing the proven formula behind what it actually takes to separate average athletes from elite performers. It's the roadmap every athlete needs to stand out and level up. If your athlete has big goals. This is where you start.Access to training for free at the link in the show notes. This is real talk from the sidelines, real questions from real sports parents. If you'd like your question answered on a future episode, send me a voice note. The link is in the show notes. This week's question comes from Chris in Georgia. Hey, Coach.
My son is a nine-year-old baseball player who plays travel baseball. He's not the best player on the team, but he's a solid contributor in the field and at the plate. So it feels like every kid on his travel team is taking private lessons two or three times a week in addition to team practices, which are twice a week.So should we be doing the same thing to help him keep up with his teammates or should we be focusing on something else? Appreciate any advice you can share on how to best support his development. Thanks. This is a great question, Chris, and you are correct. By 9 and 10 years old, there are a lot of athletes getting individual lessons and training sessions because they've shown a love for the game and they've showed a desire to want to get better.
And like I'll tell any athlete and any sports parent, we get good at what we spend time doing. So the more reps that we get, the more instruction that we get, the more that we're going to progress and develop.But whether you get individual sessions for your child depend on two main factors for me. One, does your child truly have a love, desire and passion to get better? Because if they don't have a true love, desire, and passion to get better, individual sessions are unnecessary. And secondly, the financial component. Individual sessions are tremendously expensive, especially over a duration of time. But if your child has a strong passion for the game. And finances are not the question.
Absolutely recommend by the age of nine years old, even eight years old, individual training sessions, whether it be for technical and fundamental development for the respective sport or developing athleticism, whether it be strength and conditioning, speed and agility work, or anything that will help develop a young athlete's overall athleticism. how they move, and how they can apply force. I hope that helps. Now that we've discussed what your athletes should be focusing on at each stage, here's what I want you to remember. Don't skip the process. Youth athletic development is a marathon, not a sprint.And one of the biggest mistakes I see with sports parents is trying to make... Each stage go faster than it should, or even skipping stages, trying to make a four-year-old a professional or a college athlete.
That's not what should be occurring at those younger ages. Each stage is just as important as the next. The foundation is critical for ultimate athletic performance.and athletic development and i get it parents we all want what's best for our children we all want them to develop to be the best they possibly can be but give them an opportunity to develop all kids don't develop at the same pace or the same level and we're not trying to build the best six or seven year old athlete We're trying to help them be the best athlete they can be at full athletic maturity. Here's what I want you to take away about how youth athletic development works. There isn't a single camp or a series of private lessons or a travel team out there that's going to determine what type of athlete your child ultimately becomes.
Great athletes are developed over time.One rep, one practice, one season at a time. Every stage of development has a purpose. So don't rush through one stage trying to get to the next because every stage is preparing your athlete for what's to come. One of the biggest advantages you can give your athlete isn't more games, more tournaments, or more private lessons. It's having a plan, which includes... understanding where your athlete is today, knowing what they should be focusing on right now to reach their next level and trusting the development process. Remember, development isn't about doing more. It's about doing the right things at the right time. Sports parents, if this episode was helpful, subscribe and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform.Every review helps more sports families find the show. I'm Nate Daniels. This is the Next Level Athletes podcast. See you on the next one. Welcome to the next level.
