S&C in Youth Football

S&C in Youth Football

Strength training has been proven to significantly influence football performance. Improving power, speed, acceleration or agility translate to powerful shots, winning aerial duels or covering distances faster enabling players to perform for longer. While the benefits are well-established, do senior and youth football share similar S&C programs? Objectives, demands and structure might be the key to understanding the potential benefits and differences in youth football.

Training within youth football has different objectives; athletic and tactical/technical development is at the core of every session delivered. While research has provided evidence suggesting strength training is beneficial for the adolescence period, the objectives are somewhat different. Emphasis is placed on motor learning or developing foundational movement patterns improving coordination, joint stability, core strength and balance. Priority is placed on neuromuscular development, injury prevention and an overall educational approach to the demands of football. S&C sessions tend to consist of bodyweight exercises and agility drills, with higher repetitions/lower intensity loads.

While these attributes are essential to players’ foundational development in order to endure senior football’s physical load, it is shown to lack in football-specific strength mechanisms. Physical qualities such as deceleration while being challenged, sprinting with resistance, change of direction strength or hip and trunk strength (kicking or pivoting) are generally not the focus of youth football S&C programs. While coaches tend to focus on safety (avoiding stressors which could prevent growth or cause injury) and long-term athlete development, more often than not it is avoiding S&C overall due to outdated concerns, lack of knowledge or access to qualified practitioners, which become the risk factor. This delay could lead to undertrained youth players during key developmental windows, with particular emphasis on those youth footballers called upon to join their respective senior team. While their physical workload tends to be reduced in order to manage the first team’s microcycle, this could lead to a greater injury risk as the player is exposed to more challenging opponents without the physical tools to face them.

It is a well-known principle that effective training should address the actual match demands, thus the question is now where do these stand for youth football. Research suggests that match demands across players U13-U18 increase with age with a particular emphasis on high-intensity actions and positional differences although youth football across all ages has experienced an increase in relative internal load. There have also been indications of an increase in cognitive and fatigue factors throughout the second half of a match suggesting aerobic fitness and cognitive training (decision-making, reaction time) is needed.

While there is a clear indication that S&C application can benefit youth football, much less harm them, the key focus should be athletic development. The successful integration of both will have to come from educated coaches and practitioners, careful application of those strength principles as well as a continuous update on both current and future match demands and an optimal communication channel with the senior team. Last but not least, S&C research on youth football is primarily based on male data. Although key training elements are similar for both girls and boys, a structured program should address certain female-specific needs and risk as well as include educational content which will help battle confidence gaps, promote lifelong fitness habits and challenge gender stereotypes.