The Club Sports Dilemma

I want to start by saying that I am a HUGE fan of youth sports. They provide an opportunity for kids to learn life lessons in a controlled environment while taking care of their physical and mental health. Additionally, I think club sports can be awesome. It gives kids more access to the sport they love with higher levels of coaching (hopefully) than they might get at their school. That said, there are a myriad of issues that club sports present. The one I want to focus on pertains to holistic athlete development.

Many of these club sports organizations are highly structured, well run, lucrative businesses. They have a bevy of offerings that appeal to families of different levels of skill and commitment. With the amount of programs they offer comes a higher amount of the kid’s extracurricular time spent on that sport. Again, I am all for kids practicing and playing their sport. The rub for me is that if the club starts to monopolize the kid’s time, there isn’t any opportunity to develop the second most important aspect of their athletic toolbox; their body. The most important is their mind.

I have been a part of dozens of conversations throughout my career with club coaches who give some version of this feedback to one of their players: “You need to spend more time in the weight room”. At the same time, they are getting on the kid for not showing up to the 4th and 5th practice or skill development session of that week. When is the kid supposed to get to the gym within the context of their other life priorities? There has been a solution to this problem that has existed since the 1960’s. It is called periodization.

In laymen’s terms, periodization means that the athlete’s training ebbs and flows so that different portions of the year are spent on developing different aspects of their athleticism so they can be optimally prepared for the competitions that matter most. With this current club sports set up, there is no periodization. There is just “a lot” and “more” of that sport. This seems obvious but if the athlete doesn’t take the time to work out and get their body stronger and faster, how are they going to get stronger and faster?

Many families who participate in club sports aspire to have their kid play in college. If that’s the ultimate goal, let’s look at what a college athlete’s periodization looks like for a spring sport:

-September-December (Off-season): 2-3 team practices or skill sessions per week. 3-4 lifts per week. Full course load. 1 or 2 scrimmages in total during these months.

-December-January (Winter break): 0 team practices/week. Skill development on their own. 3-5 lifts/week. Zero course load.

-January-February (Pre-season): 3-5 team practices/skill sessions. 2-3 lifts. Full course load.

-January-May (In-season) 5-6 team practices/games. 1-2 shorter lifts or recovery work outs. Full course load.

-June (Summer break): 0 team practices. 2-4 weeks of legitimate rest. Reduced focus on sport. Some skill development.

-July-August (Summer break): 0 team practices. Maybe a summer league game 1-2x per week. Skill development on their own. 3-5 lifts per week. Focus on jobs/internships/other college kid stuff.

Notice that the only time they are playing their sport 5-6 days/week is in-season. The rest of the year has some balance of strength and conditioning, sport, and rest. There is natural reduction and increase in different types of stresses on the athlete.

If college sports is the final destination for so many youth athletes and this is their periodization model under professional coaches whose job it is to get their players and team better, how does it make any sense to have middle school and high school kids playing their sport 4, 5, 6, 7 days/week for most weeks of the year?

Why is this happening? After all, sports clubs don’t have mind control powers. I don’t have a solid answer but one hypothesis is that the athletes and their families have a fear of falling behind. For example, “If I don’t do X offering by the club, I won’t have as good of a chance to achieve X”. Or, “Everyone is else doing X so I have to do X to keep up”. I think everyone reading this understands that feeling and it is totally normal. That said, it doesn’t mean that this line of thinking works for the long term holistic development of the athlete.

My advice: Have youth athletes have some appropriate form of periodization. Make sure there is time allocated to strength and conditioning to fortify their body and develop their athleticism so they can play longer, better, and tougher. Play different sports to get their body moving in different ways and be exposed to different coaching/team dynamics. If they don’t want to play another sport - have them do Olympic Weightlifting as their second sport 😎. Seriously, it develops mobility, strength, power, coordination, timing, body awareness, focus, and toughness.

As always, I appreciate you guys very much. Club sports parents - I care about you and want what’s best for your kids.

Best of luck with your training today!

With Thanks,