Developing a Youth Athlete: How to Juggle It All!
Image: Essendon AFL Captain & HAD Coach, Zach Merrett working with long-term HAD Clients.
Adolescence (ages 13–18 years) is a period of significant growth and physical development that includes changes in body composition, metabolic and hormonal fluctuations, and maturation of organ systems.[i] On top of these changes, we expect teenagers to juggle school, work, social and family commitments, and for those who are young athletes, an intense training load as they work towards achieving their dreams.
So how do we best support them? We have done the research and broken it down for you. We understand it’s a lot, so if you'd like to discuss it further or have us support your young athlete, we'd be happy to do so.
How much is too much?
We know your young athlete has big dreams, and with that ambition often comes an intense drive to train, hit the gym, run, and push themselves at every opportunity. It is fair to be concerned that they’re doing too much. Chances are, if they aren’t working with a Strength and Conditioning Coach or part of a structured talent program that manages their training load, they probably are!
It's important that you and your young athlete understand why managing their training load matters. Of course, it helps reduce the risk of overuse injuries like Primary Periphyseal Stress Injuries and Lumbar Stress Fractures, but it’s about more than just injury prevention. Proper load management requires your young athlete to rest, recover, and invest in their time away from their sport, which helps maintain their love for the game!
So how do we know if your young athlete is doing too much? And how do we manage a training load?
1. Maturity and Training Volume: Let physical maturity guide safe training volumes.
Chronological age is a long-outdated way to estimate training volume; instead, reflecting on their biological maturation is significantly better at estimating the appropriate volume of load. An athlete’s biological maturation is an estimation of the age of peak height velocity (PHV) or percentage of final estimated adult stature attainment (%EASA)[ii].
At HAD, our High-Performance team use metrics such as this to determine and inform training process’ and volume for our athletes; ensuring we are setting them up to develop and improve their target areas without increasing injury risk.
2.Sleep and Recovery: As load increases, so does the importance of recovery.
The key to efficient and effective exercise training is managing the training load with recovery. If training recovery is insufficient, stress can build up, resulting in maladaptation and performance loss. On the other hand, too much recovery can result in insufficient stress, little adaptation, and little performance gain[iii].
The amount of recovery required to allow optimal restitution of bodily functions depends on the athlete’s maturity, physiology, past training load, psychosocial, and psychological profile[iv]. In general, however, the evidence is proven time and time again: more sleep = better athletes. Research dictates that athletes who maintain good sleep habits (≥8 hrs/night and of a high sleep quality) are less likely to suffer with elevated stress levels iii, allowing them to recover and perform better… so yes, we do generally recommend letting your young athletes sleep in that extra hour on the weekend!
At HAD, our Recovery Coach works in tandem with our High-Performance manager to ensure our athletes are getting the perfect individualised balance of training load and recovery, allowing them to reach their optimal performance each week.
Contact us to find out more!
3. Nutrition: Fuel must match the training load for performance and growth.
Adolescence is an important time in establishing an athlete’s lifelong relationship with food, which is particularly important in terms of the connection between diet, exercise, and body image i. It is imperative that you, as a parent/guardian/support person to a youth athlete, emphasise the importance of eating patterns, food (all food!), and fuelling their body to ensure they fulfil their potential as an athlete, and as an individual who is juggling the stress of school, sport, work, social commitments and family.
Elite sport comes with an increase in self-reflection and comparison to others, and as a result, disturbed eating behaviours and body dissatisfaction i, so the value of building a positive relationship with food cannot be undervalued. Our HAD athletes are provided personalised guidance from our Dietitian. She provides our clients with meal plans, advice on what to eat, and when (i.e. before, during and after games, trainings etc.) and educates them about the benefits of fuelling their body.
Additionally, our Wellbeing Manager supports our athletes with their wellbeing, sense of self, and relationship with food, and educates our clients on how to better focus on their own development rather than comparing themselves to others. If this sounds like the support your young athlete would need or want, we would love to hear from you!
4.Psychosocial wellbeing: Athletes who feel good inside, perform better outside.
Research suggests that belonging to a sporting community can strongly support and promote the wellbeing of young people[v]. Improved mental health outcomes, such as lower depressive and anxiety symptoms and improved life satisfaction, have been observed among youth who participate in sports[vi],[vii].
However, participation in elite and semi-elite sport can bring added pressure to perform, and athletes experiencing wellbeing challenges are likely to see these reflected in their on-field performance.
Research on youth AFL participants in the Talent League suggests that mental wellbeing may present differently among athletes compared to the general population. With expectations to develop both on and off the field, while balancing performance pressures alongside the demands of education and sport, it is unsurprising that young athletes’ wellbeing profiles diverge from their peers. Additionally, this research highlighted that young male athletes tend to report higher levels of wellbeing relative to young female athletes[viii] - a finding that is consistent with a vast evidence base[ix],[x] - highlighting the need for tailored, individualised support rather than “one size fits all”.
At HAD, we understand that every young athlete is unique, which is why we take a one-size-fits-one approach. Our Wellbeing Manager and staff recognise the mental health challenges that come with performing in high-pressure environments while striving for excellence and preparing for professional sport. We take a holistic view of development, where psychosocial wellbeing is just as important as physical performance.
By building trusting relationships with our athletes, we provide specialised support that strengthens their mental resilience and ensures they can thrive both on and off the field.
Next Step: Helping Your Young Athlete Rest, Refuel, and Unwind
So how do you convince your young athlete to rest, refuel, and switch off from their sport? Ask them to reflect on their favourite player, do they train every day? Do they prioritise sleep? Do they prioritise time away from their sport? Do they prioritise hobbies and their own wellbeing? Do they fuel their body for game day and for fun? Do they find time for fun, family, and friends? Do they find ways to learn and educate themselves in their interest areas outside of their sport?
The answer to those questions… YES.
Encouraging your athlete to take breaks, eat well, and recover isn’t about slowing them down; it’s about helping them get stronger, perform better, and enjoy the journey.
Show them that recovery is part of the game, not a break from it. Build routines around sleep, proper nutrition, and downtime, and make it clear that rest is just as important as training. If you need extra support, our team, including our Wellbeing Manager, High-Performance Manager, Dietitian, and Recovery Coach, can provide tailored guidance for your young athlete to reach their full potential.
Contact us to learn more about how we can help support your young athlete.
References
[i] Desbrow, B. Youth Athlete Development and Nutrition. Sports Med 51 (Suppl 1), 3–12 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-021-01534-6
[ii] Towlson C, Salter J, Ade JD, Enright K, Harper LD, Page RM, Malone JJ. Maturity-associated considerations for training load, injury risk, and physical performance in youth soccer: One size does not fit all. J Sport Health Sci. 2021 Jul;10(4):403-412. doi: 10.1016/j.jshs.2020.09.003. Epub 2020 Sep 19. PMID: 32961300; PMCID: PMC8343060.
[iii] Hamlin MJ, Deuchrass RW, Olsen PD, Choukri MA, Marshall HC, Lizamore CA, Leong C and Elliot CA (2021) The Effect of Sleep Quality and Quantity on Athlete's Health and Perceived Training Quality. Front. Sports Act. Living 3:705650. doi: 10.3389/fspor.2021.705650
[iv] Bishop, P. A., Jones, E., and Woods, A. K. (2008). Recovery from training: a brief review: brief review. J. Strength Cond. Res. 22, 1015–1024. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e31816eb518
[v] Eime RM, Young JA, Harvey JT, Charity MJ, Payne WR. A systematic review of the psychological and social benefits of participation in sport for children and adolescents: informing development of a conceptual model of health through sport. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. (2013) 10(1):1–21. doi: 10.1186/1479-5868-10-1
[vi] Blomfield C, Barber B. Australian Adolescents’ extracurricular activity participation and positive development: is the relationship mediated by peer attributes? Austr J Educ Develop Psychol. (2010) 10:114–28.
[vii] Oberle E, Ji XR, Guhn M, Schonert-Reichl KA, Gadermann AM. Benefits of extracurricular participation in early adolescence: associations with peer belonging and mental health. J Youth Adolesc. (2019) 48:2255–70. doi: 10.1007/s10964-019-01110-2
[viii] Couston N, Hoare E and Hall K (2024) Promoting mental wellbeing among youth Australian Rules footballers through a model of continuous improvement. Front. Sports Act. Living 6:1189933. doi: 10.3389/fspor.2024.1189933
[ix] Batz C, Tay L. Gender Differences in Subjective Well-Being. Handbook of Well-Being. Salt Lake City, UT: DEF Publishers (2018).
[x] Stronge S, Overall NC, Sibley CG. Gender differences in the associations between relationship status, social support, and wellbeing. J Fam Psychol. (2019) 33(7):819. doi: 10.1037/fam0000540