A junior athlete's biggest weapon is their availability. If your athlete consistently attends training and games they are going to have a massive leg up on competitors.
It's going to help tremendously when scouts are looking for players to select and also help massively with their development. The more hours they're on the field playing their sport and developing physically, the better they are going to be in the long run. That sounds all good, but the question is how do they get there? And the answer is, with recovery.
If you are able to recover properly between each training or game, this will pave the way for continuous improvement. However, if you are turning up to training lethargic and sore then the amount of information you can take in and process becomes less and less, and the amount of improvement you can make only diminishes. There is no improvement without recovery.
Recovery encompasses a lot of key aspects and is a major selling point by many companies, now promising quicker recovery times with their compression garments, cryotherapy, massage guns and sport supplements. However, these tools only become beneficial once you have nailed down the major pillars of recovery. These are nutrition, hydration, sleep, stress management and movement.
Nutrition
- Ensuring you are eating plenty of protein and high-quality foods and limiting the amount of heavily processed and sugary foods is critical. Especially after games and trainings when your body is looking for nutrients to help you recover, high sugar and processed foods cause your body to go into a state of inflammation. When you are in this state, your body uses energy to try flush out ad eliminate this waste, and so your recovery time is only going to increase. Eat plenty of fresh and "real" foods including fruit, vegetables, meat, milk, whole rains etc and try to stay away from the middle section of the supermarket where all the heavily processed foods are.
Hydration
- Many young athletes are living in a constant state of hydration and find themselves having to reach for their bottles and drink it all at once. This shouldn't be the case when you are in your day to day life. There should not be stages where you are so thirsty you must down yoru water all at once.
- When you are in a state of dehydration, your body will pull water away from less important areas such as muscles, ligaments, skin to help protect vital organs. Additionally, water helps break down foods and carry nutrients to the appropriate sites for recovery. The recommendation for most people will be around 2.5 litres of water per day and on days where you are more physically active, more will be needed.
Sleep
- Sleep is the best legal performance enhancing drug out there. The positive effects of a good night's sleep and the negative effects of a bad night's sleep cannot be understated. when you sleep, your body produces hormones which aid in your body's recovery. Two hormones which are produced are called human growth hormone and prolactin. Human growth hormone helps with the healing of muscles and tissues and prolactin helps with the reduction of inflammation. If you are not sleeping enough, you are not going to recover quickly. It is recommended that teenagers get between 8-10 hours of sleep a night, the current average is around 6.5-7.
Stress Management
- Stress has a massive negative effect on your ability to recover, and not just in the sense that when you are stressed, you're far less likely to be doing the correct things that aid in recovery such as eating healthy, socialising, exercising and sleeping but also physiologically.
- When you are overly stressed, your body produces a hormone called cortisol, which is useful during times of temporary low-level stresses. However when prolonged this will have a negative effect on inflammation and healing. Youth athletes wo have higher levels and frequency of stress (anxiety, anger, etc) will experience longer recovery times.
Movement
- Movement is medicine. The more you move, the more blood flow is promoted, which brings vital nutrients to your muscles, joints, tendons and ligaments. This will improve recovery times and reduce swelling. Now for what type of movement, this doesn't really matter, whether you enjoy swimming, cycling, running, walking or just running with your dog outside. Just get outside and move!!
At Inner Athlete we have been able to apply this most successfully with our swimmers as they have a very hectic training and and life schedule. Most notably with one of our swim/lifesaving athletes, where using the above tips, they were able to break through a lot of plateaus in their training and improve on their race performances. By introducing these strategies into their routine during the holidays they will be more likely to remain as part of their schedule now coming back into school where there are increases stressors and less time to relax.
For more information on strength and conditioning for youth athletes and increasing your sports performance, check out our website and podcast (available on Spotify and YouTube!).
Matt Hucul
Strength and Conditioning Coach
Inner Athlete - Bayside's premium strength and conditioning coaching for youth athletes
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