Helping An Athlete Mature

John Shepherd shares his experiences of coaching youngsters through substantial physiological changes as they develop and grow

- John Shepherd

Aa a coach, I know first hand how frustrating it can be to have athletes with Severs, Osgood-Schlatters, sprained ankles, ACL repair, and other soft tissue problems. Then there’s growth spurts and maturation and all that entails in terms of stress on the skeleton and coordinative level of the athlete.

Here, I hope to shed some light on helping to coach your developing charges through this difficult period.

Injury is an ever-present threat for athletes of all ages. However, I have found that you can condition many of the common ones – hamstring, back and Achilles – away. Specific pre-conditioning exercises need to be a regular feature of the young and maturing athlete’s training, while that athlete also needs to be skilled in how to perform their event.

Injury rates and young athletes

Through over 15 years of coaching, I have had to deal with my fair share of injuries. I believe that understanding what happens when an athlete goes through the maturation process is important so that a coach can gain a grasp of why things occur – and be in a better position to handle any issues.

Of course, some injuries are out of the coach’s control – I have a young athlete who ruptured her ACL playing hockey. However, it was in part down to me to return her to full multi-event athletics condition once the surgeon and physio had given the all-clear.

I used my accumulated knowledge and asked questions to put into practice a “return to competition” plan.

Could this be learned on a course? Potentially. However, so much comes down to “feeling”, to accumulated knowledge and knowing how to progress rehab.