Training Management of the Elite Adolescent Soccer Player throughout Maturation

Abstract

Professional soccer clubs invest significantly into the development of their academy prospects with the hopes of producing elite players. Talented youngsters in elite development systems are exposed to high amounts of sports-specific practise with the aims of developing the foundational skills underpinning the capabilities needed to excel in the game. Yet large disparities in maturation status, growth-related issues, and highly-specialised sport practise predisposes these elite youth soccer players to an increased injury risk. However, practitioners may scaffold a performance monitoring and injury surveillance framework over an academy to facilitate data-informed training decisions that may not only mitigate this inherent injury risk, but also enhance athletic performance. Constant communication between members of the multi-disciplinary team enables context to build around an individual’s training status and risk profile, and ensures that a progressive, varied, and bespoke training programme is provided at all stages of development to maximise athletic potential.

Epidemiology of injuries in elite Women’s Artistic Gymnastics: a retrospective analysis of six seasons

“…This can be scientifically done by following the injury prevention sequence11 and thus promoting scientific projects on the most ‘relevant’ injuries (eg, growth-related apophysis/physis pathologies, bone injuries, knee injuries, ankle sprains) and developing injury prevention measures based on all available knowledge from previous and new scientific studies and experience of gymnastics athletes, coaches, athletes and health professionals. Focusing on growth-related pathologies and the specificity of the youth athlete in maturation seems relevant, probably by taking an example of other sports and approaches 20 21. It seems important that these injury prevention measures are co-constructed by all the stakeholders to improve their adherence and be multifactorial (physical, psychological and societal) to match the complex and multifactorial nature of injuries 22.…”

Special Issue “Talent Identification and Development in Youth Sports”

“…Furthermore, several studies included in our Special Issue suggest that future directions should consider longitudinal tracking of interacting factors [26], such as the quantity, quality, and type of practice during sport participation [27], as well as monitoring biological maturation [28,29], physical performance [30,31], technical skills [32], and psychological profiles [33,34]. Evaluating how stakeholders communicate and implement these theoretical findings into applied settings will also be important for future research to ensure they are adequately deployed (e.g., [35][36][37]). Finally, it is vital for future research to consider the contextual and methodological implications of COVID-19 in youth sport (see [38] for an overview), since the immediate, short-term, and the long-term impact of a global pandemic on the identification and development of young athletes remains relatively unknown and could have enduring consequences [39].…”

Training Load, Maturity Timing and Future National Team Selection in National Youth Basketball Players

“…Therefore, the frequent monitoring (i.e., daily to weekly) [ 5 ], including quantifying training load can support the adequate prescription of training load based on their tolerance, in order to enhance resilience to the demands of high-level training and competition, as occurs in national team setting [ 5 ]. Despite the training load monitoring based on RPE-derived variables has been particularly used considering maturity status (i.e., pubertal period) [ 20 ], recently this strategy has been suggested in post-pubertal period in order to mitigate the risk of injury [ 21 ], reinforcing its usefulness in “Load Sensitive” players, such as youth basketball national team players.…”