I must training an 13 years old female player and I?

Netball CoachCoach

The adolescent years are delicate years in terms of trying to achieve holistic development of individuals. Netball is a late specialization sport and its advised that young adolescents are involved approximately 75% training to 25% competition which can be revised as the child develops. Very often younger people are exposed to too much competition much to the detriment of their physical and techincal developments. Overtraining, injury, staleness and loss of enthusiasm are possible results. Training should be varied, fun and challenging in order to promote confidence and motivation, two very important mental attributes at this stage in the young persons developments, which in turn contributes to the young females aspirations and enthusiasm for the sport. If these two attributes form part of the girls characteristics then there's a good chance she will remain in the sport and want to develop further. A solid physical and technical base helps lay foundations for future performances in training and competition, therefore physical conditioning and technical aspects of the sport are very important. Highly important at this stage of development is the social interactions the young female has the opportunity to be involved in. Im wondering how much of a say the young female involved has had in this. What path would she like to go down, netball or tennis? Again this is important in terms of her mental development because if she feels obliged to do for others chances are she may overtrain and or not remain in any sport activities at all- something everyone should strive to avoid. One last point is that around about this stage young adolescents with potential should begin to train some more on the required techniques, tactics and physical requirements that will contribute to their involvement in the sport at higher levels. Every adolescents rate of development will be different to the next. This indicates the requirement for the training principle of individualisation to be considered when development and training is being planned for. And as mentioned the individual should be included in their development process. Check out Balyi's long term athlete developoment model(Canada). The model should be considered as guidance about approximate stages of physical development which in turn may help with planning training and development. Being armed with information that the parents can be advised about which will help them consider options is best- but its vital the young adolescent has a say. Hope this helps. Karen