SPEED WINDOWS

As a short recap to the last blog:

There are certain times during the body’s maturation that the biological sciences have shown that we can help enhance certain aspects of a child’s physical nature.

We call these “windows of opportunity” or “gates” that open and are prepared to be optimized. From the physical standpoint, there are speed, mobility, kinesthetic and vestibular awareness, endurance, strength and power windows. Mentally, there are times where we can best help a child improve ability to rationalize and process what happens each day.

We’ll discuss speed windows today.

For boys, the first speed window happens between a biological 6 to 9 years old, give or take a few months. Researchers, Wilmore and Costill, showed there is a slight rise in testosterone during that time.  In separate studies, several researchers showed an increase both strength and power in boys.  From a handgrip to shoulder, elbow, hip and knee flexion, Shephard and Lavallee as well as Malina and Roche showed that boys strength improved in that 6-9 age range.

What’s not known is how much neuromuscular facilitation, or the ability of the brain to make the muscles do what it actually wants them to do, is involved with the strength gains during this age range. However, given that more testosterone is actually added to the body at that point, it is not a huge leap to ascertain that doing activities that promote strength and speed will help form muscle fiber designed to, in fact, facilitate strength and speed.

Five different studies (Jones – 1949 (2 different studies), Beunen – 1988, Loko – 1977, Kemper and Verschuur – 1985), determined that the second window for strength and speed happens to boys from about 13 to 16.5-17 years old. That time frame is consistent with the pubertal growth spurt. Testosterone begins to increase during puberty. And at that peak of a boy’s growth (PHV or peak height velocity) testosterone comes in a huge way. (A quick side: research shows that the optimal time to introduce boys to external load strength training is roughly 18 months post PHV. However, we’ve found nothing biologically wrong with starting the athletes on external-load resistance training at PHV. If the athlete has been training since before puberty and has an excellent grasp of the exercise he is supposed to do, then there is nothing wrong with adding resistance to the movements he has been doing.)

Research shows that girls do not have the same dramatic growth as boys. However, the strength and speed gains are no less than that of the boys. In fact, a 1994 study by Shephard and Lavallee showed a more expansive increase in muscular strength in girls than in boys. Malina and Roche (1983) showed that the onset of those gains in girls was started earlier than boys, especially in the muscle groups used for pulling motions – forearm flexors, biceps, latissimus dorsi, posterior deltoids, trapezius, teres minor and makor and rhomboids.

As earlier stated, the second speed window happens during the pubertal growth spurt for boys and a little earlier for girls, who do not have as pronounced a growth spurt as boys.

From roughly 13 to about 16.5-17 years old, boys typically go through that radical growth according to studies including: Espenschade (1960), Clarke (1971), Guzalovski (1977), Shephard (1982), Saavedra (1991) and Froberg and Lammert (1996). As mentioned earlier testosterone hits boys in a huge way in the middle of that growth. That hormonal increase spurs a strength increase, too. More muscle fiber means the boy has a better chance of recruiting the muscle mass needed to perform movement at higher speeds.

Many of the same individuals and research teams studied girls, too, finding that the average onset of the second big strength improvement came about a year to 1.5 years before the boys. Girls grow more steadily than boys after the initial rapid growth that happens after birth. Their strength gains tend to progress more steadily, too, typically reaching full maturity before boys. Again, just as in the first speed window, the girls’ steady rate of strength improvement proved to equal to that of the boys’ rapid growth. The big difference is the testosterone – which makes the boys much stronger.

Windows of Opportunity ... Gates to Freedom

What's up folks!?!

We hope this day is treating you well! Gonna jump right into something important to the folks at C.L.A.Y. - principles behind certain aspects of Long-Term Athletic Development or LTAD.

There are no long-term, double-blind, peer-reviewed scientific studies performed on humans, rats, bovine or cardboard boxes on LTAD and the "windows of opportunity" that exist within the human developmental process.

Let us know if you do find one.

Until then, believe that there is scientific evidence that backs up the claims many proponents of LTAD have for the aforementioned windows. We will explore these windows and their scientific origins over the next few blogs.

5-year-old boy jumping.

These windows are akin to gates. They are periods during our physical and mental maturation where, with guidance and encouragement, we are able to best capitalize on that growth. To our knowledge the windows do not close. However, the effectiveness with which we can use them diminishes over time. Fail to take advantage of these opportunities, and we will lose the chance to help our children achieve the most physically fit bodies they could possibly have - if that is their choosing. 

Physically, there are moments we can help enhance speed, mobility, kinesthetic and vestibular awareness, endurance, strength and power. Mentally and psychologically there are also times we can help improve our children's ability to rationalize, cope and process life's complexities.

14-year-old girl sprinting and jumping.

Understanding these windows will help the youth health and fitness professional construct programming that suits a specific discipline. At C.L.A.Y, we have broken 62 sports into four movement categories (we'll discuss them in a later blog). Each category has a long-term program or periodization model with several macrocycles and even more microcycles that are based on our phases of development, these points of opportunity, our growth and our sex.

This is an exciting time to be in the fitness industry, especially if you possess an interest in training children. Granted, you probably wouldn't be on this blog if you didn't. But training children goes beyond merely crawling, climbing, kicking, hitting, catching and laughing with them. Children model us, constantly following our lead even when we do not think they are. So, we must be prepared to lead them down a path that will enable them to create their own paths when they are physically and mentally ready.

Our next blog will be on the four speed windows. There are two windows for both sexes.

When it comes to speed, think about rockets, jets, cars and 18-wheelers or rocket fuel, jet fuel, gas and diesel. There is potential for human rocket fuel if we help children optimize both periods. Miss one of them, and children are reduced to achieving jet fuel. There are fast jets, but even the fastest jet gets lapped by the slowest rocket. Miss both windows, but get the child before the growth plates close, and we have the chance to help them develop gasoline. There are plenty of fast cars on the world's highways. But, seriously? A jet versus a car? If the child misses both opportunities and has reached full physical maturity, the best we can do is help them get some diesel. Overall diesel holds more energy than gas, but it is not going to be as quick or as powerful as gas. Outside of endurance events, athletic endeavors require quickness, speed and power.

So, come back and check out the research behind the speed windows. 

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Moving the Future

First time...

A young girl comes to our junior golf class for the first time. We were out on the course that day, and were using kick balls and soccer balls as our tee shots.

I grabbed a ball and talked with the girl about places she could kick it. After we decided where, I stepped back and said, "Ok, kick it hard!"

She just looked at the ground in front of me. Shy. Maybe even a little embarrassed. Her hands behind her back, head slightly tilted, not making eye contact. So, I told her again, "Hey, it's all right, just kick it right where we were talking about."

Same shy look.

Her mom, sitting on a cart about 50 yards away called to me, and I ran to her. Meanwhile my coworker took the other children through the kicking.

"Coach Milo," the mom said. "Just wanted you to know that she has never kicked a ball."

I think I was equally floored and irritated. The girl was six, almost seven years old, and had never kicked a ball! Isn't that akin to cruel and unusual punishment? Had she been locked away, put in some desk tucked in the back of a dingy classroom, banned from every child's birthright to put foot on ball only to see it sail through the air? The thought of calling CPS, the FBI and the DOD did cross my mind.

Instead, I simply said, "Cool."

Getting back to the group, I called to Leah.

"All right, this what we're going to do. Are you right footed or left footed?"

Same shy look.

"Well, it doesn't matter," I said. "We're going to do this with both feet. I want you put your left foot right here by the ball. Now step back with your right foot. Then you're going to keep your left foot in place and swing your right foot through the air as fast as you can so this part of the foot right here connects with the ball."

She did it. The ball sailed. The smile that followed would've warmed the meanest IRS agent.

"Wait! Wait! Don't take off yet," I said as Leah began running to the ball. "We gotta do the same thing on the other side."

Kick it!!!

Leah was with us several more times that week. By the end of the week, Leah was running up and kicking from both sides of the ball with equal gusto. Each time she'd give a huge kick then skip off singing a song.

Understand this coaches, we will rarely ever know when we will be an integral part of a young athlete's first attempt at something. The way we react to it is crucial to that athlete's development. Say something wrong, use the wrong tone or give a disparaging glance, and the child could have another hurdle to climb, this one an emotional hurdle - which is much more difficult to surmount.

As coaches of young athletes, we are there to teach, encourage and enhance all in a safe arena that allows for ample exploration. At six years old, personalities and attitudes are still being shaped. When it comes to movement and athletics, let's give the children the knowledge of how to do it and the skills to actually do it.

Knowledge + Skill helps develop confidence in our young athletes.

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Moving the Future