Youth Athletic Development (YAD) is a fancy way of saying strength & conditioning or physical training to help kids get the most out of sport. The truth is it’s actually much more important than that. When delivered correctly YAD is an an opportunity to teach children how their body’s work and move, how staying physically athletic will benefit them if their interests in sport change, or even if they step away from sport, what they need to do to stay health and active throughout life.

As adults we have a choice. We can leave our children and the next generations to fall into a sedentary life of staring at a screen, and falling into mild obesity with poor mental health (the survey’s don’t lie). Or we can support our children’s physical development, boost their enjoyment in sport, and guide them towards long healthy lives

It’s been seen that 25% of high school students reported that injuries influenced their decision to drop out of sport. As youth athletes get older and go through their growth spurts, their joints and muscles come under a large amount of stress due the tension put on them from the bones growing quicker than muscles. If our muscles stay tight, they therefore aren’t in a condition to withstand the forces and stresses of sport.

What also happens during our growth spurt, is we all of a sudden have use of these much larger limbs than we do not have the ability to control. This may mean during sport there could be an overstretch or a misplacement of a foot which can over stress a muscle or joint.

By completing regular (and safe) YAD training from a young age, we can keep our muscles flexible by constantly exposing them to those large ranges. With these movements, your child will start to build a better mind to muscle connection, giving them greater control of the movement they are performing. Both leading to a longer career in sport, allowing them to reap both the physical and mental benefits that come from playing competitive sport.

Put your child on the front foot for secondary school. A survey from the Youth Sports Trust and Manchester Metropolitan University found that young people between 13-15 years associated continued participation in sport with higher levels of wellbeing. And that sports participation was a key predictor of self-belief and mental toughness in young people.

Continuing through life, internal research conducted by Cambridge University found that Undergraduate sportspeople achieved 2:1 degrees, 63% Vs 51.8% in the university as a whole.