Welcome back to returning readers and salutations to those finding the Prepared Blog for the first time. For context, I have had the good fortune to be involved in youth development pathways in different sports, lead athlete development systems and work with individual young performers in different parts of the world. Without doubt a unique opportunity to have a profound impact and see dramatic changes presents itself as young performers enter the adolescent years. The theme for this latest offering is this overlooked but crucial phase in the development of young athletes.

As most who read this will already be well aware, there are fertile windows of development in the childhood years. It is widely recognised that young kids are a sponge for learning and acquiring cognitive and motor skills, including language. What is less known is that there is similarly a distinct window of development that coincides with the transition from childhood to adolescence.

EARLY ADOLESCENCE AS A KEY DEVELOPMENTAL WINDOW…

Clearly there are some obvious physical changes that follow the onset of puberty, notably the adolescent growth spurt. Young males also benefit from accompanying gains in various capacities, including strength and speed. Sadly young females do not enjoy such free gains, but that was the topic for another post.

What is often overlooked is that the transition into adolescence also heralds developmental changes in the brain. Maturation-related developments in brain structure and function in turn prompt neurobehavioural changes. The interplay between these developmental and environmental factors shape social and emotional intelligence. Hence this is a major window of development for learning how to navigate different social contexts and interactions with others. These years are formative as young people are finding their identity and figuring out their place in the world.

LIGHTING THE FIRE…

What is highly pertinent for the young athlete’s journey is that the neurocognitive development that occurs over this period not only shapes behaviour but also has a big impact on motivation. We have spoken previously about the need to create the conditions to keep the fire burning through the youth sport journey. This is typically the time that the fire is ignited.

The acquisition of meta-abilities to support self-regulation and goal-directed action during this phase of development are especially relevant to the pursuit of athletic goals and long term aspirations. Particularly with the right guidance and support, the young performer is also increasingly able to equip themselves with the tools to manage struggles and respond to setbacks.

PERILS OF THE TIME…

Whilst this is a time of great opportunity there are also perils and pitfalls to be navigated. Oddly enough, this phase coincides with a massive rate of kids dropping out of participation in organised youth sports. Survey data from youth sports in the United States indicate that 70% of kids drop out from participating in organised sports around age 13.

One striking finding is that the rates of drop out are consistently reported to be far higher among females. That said, these stats generally match boys and girls by chronological rather than biological age, so these findings are likely to be somewhat skewed by the fact that on average girls hit puberty around 18 months earlier than boys. In part these findings might simply reflect that girls of that particular age are just further on in their journey.

For those who remain, this period remain pivotal in terms of the role that participation in sport plays in the young performer’s life. As mentioned, young teens are finding their identity during this phase - and a young performer’s status as an athlete can easily start to become entwined with their identity and self-concept. This inevitably creates problems down the road…

A host of factors during this time can also begin to influence how individuals approach training and how they appraise competition. This is a time of heightened sensitivity to social evaluation, which has been greatly compounded since the advent of social media. All of which is problematic when things are going well, but young performance are even more vulnerable to the ill effects when things aren’t going their way.

As a result activities both in practice and in competition may start to constitute a threat, given the potential for social judgement. Carol Dweck’s work popularised the idea of fixed versus growth mindset. It is highly probable that the seeds of a fixed mindset (aversion to failing in front of others and avoidance of scenarios where that is a possibility) are sewn during this time.

THE ROLE OF THE GROWN UPS…

The teenage years are a pivotal time in the journey of young people and the transition from childhood into adolescence certainly presents new and exciting challenges for parents in particular! Aside from parents, prominent figures in the lives of young performers will likely include teachers, coaches and other practitioners who they might encounter on the journey. With echoes to a previous post, any one individual of these figures in the life of the young athlete can be a difference maker.

Sports organisations also have a responsibility to get better at considering the unintentional negative impact of their policies and systems on young performers. Talent identification, selection processes and the methods used to evaluate athletes are often flawed. The steep decline in youth sport participation has proven to be an intractable problem and the failure of sporting organisations to recognise their own contribution to this problem remains a barrier.

Arguably the individuals who can have the most direct impact (for good or ill) are the coaches and practitioners who working with young performers (who might also be parents and teachers!). How we tailor our interactions with young adolescents in particular is critical for effective communication and creating real engagement.

COACHING YOUNG ADOLESCENT PERFORMERS…

A fundamental factor is a readiness to engage with each young athlete in the group as an individual. Naturally, each young performer is different, but given this is a time of great change there will also be a high degree of variability in how each individual presents on a session by session basis.

Working with young performers at this time presents a huge opportunity, but those coaches who do so must be attentive and attuned to these aspects in order to harness this potential and ensure their influence is positive rather than negative. This is when our ability to coach humans rather than simply coach the sport comes to the fore. Some young performers are awkward and unsure of themselves at this time, whereas others act out and overcompensate. Fun times!

Finally, recognising the growing capabilities and agency of the young performer is a key piece of the puzzle. For parents, coaches and teachers alike this means placing greater onus and increasing responsibility on the individual. This means emphasising the element of choice and their role as the principal actor in their own journey; whilst at different times we might be the director, this is their show.

These fundamental principles are often overlooked or worse how things operate in practice is in some instances at odds with this. Whilst it may be confronting to authoritarian coaches and anathema to the conventions in some sports, unquestioning compliance is not real engagement. We should actively encourage athletes to ask questions. If we want to stimulate and hold their interest we should prompt young performers to be curious about the why behind what we have asked them to do. It is crucial to reinforce this message in our words and actions.

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Thanks also to all those who have shared feedback on the recent release Prepared: Unlocking Human Performance with Lessons from Elite Sport (click on the image below for details).

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