The #1 Mistake Youth Athletes Make

For many young athletes, the beginning of a sports season also means the end of strength and conditioning. Once practices, games, tournaments, and travel begin, strength training is often pushed aside. The reasoning seems logical: “They're already practicing several times a week, so they're getting plenty of exercise.”

But sports practice is not a substitute for a properly designed youth strength and conditioning program.

In fact, completely stopping strength training when the season begins may be one of the biggest mistakes a youth athlete can make.

At Webb Human Performance in Farmington Hills, Michigan, we believe athletic development should be a year-round process. A properly designed in-season training program can help young athletes maintain and continue improving the strength, speed, power, mobility, and movement skills they developed during the offseason.

Why In-Season Strength Training Matters for Youth Athletes

A competitive sports season places significant physical demands on young athletes.

Practices, games, tournaments, and repetitive movements all create stress on the body.

That workload makes strength and conditioning even more important, not less.

A well-designed in-season program provides a controlled training stimulus that complements the athlete's sport. Rather than trying to add as much training as possible, the goal is to maintain the physical qualities that contribute to athletic performance while managing fatigue and recovery.

Research supports continuing physical preparation throughout the competitive season. A systematic review of injury-prevention strategies in adolescent sports found that conditioning, functional training, balance, and related interventions are most effective when continued throughout the sporting season.

Stopping Strength Training Can Increase Injury Risk

One of the biggest reasons youth athletes should continue strength training during their season is injury prevention.

Strength training does not make an athlete immune to injury, but appropriately designed exercise programs can improve physical qualities associated with an athlete's ability to handle the demands of sport.

Research on youth athletes has found that exercise-based injury-prevention programs can significantly reduce sports injuries. Programs incorporating combinations of strength, balance, jumping, agility, and other exercises have demonstrated meaningful reductions in injury risk. Importantly, both preseason and in-season interventions can be beneficial.

When an athlete completely stops training, they lose the opportunity to consistently develop and maintain these physical qualities.

The goal isn't to train harder during the season. The goal is to keep the athlete physically prepared for the demands they're already facing.

Your Athlete's Physical Development Doesn't Stop When the Season Starts

Youth athletes are still developing throughout the year.

Strength, speed, power, coordination, balance, and movement competency can all continue improving during adolescence. This means athletic development shouldn't be divided into a few months of “training” followed by several months of simply playing the sport.

Think about the typical youth athlete:

Offseason: Train consistently → get stronger → get faster → improve power

Season: Stop strength training → maintain sport practices → physical development slows or reverses

Next offseason: Spend months rebuilding lost strength and power

This creates an unnecessary cycle of building → losing → rebuilding.

A better approach is to continue providing an appropriate training stimulus throughout the year.

Strength, Speed, and Power Can Decline During a Long Season

The competitive season can last several months. Without appropriate strength and conditioning, athletes may gradually lose some of the physical qualities they worked hard to develop during the offseason.

This is especially important for strength and power.

Resistance training has been shown to significantly improve strength and jumping performance in youth athletes, while systematic reviews have also found positive effects on sprinting, agility, and other measures of physical performance.

If an athlete spends four months developing strength and power but then completely stops training for the next six months, they aren't maximizing their long-term development.

The goal shouldn't be to finish every season at the same physical level where you started it. The goal should be to finish the season as a better athlete.

You Don't Need to Train Five Days a Week

This is where many parents and athletes get confused.

Continuing strength training during the season does not mean adding several additional workouts to an already busy schedule.

In-season training should be about finding the minimum effective dose.

For many youth athletes, one quality strength and conditioning session per week can be enough to provide a valuable training stimulus while allowing plenty of time for sport practices, competition, school, and recovery.

Depending on the athlete's age, training history, sport, schedule, and competition demands, some athletes may benefit from two shorter sessions per week.

The important thing is that the program is individualized.

A typical in-season session might include:

• Sprint and acceleration work

• Plyometrics

• Lower-body strength

• Upper-body pushing and pulling

• Single-leg exercises

• Core training

• Mobility and movement preparation

The volume and intensity can then be adjusted around the athlete's practice and competition schedule.

In-Season Training Should Complement the Sport

The purpose of youth sports performance training isn't to make an athlete exhausted.

It is to make them better prepared to perform.

That means an in-season training program should work alongside the athlete's sport rather than compete with it.

For example, a hockey player may need to prioritize acceleration, lower-body strength, single-leg strength, power, and tissue capacity. A soccer player may have different needs based on their position, schedule, and training history.

The training program should also change as the season progresses.

Early-season training may look different from midseason training. Training during a heavy tournament schedule should look different from training during a lighter week.

Good strength and conditioning coaches don't simply give athletes more work. They determine what work the athlete actually needs.

This Is Why We Use Individualized Training at Webb Human Performance

At Webb Human Performance in Farmington Hills, our youth sports performance training is designed around the individual athlete—not a generic workout.

We work with middle school and high school athletes from Farmington Hills, Novi, Northville and Livonia, with training focused on qualities such as strength, speed, power, agility, mobility, and movement quality. Our small-group sessions are limited to five athletes, allowing each athlete to follow an individualized program while still training alongside other athletes.

For athletes who are in season, that means we can adjust training based on their sport, competition schedule, current workload, training age, and individual goals.

The goal isn't simply to make athletes stronger in the weight room.

The goal is to help them become stronger, faster, more explosive, and more resilient athletes while they continue competing in their sport.

Give Your Athlete a Plan for the Entire Year

If your child plays hockey, soccer, baseball, basketball, lacrosse, football, volleyball, or another competitive sport, in-season strength training can be an important part of their long-term athletic development.

If you're looking for youth strength training or sports performance training in Farmington Hills, Novi, Northville, or Livonia, don't wait until the offseason.

Start building a better athlete now.

Contact Webb Human Performance today to schedule your free assessment and find out how one or two individualized training sessions per week can fit into your athlete's competitive season.