The Athlete Blueprint

We all know there is one in every session!

Tag them below so they can be reminded WE ARE WATCHING!

Great to have our weekly session!

Putting though his paces with lots of lower body stability and strength!

First one filmed through the Oakley Meta glasses 👀🔥

Come with us to one of our SGPT Youth Speed & Power sessions on a lovely Bank Holiday Monday.

This was just one of three groups in today and the progress is clear to see.

The best part? It’s not just the physical markers improving. We’re seeing more speed, more power, better movement, and most importantly… more enjoyment, confidence, and competitiveness from the athletes every week.

Youth training should be about building strong, fast, resilient young athletes who love the process.

If you want your child to move better, get faster, become stronger, and train in a positive high performance environment drop us a message and come along to a session.

The next generation is being built. 🚀

Youth development starts in the warm-up 🔥

A good warm-up should do more than just “get warm” it should prepare young athletes to move, coordinate, react and express athleticism.

That’s why I love using animal movements like bear crawl slaloms 🐻

They help develop:

✅ Coordination
✅ Mobility
✅ Trunk control
✅ Strength
✅ Body awareness
✅ Confidence through movement

Fun, playful, and purposeful exactly what youth athletic development should be.

Great athletes don’t just train hard. They learn to move well first. ⚡️

Big shoutout to our OG, Arthur Small, who recently took part in a high-performance week in Spain, combining top level training with a really strong performance on Saturday 👏

Everyone at Athlete Blueprint is proud of what you’ve achieved so far, and the future is bright. We’re lucky to play even a small role in your journey.

This could be you too. Drop us a message to see how we can help support your journey, no matter what that journey looks like.

Youth athletes do not just need to get stronger, they need to learn how to land, absorb force and control positions before intensity ever rises. This is especially important in female athletes. A wider pelvis can increase the Q angle, which may make knee valgus more likely during landing, deceleration and change of direction. When the knee collapses inward, the load placed on the knee joint, ligaments and surrounding tissues increases. Add in the influence of higher estrogen and progesterone levels, which can contribute to greater ligament and tendon laxity at certain times, and the need for quality movement coaching becomes even bigger.

That is why progression matters. Teach the basics first: trunk control, hip stability, foot placement, knee tracking, and owning a soft, balanced landing. Then build into single-leg landing, deceleration drills, reactivity and sport-specific chaos. Do not skip steps. Good landing mechanics are not optional, they are protection.

It even gets the 🐶 approval!

The fifth of the 5 S’s in youth LTAD is STRENGTH 🏋️‍♂️

Strength development is different to the other S’s because it is not based purely on chronological age it is driven far more by biological age and maturation 📈 Some athletes develop earlier, some later, so coaches must look at the individual, not just the birth date.

For girls, an important strength window is often just after peak height velocity (PHV), with another key phase around the onset of the menstrual cycle. For boys, the main strength window tends to occur around 12–18 months after PHV. The physiology behind this is linked to increases in growth hormone, testosterone, IGF-1, neural drive, tendon stiffness and muscle mass, all of which improve the body’s ability to produce force and adapt to resistance training 🧠⚡

For youth athletes, strength training should generally be performed 2–3 times per week, with sessions lasting no more than 45 minutes ⏱️ The aim is not to chase fatigue, but to develop movement quality, force production, robustness and long-term athletic foundations.

That is why exercise selection and load management are pivotal 🚨 Squats, hinges, pushes, pulls, lunges, carries, jumps and landing patterns should all be taught progressively and with intent. Good youth strength training is not about ego lifting it is about building athletes safely and effectively for the long term.

Master movement. Build force. Protect long-term development.

The fourth of the 5 S’s in youth LTAD is STAMINA 🫀🏃‍♂️

Stamina is all about developing the aerobic system in a way that matches growth, maturation and the demands of youth sport. Before puberty, children often improve endurance not because they suddenly have a huge engine, but because their running mechanics, movement economy and coordination improve ⚙️ As technique gets better, less oxygen is needed to perform the same task, so movement becomes more efficient.

During puberty and the growth spurt, there is a stronger opportunity to improve VO₂ max and broader aerobic capacity 📈 On average, this tends to be around 12–15 in females and 14–16 in males, as the heart, lungs, blood volume and muscle system all continue to develop. This allows the body to deliver and use oxygen more effectively during exercise.

But coaches must be smart here 🚨 More running is not always better. Growth brings increased stress on bones, tendons and joints, so we need to reduce the risk of overuse injuries by using a variety of aerobic methods. That means mixing on-feet and off-feet conditioning, and not relying on repetitive mileage alone.

One of the best tools in this phase is game-based conditioning 🎯 Small-sided games build aerobic fitness, keep young athletes engaged, and also allow them to keep topping up skill under fatigue.

As with suppleness, always consider the athlete’s sport so you build stamina without overdoing it 🔥

Build the engine. Protect the athlete. Keep it fun.