By PCG Elite Coach
David Tonello
Designing the optimal training plan for a Junior bike racer
over the winter can be far more difficult than it is for an adult. Well that isn’t a surprise because generally
it is harder to design a training plan for a Junior no matter what time of year
it is, especially with regards to intensity.
The first consideration is to assess both the emotional and
physical maturity of the Junior. While
it may be obvious that there will be a huge difference between a 10-year-old
and a 17-year-old, there can also be a significant range of physical and
emotional maturity between kids of the same age. To further complicate matters, the Junior may
be advanced in one area, but not in the other.
I am using the term emotional maturity to discuss the
ability of the Junior to understand the need for training at the higher
intensity levels. Do they see the
benefit of training in those zones? Do they
have the motivation and self-discipline to do the work? Do they have the maturity to understand and
believe that training at that effort level is worth the discomfort? Many of the answers to those questions will
depend not only on the Junior’s physical age, but on experience in past
competition. Often, newer racers have a
notion that they are naturally gifted and don’t need to train to be successful,
while the experienced racer has learned that even the gifted must train hard to
succeed. That is why I can usually
incorporate more high-intensity work into the training of the more experienced
Junior.
Winter seems to be much longer to a teenager than it does to
a middle-aged athlete. The Junior often
thinks that there is plenty of time before hard training really needs to start,
whereas the adult knows that they will be racing again quite soon, and later
will be too late to start serious training.
The importance of physical maturity is normally more
obvious. The more physically more mature
Junior can withstand more high intensity training. It is very important to keep the problem of
overuse injuries in mind while coaching a Junior. The American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons
reports an increase of overuse injuries in children, and that in most cases,
those injuries are associated with sports-related activities. Osgood-Schlatter Disease, an inflammation of
the growth plate at the upper end of the tibia, is not uncommon in Junior
cyclists during the adolescent growth spurt.
What? Those
complications aren’t enough to make you want to pull out your hair? Let’s add in the Junior’s other activities! On one hand, you may have a Junior who is
participating in several other sports. The
kid who isn’t playing soccer, or some other team sport, during the off-season
is rare, while those in colder climates may be participating in a winter sport
such as cross-country skiing. The coach
needs to know what the Junior is doing for training for those sports too!
Cycling events for Juniors are normally much shorter than
they are for adults. Often, adults try
to have the Junior train as they would for adult events, and that often results
in training that may over-emphasize distance and under-emphasize intensity.
Just as a coach should do for any athlete, the coach needs
to make a complete assessment of the athlete’s physical condition (including
strengths and limiters), and the needs of the Junior’s important completive
events in addition to the factors already discussed.
Generally, I find getting the Junior athlete to actually
complete the higher intensity work is the most challenging part. They usually find it harder to do those high
intensity workouts on their own. While
an adult may possess the motivation to complete the workouts on their own, the
Junior with that sort of drive isn’t as common. I tend to have more success if the Junior can
do the workout with an adult (especially a fit parent).
A phenomenon that makes me chuckle is that Juniors seem to
have technical difficulties with their power meters and heart rate monitors
more frequently than adults. Could it be
that these kids who grew up with high tech devices purposely have malfunctions
to prevent the coach from getting data that would show they slacked off on that
workout?
The good news is that kids seem to have less trouble with
the very short high intensity intervals needed to work VO2, anaerobic capacity,
and critical power, than they do with the longer, if lower, intensity intervals
used to train functional threshold power. I try to find methods to get in the longer FTP
workouts, but using things such as prescribed cadence changes, or other methods
of keeping the workout from being boring.
Finally, perhaps the most important difference in coaching a
Junior is the need to keep it fun!
David Tonello is a PCG Elite Coach in Los Alamos, California