COACHES' CORNER TRAINING TO BE STRONGER AND FASTER:Coaching experts Jim Kiltyand Liam Hennessycontinue their series on Long Term Athlete/Player Development Pathway

WE NOTED in a previous article that leading sport stars have actually learned their skills even before they are teenagers. This is to many of us a fascinating fact. Yes, it is a fact. Leading experts tell us that if a young athlete or player has not learned to move efficiently by the time they are 10 or 11 years of age then they will literally be playing catch-up for the remainder of their sport careers.

"Windows of opportunity" are actually the periods during childhood where a young athlete or player is most receptive to a certain type of movement or training or practice. The "windows" are simply easy ways of understanding more complex biological and psychological development periods.

The following table gives a simple view of the windows of opportunity for developing different fitness components and skills.

The table shown here gives an overview of the key windows that typically occur for young athletes and players based on their age.

While chronological age (age in years) is not a good guide to the actual component of fitness that is most appropriate to develop, it is for us at the moment the easiest to use.

Believe it or not, the physical education and training and practice that is most appropriate for all young athletes and players below the age of 10 for females and 11 for males is all about learning skills of movement in a wide variety of sports.

Thus there is a compelling argument for no competitive element at this age. Also sport coaches of this age group need to be perhaps the most skilled in terms of coaching and teaching so as to motivate, instruct and deliver the basic skills of movement to the child who is most sensitive and receptive to learning new skills.

Speed, surprisingly, is a skill and it is best learned during two stages of development: the first occurs when the child is aged between five and seven years of age and the next "window" of opportunity for developing speed occurs during the growth spurt.

This has huge implications for all coaches and teachers of physical education working with athletes/players and indeed non-sporting children. The skills to teach and coach at this age are very specific.

By the time children are aged between 11 or 12 years of age the window for mastering the fundamentals skills of all sports has passed. According to the experts this is the defining period of all sport participants and shapes their future development and standing in sport. More about this next week.