Top athletes hone their skills even while still young children

Coaching experts Jim Kiltyand Liam Hennessy continue their series on Long Term Athlete/Player Development Pathway

OUR FUTURE sport stars are made before the age of 10. Have you ever noticed that most of our top sport stars could in fact excel in more than their chosen sport? Part of the reason for this is that they possess great natural talent. Nature, and indeed their parents, have given them this talent. However, another important factor is that of Nurture during their formative years.

When you look back at their very early childhood you will invariably see that they played at several sports developing general movement skills to a very mature and high level. The important thing here is that these skills were probably all well ingrained before they even reached their 10th birthday.

Surprising as it may seem, the optimal window for learning and picking up these general movement skills is between the ages of five and 11 for girls and between six and 12 years of age for boys. According to the experts in this field, if a large range of general movement skills are not learned and mastered during these sensitive learning years then the young girl or boy may never get to fulfil their true sporting potential.

This does not mean spending all day practising the skills of a sport. In contrast, the experts tell us - and indeed the top stars in their chosen sport show - that the very young player should be exposed to a variety of skills not just in one sport but in several during these early formative years. This will lay down a broad vocabulary of movement that can be used later in life to refine the more sport-specific skills.

The skills we are talking about were discussed last week in our article, but include running, stopping, weaving and chasing, kicking, passing, striking, hitting, falling . . . just some of the key skills that are common to several team-based sports.

To truly develop these skills in our young children we must provide opportunities for them and encourage them to be active daily. As coaches, parents, teachers and administrators (either in the community, in education and in sport) we all have a great responsibility in this area.

Too often, however, we fail to allow our young players and athletes the opportunity to develop their real sport potential by limiting the resources to this young population.

So next time you see our top stars or even the top teams in the world perform, just stop and consider: the sporting skills that they exhibit were probably forged during the most sensitive periods in their young childhood phase - even before they reached the age of 10.

These notes are contributed by Dr Liam Hennessy and Jim Kilty of Setanta College, the Institute of Strength and Conditioning Studies (www.setantacollege.com)