Monitoring growth and maturation in youth athletes, and long term athletic development with James Baker (S&C Coach & Sports Science Lead at Aspire Academy)

In this episode of the Pacey Performance Podcast, I am speaking to Strength & Conditioning Coach & Sports Science Lead at Aspire Academy, James Baker. Not only is James working at Aspire Academy but he is also Director of Proformance Strength & Conditioning who are putting on three conferences this year on long term athlete development. James didn't go through the traditional route to get into his current position which makes this chat so interesting. He was a PE in Gloucester and developed one of the first official strength and conditioning school programmes in the UK. There is so much in this episode if you work with youth athletes or if you are wanting to work in schools as a strength and conditioning coach.

If you enjoyed this episode with James Baker, you may enjoy these others focusing on youth development - Jeremy Frisch, Paudie Roche & Craig Harrison.

In this episode we discussed...

Who is James Baker (background, education and experience)
Aspire
Transition to Apsire
Aspire vs St Peters
Integrating S&C in PE (UK)

Track development programme

Monitoring growth and maturation
Challenges to implementation
Various options - new ways of thinking

LTAD pathways
Evolution of the pathway across different stages
Slowing down/maintaining development vs accelerating at certain stages

LTAD in elite performers vs non-elite performers
Integration of gymnastic and parkour
Where does it fit?

Child to Champion

James can be found on Twitter @proformanceteam

Keep up to date with everything that is going on with the podcast by following on Twitter @strengthofsci or visiting strengthofscience.com.

Enjoy

PP