THE APPROACH

We develop the child first. Then the athlete. In that order.

Every recommendation on this site comes back to four priorities, always in the same order: safety, fun, learning, social development. Get them in the wrong order and you get a gifted twelve-year-old who quits at fifteen. I've watched it happen more times than I can count.

Children are not mini-adults

Coaches love giving children pro-level training. A twelve-year-old can squat 70kg — that doesn't mean they should. At this age the job is to build the foundation, not to fire all the sharp bullets early. Train for the body your child has, not the one you're hoping for.

Biological age beats birth year

Two thirteen-year-olds can be years apart in physical development. The bigger one isn't more talented — he's just earlier. The evidence is blunt: late developers make up a far larger share of professional athletes than they do of junior national squads. The child who looks behind at thirteen is very often the one still standing at twenty.

More is not better

The research points to roughly 125 jumps a week as a healthy load for a young athlete. In Slovakia I routinely see 125 in a single session. We assume more training means more progress. With children it's frequently the opposite — more means more injury and less joy. Count the load across everything your child does, not just the sessions you can see.

Multi-sport builds the athlete

I'm not telling you to keep your child in two sports because they'll go pro. Most won't — and that's true whether they specialise or not. I'm telling you because the child still playing two sports at fourteen has options the child who specialised at ten doesn't. Variety isn't a distraction from the dream. It's insurance for the child.

Where the science comes from

None of this is opinion dressed up as fact. I synthesise the best of the global frameworks — Canada's LTAD, New Zealand's Balance is Better, the Scandinavian models, UK youth development — and the research behind them, then translate it into something you can use on a Tuesday evening. Science is the foundation; your child is the centre; the methods are only tools.

What it means on Saturday morning

In practice this looks ordinary. Let them play more than one sport. Protect their sleep. Notice load, not just talent. Support after the match instead of coaching it. Confront a coach when something's genuinely wrong — politely, but confront them. None of it is dramatic. All of it compounds.