“Training Young Athletes is an Awesome Responsibility for Parents, PE teachers and High School Coaches alike...

Get it Wrong, and You Risk Damaging a Child’s Athletic Potential – Possibly for Life.”

Dear Fellow Athlete,

How often have you heard it said “children are not miniature adults – so they shouldn’t be trained this way...”?

We all know this – and yet too often we still apply what are, in effect, scaled-down versions of adult training and conditioning programmes to our young athletes.

Part of the problem is this: it’s hard to find up-to-date, scientifically proven training resources for parents and coaches of young athletes.

That’s because the whole area of long-term athlete development is still a minefield of old-fashioned, out-of-date thinking.

Which is why I asked one of my long-term Peak Performance newsletter contributors to put his considerable experience in this area down on paper.

James Marshall has a skillset ideally suited to the task. He’s a great communicator – essential given that a lot of people who work with young athletes don’t have a formal training in sports science, so would benefit from a book that is jargon free – but not dumbed down! (I’m thinking here particularly of parents.)

James is also an experienced top-level athlete and coach. He knows first-hand what it is to train and compete with the very best – and how, in turn, to inspire and coach athletes. James trained in Karate at the Famous Marshall Street Dojo in London with top Japanese Sensei for 11 years. He also competed nationally and internationally, being on the Senior England squad for 3 of those years, before retiring in 2004 after the World Championships in Tokyo.

On the coaching front, James has worked with Great Britain Rugby League National and Regional age group camps, and with the England Rugby Union under-16s and Under -18s. He has also been working extensively with TASS athletes (the UK’s Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme) for the last 6 years.

So you can see why I’ve no hesitation in recommending James’ brand new workbook, Training Young Athletes, to every parent, school PE teacher and high school coach I know.

NB: over one-third of this book is devoted to a comprehensive collection of sample workouts – sports-specific exercises that you can take and adapt for use with your own young athletes, warm-up and cool-down routines, conditioning programmes, and more.

And because every one of them puts into practice the age-specific principles that are laid out in the rest of the book, you can be sure that you’re not asking a particular young athlete to train in a way that is inappropriate for his or current stage of development.

He even gives you several coaching session planner templates – a truly handy time saver for those who are short of time when facing a coaching session with the kids at the end of an already-busy day in the workplace.

The bottom line is this: James' book Training Young Athletes is the most concise, practical and up-to-date resource I know that explains exactly how to work with young athletes – whatever their current stage of development or preferred sport. It’s even laid-out in a handy spiral-bound format—perfect for the school gymnasium or playing field environment.

Because you’re signed up on our Peak Performance web site to receive our weekly email newsletter, you can secure your copy of Training Young Athletes at a greatly reduced price – and with FREE postage and packaging!

What if Training Young Athletes doesn’t meet your needs and expectations? No problem, you can return it for a full refund within 30 days. No quibbles, no questions asked.

Yours sincerely,

Jonathan Pye
Publisher, Peak Performance