Written by David Hardy, Volleyball Trainer (learn more about David at the end of this article)

We know that the difference in the level of play between middle and high school players is vastly different.

Everything from the speed the ball travels, to the quality of the sets, to the overall pace of each rally can seem worlds apart when comparing the two. Especially when you look at the far ends of each spectrum, with 6th and 7th graders falling into the category of “middle schoolers” and juniors and seniors falling under “high schoolers”. Considering this, we would expect the intensity and the intricacies of the practices to be different, but should the way the two groups train be different too?

Well, the answer is yes, to a certain degree, but not as much as you may think. And in some cases the differences are negligible.

Are training differences that noticeable?

Now right off the bat, obviously there will be a difference in the way a senior, who’s been playing and partaking in some form of high school conditioning for four years, and a 6th grader who has never worked out a day in their life, is going to go about their training. That really goes without saying, but for the sake of covering all the bases, I’ll say it anyway.

But what about all things being equal?

What about a 12-year-old untrained player compared to a 16-year-old untrained player, who for whatever reason is a little late to the game? In a previous piece, I touched on the fact that we don’t have separate “volleyball muscles,” we all have the same muscles that we can use in a variety of ways. And volleyball players just happen to use them in a way that lets them play the game. So if the 12-year-old and the 16-year-old are both hitters, and they both have the goal of increasing their vertical jump, should there really be a difference in their training?

To answer these questions there are a few different things we need to look at, the first of which is age.

Training Needs by Age

We all know that humans grow and develop throughout their childhood into their early adult years. And so it’s easy to come to the conclusion that the younger a child is, the less developed they are, and this extends to bones, tendons, ligaments and growth plates. The growth plates are the areas where new bone growth occurs, typically at/near the end(s) of each long bone.

They are made up of cartilage as opposed to solid bone, and as such, are weaker. Consider the difference in toughness between your nose and ears (cartilage) and your forehead (solid bone). And because these areas are less tough, they become more prone to injury.

Now at a certain age, usually after 13 for girls and 15 for boys, the growth plates do “fuse”, and harden to become solid like the rest of the bone. Once that happens, they become less of a risk area, but before it happens, they are essentially the weakest part(s) of the skeleton.

Simplifying The Concept

A way that I like to think about it is: Imagine you have a wooden broom, and you cut it just above the head, and then you reconnect both parts using duct tape. At this point, it would still maintain its original broom shape, and you could still even use it to sweep. As long as you were careful, it would remain intact, but you would know that the spot just above the head was just a little weaker and a little more prone to “give” if you apply too much stress to it.

Obviously it’s a bit different when talking about the bones, but you get the general idea.

So having a general understanding of what the growth plates are, and the fact that they’re a more sensitive area, it’s important to note that damaging them can lead to future consequences. While early assessment and treatment usually take care of the issue, in some cases, damage can lead to an alteration in the size or shape of the bone.

That being said, it isn’t an “if this, then that” situation, which is to say that it isn’t guaranteed that IF you lift weights at a young age, you WILL damage your growth plates. Younger children are able to handle moving/maneuvering external weight, which is how they are able to do chores like carrying/putting away groceries, shoveling snow and moving small furniture, all without damaging their growth plates.

The difference is that while those situations are a means to an end, training is typically an attempt to intentionally apply a direct stress to the muscles and through them, the tendons, ligaments, bones and growth plates are also affected. 

So can the young ones lift weights without getting injured or not?

Technically, yes.

With light weights and proper form, children 13 and even younger would be able to do some form of weight lifting without getting injured. The caveat to that is that the younger they are, the less body control they have and the less focused they are likely to be. This would then affect the quality of their form, which would increase the likelihood of an injury at any age. It then becomes a risk vs reward situation in which you need to carefully weigh your options, and take individual circumstances into consideration before proceeding with a plan of action.

As a company standard, at Trademark Performance, we do not allow anyone under the age of 13 to lift weights. 

What should an athlete under 13-years-old do?

You may be thinking, what, then, can you do with a middle schooler under the age of 13 if you want to err on the side of caution and forgo the weights, but you still want them to get stronger? Well, kids are usually fine to do bodyweight (calisthenic) exercises like squats, lunges, push-ups, and pull-ups. The reason these exercises are generally safer is that, in most cases, they’re easier (neurologically) to perform. These exercises are more “functional”, which is to say that they’re more akin to the natural movements that the human body is designed to perform.

Just as (most) birds are built to fly, we’re built to be able to push ourselves up off of our stomach (push-ups), sit down and then get back up (squatting), kneeling and then returning to a stand (lunging), etc. So you can see how a push-up would be much more of a natural upper body movement than, say, a bench press, even though many of the same muscles are worked.

So, going back to our comparison of the untrained 12-year-old vs the untrained 16-year-old with the same goals, is there a difference beyond the use of weight?

Yes and no.

Just because the 16-year-old CAN lift weights, doesn’t mean that they should, especially right off of the bat. Because they’re untrained, they still need to learn how to move and use the muscles of their body before having weight thrown on them. So let’s say their goal was something like “general leg strengthening,” they would likely benefit from an almost identical training program, as they would need to be using the same muscles in the same way.

Initially, during the 1st session or two, they would be pretty comparable. Eventually, being older, more mature, and more physically developed, the 16-year-old would likely exhibit better body control and exercise form than the 12-year-old. The better quality of form would generally correlate to a better quality of results and adaption to the program, thus requiring the addition of light weight to provide a consistent challenge. It would still be important not to add so much weight that the form becomes compromised, but the additional weight would allow for more of a challenge.

Comparing the two side by side, the training would start to look almost identical again.

While the younger player is getting more comfortable using their muscles, and likely better at pushing through “the burn,” the older and more advanced player is now slowing back down as they get accustomed to the addition of weights. The two athletes would, more or less, be putting a comparable amount of effort into their training.

It’s after a short period at this pace, that you would start to see the training move in different directions. In order to adapt, you need something to adapt to, continuously upping the challenge to maintain a certain degree of effort. While you could, hypothetically, just continue to add weight to the 16-year-old if you wanted to, you would need to find a more creative way to increase the challenge for the 12-year-old. After a point of getting better at performing the various movements, they would start to become easy, and their body would perceive less of a reason to adapt.

Fortunately, there are more ways to increase the difficulty of an exercise than simply adding weight!

You could…

• decrease the tempo, slowing down the reps so they take anywhere from 25-100% longer to complete.

• add more reps and/or more sets or move to an unstable surface like a Bosu ball or a mat.

• incorporate more single side exercises (so if they were getting really good at regular squats, you could have them try the variation of single-leg squats).

And you can do all of these things with the older athlete, even using weights in conjunction, but you wouldn’t necessarily HAVE to. The addition of free weights, workout machines, and medicine balls would allow for additional options, but the goal of the program is still the goal of the program. If your goal is to strengthen the legs, then you need to train the muscles of the legs in the way they function (which is the same in both athletes).

Outliers

We can’t wrap this up without talking about the outliers. An example would be a middle schooler (13) who has been training consistently since the age of 10, compared to an untrained senior (17). In this scenario, one athlete has four more years of physical development, while the other has three more years of training experience. This is an interesting situation to think about because the older athlete SHOULD be stronger and have a higher degree of (natural) body control, but they would lack the training experience to jump right into the weight or to perform some of the more complex movements. On the other hand, while less developed overall and (potentially) weaker, the younger athlete would be better prepared to handle weights with good form.

There’s also a good chance that the younger athlete, having trained consistently, would have better aerobic and muscular endurance, less fatigue in the days following a workout, and more efficiency when performing each exercise.

Final Thoughts

To sum it all up, there are physiological differences between middle and high school players that should be taken into account when designing a training protocol. However, both groups would have a lot of similar components in their training if they had similar goals. It also isn’t enough to JUST look at grade and/or age when deciding how an athlete in each group should be training, as training experience plays a significant role. Both groups stand to benefit from training, and with proper instruction, both can safely work hard and improve their athleticism. 

DAVID HARDY

NASM-CPT, PES, CAFS

David Hardy has been a volleyball trainer in Northwest Indiana since 2014. A staff member of Trademark Performance Corporation, David trains youth volleyball players of all ages and can often be found on weekends watching his athletes play in local tournaments. Follow David on Instagram and Facebook, or call (219) 319-0110 to book a training session with him today!