1:1 Strength Coaching for Teen Athletes in Five Dock

Why one athlete, one coach

Group training for teenagers has an obvious problem. A 13-year-old who has just gone through a growth spurt and a 17-year-old playing first-grade colts need different loads, different exercise selection and different amounts of correction. In a group of ten, the coach sees each rep for a fraction of a second.

At Five Dock we run youth strength and conditioning as 1:1 sessions with no double-booking. That means one coach watching every set, adjusting the load between reps if the athlete's technique changes, and having the time to teach a hinge or a landing properly rather than shouting a cue across the room. For a teenager who has never lifted before, that first block of sessions is mostly motor learning. It goes better when someone is standing there.

Soccer, rugby and AFL ask for different things

The three codes share a base of running, accelerating and changing direction. What sits on top of that base is not the same.

Soccer loads the groin and hamstrings hard. Repeated cutting, kicking across the body and decelerating from high speed put demand through the adductors and the posterior chain. Junior soccer players also cover a lot of ground in short, sharp bursts, so repeat-sprint quality matters more than steady aerobic work.

Rugby league and rugby union add contact. A junior forward needs to be able to accept force through the shoulders, trunk and hips, get off the ground, and do it again 30 seconds later. Neck and upper back strength are part of the picture, and so is the ability to brace under load. Wrestling and collision exposure changes what the gym work needs to prepare.

AFL stacks running volume on top of change of direction, plus a lot of one-legged work. Kicking, leaping for marks and landing on one leg means single-leg strength and control get significant attention, along with the calf and Achilles complex that handles the running load.

A program written for one code and handed to an athlete in another usually misses something. We build the block around what the sport, the position and the season actually demand.

What testing looks like

Before programming anything, we test. At Five Dock that includes VALD ForceFrame for isometric strength through the hips, particularly adductor and abductor output, and AxIT force plates for jump and landing metrics.

The useful part is the comparison between limbs. A young soccer player might produce good numbers overall while pushing 20% harder through the right leg than the left. A rugby player might jump well but absorb landing force poorly. Those figures give the coach something specific to work on and give the athlete a number to chase, which is often more motivating for a 15-year-old than being told to "get stronger".

We retest through the block so progress is measured rather than assumed. Numbers also make the conversation with parents and club coaches much simpler.

What a session actually involves

Sessions run in the gym space at the Five Dock clinic and typically last around an hour.

A session usually opens with a movement warm-up tied to that day's work, then a speed, plyometric or landing component while the athlete is fresh. Strength work follows, built around squat and hinge patterns, single-leg work, upper body pushing and pulling, and trunk bracing. For rugby players we generally include neck and shoulder work. For soccer and AFL players, adductor and hamstring exercises appear most weeks.

Loads are chosen for the athlete in front of us. A first-year lifter might spend six weeks with a bar and light plates while learning positions. An older athlete with two years of training behind them will work at heavier percentages with more attention to bar speed.

Growth spurts and a full calendar

Teenagers going through a rapid growth phase often lose coordination for a while, and knee and heel complaints become more common. That is a reason to adjust programming, not to stop training. We tend to reduce high-volume jumping during those phases and put more time into strength and technique.

The other constant in the Inner West is a stacked calendar. School sport on Wednesday, club game Saturday, rep training midweek, and a summer sport starting before the winter one has finished. We plan around what the athlete is already doing and count all of it, rather than adding two gym sessions on top of a week that is already full.

When to get assessed

Good times to start include the weeks after a season finishes, the lead-in to pre-season, or any point where an athlete has had a couple of niggles that keep interrupting training. If a young player is already sore, our physiotherapists and strength coaches work in the same building, so assessment and programming can be handled together.

If you have a junior soccer, rugby or AFL player who is ready to train properly, book an assessment at Five Dock and we'll go from there.

Read more about our youth services.

We go deeper on youth at sydneyathleticdevelopment.com.au.

If you would like it assessed at our Five Dock clinic, you can book an athletics strength & conditioning.