Another belief I woud like to question is the following stuff which is considered a “rule” in my country.
During child development there are certain periods during which the child is very sensitive to particular training stimuli, thus if the stimuli is applied during that time, the give characteristic of child will improve much more than if the stimuli is applyed later or prior that sensitive phase. The mechanism of those phase is not known, but it is speculated that hormones, CNS development, puberty etc infulence it pretty much. And yes, if you don’t develop particular ability during sensitive periods, later you cannot manage to do it effectivelly.
I am not against (I am for) the PASM (proces of achiving sport mastery) and mulilateral development of youth, but when I saw how come the researcher camed to those “sensitive periods” I have to quiestion its validity.
I will take “coordination” for example. We learned that coordination is best developed during 7-12yo, during which is the slower growth of the child and CNS development.
First of all what is coordination? How it is measured, how much of its subgroups exists?
Ok, here is how they did the research regarding sensitive periods for coordination (no, I don’t have refernce on particular study but I saw it somewhere).
They followed one group of kids during 10-15 years, and measured “coordination” each couple of months. Thus it is a longitudinal study
Coordination was measure by a poligon of coordination in whihc you should run it backward.
They showed that poligon time improves more during some time (7-12 yo)
They concluded that during that time of greater improvement in poligon time, the kids are more sensitive to coordination training??? What is the logic of this???
Flaws
They didn’t compared biological vs. chronological age
they didn’t normalzed the measured values with mass, height etc to see the effects of growth
They used the poligon to measure coordination, while the performance in that poligon also needs strenght, endurance, flexibility etc
The had only one group!!! How did they concluded that kids are more sensitive to coordination training during 7-12? They should had two groups (a) no traiinig and (b) coordination training and then to compare the results of improvement and to conclude about the sensitivity and/or groth effects
How did they concluded that kids who missed sensitive periods cannot reach maximal level of performance? did they studied mono-zigot twins longitudinally?
Maybe I am wrong here, and maybe there are studies implementing those abowe, but I think it is very hard to do it longitunilay for 20y!! I think that those “sensitive periods” researched with those crap methods are BS!
BTW, maybe they exist (sensitive periods), but I dont buy the research done with flaw methodological approach! Till then, I will keep doing everything with kids (multilateral development and GPP) to build a good base, without considering those sensitive periods!!!
And yes, I believe if you didn’t started doing some stuff early you cant catch it later. If this is the case, I would be a proffesional gymnast. Some skill and abilties should be aquired while young, but again, I don’t buy the current story of “sensitive periods” because the research is flawed!
Al Vermeil believes that there are certain things that kids used to do (like jumping from the swing-set or jumping down from trees, running on the rocks in the middle of a creek etc), that they do not do anymore (they are busy playing video games and watching TV). He says you cannot make up for this later.
When I was 14 I played basketball one day and came down on my ankle very strangely after a layup. The next day I had some pain in my inner ankle (on my jumping leg)and this pain was pretty “numbing”/“throbbing”/“aching”. I didn’t really think anything of it. The pain persisted for a few weeks while I played.
So then I go on vacation to my parent’s country for over a month, play no sports, come back, start sports again, and the pain is still there.
I lived in a country with some socialist type medical care and so an MRI or any consulting with an orthopedist would need a 6 month wait or so. So they put me in a soft cast for a few weeks, tried to come back after that to play, but the pain was still there, then I was put in a hard cast for a certain number of weeks.
After they took the cast off, my calf muscle was much “lower” than my good leg’s calf muscle was.
To this day, my left gastrocnemius us much lower on my lower leg than my right is. It also comes around the shin to the front a tad more too…
I’ve always wondered if that time period was a certain stage in my physical development where certain structural attributes are “set”.
Is this calf difference typical?
Is there a possible “sensitive period” for structural qualities?
I agree with both of you guys! There is no question that if you miss some things during childhood you cannot make up for it later!
Also, there is no question about some periods where kids stagnate or improve very fastly. One example is that kids coordination (body control) and agility during 12-15year usually deteoriates due very stressfull grow, and CNS must “reprogram” its output. Ussually during this time, coaches say “Look at this one: he played bball excellent last year, but now it seems like he has two left hands! Well, we must get rid of him”. This is stupid selection, because this kid will ussually return its old coordination and agility, but the coach must be pation during this time and allow nature to do its work.
Also, there is no doubt that during some periods kids improve very quickly, but is this due training in “sensitive period” or is it natural consequence of biological matuaration? Should we put a greater emphasis of particular stimuli during those “sensitive periods” or don’t mind about it? Does faster improvement in particual ability automatically means that kids are more sensitive to training stimuli during that time, or is it just a consequence of natural growth wihout greater training influence?
Yes, there is a different timing of structural/morfologic development, it is called heterochronicity! I learned about this in one course at faculty and there is something in Supertraining book!
Another example is when kids need glasses and parents decide that they don’t need. If this situation happens during very youth stage, the child can develop poor vision which cannot be corected later in life, because during that phase vision “needed” stimuli, but due poor refraction it only get poor stimuli…
Another story is that some researchers put one band over one eyes in little cat. After month or two this band was removed. The result is undeveloped vision of the cat which never returned to normal level!!!
This may have some transfer to your situation… During 14yo, boys usualy get into puberty and very fast growth due testosteron secretion. Your muscle “needed” stimuli for development, but because you were in cast, you couldn’t move your leg and thus you werent able to provide the stimuli for optimal growth. This may be the “sensitive stage” for muscle development which cannot be maked up later (in larger degree). Some abilties can be make up later and some don’t. We are talking about the degree. Maybe some muscles can me make up later if this period is missed without any noticable discrepancy, but gastroc size is very genetically determined (and bbilders have great problems developing it) so this may be the problem because you missed this period.
Note that genetic material sets ranges (min, max), and the final outcome depends of external factors. If the ranges are narrower then we are talking about very genetically dependent ability. If the range is wider then we are talking about not so genetically dependent ability. The example is height and weight. Height is very genetically determined (97% of variations), while weight is much lower (65% of variation if my memory serves me good). The problem is that genes also set a “good” time for development of particualr ability within genetical ranges. During this time this quality is sensitive to extrenal factors. Note that this quality is expressed with relative measure not with absolute. Kids develop speed during 7-10-12year (or something), but they aren’t fastest then, but this represent a important base for later speed development.
It seems you have missed a sensitive phase for calf development, and now the “window” of potential development is much more smaller, due some internal factors. I hope you would be able to decrease this assimetry… but again, gastroc are pretty hard to develop! Best luck!
The thing is, the calf that was in the CAST is actually the BIGGER one! I don’t know how that works. Maybe from being in a cast at that period which lead to lack of plantarflexion, my gastroc just got stuck in that stretched position the entire time. Which is kind of weird because we know muscles can change size and hypertrophy. But wouldn’t most people say that a “higher” calf muscle = a longer achilles tendon? So, did my achilles actually get shorter during this period of time? I thought something like tendon attachments would stay put.
In any case, I would rather my calf be small and “high” like my right one, because then my achilles tendon would be longer theoretically, which would translate to increased performance through increased elasticity of my lower legs.
Aesthetically, my calves would look much cooler if that bigger one were cut down to size.
Childhood adaptation doesn’t need to be studied and implemented- if children are allowed to play normally. They seek the challanges appropriate for their needs if they are allowed to play on their own. Just watch how virtually all kids jump down from various heights in their games. Problem comes when their “play” is orchestrated be adults or supplanted by video games. (I hate those damn things as they create anti social blobs of protoplasm sitting in front of a monitor all day.)
i believe it was once stated here that stride frequency should be trained at a young age as it becomes ingrained in their system easier then… as oppose to correcting it later on in their life…
adbrauner,
this situation is even more interestin :eek:
maybe you were in “tendon lenght sensitive phase” when you were casted (is that how it is said?), but this is just speculation! Is you gastrocnemius elongated and weak? What about ROM in ankle in dorsiflexion?
And that would be me kiddin’
Exactly what I wanted to say!!! But… this may be true for very youth, but after the kids start training something at about 7-8yo (or even earlier) guided OPTIMAL training, is the only solution! What I wanted to say here is: is there any need to alter your yearly training plan (relative emphasis) to texbook’s defined sensitive periods? Or to develop GPP levels and multiskill without any specificial emphasis on a given component during multiyear training?
kiddin’ 