Monitoring growth and maturation in youth athletes, and long term athletic development with James Baker (S&C Coach & Sports Science Lead at Aspire Academy)

In this episode of the Pacey Performance Podcast, I am speaking to Strength & Conditioning Coach & Sports Science Lead at Aspire Academy, James Baker. Not only is James working at Aspire Academy but he is also Director of Proformance Strength & Conditioning who are putting on three conferences this year on long term athlete development. James didn't go through the traditional route to get into his current position which makes this chat so interesting. He was a PE in Gloucester and developed one of the first official strength and conditioning school programmes in the UK. There is so much in this episode if you work with youth athletes or if you are wanting to work in schools as a strength and conditioning coach. If you enjoyed this episode with James Baker, you may enjoy these others focusing on youth development - Jeremy Frisch, Paudie Roche & Craig Harrison. In this episode we discussed... Who is James Baker (background, education and experience) Aspire Transition to Apsire Aspire vs St Peters Integrating S&C in PE (UK) Track development programme Monitoring growth and maturation Challenges to implementation Various options - new ways of thinking LTAD pathways Evolution of the pathway across different stages Slowing down/maintaining development vs accelerating at certain stages LTAD in elite performers vs non-elite performers Integration of gymnastic and parkour Where does it fit? Child to Champion James can be found on Twitter @proformanceteam Keep up to date with everything that is going on with the podcast by following on Twitter @strengthofsci or visiting strengthofscience.com. Enjoy PP