SIX to EIGHT, & SEVEN to NINE years young!
Girls (6-8) and boys (7-9) can drastically improve their speed at these ages!
Speed and explosiveness are largely related to our number of fast twitch muscle fibers. At these ages, we can critically increase fast twitch muscle fiber content more so than later on in life! This is our first window of opportunity or critical time period for speed development!
Our second window of opportunity for speed development is ages 11-14 for girls, and ages 13-16 for boys.
Growing rate is defined as, "peak height velocity, or PHV," and "peak weight velocity, or PWV," so basically when we grow in stature at the faster rate, in other words a growth spurt.
These critical time periods or windows of opportunity for speed development are at ages right before and right after a growth spurt.
During a growth spurt, athlete's may appear to move more awkwardly. Training during a growth spurt should reemphasize skills learned previously, which is why training prior to the growth spurt can be very useful.
Speed & agility training ideally is introduced in the early prepubertal years and continuously progressed and reinforced as a child goes through adolescence.
How does training a 6 year old girl or a 7 year old boy make sense?
In a practical setting, it's tough to do very technical drill work at a young of an age or as someone is going through a growth spurt.
Using drills dressed as play, reinforced by a safe to fail environment is the way to go! Reactive agility drills, fun plyometric options, and coordinative challenges involving visual and perceptive elements are great options.
