Physiological assessment and monitoring of elite youth athletes

Abstract

AbstractScientific support is an essential component of long-term athletic development programmes designed to optimise the present and future sporting performance of elite youth athletes. Physiological assessment and monitoring require a clear rationale with due consideration of the ethics of the physiological testing of minors. It is the responsibility of the sport physiologist, in consultation with the coach and athlete, to identify the specific physiological determinants of the youth athlete’s sport, event(s), or role in a team, to select the appropriate physiological variables to examine, and to design an appropriate battery of ecologically valid laboratory-based physiological assessments and complementary field tests. The physical and physiological variables underpinning youth sport performance develop with sex-specific, concurrent changes in age, growth, and maturation controlled by individual biological clocks. Elite youth athletes might be prepubertal, mid-pubertal, or in late puberty, or have completed biological maturation and the sport physiologist needs to interpret longitudinal assessment data in relation to both developmental physiology and the elite performance demands of specific sports. Physiological assessment and monitoring do not take place in a vacuum and the relationship between the sport physiologist, other members of the scientific support team, coach, and youth athlete is an essential component of a successful scientific support programme. The success of the programme is promoted by prompt feedback of contextual data interpreted and discussed in relation to performance progression and communicated free of scientific jargon through platforms commonly used by coaches and youth athletes, including videos, infographics, and audio presentations.