ABSTRACT
The young athlete faces a multitude of challenges, both physical and psychosocial, when trying to get the mix right between stress and recovery. This chapter presents potential options for monitoring important elements of a young athlete’s experience to support their development and help them perform at their best. First, the importance of monitoring natural development versus the effects of training is discussed. Next, an array of physical tools is presented that can be used to assess and monitor training adaptation and session load. The chapter goes on to discuss available options to monitor the psychosocial element of a young athlete’s experience, including various questionnaires and training diaries, before noting important considerations of measurement error and interpretation. The chapter concludes with a case study in which the monitoring data of two young athletes from an athlete development programme in Auckland, New Zealand, and how they were practically interpreted, are presented.
