ABSTRACT
With the increasing pressures to succeed in sport, fitness training and conditioning are increasingly being introduced and emphasised for youth. In this chapter it is argued that although strength and conditioning may not be physically harmful for youth, harm may present in other forms and may have remote effects. This chapter examines youth conditioning from sociocultural and pedagogical perspectives by questioning assumptions about development, early specialisation and high training volumes. Negative consequences such as harmful parental and coaching influences, and injured, tired and unhappy youth, are discussed as potential outcomes. A major focus of this chapter is developing arguments and positions that will help better educate parents about the positive and negative aspects of early youth engagement in strength and conditioning. The key take-home message from this chapter is that while it may be safe for youth to engage in structured strength and conditioning, the challenge is to reconcile that with what is sensible.
