Plyometrics - is this any good?

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There is a new type of training suggested for my young athlete - plyometrics. It is supposed to be especially good for certain sports - like the quick stop and start types - jumping/quick spurts of energy.

Anyone familiar with it? My daughter is very interested in trying it to improve her game.

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[+3] - George - 10/24/2011It's really not all that new. I looked into it some years ago. I decided not to go with it for three reasons. * You need to already be at a reasonable level of conditioning and some of the...

@Linkat,

It's really not all that new. I looked into it some years ago. I decided
not to go with it for three reasons.
* You need to already be at a reasonable level of conditioning and
some of the kids on my team were decidedly not.
* The exercises involve a quick and sudden burst that I didn't think
would be good for young, pre-adolescent bones.
* Every thing I read stressed having a trainer who knew what he/she
was doing and that did not describe me.

That's as I remember it. Things may have changed.

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@George,

We had a thread here once, maybe one of Sozobe's or Boomerang's, but thinking Soz.. or you, Linkat, about girls having a lot of acl and similar injuries and conditioning systems starting up at some locales to provide exercises to strenthen muscles wisely around such injury areas. Duh, I haven't tried to search for that, but I suspect that is still an area of interest. A lot of those injuries were happening in girls' soccer. Thinks - I'd guess the thread was about three years ago.

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@ossobuco,

Actually from what I read on this - this is supposed to have the added benefit of helping against injuries by working those muscles and teaching them how to start/stop and stuff like that.

It could have been from me or Soz - I do remember it and I'm sure she would as well as both our girls like to play sports.

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@George,

She actually took one free/trial class to see how she would like it. She is going to another place that was recommended to us tomorrow. The one she went to before has all this info of their years of experience, prior student athletes (colleges they went on to and such).

She is actually almost 13 (just in a couple of weeks) so not pre-adolescent and is definately athletic and involved in high intensity sports already. My husband had already decided he didn't have enough knowledge to effectively work with her on this - thus the decision to seek out some one more professional.

Since her target sport is basketball - she is already doing those quick spurts and quick stops and starts. She is not going to play winter ball (as we may be moving out of the city where she would play and they coaching and team is not at her level of play). We thought she would benefit more from a program like this to get her ready for a higher level of play in the spring. She really wants to try out and play for a Division I AAU team (she has been playing on Division II).

She is an extremely dedicated even at her age so if something would work well for her - I don't mind putting in the time and money - in other words she wouldn't waste the opportunity.

I'm just not familar with it - and wouldn't want to waste the time or money if there was little benefit.

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Found the topic Osso was referring to!

http://able2know.org/topic/116382-1

The specific training they recommended was PEP training, which contains some plyometrics.

I Googled plyometrics, I'd be worried about that for sozlet but she's dealing with Osgood-Schlatter stuff right now. (We'd gotten it pretty much under control but she had a major flare-up after her third game in two days -- we thought that might happen, coaches were prepared, she just didn't play much in that last game. Pain isn't fun but no permanent ill effects, and she's much better already today.)

Here's a section on PEP from the article. I think I'm going to look into it again:

Quote:

Silvers, along with a Santa Monica orthopedic surgeon, Bert Mandelbaum, designed an A.C.L.-injury-prevention program that has been instituted and studied in the vast Coast Soccer League, a youth program in Southern California. Teams in a control group did their usual warm-ups before practices and games, usually light running and some stretching, if that. The others were enrolled in the foundation’s “PEP program,” a customized warm-up of stretching, strengthening and balancing exercises. An entire team can complete its 19 exercises — including side-to-side shuttle runs, backward runs and walking lunges — in 20 minutes. One goal is to strengthen abdominal muscles, which help set the whole body in protective athletic positions, and to improve balance through a series of plyometric exercises — forward, backward and lateral hops over a cone. Girls are instructed to “land softly,” or “like a spring.”

There is nothing complicated about the program. And nothing really exciting about it either — which, as with many preventive routines, is one of its challenges. As essential as it may be, it’s not as interesting as kicking a soccer ball around.

The Santa Monica Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Research Foundation published results of its trial in the American Journal of Sports Medicine. The research was nonrandomized and therefore not the highest order of scientific research. (The coaches of teams doing the exercises made a choice to participate; the control group consisted of those who declined.) Nevertheless, the results were attention-grabbing.

The subjects were all between 14 and 18. In the 2000 soccer season, researchers calculated 37,476 athletic exposures for the PEP-trained players and 68,580 for the control group. Two girls in the trained group suffered A.C.L. ruptures that season, a rate of 0.05 per 1,000 exposures. Thirty-two girls in the control group suffered the injury — a rate of 0.47. (That was almost twice the rate for women playing N.C.A.A. soccer.) The foundation compiled numbers in the same league the following season and came up with similar results — a 74 percent reduction in A.C.L. tears among girls doing the PEP exercises.

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@sozobe,

heh, 3.5 years ago..

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@ossobuco,

Yeah I meant to note, nice guess Osso!

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@sozobe,

1 Reply

@ossobuco,

Interesting to re-read the article from this vantage point -- she's getting closer to the kind of elite athlete they're talking about. Had her first tournament this weekend.

However, unlike many of her soccer teammates she's not going to do winter (indoor) soccer, and remains a three and a half sport athlete. (Soccer, basketball, softball, plus a little dance -- reduced her hours from 3/ wk [for ballet] to 1/ wk [for flamenco].) And diversity seems to be protective.

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@sozobe,

Thanks Soz - I know I had vaguely remembered that. It does help. We are trying to keep her in two sports so she isn't so one sport dedicated (although if we let her she would be).

Sorry about the little one - I hope she feels better soon.

I was reading about this place my husband is taking my daughter to tomorrow - seems from what I can gather it does go beyond just the plyometrics - the one other difference from the other place my husband brought her to try it out is they have sports specific programs including common sites of injurt in that sports - it is designed to reduce injury risk and to be more engaging and fun.

I think when my husband came back from the first one - I was a bit worried - not that it wouldn't be good for her, but thought they might be doing the hard sell - saying this are the most important years for her development - middle school through 9th grade for her training.

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@sozobe,

Good.

Tangent:
On me and the timing - I've got a good time sense and good direction sense (don't check with Roger) and can look back in a book to find a quote by flipping to the approximate area of the book and keying in on what part of a page something struck me - but I'm not great at summarizing complicated views of, say, a new yorker writer into a cogent paragraph. I pin this down to a personal ineptness and the fact that I read fast, a kind of cloud.

My ex, bless'm, read surprisingly slowly to me (he was a lit major, etc) and had/has a fantastic ability to analyze and comment on much of what he has ever read. Not just summary regurgitation. Brains are so interesting..

Ok, back to pep and plyo.

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Ok so I got some feedback after this next trial class. My daughter liked it more than the other one. This is basically the program desciption..

"The Performance Training Program provides individualized coaching in a rigorous training environment. These small group programs involve athletes with similar goals and abilities. The Performance Training Program provides the greatest level of customization for sport-specific movements. Pre- and post-program testing is conducted to measure progress. We guarantee that athletes participating in this Program will experience improvements in speed, agility and strength."

They said she could attend this class with two other girls that are sisters. She knows the one girl her age, not really personally, but she has played against her in travel basketball and she actually is currently playing for one of the AAU teams my daughter is interested in trying out for. From seeing this girl at travel, my daughter and her play about the same skill level. She also is a friend of a good friend of my daughters - I think this could be a good match up so far as working together as well. They both seem like motivated players.

My husband also saw a friend there so he got some feedback from him as well. The bonus is - it is much closer than the other place. We figure we will start her out here instead of playing travel basketball - we will pay for this to get her ready to try out for spring AAU.

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Plyometrics - is this any good?

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