Development of the Youth Athlete

In Development of the Youth Athlete, Professor Neil Armstrong offers a unique, single-authored, evidence-based and integrated analysis of the physical and physiological development of young athletes. Drawing on specific sporting examples, the book critically analyses youth development in the context of long-term health and wellbeing, tackling the principle controversies in youth sport such as overtraining and specialisation (including some of the dominant talent development models), the ethics of physiological testing, the use of performance-enhancing substances, and future issues like selective breeding and gene-doping.

Providing the only up-to-date, coherent and integrated crititcal discourse on youth athlete development currently available, Development of the Youth Athlete is essential reading for upper-level undergraduates, postgraduate students and researchers with an interest in paediatric exercise science and physiology, or the ethics of talent identification and development.

Development of the Youth Athlete offers a single-authored, well-illustrated, evidence-based, and integrated analysis of the development and trainability of the morphological and physiological characteristics which influence sport performance in youth. The book critically analyses the development of the youth athlete in the context of current and future sport performance and long-term health and well-being. Development of the Youth Athlete identifies the principal controversies in youth sport and addresses them through sport-specific examples.　

Presenting a rigorous assessment and interpretation of scientific data with an emphasis on underlying physiological mechanisms, the book focuses on the interactions between growth, maturation, and:　　　　　　　　

• Sport-related fitness
• Sport-specific trainability
• Sport performance
• Challenges in youth sport

Providing the only up-to-date, coherent critical discourse on youth athlete development currently available, Development of the Youth Athlete is essential reading for students, lecturers, sport medicine practitioners, researchers, scholars, and senior coaches with an interest in youth sport, exercise science, and sport medicine.