Animal Movements For Youth Athletes – The Why, What & How

As coaches, sport scientists and strength and conditioning coaches it is our job to support these athletes through this period with consideration to help optimise athletic development and reduce risk of injury.

While traditional strength movements and training will always be the foundation of most youth athletes’ programs, ground-based animal movements are a great addition to a young athlete’s program. These types of movements promote continued development of co-ordination, strength, stability, speed and mobility, which can enrich an athlete’s potential to learn specific skills to participate in various sports at a later stage.

Ground-based animal movements can be split up into four main categories, each with their own aims and outcomes which need to be considered when programming for youth athletes. These four categories are:

1. Crawling Patterns
2. Force Absorption
3. Contact & bracing
4. Rolling and momentum 

Why Include Animal Movements into Youth Programs

Ground-based animal movement benefits include increased co-ordination, strength, stability, speed and mobility. How this is achieved can be split into 4 parts:

1. Movement diversity

Teaching athletes to move in multiple and unconventional ways uses all different parts of their bodies which will help learn more sports-specific skills further down the line.

2. Unconventional strength

Outside the traditional strength-based movements we start to explore obscure movement patterns in multiple planes which can help develop strength in greater ranges without putting more load through joints and tendons. With the unpredictable nature of sport athletes must be required to execute movements which co-ordinate to the whole body in multiple directions.

3. Co-ordination, rhythm and momentum

As athletes progress through these exercises, they start to require a lot of co-ordination between upper and lower body, timing and learn how to generate momentum and control the body.

4. Challenge early specialization

Early specialization can limit athletic development through repeating the same movements patterns again and again without diversifying which for young athletes may be dangerous when trying other activities and even potentially reduce engagement which sport further down the line. These exercises are an opportunity to diversify their movement and learn new skills without overloading the same movement patterns they do all the time.

5. Fun and engaging

Last but probably most important, these exercises are fun and engaging for youth athletes. We must remember they are still kids and want to have a bit of fun and this will only help their long-term development and engagement in training alongside taking them out of their comfort zone and learning new skills. 

What Animal Movements Should I Include In My Program?

Crawling patterns

Crawling animal exercises include traversing across the ground in animal-like movements. Animal movements can be categorized by the number of contact points with the ground. For example, bear crawl has 4 points of contact: two hands, two feet. We can make these exercises harder by removing points of contact which in turn increases the need to resist rotational forces and stay stable.

To move across the floor athletes need rhythm and trunk stability to resist rotation and extension. The benefits of crawling patterns include:

• Trunk, hip, ankle, foot and shoulder stability
• Increased mobility (wrists, shoulders, hips & ankles)
• Core strength
• Body confidence and awareness 

Force absorption

It is inevitable in sport that an athlete will be hit or knocked and fall to the ground. It is important we provide athletes from a young age a range of movement patterns and coping strategies to help them react to these scenarios at speed to increase strength and reduce risk of injury.

You may notice exercises in this section resemble what we know as Parkour, as it requires athletes to navigate past obstacles with different surfaces, inclinations, sizes and angles in the most effective way possible.

Jumping and landing exercises require elements of force absorption for the athlete to eccentrically decelerate. A rolling exercise requires the athlete to break with hands first to break the fall, so having the ability to absorb force can protect the athlete and help in transition from one movement to the next.

The benefits from force absorption exercises include:

• Eccentric strength
• Trunk strength
• Stiffness qualities
• Timing & co-ordination

Contact and bracing

Similar to force absorption the next category is contact and bracing. This is when athletes collide and receive physical contact from opposition players in training, competitive games or even on the school playground. It is important to learn how to anticipate and effectively brace, creating tension throughout your body, particularly the trunk. This will help the athlete protect themselves and reduce risk of injury.

The benefits of contact and bracing exercises include:

• Protection for the spine
• Create tension
• Maintain stability and postural control
• Reduce energy leakage 

Rolling and momentum

Rolling is associated with gymnastics and may be seen as lacking relevance on transferring to other sports. However, rolling requires a large amount of co-ordination and provides a challenge to young athlete’s proprioception as they invert and quickly reverse their centre of mass.

For example, an athlete may use an opponent’s momentum to roll that opponent or win a 50:50 duel. The benefits of rolling and momentum exercises are:

• Co-ordination and timing
• Increased range of motion
• Rhythm 
• Stiffness qualities

How do I Include Animal Movements into Youth Programs

Ground-based movements can be used across all age groups, but frequency and volume may differ between age groups. Here is what we would recommend for different ages groups:

• Pre-PHV athlete (9-12 years old): high frequency of ground-based movements. 1-3 times per week, 10-minute sessions).
• During PHV (13-16 years old): fantastic tool during PHV. Low impact and low risk, helps teach co-ordination and body awareness. 1-3 sessions per week, 10-minute sessions
• Post PHV (17 years+): prep prior to training and gym work. Provides variation, fun and engagement alongside more conventional warm-up exercises.

These movements can be incorporated in warm-ups prior to gym or training sessions but can also act as mini standalone sessions with needing no equipment they can be done by youth athletes in the comfort of their own home and helps microdose strength work throughout the week