Rob Anderson is an award-winning youth strength and conditioning coach with over 15 years of experience developing young athletes across schools, academies, and national governing bodies. He spent five years with Scottish Rugby as the Lead Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Under 16, 17 and 18 National Teams as well as coaching emerging youth talent at the Borders & East Lothian and Caledonia Regional Academies. Rob then founded The Athlete Academy with the mission to provide world-class athletic development and coaching for young athletes. His dedication to improving youth athletic development is reflected in his recognition as the 2024 UKSCA Strength & Conditioning Coach of the Year for Youth Sport. A leading voice in LTAD, Rob also mentors practitioners through Collaborate Sports, helping coaches implement best practices in clubs, schools, and private sectors.

QUOTES

“It's not uncommon for guys and girls to be growing seven to 12 centimeters in a year. That's a huge physiological change. It's not uncommon during peak weight velocity for guys to be stacking on 10 kilos in a year. That's a huge physiological change. So in some ways, the training programs that we are putting on adult athletes, we know there's a level of adaptation that's going to change physiologically but we're probably getting the greatest physiological change during that period of adolescence, both for male and female athletes, with training”.

“If it works with kids, it works with adults but not the other way around”

"And sometimes it's going to be a bit deceptive for youth athletes because you might think, well, actually we've not changed training load. Like they're doing exactly what they were doing last year. But actually, last year they weren't in their peak high velocity and now they are. And so maybe their sensitivity has increased and that workload that was previously okay is actually now too much. And we just need to be smart about how we decrease that"

“So we need enough calories for the usual resting metabolic rate plus growth. Then what fuelling do we need for athletic endeavors? You know, it tends to be a lot more than parents think in terms of what the requirement actually is. And that's why, you know, it's not uncommon for athletes to be tired and under fueled because they don't realize that how much their calorie requirements are going through that period of training and growing.”

“I actually really love martial arts for an LTAD environment, because I think it's actually way more organic. You go into a Jiu-Jitsu class, for example, it's not all the white belts in one room or the brown belts in another room or the blue. It's like combined different ages, different experience levels. And it's actually a really quality LTAD experience and I've kind of borrowed from that.”

SHOWNOTES

1) Rob’s progression in youth strength and conditioning, from his own experience to Scotland national youth rugby teams to opening Athlete Academy

2) Fundamentals of youth strength & conditioning and dispelling old youth training myths

3) The impact of peak height velocity on different growth related conditions like Osgood Schlatters

4) The difference between peak height velocity and peak weight velocity

5) Organizing training and adaptation aims (e.g., neural vs hypertrophy) around pre, circa, and post pre height velocity

6) The parent as the head of performance for the youth athlete

7) The intake process at the Athlete Academy and putting youth athletes into the right level of a curriculum

8) Micro-dosing different tests across different weeks

9) Addressing parent questions about what their kid needs and the value of unilateral work

PEOPLE MENTIONED

Avery Faigenbaum

Kelvin Giles

Dan Baker

Rhodri Lloyd

John Oliver

Shane Fitzgibbon

James Baker

Angela Jackson

Mike Boyle

Frans Bosch