In this episode of EvelChat, Derek sits down with Dr. Mike Young of AthleticLab, a sport training center in Carey, NC that works with athletes from all along the sport development continuum, from novice youth athletes to elite professionals. Mike's experience in Olympic & professional sport is hard to match, having worked with various pro sport teams as performance director, biomechanist & performance coach. Mike's full bio and his sprint acceleration lecture can be found here.

Topics include:

Mike’s background, coaching pedigree & AthleticLab, hyper-specialization & modern issues around youth development, structured training vs. play & the realities of modern day life, AthleticLab’s youth progression development (‘LabRats’, ‘Scholastic Prep’ & ‘Scholastic’… Mike walks us through each stage), exercise & loading parameters in programming for youth athletes, ‘bad exercises’ & other absolutes, the importance of progressions, why ‘specialization’ is not a dirty word, fitness & movement competency in the general population, when early specialization & breaking the rules might matter, sport specialization vs. hyper-specificity vs. training specialization, the myth of the 10,000 hr. rule is some sports, sport parenting & appropriate environments / training for youth, mistakes in sport parenting, Mike’s advice for sport parents. This is a valuable discussion for anyone involved in youth athletics or sport in general.