My 13-year-daughter's progress. Thank you, WGF members!!

[Josh]

I have been training my 13-year-old daughter for volleyball since November 13 of last year. I have used a variety of techniques, incorporating stuff I've learned from you guys and elsewhere..

I have some rough starting comparisons and current numbers for her. Maybe some of you will find it interesting. I don't know.

Background: My daughter went out for her 8th grade volleyball team last August with no prior experience and made it but played on the "B" team. She was 5'3" and weighed 89 pounds. That's VERY skinny. She was an average athlete or perhaps slightly above average. She was made a setter on the team. She did play on a winter AAU team from Jan-March to improve her skills where the coach switched her from setter to outside hitter, all the while working out five days a week with me. She was not and still is not physically mature.

When school team workouts started this summer, people were shocked at what she had become. She's now 5'5" 93lbs. Her legs that were toothpicks last year are thicker and more defined, and and she has great six-pack. Anyhow, her jump has improved so much and she hits it so hard, the coaches have considered putting her on the varsity, although she may not be emotionally ready for that jump.

Started training November 13, 2009. Squat: 35, Deadlift: 45, could not descend to level on a homemade GH machine (knees on a pillow with me holding her ankles down) Bulgarian ISOs - 20 seconds; VJ- could touch 7'11.

July 15: Squat 105x2; Deadlift-120 Can descend on our homemade GH machine to the floor while holding 7 1/2 against her chest, but cannot come up yet. Bench 55 (We've only done upper body once a week). Bulgarian ISOs 1 minute holding 30-lb dumbbells. I never measured ab strength, but her core is much stronger. Today she can touch 8'4" without a step. Obviously her gain of two inches in height and reach have accounted for some of that gain. I have had her doing ADA drops. Only 2x4 a week. I've had a hard time resisting the temptation to raise the heights of the drops. I have her doing them at 28 and 31 inches onto soft ground. I suspect you guys will think that's too high.

I have tried to be delicate with her, making sure she's never had unnatural pain. No two exercises are the same in any given week. Once in January she tweaked her back doing stiff-legged deadlifts, so we took ten days off and I changed how she did them. There has been no pain since then. We've worked a couple of 8-week stretches and a 12-week stretch with 10 days off in between. There have been a couple of half-weeks in there, due to activities a typical 8th grader might have.

I'm not bragging about anything here. One, I'm thankful for the help you guys have given me, when I asked some questions early on. And two, I am looking for input from the forum. Her gains have slowed since April. 10lbs in the squat. Upper body gains have been very slow. Excluding her height increase, her VJ has increased perhaps four inches since we started.

I don't know if such gains are typical for a petite immature girl or if they are slow. And do you guys think I could cause her harm in the long run with anything I'm doing? Are we doing enough? Too much? Here's a sketch of the workouts.


Mon: Squat 80-95% of max very deep (15" of ground): 3-rep sets. Deadlifts: same as squats, step-ups with weights GH eccentric lifts holding small plates. Calf raises: Ab series.

Tue: Quick-feet drills, side to side jumping, hurdles jumping, single-leg jumps off a box, ADA drops

Wed: Bench press: 35-50 lbs sets of 3 reps, Military press with dumbbells, Curls or ISO curl holds 1 min. Dips or ISO dips with vest. Ab series or ab ISOs

Thu: Speed squats holding dumbbells up to 60% of max. Down and up in <;1.5 seconds; Bulgarian ISO with weight 1 minute; Romanian Deadlift or ISOs, Jump squats with vest. Explosive GH movements, Explosive calf movements.

Fri: Medicine ball throws and catches in all sorts of ways 6lb and 12lb. When we get time, which is rarely, sprints, bounding and skipping.


Thanks so much.

[sjl]

Squatting BW+ is good for a girl, even if she is quite small. Those altitude drops are probably overload. Try to film her with a camera and see what her knees are doing and how quickly she breaks the descent. Careful with the bounds too.

It may help to feed her just a bit more.

[jgvbl24]

Have you purchased Alex's vert program? If not I would definitely recommend it. I used the theories in his blocks with a kid and saw unreal progress. It's cheap and has a ton of ideas you could use. Not saying follow it straight up with a younger athlete, but you can definitely get some great ideas.

[Josh]

Thanks for responding, Sjl. Her drop form looks good to me, but I'm not a coach. She sticks it quite well and there is no movement afterward. BTW, I forgot to include the rows and upper back ISOs she does.

Jgvb
Thanks for the tip. I have bought some material from folks in here. I'm happy to give them credit, but I didn't want to mention them by name because if I'm doing some screwy stuff on my own, I didn't want people to say "So and so said to do that?"

[adarqui]

Originally Posted by jgvbl24

Have you purchased Alex's vert program? If not I would definitely recommend it. I used the theories in his blocks with a kid and saw unreal progress. It's cheap and has a ton of ideas you could use. Not saying follow it straight up with a younger athlete, but you can definitely get some great ideas.

nice! what kind of progress, stats wise?

peace

[jgvbl24]

The kid that actually showed up and did workouts for 9 months put on ~13" on his SVJ. Never really measured with an approach but I would estimate 15-17". It was actually really impressive as we moved through the power/SPP phases and watched what he was able to do on the court. A lot was newb results in the beginning but then as his strength plateaued we moved into other blocks and really maxed out what he had gained.

I really recommend this program.

[AlexV]

Thanks for the kind words!

Jeremy and I were talking about the development of young athletes (13 would qualify) and have been floating the idea of limiting loads to the 60-85% range and focusing on compensatory acceleration. We like this for a few reasons:

1. It will allow for the perfection of form which will lay a solid foundation for future gains.

2. At 80%1rm you are essentially recruiting all the motor units possible.

3. Thus you will stimulate the same number of muscle fibers, and with CAT you will be exposing them to great ammounts of force, moreso than with loads in the 90-95% range.

4. Safety, better form = safer exercise.

So in essence you are using velocity to create the overload. If you are recruiting all available motor units and exposing them to greater ammounts of force you should see some pretty solid gains.

Maybe 1 day train in the 60-70% range and another day lift in the 75-85% range.

Obviously you would progress from slower movements into faster movements so that form is perfected, you wouldn't just put an untrained kid under the bar and say explode