Athletic development for youth baseball and softball, ages 6 to 18. Strength, speed, power, and movement, matched to the kid in front of you. Bodyweight first by default, with the research shown and every source linked.
Two questions, thirty seconds. You get the stage, what to build, and what to avoid. Then, if you want the thinking behind it, the guide is one tap away.
Pick an age. Say whether they are in a growth spurt. See what good, safe training looks like at that stage and what to leave out. A guide for understanding, not a prescription.
Find the stage →The four stages from 6 to 18, the three rules that govern every age, what to protect during the growth spurt, and the full list of sources.
Read the guide →The Hit Window. Targets go where real hits land on your field, so every cage swing has a score.
These do not change from 6 to 18. Only the dose changes.
Maturity, not a birthday, sets the program. Two kids the same age can be years apart physically. Train the body in front of you.
In a 2019 national survey of youth-sports parents (Aspen Institute and Utah State University), the most common reason given for a child quitting a sport was that it was not fun anymore. Reward effort and showing up. Keep it fun.
Our default for volunteer-led teams. Master squat, hinge, push, pull, brace, land, and carry with clean form before any external load. Quality first, then load.
Youth resistance training is relatively safe and beneficial when the program is properly designed and supervised by qualified adults. The guidance is to begin with relatively light loads, focus on correct technique, and increase resistance gradually (NSCA 2009; International Consensus 2014). It does not say kids must master bodyweight before touching any load.
Most volunteer teams do not have a qualified strength coach at practice. So on these pages the default is bodyweight first, no dynamic lifts under load, and no max-effort lifting. External load waits for two things: readiness (maturity and clean form, not a birthday) and a qualified coach watching. That is our conservative call, not a research finding. With a qualified coach, the research supports more.
Every claim on these pages traces to a named source, or it gets cut. The full list, with what each one supports, is in the Development Guide. The core six are here.
A caution we take seriously: the popular "windows of trainability" idea from early LTAD writing is contested in the research (Ford et al., 2011). We treat stages as a planning framework, not a biological law.
Volunteer coaches and parents of players 6 to 18. College and pro training is individualized and coached, and it is outside what we cover.
Educational resource only. Not medical advice. These pages explain general principles of youth athletic development. They are not a personalized training prescription and do not replace a qualified strength coach, athletic trainer, or physician who can see your athlete. Around a growth spurt or with any pain, check with a professional first.