Age and Stage of Maturation

Age and Stage of Maturation

1. Stage 1: Active Start (0-6)

   • Cognitive Development
     • Brain functions improve
     • Gross and Fine motor skills improve
     • Coordination develops
     • Emotions develop
     • Imagination develops
     • Social Skills develop
     • Builds confidence
     • Reduced Stress
   • Physical Development
     • Bone growth and density
     • Posture
     • Balance
     • Muscle strength and development
     • Achieving a healthy weight
     • moving more skillfully
   • Effects on gymnastics
     • Sessions must be fun with elements of structure and play.
     • Activities must cater to fine and gross motor skill activities
     • Loads must be low and session should be short

2. Stage 2: Fundamentals (6-9)

   • Effects on gymnastics
     • Sessions should remain fun with the addition of fun competition
     • Structured play will help the gymnasts to develop spatial awareness and develop fundamental movement skills
     • Cover a wide variety of gymnastics movements while the neurological pathways are easier to form
   • Physical Development
     • Improvement of fine and gross motor skills
     • Fundamental movement skills will improve
       • Agility
       • Balance
       • Coordination
   • Cognitive development
     • Still learning through play
     • Understanding competition
     • Neurological pathways are easier to form

3. Stage 3: Learn to Train (9-12)

   • Physical Development
     • Continues until puberty begins
     • Will be able to develop specific and fundamental sporting demands
     • Coordination and motor continues to develop
   • Cognitive Development
     • During this stage, children begin to thinking logically about concrete events
     • They begin to understand the concept of conservation; that the amount of liquid in a short, wide cup is equal to that in a tall, skinny glass, for example
     • Their thinking becomes more logical and organized, but still very concrete
     • Children begin using inductive logic, or reasoning from specific information to a general principle
   • Effects on gymnastics
     • Goal setting can be discussed with gymnasts
     • We can introduce cause and effect
     • Gymnasts can begin to self analyse and understand video analysis

4. Stage 4: Train to Train (12-16)

   • Cognitive Development
     • Teens begin to think more about moral, philosophical, ethical, social, and political issues that require theoretical and abstract reasoning
     • Abstract thought emerges
     • At this stage, the adolescent or young adult begins to think abstractly and reason about hypothetical problems
     • Begin to use deductive logic, or reasoning from a general principle to specific information
     • Social pressures and interests change
   • Effect on gymnastics
     • These youths may do their best to win, but they still need to spend more time on skill training and physical development and less on trying to win (process vs. outcome).
     • This is the stage at which people are physiologically responsive to stimuli and training; in other words, the time to start “building the engine” and exploiting the sensitive periods of accelerated adaptation to training
     • Training loads will need to be reduced during peak height velocity
     • Gymnasts may need to alter the types of surfaces they use to make training intensity easier
     • Gymnasts will be involved in decisions around their training -Autocratic to Democratic
     • Gymnasts may need some Leighweigh with times of training etc.
   • Physical Development
     • Peak Height Velocity
     • Sexual Maturation

5. Stage 5: Train to Compete (16-19)

6. Stage 6: Training to Win (19+)