Developing The Student Athlete

Drawing on his experience supporting youth footballers with the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) and Unleash the Roar (UTR), Hidayat will explore how strength and conditioning can support the physical development of young players alongside the demands of football, school and competition.

The session will share practical approaches to developing strength, speed, power and movement competency, while considering growth and maturation, training exposure and the management of physical preparation alongside football-specific training.

In this session:

• Developing key physical qualities for youth football
• Integrating S&C alongside football training and competition
• Managing training load and overall training exposure
• Accounting for growth and maturation
• Applying age-appropriate physical development in school and youth football

Gymnastics places unique physical demands on young athletes. Drawing on her experience working with young gymnasts and research conducted at Cardiff Metropolitan University, Sylvia will explore how developmentally appropriate strength and conditioning can support performance, injury resilience and long-term participation.

The session will translate research into practice, examining how coaches and practitioners can develop well-rounded young gymnasts while considering growth and maturation, neuromuscular development, injury risk and training load.

In this session:

• Strength and conditioning for young gymnasts
• Developing well-rounded athletes for long-term success
• Accounting for growth and maturation
• Neuromuscular training and modifiable injury risk factors
• Managing training load in youth gymnastics

Drawing on his experience supporting student swimmers as they progress from development squads into high-performance programmes, Tom will explore how physical preparation can support the transition towards higher levels of competitive swimming.

Using individual case studies of swimmers who have progressed to national titles and national age-group records, Tom will share practical approaches to strength training, managing pool and gym training loads, and balancing performance development with the demands of a highly academic school environment.

In this session:

• Physical preparation for developing student swimmers
• Using velocity-based strength training
• Managing pool and gym training loads
• Balancing performance development with academic demands
• Lessons from the development of national-level age-group swimmers