Kelli Brightwell | Don’t Overlook the Youth Training Market

Elite sport often gets more attention, but youth training gives strength and conditioning coaches an earlier chance to build athletes’ competence and confidence. Kelli Brightwell specializes in youth development and brings more than a decade of sports training experience, including four years at Michael Johnson Performance. Brightwell defines peak height velocity as the period during which height increases fastest. She then explains why its timing can differ among teammates of the same age. So what should strength coaches test, and what do the results mean? The answer changes with each athlete’s maturity and training experience. Brightwell addresses the growth-spurt “awkward phase,” when familiar movement patterns can break down as an athlete adjusts to a changing body. She also considers how sport sampling can expand children’s range of physical skills and help them discover what they enjoy. Learn how maturation can affect movement, testing, and programming — and why young athletes need foundations before specialization.

Contact Information & Episode Links:

Connect with Kelli on Instagram: @kelliselman and LinkedIn: @kelli-selman-brightwell | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs and LinkedIn: @ericmcmahoncscs

See Kelli help illustrate how to put youth training into practice in Lance Walker’s “Hot Zones for Youth Training” session at the 2026 NSCA Personal Trainers Virtual Conference (PTCon).

Kelli Brightwell, MS, CSCS,*D, RSCC*D

Kelli Brightwell is a Physical Education Teacher, Strength and Conditioning Coach, and Track and Field and Cross Country Coach at Colorado Springs Christian Schools. Brightwell has been training clients ranging from the general population to professional athletes since 2013. Formerly, she was a Performance Specialist, Education Coordinator, and Internship Coordinator at Michael Johnson Performance. In China, she taught courses on the science and application of youth training methods to more than 800 coaches. Brightwell serves on the Colorado State Advisory Board for the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) and has served on the NSCA-Certified Personal Trainer® (NSCA-CPT®) job task analysis board. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Exercise Physiology and a Master’s degree in Sports Physiology from Texas A&M University.

Show Notes:

"The professional sports or even those super-duper high level, maybe senior level collegiate athletes, they are well developed. They've made it. But the youth athletes, there's a lot more return on investment of those guys and gals because they're in development. And you can make an impact and see results, and you can be part of that process for competence and confidence and set the stage for them, maybe going to the high-level collegiate or professional sport." 2:45

"But maybe that's something that we can help, because that is something that's within the developmental timeline for them. For those youngest kids, we actually need to bias maximum velocity training. Why? Because their nervous system is needing to get quick off the ground, moving the limbs in a coordinated fashion at high speeds. They don't have the capability to produce a lot of force." 13:50

"Now, in high school, there's the early high school [...] and then there's late high school. Maybe your senior kids that are being signed to play college, [...] but when in doubt, keep it basic and vanilla with the sport performance and strength and conditioning training because it's all going to elevate the human movement patterns needed for sport." 25:30

Transcript:

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;38;29

Welcome to the NSCA Coaching Podcast season ten, episode seven the Professional Sports, or even those super duper high level, maybe see in your level collegiate athletes, they are well developed. They they they've made it. But the youth athletes, there's a lot more return on investment of those guys and gals because they're in development. And you can make an impact and see results, and you can be part of that process for competence and confidence and set the stage for them.

00;00;38;29 - 00;00;46;05

Maybe going to the high level collegiate or professional sports.

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This is the NSCAs Coaching Podcast, where we talked to strength and conditioning coaches about what you really need to know, but probably didn't learn in school, their strength and conditioning. And then there's everything else. This is the NSCA Coaching Podcast. I'm Eric McMahon NSCA’s Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager. Today's episode is all about kids, youth training for sport.

00;01;07;12 - 00;01;30;22

We have an expert in that area, Kelli Brightwell. She's been very active in the NSCA community as a presenter, as a volunteer. And Kelli, it's great to have you on. It's an honor to be on the NSCA podcast. Yeah we are, we're catching up all the time. You're here in Colorado Springs just like us here at the headquarters.

00;01;30;24 - 00;01;54;20

You've presented I've, I've called on you to present so many times. This is such an important topic. Training for youth. One thing I'm really passionate about the NSCA is early exposure to strength and conditioning so that kids are getting taught how to lift weights and how to train effectively at earlier ages so that we're not having to play catch up later in their athletic careers.

00;01;54;22 - 00;02;18;00

This is a highly debated topic in the field. Youth training. What are some of the biggest misconceptions about working with young people? Well, a lot of people, when they think of sport performance and strength and conditioning, they always go to that pro athlete. You know, that's their dream is to work with the glamorous pro athletes. And it sounds fine and dandy and all.

00;02;18;03 - 00;02;43;07

But the thing is, is you can really get a lot more out of training youth for several reasons. And here it is. You can have more volume of clients of athletes because, I mean, let's just face the statistics. There is a way greater chance of you being a youth athlete than there is to be a college athlete, than there is to be a pro or Olympic athlete.

00;02;43;07 - 00;03;24;08

Right? So, that's the first thing. And then another thing is the professional sports or even those super duper high level, maybe senior level collegiate athletes, they are well developed. They they they've made it. But the youth athletes, there's a lot more return on investment of those guys. And gals because they're in development. And you can make an impact and see results, and you can be part of that process for competence and confidence and set the stage for them, maybe going to the high level collegiate or professional sport.

00;03;24;10 - 00;03;57;10

So those are some common misconceptions about the world of strength and conditioning and what athlete to target youth is going to get you more impact, and even maybe some more money if you target that population due to the high volume and the need they have to develop their skills. Yeah. As a parent, I think about this topic a lot with my kids, and one of the big topics in the field that we get to is windows of train ability and youth.

00;03;57;13 - 00;04;26;25

And one of the phrases I like is that a nine year old is not half of an 18 year old. We have puberty in there. That's a huge factor when it comes to training and how we're training athletes. How do you view windows or train ability at the various stages with youth athletes? Yeah, well, the three main stages of how I view and how long term athlete development models classify is based around their peak height velocity.

00;04;26;28 - 00;04;53;04

Peak height velocity is the greatest rate of growth. We're growing all the time throughout our childhood, our youth, and even some of those young men can grow into their college years. So peak high velocity is where it's the biggest growth they shoot up. And this is typically around puberty time. It could be right during puberty a little bit after it's somewhere around that time.

00;04;53;04 - 00;05;18;09

So I classify along with many other practitioners pre peak height velocity. Those are that's going to be pre 11 years old for females and pre 13 years old for males. And then you have your circa or mid whichever one you want to call it V. So that's going to be kind of your middle school kids. And then you have your post FV.

00;05;18;09 - 00;05;52;05

That's going to be your high school kids. And like I said there's always variation. There's always not every human develops at the exact same rate. And there's different, equations that you can plug in there height, weight, gender data, birth, seated height and standing height. And you can determine if they fall into the average category of development below average or above average, aka late developers, early developers, or just the average Joe.

00;05;52;08 - 00;06;20;24

So what I'm hearing is there's certain ways to train at the various stages of development. What's the big risk if you get this wrong? If you do too much too soon, or really too little at a critical time? Very good question. Well, there was a big paper that was published, specifically on youth males. And they, they took resisted running methods, pushing a sled, running with the sled.

00;06;20;24 - 00;06;55;13

I can't remember if they pushed it or pulled it. But anyways, they found that it had great benefits for the older group for the post, for maybe those late mid FPS these, but it actually had a detriment to the pre freeze. It actually made them slower and it's all based on the development of neurology. So what happens was is that it increased their ground contact time.

00;06;55;13 - 00;07;25;08

Those youngins pushing the sled. So there is some things that you can do that could actually be worse for them Yeah, that that makes a lot of sense. If you're not ready to handle that force into the ground and it alters your training technique so that you can't be as quick and explosive through the mechanisms that you're using to produce that speed or development, that's going to be a detriment at a various stage.

00;07;25;08 - 00;07;56;19

So I think that's really important to key in on developmental training, windows, developmental development, totally appropriate training for youth. Now, from a assessment standpoint, how do you assess youth athletes? I know you're probably not just talking to the athletes about this. You're talking to their parents. What's your process of figuring out where an athlete is at during this developmental stage and and then progressing them into training?

00;07;56;21 - 00;08;21;10

Right. So I mentioned the equations that we can plug some of their metrics into and understand where they are within their development, because it's not based on chronological age, it's going to be based on biological age in a most optimal setting. Using these equations specifically one of them, there's another one, but the one that I prefer to use is the Mir Wald equation.

00;08;21;10 - 00;08;54;02

Doctor Robert Meir Wald, he made an equation that compared, wrist X-rays, hand and wrist X-rays, which is one way to understand skeletal and biological maturity of kids, no matter their chronological age. He made an equation that correlated with their seated height versus their standing height. So my total body height versus my spinal height, along with like I said before, when their date of birth is gender.

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And what happens is when kids grow, the spine is the last to develop. That's why you see kids with gangly arms and legs. But they got a short torso. Okay. So that equation is looking at, hey, where are they at in their peak height velocity. And from there it can spit out where they're at. And we know what the averages are.

00;09;18;12 - 00;09;42;20

Like I mentioned before, it's going to be like a 11.5 for girls, maybe 13.5 for boys. And if they are going to hit their peak height velocity before those moments, then they're going to be an early developer. We have less time to develop those foundational skills. And then of course, if they, you know, they can also show that they're a late developer average.

00;09;42;27 - 00;10;07;22

So that's going to be the first thing just taking their height weight and whatnot. And then following that. Now if they are pre heavy we're not going to do any type of functional movement screen for them. Okay. So like a FMS or any small portions of that we're going to save that for the circa or also called it mid in the post kids.

00;10;08;00 - 00;10;29;29

So from there after a functional movement screen that could be a piece if you got the time. Okay. That could be a piece. Because also what we can do is we can take the functional movement screen results and we can tailor some of their warmup exercises or some of their weight room exercises or take home exercises, because we can make a corrective exercise script for them.

00;10;29;29 - 00;11;00;11

Oh, poor internal rotation at the hip. Okay, well, I've got a few little isolation, low intensity rehab exercises that I can assign you in the warm up or weight room or homework. So I do believe that doing a little functional assessment is beneficial to laser guide your programing and make it more individualized for each individual. From there you're going to move into power tests and classic.

00;11;00;11 - 00;11;26;18

We're going to go vertical jump and broad jump. Now within vertical jump you can look at the squat jump without the counter movement. And then what it's looking like with the counter movement to understand better how they react to their own eccentric stresses and what the shortening cycle is like for those kids. Of course, we know if they get quick off the ground, well then.

00;11;26;20 - 00;11;54;07

But then don't jump very high. Well, we can do more force production things to aid that. Or the flip, is they can jump pretty good, but they are slow to get off of the ground. Well, we need more bouncy, reactive things to tap in to that quick reflex of the stretch shortening cycle. We can also do an upper body power exercise, things like a kneeling medicine ball, chest throw for distance.

00;11;54;10 - 00;12;22;25

So those are some metrics that I've used in the past for and some tests I've used for, your power profile. Then from there, we're going to move into speed. We need at least one linear test and one change of direction test. Now this brings me to some points of the developmental timeline. When we're looking at young kids, the FV.

00;12;22;28 - 00;12;47;13

And I'll just go ahead and say this. I'm going to do a 40 hour dash for everybody, but I love to have some splits in there now. And the the big bad facility that I worked at for four years, Michael Johnson Performance, we were able to have timing gates for the zero ten, 20, 30, 40 so we could really get a shot at all the splits for all of the kids.

00;12;47;15 - 00;13;09;13

But for those younger kids, they're actually going to get up to speed their top speed. Not that they're necessarily fast. We've all seen a little child run, but they're going to get up to their top speed sooner than most of the bigger kids that are at their same level of skill. Okay, like an average and an average.

00;13;09;15 - 00;13;28;20

And so we can kind of look at some things with that. Most people would say, oh, they it doesn't take them a very long time to accelerate. They're not good at accelerating. Their ankles aren't there. And then they're just up and spin in their wheels and they lose their speed before the 30 and the 40 yard split.

00;13;28;22 - 00;13;49;21

So we need to make them push sleds to make them better at the acceleration. Well, that's just no, that's actually going to make them fast. Like we just I mean slow, like we just said. And it's just something to take into consideration that they might not be able to hold their speed, their top speed all the way to the 40.

00;13;49;21 - 00;14;14;16

But maybe that's something that we can help, because that is something that's within the developmental timeline for them. For those youngest kids, we actually need to bias maximum velocity training. Why? Because their nervous system is needing to get quick off the ground moving the limbs in a coordinated fashion at high speeds. They don't have the capability to produce a lot of force.

00;14;14;18 - 00;14;40;04

So what we need to work with there is moving things quick, moving things coordinated. Okay, with those maybe longer sprints and seeing if we can increase their speed and be able to hold a little bit longer. And then, as we can see through the other splits, it's great for we'll go on the other side of the spectrum, the bigger kids.

00;14;40;06 - 00;15;16;05

Well, think about this. They increase their speed through stride length because their legs got longer from growth. And even the big kids, they are getting faster through force development. But what they also have a problem with is now this big new body. So as coaches, I do believe it is highly important for us to have the discussion about body composition and making sure that you're if you're trying to be super fast, you can't hold a lot of body, fat.

00;15;16;12 - 00;15;36;08

And there's I believe I saw the stat that a male, if he has more than 7% body fat, he will never be an elite sprinter. Female. More than 11% body fat will never be an elite sprinter. Not saying that that's what we want our kids to get down to, but it just goes to show that it plays a huge role.

00;15;36;08 - 00;16;01;24

So what can we do to overcome if we see a big speed decrement with those bigger post kids? Well, we can do methods to try to build muscle that will melt away the fat. Of course, with nutritional tips. Okay. So and we can do some, maybe some stamina training that can automatically improve body composition. So that's going to be your speed test.

00;16;01;25 - 00;16;23;04

I know I went off on some logic behind there and then we can do some strength tests. Now that gets a little hairy because many kids coming into a sports performance facility, or training with the coach, that's why they're coming because they've never been exposed to that and they don't know proper technique. So we're not going to max people out.

00;16;23;07 - 00;16;53;26

We may want to select other tests that take, that's a body weight test, like maximum chin ups or how many pushups can you do in a minute? Maybe more muscular endurance tests or those chin ups. How many dips things you can do with your body weight because of course, if they get stronger, if they improve their body composition, if they get more coordinated, even with the motor coordination of those movements, we're going to see improvements in those as well.

00;16;53;28 - 00;17;17;23

But for people, kids, maybe high schoolers that are experienced, maybe we can do Veloce based training profiling and get an estimation of their one rep max. Perhaps. But also we can see if that speed goes up on the barbell with the same load wheels. And that's another metric of success. So we we are going to test the same way.

00;17;17;23 - 00;17;38;14

We're going to train okay. With the opening up with power, speed and strength. Those are the main things that really basic stuff that we're going to test. And I think the kids have fun doing stuff like that, like a combine, like an NFL combine, I think. I think that's a big takeaway there is keeping it fun for the kids.

00;17;38;14 - 00;18;09;11

One, I mean, there's a lot there that you mentioned. And one thing that stood out to me is that more weight on the bar isn't necessarily what's going to be the driver of performance at an early stage. I'm glad you mentioned coordination, and I, I wonder, you know, when you get athletes that are hitting that peak height velocity and they're growing and their body is now, taller and longer than it's ever been before, and they're trying to sustain performance in and with their new body.

00;18;09;13 - 00;18;46;22

Do you have to double back on basic coordination training? Do you feel like you have to step back? Is that, product of our current PE system that maybe there's a gap there? What are your thoughts? Yes. Of course. Well, we've always heard of the awkward phase, and that's the poor circuit of kids. Those those late middle school guys and gals, you know, now they have to completely rethink their entire movement profile, because now that they've got a new body and it's it's taller in my way more it's ganglia.

00;18;46;25 - 00;19;34;23

Now, my arm is way longer than what it once was. My center of mass has changed. So doing some type of speed, change of direction, drill around the cone is now absolutely trashed. So yeah, we've got to dial it back. But when it comes to designing something like a strength program or any basic sport performance program, of course we're we're going to regress back or we're going to use drills that help, the motor coordination and the patterning, for example, maybe with the circuit of kids before we do a broad jump, maybe a sprinkle in, in the warm up, we get a dowel rod, three point, dowel rod hinge where the

00;19;34;23 - 00;20;07;25

hand is on the neck and the lumbar spine, and they're having to maintain contact with the head and the tailbone or coccyx, and they're working on the hinge pattern. Okay, great. Or maybe we do that as a drill right before we teach. The broad jump. And then what's also going to happen is we're going to do slow eccentrics into the bottom range of motion before we explode out as well, to give them more time under tension, to learn and think and feel that pattern.

00;20;07;25 - 00;20;37;22

And that's just one example with a broad jump that we can show visually, even, hey, look at this rod. This is the way my backbone is supposed to be locked in. When I sit my hips back and even look at the vector, the rod, when I'm in the bottom position, it points the direction I want to go in, jump in, forward, horizontal, directly outward, so they can also see a visual of a force vector that we're trying to get them to do.

00;20;37;24 - 00;21;11;22

So that's what we're going to do. In order to help those kids out, learn and drill in a motor pattern. Additionally, I'll add this. And when it comes to center, I mentioned it in the power training. And also it's really great to emphasize that in the weight room for those awkward phase kids, those circuits, because their body is growing there, their limbs and bones are growing, and this is where they're going to start to feel tight.

00;21;11;24 - 00;21;45;16

And instead of all these static stretches, which there's nothing absolutely terrible and wrong about doing that, there's a time and place for everything. But doing the eccentric phase can help lengthen the muscle under load, and it can actually help improve taller sense to stretch, lengthening the fascicles. Okay, so that's going to help those kids out, even with some of those flexibility and the low tolerance to stretch that they're perceiving with their new bodies.

00;21;45;18 - 00;22;10;25

So here's a big one youth training sports specificity. How important is it and when should we be specializing our athletes in the individual sports. Right. So due to long term athlete development also they nailed it down. When you're in pre FV it's time to movement sample. It's time to do as much as you can. You know good luck out there.

00;22;10;25 - 00;22;32;20

To the parents I know you're juggling all the carton. The kids off to every single sport there is year round. But they need to sample a lot of things. And get this movement profile, their prime and development. It's time to appropriate up. It's time to discover. It's time to have fun, make friends. So that's the recommendation.

00;22;32;20 - 00;22;59;27

No sports specialization. It is literally. I am learning sport. I'm learning to train. I'm learning about my body and myself and what I have fun with. Then those middle, that middle age group, we can dial that back to to three sports. You know, you're maybe not all at once because that could lead to burnout or even some type of overuse injury or a tweak.

00;22;59;29 - 00;23;27;09

So we can go 2 to 3 sports and then in high school we go 1 to 2 sports. So that is the recommendation when it comes to what all should I do, how specialized should I be then when it comes to training for sport? Same situation at the very beginning. It's foundational movements or just doing a lot of different things that could help out all the sports that they're involved in.

00;23;27;11 - 00;23;55;06

However, it's not about the sport, it's about getting back to being athletes. As humans. Our body was designed to move in. Movement, makes us happy. We know the reward system of the neurotransmitters and the chemicals in our body that make us happy. After we move and play and experience, especially if it's in a social setting. So we were designed to move.

00;23;55;08 - 00;24;20;07

So now what are the joint systems? How are they designed to move? What are the basic patterns. That is fundamental. And we're going to do that. And it's just so going to happen to help out with their coordination and that confidence. And competence that I talked about. And then as we get into the circuit FPV, we're going to do things that is now we're training to train.

00;24;20;07 - 00;24;45;29

We learn to train. Now we're training to train, okay. We're trying to get better at training. And this is so crucial that many adults miss the middle school kids. And even the elementary kids. The sooner that you start them out in learning to train and training to train, well, now that sets them up for high school where we can actually load that up.

00;24;45;29 - 00;25;09;26

Remember, that's where there is actual hormones that are being produced that can grow muscle. Their force capabilities are greater. They're becoming more stable. Their joint systems can resist unwanted ranges of motion. So now we need to load those movement patterns up and maximize our return on investment. So we've got it. We can't wait till their freshman year to learn how to back squat.

00;25;09;28 - 00;25;29;12

We got to do wider loads. We got to work on movement proficiency way before that so that when they roll in as a 14 year old, male or female in the high school, they're ready to rock and roll and put slap some weight on that barbell and increase their force capabilities. So we're still training to train.

00;25;29;12 - 00;25;55;26

We're not doing super sports specific stuff for the middle school kids. Now, in the high school, there's the early high school. And we know that that can also still be an awkward time. And then there's late high school, I would say late high school. Maybe your senior kids that are being signed to play college, that is maybe when we're going to start doing a little more sport specific stuff, like you can imagine baseball players.

00;25;55;28 - 00;26;35;03

Well, we're we're probably going to run 30s or 40s, or lower, lower distances than that. We're going to do lots of rotational things. We're going to do vertical jumping that, you know, we're going to start really thinking about what the needs analysis is for the sport that they're chasing after for possibly a college gig. Okay. But when when in doubt, keep it basic and vanilla with the sport performance and strength and conditioning training because it's all going to elevate the human movement patterns needed for sport.

00;26;35;10 - 00;26;55;22

The basic foundational human movement patterns. I need to sit my hips back in pretty much any sport. So hinging and broad jumping, I need to probably put force down into the ground to run or to jump up and catch a ball or spike a ball. So I need to squat and have a vertical vector or do vertical jumps.

00;26;55;28 - 00;27;21;09

It's all going to play a part into this force production motor coordination, quickness and dialing in the physiology the to get it to do what you want it to do I love it. I love the passion. I love the energy. Putting emphasis on training foundations. You're never going to go wrong with that is what I'm hearing from you.

00;27;21;10 - 00;27;41;17

You're never going to go wrong with that. And I can tell you from working with the highest level of professional athletes, you're always going to have to take a step back and work on something foundational in your training, no matter how specialized the program is. And that's why it's important. That's why we at the NSCA preach the the principles of strength and conditioning.

00;27;41;17 - 00;28;07;27

The foundations, the scientific principles, and just how we develop as athletes. We know those foundations are vital and important. Kelli, thanks so much for sharing your, your passion, your energy, your message. I know these topics mean a lot to you, and, I always enjoy when you get to bring those that energy into hands on sessions at our conferences.

00;28;07;29 - 00;28;29;27

And, you're just a great presenter, and we really appreciate you could you share your contact info with us just so our listeners can reach out after the episode? Of course, the best way to reach out to me is going to be on Instagram, and my Instagram handle is Kell Selman k-e-l-l-i, s-e-l-m-a-n.

00;28;29;29 - 00;28;51;19

And first reach out to me there and if we need to exchange email information then we can go from there. Or you can find me at the NSCA conferences. That's perfect. Thanks so much and thanks for promoting and being involved with our conferences all these years. To our listeners, thank you so much for tuning in today and to Sorinex Exercise Equipment.

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We appreciate their support.

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This was the NSCAs coaching podcast. The National Strength and Conditioning Association was founded in 1978 by strength and conditioning coaches to share information, resources and help advance the profession. Serving coaches for over 40 years, the NSCAs be trusted source for strength and conditioning professionals. Be sure to join us next time.

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