Routledge Development of the Youth Athlete

Development of the Youth Athlete offers a single-authored, well-illustrated, evidence-based, and integrated analysis of the development and trainability of the morphological and physiological characteristics which influence sport performance in youth. The book critically analyses the development of the youth athlete in the context of current and future sport performance and long-term health and well-being. Development of the Youth Athlete identifies the principal controversies in youth sport and addresses them through sport-specific examples. Presenting a rigorous assessment and interpretation of scientific data with an emphasis on underlying physiological mechanisms, the book focuses on the interactions between growth, maturation, and: Sport-related fitness Sport-specific trainability Sport performance Challenges in youth sport Providing the only up-to-date, coherent critical discourse on youth athlete development currently available, Development of the Youth Athlete is essential reading for students, lecturers, sport medicine practitioners, researchers, scholars, and senior coaches with an interest in youth sport, exercise science, and sport medicine. About the Author Neil Armstrong is Professor of Paediatric Physiology, the Founding Director of the Children’s Health and Exercise Research Centre, and was the Inaugural Provost of the University of Exeter, UK. He won the only Queen's Anniversary Prize (QAP) to be awarded for research in sport medicine. The QAP was presented by HM the Queen at Buckingham Palace for ‘world class work which is of outstanding quality and importance to the nation.’ His research and its impact have been disseminated through over 600 scientific publications and invited presentations in 45 countries. In addition to his earned PhD and DSc, Neil has received honorary doctorates from Universities in both Europe and North America. Uniquely, he has twice chaired the Sport Science Panel in the UK Research Assessment Exercise and chaired both the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences and the Physical Education Association of the UK (PEAUK). He currently chairs the Board of the European Group of Pediatric Work Physiology and serves as a member of the IOC’s expert group on sport, health, and exercise in youth. He was the first scientist to be awarded Fellowship of the American (FACSM), European (FECSS), and British (FBASES) Colleges/Societies of Sport Medicine/Science and other Fellowships received have included the Royal Society of Arts, the Royal Society of Biology, the Royal Society of Health, the Higher Education Academy, the PEAUK, and the National Academy of Kinesiology (USA).