摘要：

There has recently been a growing interest in long-term athletic development for youth. Due to their unique physical, psychological and social differences, children and adolescents should engage in appropriately prescribed exercise programs that promote physical development to prevent injury and enhance fitness behaviours that can be retained later in life. Irrespective of whether a child is involved in organized sport or engages in recreational physical activity, there remains a need to adopt a structured, logical and evidence-based approach to the long-term development of athleticism. This is of particular importance considering the alarmingly high number of youth who fail to meet global physical activity recommendations and consequently present with negative health profiles. However, appropriate exercise prescription is also crucial for those young athletes that are physically underprepared and at risk of overuse injury due to high volumes of competition and an absence of preparatory conditioning. Whether the child accumulates insufficient or excessive amounts of exercise, or falls somewhere between these opposing ends of the spectrum, it is generally accepted that the young bodies of modern day youth are often ill-prepared to tolerate the rigors of sports or physical activity. All youth should engage in regular physical activity and thus should be viewed as 'athletes' and afforded the opportunity to enhance athleticism in an individualized, holistic and child-centred manner. Due to the emerging interest in long-term athletic development, an authorship team was tasked on behalf of the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) to critically synthesize existing literature and current practices within the field and to compose a relevant position statement. This document was subsequently reviewed and formally ratified by the NSCA Board of Directors. Figure 1 provides a list of the 10 pillars of successful long-term athletic development, which summarize the key recommendations detailed within the consensus statement. With these pillars in place, it is believed that the NSCA can (i) help foster a more unified and holistic approach to youth physical development, (ii) promote the benefits of a lifetime of healthy physical activity, and (iii) prevent and/or minimize injuries from sports participation for all boys and girls.

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