Strength training in children and youth applied to sports performance

Strength training for children and youth has traditionally been a controversial topic. In general, the origin of this controversy is a good number of prejudices induced by the lack of updated knowledge on human motor development and the basis of the strength training methodology. The stereotyped vision of the "bodybuilder" or the adult weightlifter contributes to maintain the "black legend" on the development of this conditional motor factor that, in fact, requires the same process that any other: wide and deep knowledge on the matter and the individual characteristics of the sportsmen, good doses of common sense and finally, a general vision of all the process with a humanist orientation. The objective of this article is to offer a general vision of the current situation of this topic, considering the positioning and statements of some of the most outstanding researchers and reputed national and international institutions. Furthermore, we offer some guidelines about how the development process of this important motor quality is conceived nowadays