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Youth Physical Development Centre

Youth Physical Development Centre

Aerial view of a sports complex featuring a large indoor sports facility, blue athletics track, multiple soccer fields, lush green trees in the foreground, and nearby residential buildings in the background. Aerial view of a sports complex featuring a large indoor sports facility, blue athletics track, multiple soccer fields, lush green trees in the foreground, and nearby residential buildings in the background.
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Youth Physical Development Centre

The Youth Physical Development (YPD) Centre was founded in 2014 by Professors Rhodri Lloyd and Jon Oliver, internationally recognised experts in youth strength and conditioning. The Centre was established to provide evidence-based athletic development programmes for young athletes aged 8 to 18 years.

The YPD Centre is part of the Centre for Applied Sport Science and Medicine (CASSM), based at the Cyncoed Campus. It’s managed by Dr John Radnor, a highly experienced youth specialist coach who has worked with young athletes for over 15 years.

Strength and conditioning sessions

The aim of the YPD Centre is to deliver age-appropriate athletic development sessions that enhance physical fitness, improve sports performance, reduce injury risk, and build self-confidence in children and adolescents.

All staff within the YPD Centre are fully qualified youth specialists with extensive experience working with young people. The programmes delivered are underpinned by high-quality research conducted by academics who work closely with the Centre. This strong research–practice integration has led to the YPD Centre being recognised as one of the leading providers of youth strength and conditioning in the UK.

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Contributions to the coaching field

Practitioners working within the YPD Centre have worked closely with organisations to help transform coach education programmes for professional sporting organisations and national governing bodies. These include the Premier League, Welsh Athletics, England and Wales Cricket Board, UK Coaching, British Weightlifting and the American College of Sports Medicine.

The Youth Physical Development model, produced by Professor Rhodri Lloyd and Professor Jon Oliver, has been used as a training framework by multiple sporting organisations and now features in many leading coach education programmes.

Professor Rhodri Lloyd and Professor Jon Oliver also contributed to the National Strength and Conditioning Association’s (NSCA) position statement on long-term athletic development, as well as the international consensus on youth resistance training.

Steph Morris contributed to the NSCA's position statement on weightlifting for sports performance, while Dr Sylvia Moeskops supported the development of the position statement on resistance training for females.

Members of the group also produced a framework for developing movement competency in young athletes, which has been used by a number of organisations to guide their youth development processes.

Key partnerships

We have a number of partnerships with National Pathways in Wales and local sports clubs. We offer bespoke S&C packages to several teams, including:

If you would like to book a members-only sessions for a specific youth club, please email ypd@cardiffmet.ac.uk.

Specialist facilities

To deliver its high-quality youth S&C programmes, the Centre uses the wide selection of specialist facilities at the Cardiff School of Sport & Health Sciences:

Strength and Power Gym

The Strength and Power Gym at the Cyncoed Campus features 14 state-of-the-art weightlifting racks that can be used to develop fundamental movement skills, strength, power and athletic performance in young athletes. The space is ideally suited to delivering age-appropriate, progressive training sessions that prioritise technical competency, safe lifting practices and long-term athletic development.

The facility enables coaches to work with multiple athletes simultaneously while maintaining high levels of supervision and individual feedback, an essential component of effective youth training. With ample space and specialist equipment, the gym provides an optimal environment for supporting physical literacy, enhancing sports performance, reducing injury risk, and building confidence in children and adolescents.

Rehabilitation and Conditioning Gym

A spacious gym with blue benches, dumbbells, and open workout areas.

This bright and spacious gym is thoughtfully divided into two sections to support youth athletic development. One area is equipped with a versatile weightlifting rig featuring monkey-bars, providing an ideal setting for developing upper-body strength, movement control and technical lifting skills in a safe, supervised environment.

The adjoining open space is specifically suited for dynamic warm-ups, movement skill development and rehabilitation sessions. This flexible layout allows young athletes to progress seamlessly from preparation to performance-based activities, while maintaining a strong emphasis on movement quality, injury prevention and long-term athletic development.

Learn more about the Cardiff School of Sport & Health Science facilities.

Key staff

Awards

Professor Rhodri Lloyd

  • National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) William J. Kraemer Outstanding Sport Scientist of the Year 2024

Dr. Jon Hughes

  • UKSCA Coach of the Year – Education and Research 2024

Dr. John Radnor

  • UKSCA Coach of the Year – Youth Sport 2023

Dr. Steph Morris

  • UKSCA Coach of the Year – Youth Sport 2025

Find out more

Visit the YPD Centre’s research explorer page to learn more about its members, research outputs, collaborations and how its work contributes to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.