I think the answer is quite simple - it depends on what they are doing to run these amazing times at these ages.
The thing is, what is an "amazing" time for a young athlete these days has definitely been redefined over the course of the last 20-30 years to the point where it is basically impossible they aren't doing significant workload and intensities of training to get there.
Here is a great example of that. Back in 2001 Nick Willis ran 4.01.32 for the mile a few months before his 18th birthday. So 4.01.32 at 17 - that was seen as a phenomenal performance at the time. The thing was with Nick, he did that off minimal training, running his club meets on a grass track, playing rugby in the winter and certainly not training with established international runners. That was a 4.01 mile off pure talent. Not surprisingly Nick was able to have an international career almost 18 years long.
These days a 4.01.3 mile at age 17 is seen as kind of average. Jakob ran 3.56 when he was 16, Meyers 3.55 when he was 16. Fellow NZer Sam Ruthe just ran 3.58 at 15. But we also know that 16 year old Jakob was following the Ivan Drago blood lactic testing regime and training with his two older brothers who were both top established international performers. We know Sam Ruthe trains with Sam Tanner and runs big workouts because his dad posts them all over social media. I wrote this on another thread re Jakob, but sometimes we fall into this mistake of just writing off junior performances as just being "all talent" and believing that the odometer just gets reset when the senior career starts.
No, 10 x 400 in 58 seconds might not be as good as 10 x 400 in 54 seconds with the same rest as pure quantifiable workout, but the relative stress and difficulty of the 58's at age 16, 17 is almost the same or maybe even more difficult then the 54's at age 22, 23. That's what really matters.
Hate to say it, but a lot of kids running amazing times at young ages are doing so not just because they are talented, but because instead of training like teenagers they are training like adults and out bodies capacity for high intensity work is obviously not endless. The way things are today, amazing "talents" are trending down the path of shorter career as seniors/pros. Things like NIL money being thrown at kids with performances at extremely young ages is simply exacerbating the issue/trend too.
I don’t believe that middle-schoolers are training like adults. There’s nothing really to win or lose at that age, and results don’t matter until HS. If I was a middle school coach, I would try to limit them to 25 mpw and my goal would be to not screw up their future beginning with HS. By their sophomore or junior years in HS, any advantage gained from competing in middle school will be gone, anyway.
Some are absolutely training like adults. Have you seen some of these times?
And you're right that it doesn't matter at that point. It matters in high school. But they get caught up in it.
I don’t believe that middle-schoolers are training like adults. There’s nothing really to win or lose at that age, and results don’t matter until HS. If I was a middle school coach, I would try to limit them to 25 mpw and my goal would be to not screw up their future beginning with HS. By their sophomore or junior years in HS, any advantage gained from competing in middle school will be gone, anyway.
Isn't a middle schooler in the 11-13 age group?
Where was it ever claimed by anyone on this thread that 11-13 year kids were training like pros?
High school - especially by the ages of 15,16 kids are looking at schedules of these top pros and seeing how they can emulate them. Does it mean they are doing the workouts 1-1 which also includes the level of performance? Obviously not but that's not the point being made. It's all about the relative intensity of the workouts and some kids these days are hammering themselves just as relatively hard as pros are.
Young female phenoms get burned out physically and mentally. Ping was racing national meets in junior high. She moved schools several times. Tuohy was racing national meets throughout high school. The pressure is too much. When people surpass them, they can't take it because they were told thst they were the best.