My son trained for a while at 13, then for a while at 15, and is again training now at 17.
His interest in lifting comes and goes, but each time he takes it up again, he's older and lifts more.
This time I think he'll pass my squat (but not my deadlift or presses) pretty soon. He's built for squatting, strong kid.
Anyway, my expectation for a 13yo athlete is that they won't stick to lifting very long, but will probably come back to it eventually.
I'm thinking she'll stick with it. She is already making comments about how she is better at basketball, gets less tired and occasionally, she looks a the teenager boys and makes comments to me such as "daddy, he isn't going to depth", or "daddy, I can't believe I can squat more than that boy". If I can get her to stay until she is a intermediate level trainer, she will already have a HUGE advantage in school sports. I think there are VERY FEW JV girls at intermediate....certainly a lower percentage than in the boy's sports. Plus, she seems enamored with having big, athletic looking legs. Time shall tell....
Turns out amazing advice. I put it into practice on Saturday. Daughter was discouraged doing 85 pounds for 2 sets of 5 because she has the appendectomy in July and it set her back. I made a deal with her. If she gave me excellent effort reps, I'll put the 25's on for her last set and she only had to do 3 reps. She NAILED them. Then we went to bench and her work weight was a grind. I said that we can switch to 1 work set and strip 5 pounds off and do 2 back off sets of 3-5 reps (up to her) but the caveat is that each rep had to be controlled to the chest, slight tap and EXPLODED up. She hit 2 sets of 3 with amazing bar speed on the way up.
My kid follows the family tradition of avoiding sports. But he's by far the strongest music nerd at his school. Always gets the male lead (or villian) in musicals, bass section lead in choir, does a good Sinatra.
And in great demand for setup/teardown after a show, as he can carry the most folding chairs at once.
Why no presses? A bunch of benching w/o presses can lead to shoulder issues. Shoulder strength is obviously important for basketball (fighting for rebounds, passing the ball, etc.).