Archive for “Coaching Young Athletes” Category

SPEED KILLS!!! Speed & Strength to Improve Sport Performance

Posted on: May 17th, 2013 by IYCA No Comments

By Todd Durkin, MA,CSCS, NCTMB

speed

Speed kills. Speed, agility, and quickness in sport gives an athlete an edge on his/her competition. And the great news is that “SAQ” can all be learned through technique training, proper drills, and hard work. If you’re wanting and willing to get faster, let’s dive (or sprint!) into the action.

In this article, you will learn all about improving your speed, agility, and quickness. You will learn about stride rate, stride length, and proper running mechanics. You will learn several different speed improvement training drills, exercises, and programs that will enable you to reach new levels in your sport.

And you will learn:

  • Best strength exercises for speed development
  • Top technique tips for speed performance
  • Power and plyometrics to develop fast-twitch muscle fiber
  • Nutrition for optimal fueling
  • Top recovery strategies

So don’t be left in the dust. Dive into the article and find out all the in’s and out’s of improving speed and performance now.

SPEED TRAINING

First off, let’s understand speed training and its components. Here are the phases of Speed Training:

  • Dynamic Warm-Up (see below; not really a phase of speed training but essential to include prior to speed training)
  • Mechanics
  • Acceleration (reaching maximum speed in the shortest amount of time possible)
  • Top-End Speed
  • Deceleration
  • Change of Direction (Agility & Quickness)

As we talk about speed training, it is necessary to understand the following principles:

  • “Stride Frequency”: The number of strides taken in a given amount of time or distance. This is improved via technique drills, cycling, towing, sprinting and bungee work.

  • “Stride Length”: The distance covered from one stride when sprinting.  Strength and flexibility are the most important factors to improve stride length.

All speed work should be preceded by a great General Warm-up and Dynamic Warm-up. A general warm-up is 5-10 minutes of exercise to begin elevating core tissue temperature, increase heart rate, and prepare the body for a workout or competition. Examples will include running, treadmill, jumping rope, elliptical, or bike.

One would then proceed into the Dynamic Warm-Up

Dynamic Warm-Up:

Should be performed before every workout, practice or competition, and should take approximately 5-25 minutes.

The purpose of the Dynamic Warm-Up is to: Increase tissue temperature, improve flexibility, activate the nervous system, and help coordination and develop body awareness. It also lengthens fascia.

What is Fascia? Fascia is a specialized system of the body (connective tissue) which plays an important role in the support of our bodies. Fascia is a very dense connective tissue which envelops every muscle, bone, nerve, artery, and vein as well as our internal organs including the heart, lungs, brain and spinal cord. When fascia becomes constricted, it becomes tight, creates great pressure on its structures and becomes a great source of tension to the body. 

The methods utilized to perform a dynamic warm-up are:

Movement in Space: (10-20 yards)

  • High knees
  • Butt-kicks
  • Cariocas
  • Exagerated Cariocas
  • A-Skips
  • B-Skips
  • Frankenstein Walks (& skips)
  • Lunge with rotation
  • Reverse lunge with reach over top
  • Side-lunges

Stationary:

  • Jumping jacks
  • Gate swings
  • Pogo hops
  • Seal jacks
  • Arm circles
  • Trunk rotations
  • Cats & Dogs
  • Downard Dog
  • Scorpion Kicks
  • 1 Legged Windshield wipers
  • Bodyweight Squats

Perform each movement approx. 10-20 seconds.

Before a workout or competition, the emphasis is on a dynamic warm-up.

After a workout, the emphasis should be on static stretching and myofascial release.

Flexibility:

Every time after you workout, practice or compete, there should be stretching that involves holding each stretch 20 seconds to 1 minute,  and it should take 10 minutes minimally. Using a stretch rope, you should concentrate on your hip flexors, hamstrings, quads, calves, trunk and opening the chest and shoulders. The methods utilized to stretch are rope chest stretch, standing rotator cuff stretch, kneeling hip flexor stretch, cats & dogs, downward dog, lying rope hamstring stretch, lying rope lower back stretch, lying rope groin stretch, side-lying rope quad stretch, walking soldiers. Foam rolling (ie. The Grid or a foam roller) & a massage stick are essential to do on your own to promote fascia lengthening and recovery. This can be performed both before and after the workout.

When assessing speed, one of the most critical aspects is acceleration. Acceleration is defined as the ability and time it takes for the body to reach Top End Speed. 

Mechanics and technique for acceleration include:

  • Foot Contact behind hip
  • Body angle at 45 degrees/Straight line from heel to neck
  • Chin to chest
  • Head down

Some of the best technique acceleration drills include:

  • Marches along wall
  • Wall Runs
  • 3, 5, 7, 9 step wall sprints

STRENGTH, SPEED & ACCELERATION

When training for acceleration, it is important to train and strengthen the posterior chain of the body—glutes, hamstrings, lower back, mid-back, and even the calves & feet. Some of the most effective methods and strength exercises to improve acceleration include:

  • Sled Drags & Sled Pulls
  • Resisted Towing
  • Tire Flips
  • Plate Pushes
  • Keiser Air Runner
  • Bullet Belt
  • Super Band Leap Frogs
  • Form running in place & move out
  • Legged Romanian Deadlifts
  • Calf Raises (Double & Single Leg)
  • Swiss Ball Leg Curls
  • TRX Hip Extensions/Bicycles, Leg Curls
  • Hyperextensions (Glute/Ham)
  • Barefoot Balance Touches (on airex pad)
  • Planks
  • Pullups

Once one achieves top-end speed (T.E.S.), the mechanics then change. Now, technique is a bit different:

  • Foot Contact now under hip
  • Body is upright
  • Upper body relaxed
  • Arms swinging 90-120 degrees from waist to chin; drive elbows back!
  • T.E.S. typically reached at approximately 20-30 yards on a linear sprint

Some drills to reinforce Top End Speed Mechanics/Technique Drills include:

  • Arm swing drills
  • Fast Claw Drill
  • Marches
  • Skipping

Some of the best exercises and methods to improve acceleration and T.E.S. include:

  • Uphill running
  • Stadium Steps
  • Resisted Speed Drills (bungees)
  • Assisted Over-speed training with bungee
  • High speed treadmill

Best Strength Exercises to Improve Overall Speed (& acceleration):

  • Squats (2 legged & 1 legged)
  • Step-ups
  • Lunges (variations)
  • Bulgarian Split Squats
  • Deadlifts
  • Plate Pushes
  • Sled Drags
  • Plyometrics (squat jumps, lunge hops, Box jumps, leap frogs, vertimax, etc.)
  • Olympic Lifts (snatch, clean & jerk, clean, power shrugs) (power development)
  • Core Conditioning (ie. hyperextensions, Glute/Ham Raise, Russian twists, Bosu Core, med ball standing twists, med ball standing windmills, med ball seated sidewinders, med ball side-tosses into wall, med ball throws (straight up), etc…
  • Pullups
  • Weighted arm swings

3 Tips for Speed Performance: (credit to Patrick Beith)

Tip 1 – Drive Phase – Don’t force yourself to “stay low”’
The drive phase happens right after you react to the starting gun. Your initial 8 -10 steps is considered your drive phase. The biggest problem seen with athletes in the drive phase is that athletes are ‘trying’ to stay too low. Keep the body angle at about 45 degrees and keep the heel of the recovery leg low to the ground during the first 8 strides. Drive the foot into the ground and explode powerfully backwards to create maximum ground reaction force. Drive your elbows backwards and keep your head down. You should be in a straight line from your heels to your head.

Tip 2 – Acceleration Phase
In this phase, you want to think “powerful.” Since the acceleration phase (0-30 yards) is associated with a higher stride frequency then at maximum speed, focus on leg drive. You want to keep the feet behind your center of mass so that you can maximize leg drive.  “Head down and drive.”

Tip 3 – Relaxation 
One of the most challenging things to do is to stay relaxed while sprinting full speed. I often look at my athlete’s cheeks to see if they are running with “puppy dog” cheeks. If an athlete is too tense, their jaw will be tight and they will be tensing their entire body.

If you see an athlete with a tight face, eyes squinting, teeth clenched, elevated shoulders, and tight fists, they are actually slowing themselves down. You have to let your muscles work for you and not against to maximize your speed potential. This is a tough concept to learn and MUST be practiced if you want get the most out of our speed.

Relax and let your speed come to you!

Closely related to speed, is agility and quickness. Let’s look at the difference.

Agility is the ability to accelerate, decelerate, and change directions as quickly as possible in the shortest amount of time possible

  • Closely related to balance
  • Should be able to move forward, backwards, left, & right all very well

Quickness is the ability to react to a stimulus in the environment in the shortest amount of time possible (a whistle, clap, defender, etc.)

  • Closely related to reaction time
  • Could be foot quickness or hand-eye quickness

Factors affecting Agility & Quickness:

  • Ground Reaction Forces
  • Reaction Time
  • Acceleration & Deceleration
  • Starting quickness (1st step quickness)
  • Cutting
  • Cross-over ability

Drills/Methodologies to Influence Agility & Quickness:

  • Line Drills—runs back & forth, jumping jack feet, front hops, side hops, Ali shuffles, 1-legged lateral hops, 1-legged front hops
  • 5 dot drill
  • Mirror Drill
  • Tag Drill
  • Cone Drills (cone circles, box drill)
  • Bag Drills (shuffles, figure 8’s, shuffle & figure 8’s)
  • Agility Ladder drills (1 foot in each rung, sideways 2 feet in each rung, Ali shuffles, Icky Shuffles, NFL crossover drills)
  • BOSU foot Quickness Drills
  • Deceleration Drills
    • Sprint & stop
    • Sprint & stop and repeat
  • Super Band overspeed/resisted speed drills (running forward & backward or left & right with Super Band; works acceleration & deceleration)

* Incorporate hand-eye coordination into any of these drills for additional quickness/reaction time.

To include hand-eye coordination and reaction time, you can include drills such as:

  • Reaction ball drills (drops, rolls, into rebounder)
  • Card Catch drills
  • BOLA catches

Furthermore, if you are needing to increase your agility and quickness, you can use the same aforementioned exercises to improve your speed. Due to the fact that agility often is lateral quickness or involves cutting, it is imperative that the groins & hips are adequately worked also. The following exercises will augment the strength exercises found in the speed & acceleration section:

  • Diagonal Lunges
  • Slide Board
  • Lateral Band Walks
  • Side Lunges
  • Dirty Dogs
  • Horse-Back Riding 

POWER

If an athlete really wants to reach full potential, they must be able to convert their strength into power. Power is defined as the ability of the neuro-muscular system to create a force rapidly. In its simplest term, power = strength + speed

  • Strength– the maximal amount of force a muscle can generate under a given set of conditions
  • Speed– the ability to move from one point to another point as fast as possible

Methodologies to improve power:

  • Olympic lifting
  • Plyometrics
  • Strength training with speed component

For the sake of this discussion, I am going to concentrate on plyometrics to improve power (along with strength). Plyometrics is a system of hopping, skipping, jumping, or running that works on developing explosive power and maximally recruiting fast-twitch muscle fiber by eccentrically loading a muscle and quickly producing a concentric force. Plyometrics are exercises that enable a muscle to reach maximum strength in as short a time as possible. The faster the eccentric movement (the loading phase), the more stored elastic energy will be released, resulting in a more explosive jump.

Benefits of plyometrics:

  • Improves power & elasticity
  • Trains the nervous system
  • Improves anaerobic conditioning
  • Transformation of muscle strength into power
  • Recruitment of most motor units and their corresponding muscle fibers
  • Develops fast twitch muscle fiber!!!

Rules of plyometrics:

  • Perform on soft surface
  • Do early in your routine
  • Land softly
  • Have adequate strength base before introducing advanced levels of plyometrics (approx. 10 weeks of resistance training)
  • No pain should be experienced in joints
  • Be attentive to form & technique
  • Be sure to stretch & work on strength & flexibility when using plyometrics as part of program
  • Use a 1:3 work/rest ratio for most plyometric exercises
  • Can be performed in many ways:
    • immediately after dynamic warm-up
    • Infuse it during your workout and perform immediately after a strength exercise (complex training)
    • Can be performed on speed days also performed as separate sessions

3 Basic Categories of Lower Body Plyometric Exercises:

  • Jumping—taking off on one or two feet; landing on 2 feet (jumping jacks, leap frogs)
  • Hopping—taking off on one foot and landing on same foot (single leg hopping over line)
  • Bounding—taking off on one foot and landing on other foot (alternate leg bounds)

3 Stages of Plyometric Program Design:

Off-Season (General Conditioning)—2 to 3 times per week; 80-100 foot contacts

Pre-Season (Sport Specific)—2 to 3 times per week; 100-150 foot contacts

In-Season (Sport Specific Maintenance)—1 to 2 times per week; 80-100 foot contacts

3 Levels of Plyometrics

Beginning

  • Jumping Rope
  • Jumping Jacks
  • Line jumps & hops
  • Squat jumps
  • Tuck jumps
  • Skater plyos
  • Overhead Medicine Ball Tosses
  • Med Ball Chest Passes
  • Plyo Pushups on floor
  • Medicine Ball rotational ab twists into wall

 Moderate

  • Box jumps
  • Lateral box jumps
  • 1 legged jumps (front & lateral)
  • Supine medicine ball push presses (to partner)
  • 1-legged lateral bounds
  • Plyo situps
  • Med ball throws into ground (with twist)
  • Explosive pushups onto 2 steppers
  • Explosive pushups onto 1 stepper
  • Med ball push press to partner into plyo pushup & repeat
  • Abdominal leg throws
  • Med ball overhead tosses, sprint, and retrieve

Advanced

  • Depth Jumps
  • Depth Jump with multiple repeats
  • Single leg triple jumps
  • Smith Machine Bench Press Throws to partner
  • Add another exercise to upper & lower body
  • Keiser Air Runner or double leap frongs
  • Increase height of box
  • Incorporate single leg movements
  • Use weighted vests

With all this focus on proper training to improve overall athleticism, it is necessary to  address one critical aspect to an athlete receiving maximum benefits from their training. It is called RECOVERY & REGENERATION. The following components play a critical role in determining how quickly an athlete can recover. The quicker the athlete can recover, the quicker they can train or perform again. Let’s take a look at a couple key components of recovery:

1) Nutrition is step one

  • Protein is step one; we want to increase protein synthesis. One should consume approximately 1 g per lb. of body weight.
  • A protein and carb drink promotes glycogen recovery faster than a carb drink alone following a workout. This helps stimulate protein synthesis.
  • Good nutrition controls insulin, glucagon, leptin, and other very important hormones.

insulin—stores nutrients into cells
leptin—follows insulin & caloric intake/deposition
glucagon—releases fat
Nutrient Timing does play a role in overall nutrition

2) Flexibility (see beginning of article)

  • Static Stretching
  • Yoga

3) Foam Roller or Massage Stick (Self-Myofascial Release)

4) Bodywork (massage, Rolfing, Optimal Performance Bodywork, etc.)

5) Infrared Saunas

6) Supplementation

  • Fish oils & Omega 3 Fatty Acids
  • Glucosamine, Chondroitin, MSM
  • Multi-vitamin & mineral Complex
  • B12

7) Sleep—During sleep, the production of growth hormone, testosterone, and IGF-1 are at their peak. Growth hormone speeds the absorption of nutrients and amino acids into your cells and aids the healing of tissues throughout the body. Testosterone and IGF-1 are anabolic hormones that are important in muscle growth and assist in recovery also. It is recommended that you get at least 8 hours of sleep when trying to optimize hormone-release and recovery.

Now that you have the tools, it’s time to implement the game-plan and begin working towards improving performance. If you combine training hard, the correct methodologies, along with ample recovery & regeneration techniques, it is then that you can maximize your strength, speed, and power development. GO GET IT!!!

Click here to download PDF

Todd Durkin is an internationally-recognized strength and conditioning coach who works with numerous NFL, MLB, and NBA athletes. He is the owner of Fitness Quest 10 in San Diego, CA, and the author of The IMPACT! Body Plan. For more information, visit www.ToddDurkin.com or follow him on Twitter at @ToddDurkin. 

Coaching: Art or Science?

Posted on: April 10th, 2013 by admin No Comments

By Alex Slezak – M.Ed, YFS, YSAS, HSSCS

Let me begin by posing a question for you to ponder aimed at the core of your coaching philosophy. Is training young athletes to get bigger, faster, and stronger a sports science or an art form? Do you believe the science, research or training methods are most important? Or do you believe that the art of coaching and working with youth is more important than any science or training methods?

I have spent the past 9 years of my life training youth of all ages and athletic backgrounds in my physical education classes or through my tennis business. I would venture to say that I have spent on average at least 30 hours each week over the past 9 years directly involved in coaching youth in some way shape or form. That is 14,040+ hours of coaching and counting. I believe that gives me some credentials in giving my opinion on this topic.

I firmly believe without a shadow of a doubt that you have to thoroughly grasp the content knowledge of how to properly training youth. You have to fully understand motor development, anatomy, strength, conditioning, mobility, flexibility, soft tissue work, power, speed, agility, and so on. Then you have all the methods of training like kettlebells, bands, free-weights, body weight, suspension trainers, etc. There is just no way around it you have to fully understand the science of sport and athletic skill development or you are just randomly selecting exercises in hopes of getting results.

Art of Coaching

On the other hand ultimately you can have all the knowledge and understanding in the world but none of it matters unless you can convey that information to the youth you are working with in a way that resonates with and inspires them. Not just so that a child understands what they are doing in their training but in a way that inspires and ignites them to be the best athlete and person they can be. Each young person we come in contact with is unique and the art of coaching lies in bridging unique relationships with your athletes so you can share your knowledge, motivate, and inspire.

Youth fitness training, in my humble opinion, is both a sport science and an art form. The best coaches in the industry get it. They understand the science behind the methods to their madness while at the same time are able to move their kids from simply being compliant, to committed, and ultimately over time to becoming passionate about their training. Our job is much more than simply getting youth more athletic prowess. Our job is about motivating and inspiring very impressionable youth to challenge themselves to become the best athletes and people they can be.

The IYCA clearly understands this unique balance between sport science and the art of coaching. In all of their courses they provide cutting edge research, methods, and information for coaches looking to get better. The real genius of the IYCA is that they do not mandate that there is only one correct way to apply their methods. They realize that coaching is an art form, each child and coach is unique, and something that cannot be captured purely by science and data. Albert Einstein said “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” The IYCA provides the knowledge and concepts while at the same time empowering the individual coach to be their own person, let their personality shine through, and take ownership of their work. You would be wise to invest in yourself by picking up any one of the many certifications or courses the IYCA offers. Even after 14,040 hours of direct coaching I am still improving at the art of coaching and adding to the depth of my content knowledge.

8 Ways To Get More From Your Team Training Sessions

Posted on: April 1st, 2013 by IYCA No Comments

Having worked with dozens of coaches over the years, I know that every single one of them wants nothing but the best for their players. They are typically consumed by the desire to get an extra edge for their kids that will put them ahead of their peers. And it eats at them to see one of their kids go down with a serious injury, especially if they feel it could have been prevented.

Today, the dream for many sports coaches is to give their kids that edge by having a great off-season program, a development system that plays a key role in the success of their team’s upcoming season. In this ideal scenario they see players coming back to them faster, stronger, more injury resistant, and with a stronger group bond for having worked so hard together.

In reality, this is not happening as well as it should. Many coaches are scraping together off-season training based on what they used to do, have found an eager but inexperienced strength coach who puts together a program for their team to follow, or are using an outdated training system that used to pass for ‘cutting-edge training’ about 25 years ago. The results they will see from any of these scenarios may have some positive impact, but nowhere near as much as it could be having with a few critical tweaks.

For anyone using or planning to use a team training program for their athletes, know that there are ways to enhance the program you are using without having to start from scratch. Make sure these 8 critical guidelines are all in place if you want to really see your kids come back physically and mentally tougher for next season:

1. Have A Plan
This important first step is so basic that it is often missed. Just saying ‘I want my kids working out’ is not enough. What, specifically, do you want them to get better at? And how do you or your coaches plan on achieving these objectives? Your off-season staff and your team coaching staff should be in full agreement of what the biggest problems were last season that training can address so those designing the program can create a cycled plan for getting the exact results the head coach wants to see.

2. Take The Long Road
Team Training

We live in an instant access world these days, and that mindset tends to lead towards an instant gratification approach to performance training as well. When you are dealing with kids, who often times are still growing, ramping up the intensity of training too quickly can have extremely negative consequences. Tendonitis, muscle strains, and some bigger injuries come up more often when taking part in a ‘quick fix’ type of workout program.

A smart team training program is always looking to improve on something, no matter what time of year, but does so with the understanding that you are never going to do everything all at once. Your players will be much better served by a philosophy of developing the complete individual year-round, and not how much they get better in a 4 or 6 week block.

3. Create A Focused Atmosphere
Read any books on how elite talent is developed - “The Talent Code”, “Outliers”, and ”Talent Is Overrated” to name a few – and they all point to the 10,000 hour rule for reaching greatness. The basic idea behind this concept is that it takes 10,000 hours of dedicated practice to become great at anything.

The key phrase in there is ‘dedicated practice’, meaning that all of your focus is on the task at hand. It does not mean that showing up and going through the motions will help you accumulate the time needed to improve.

Team training can be a difficult setting to achieve maximum focus because of friendships, competitiveness, and the overall social nature of many teenagers. But if you really want to get the most from your program, training that is focused on the task at hand is a standard that coaches and supervisors must priortitize.

4. Bring Some Energy!
Being focused on the task at hand does not mean it should be like a library in your training room. To the contrary, this is hard work and you’ll need to maximize the energy output of your kids at the same time as they are dialed in to their drills.

A common mistake is to just turn the radio up really loud and let the music provide the noise. That can be helpful on occasion and with advanced groups, but loud music removes the coach-athlete interactions, teaching moments, and positive conversations between teammates that could be taking place. It also promotes a mindless approach that lowers focus and attention to detail.

A truly energizing atmosphere is one whose foundation is built on positive bonds shared by a group working towards a challenging goal that is important to all of them. There is something incredibly motivating about being around a team or group whose intrinsic desire to succeed is almost palpable.

Coaches and training room supervisors play a huge role in fostering this kind of atmosphere. Lead with an energetic and positive style that you are comfortable with, be an interactive presence with everyone in your group, and confront those who are not there to do things the right way. Over time and with a respectful approach to everyone, you’ll have the right atmosphere in place.

5. Personalize, Personalize, Personalize 

Team Training

Football players need to be fast and strong, soccer players need speed and endurance, basketball players need vertical jump power. Every sport has its own unique needs, and programming must take that into account.

But does even sport-specific training go far enough to address the needs of all your players?

Let’s say you are working with a basketball team and 5 of your players need to improve explosiveness, 3 are always getting hurt and need corrective training, while 4 more lack the conditioning necessary to play well deep into a game. How do you run a ‘basketball-specific’ workout program for a group like that?

I’d say in almost 100% of team training scenarios, there is no way a One-Size-Fits-All workout program will serve the needs of all your players. Coaches must come up with even more personalized workout programming to make sure every single player gets what they need to improve their game for next year.

6. Pay Attention To Details
Performance training is a science, with a wide range of variables. The results you see in the end will be a byproduct of how well every last detail is implemented, and coaches must be vigilant in regards to how well their athletes are following the program as intended.

This means correcting technique on an exercise, using the right resistance, progressing at a proper pace from one workout to the next, and ensuring rep/set schemes are followed as intended. Do it all right and you’ll get more from the same hour of training than the teams who are allowing all the little things to slip through the cracks.

7. Focus On The Entire Range Of Athletic Skills
Remember that strength training is just one aspect of athletic development. A well-rounded workout program can address all of these areas:

Explosive Power 
Strength 
Stability 
Injury Prevention 
Mobility 
Speed & Agility 
Conditioning 
Balance/Coordination

And within each of those categories there is a wide range of tools available to address each need in a slightly different way. Simply put, if you are a slave to strength training using barbells and dumbbells then you are missing out on so much more your players can be doing to maximize their time.

8. Be Flexible, Your Athletes Schedules Demand It
Kids playing sports, especially if they are dedicated to maximizing their game, are extremely busy these days. They may be trying to juggle academics while playing on multiple teams before they even consider adding performance training to their day. Make sure you are aware that many hard-working, dedicated kids are going to need some schedule flexibility in order to pull off working with you, too. 

Find creative ways to get workouts in so those who truly want to get better have a range of opportunities to fit team training into their schedules. Maybe you have a range of times to come in, or create workouts that can be done quicker than the typical 1 hour session. But most importantly, do not get down on a kid if they are not 100% committed to what you want them to do without knowing all you can about why they may not have time to work with you every day after school. 

Coaches have thousands of small opportunities every single day to make a positive impact on their kids. It can come from personalizing a program, correcting technique, giving encouragement, picking them up after a failure, and even with simpler acts that show them you are about more than just winning games. Make that impact every minute of every day, and you will transform the lives of each athlete who is lucky enough to work with you.

Misuse Of Speed and Agility Drills

Posted on: March 27th, 2013 by IYCA No Comments

By Jim Kielbaso

Alot of people in this field call themselves Strength & Conditioning Coaches. I don’t have a problem with the “Strength” part of the title, but the “Conditioning” part could use a little work.

As a former college S & C Coach, I fully understand the time constraints of the collegiate or high school environment. Running a private facility for athletes, I also understand the limitations of this situation. In both cases, it is very difficult to give every athlete the time and instruction they need. Still, there is one area of our profession that I feel is in desperate need of some attention. That area is what I call Movement Training.

Recently, I was asked by a college coach what mistakes I have made in the past and what I would do differently if I could re-live the past 6-10 years of my career. At first, like many coaches, my ego didn’t want to admit to any mistakes, especially to another coach. But, after some thought, I realized that the area in which I have the greatest impact on athletes today, I simply did not understand when I was younger.

A few years ago, I thought the best S & C Coach was the one who most fully brutalized his/her athletes. I thought I was supposed to lift my athletes until they puked and condition them until they couldn’t see straight. Don’t get me wrong, I still think that stuff has its place. I love putting athletes through brutally hard workouts, and I think that kind of hard work can have amazing benefits (it also has terrific entertainment value). But, through time, I have gained a better understanding of how to maximize the “Conditioning” or “Speed and Agility Training” part of my job title.

To a lot of coaches, conditioning means creating running programs that enhance the physiological processes involved in aerobic or anaerobic metabolism. You may not think of it this way, but that is essentially what many conditioning programs are designed to do. I have no problem with this. Conditioning sport-specific energy systems is a vital part ofathletic success.

Speed and Agility drills

Many coaches also implement speed, agility, and plyometric routines into their programs, and I think it’s great to see coaches making an effort to improve the physical abilities of their athletes. Unfortunately, I see way too many mistakes being made in this area, and I think many coaches are doing their athletes an injustice.

Over the years, we have read articles by some great coaches about specificity, but the full message of these wise men is often lost in an effort to use their message to support our own views. I’m sure you’ve done it. You’ve read an article, and thought to yourself “That’s what I’m talkin’ about. That’s why I do what I do. I’m going to use this article to support my training philosophy.”

The articles have been great. They have helped a generation of S & C Coaches formulate their strength training philosophies….strength training philosophies. Why didn’t we see that the same information we’ve applied to strength training can also be used to develop effective speed and agility programs?

In my opinion, a lot of S & C Coaches approach speed and agility training the same way they approach strength training. They find out what other coaches are doing (through reading summer manuals, watching workouts, etc.), and duplicate it in their environments. This has worked out pretty well for strength training because there are a lotof good Strength and Conditioning Coaches to learn from.

Unfortunately, there are a few problems with learning about speed and agility this way. First, there are not nearly as many quality speed and agility coaches to learn from. Second, most of us didn’t learn anything about effective movement patterns in school. Third, proper coaching of speed and agility is highly dependent on coaching prowess, movement analysis, and the ability to understand proper movement patterns. It is more like teaching a sport skill; instructor knowledge is vital, and you can’t just apply a cookie-cutter approach like many coaches do with strength training. Nonetheless, we’ve learned our speed and agility drills from Strength Coaches not Speedand Agility coaches. The best case scenario for many of us was to learn a few drills from a track coach or catch an article outlining a couple of exercises. This kind of coaching just doesn’t cut it. I believe that movement training falls under the “Conditioning” part of our job title, and it’s time we take full responsibility for this important part of our jobs.

I like to call speed and agility work “movement training” because the goal is to train athletes how to move more efficiently. The problem with most movement training is the assumption that if we put some cones or hurdles out in a cool design and have our athletes run through them, we are making an impact on their movement patterns. The truth is, we’re not. All we’re doing is helping them reinforce whatever movement patterns they are using to get through the drill. Take a few minutes to re-read some of those specificity articles, and I think you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about.

I have had the good fortune of working with, observing, and learning from a lot of good sport coaches and instructors. I have never seen a good basketball coach allow players to take hundreds of jump shots with poor shooting technique, and I have never seen a good baseball coach let players pitch and hit with poor mechanics. Unfortunately, I have seen a lot of Strength Coaches allow athletes to perform hours ofagility drills using horrible technique. A lot of coaches assume that if the athletes are going through the drills, their athleticism will improve. But, the benefits of performing speed and agility drills are dramatically reduced if the athletes are not executing them with sound mechanics and learning proper technique. If the coach is unable to analyze the movement and give corrective feedback, what good is he/she doing for the athletes?

There are still a lot of questions about movement training, but there are certainly some answers and a lot of room for us to improve. I look forward to examining this misunderstood aspect of our profession in more detail with you in the future.

Flexibility and Mobility for Young Athletes

Posted on: March 19th, 2013 by IYCA No Comments

By Mike Robertson

What is the difference between Flexibility and Mobility?

I’ve always used the Bill Hartman definitions; they go something like this:

Mobility – Range of motion under specific circumstances (specific)

Flexibility – Range of motion about a joint (non-specific)

So mobility is specific to a certain movement – i.e. you need a certain amount of hip mobility to squat, lunge, etc.

In contrast, flexibility is non-specific – i.e. you lay someone on their back and stretch their hamstrings. This gives you an idea of their flexibility, but it’s not specific. Just because they have great hamstring length doesn’t mean they’ll be able to perform functional movements properly or without compensation.

Are both important to young athletes or is one more important than the other?

I feel that both are important, but flexibility is merely a component of mobility. I think of mobility as an equation, something like this:

Tissue length + neural control/stability + joint architecture = Mobility

flexibility and mobility

So my goal with young athletes is to improve their mobility and allow them to perform those specific movements (squatting, lunging, etc.) without compensation from other areas (generally the lumbar spine).

When should young athletes train Flexibility?

There are several times throughout the day when I would incorporate specific flexibility drills into the programming:

Pre/peri-workout – I would only use this as part of an acute-corrective strategy; in other words, I don’t believe that static stretching has much of a place pre-workout. The goal here, for example, would be to statically stretch the hip flexors and pair that stretch with an activation drill for the gluteals. This will enhance motor control and function by helping restore proper length/tension relationships.

Post-workout – Here I’d use more “active” flexibility techniques like eccentric quasi-isometrics (EQI’s).

Before bed – I’ve always been a proponent of static stretching before bed. I think not only does it allow you to unwind and relax, but if you hop right into bed afterwards you’re less likely to lose any flexibility gains you just worked for.

When should they train Mobility?

Whenever they can! Quite simply, most people need more mobility in the appropriate areas (ankles, hips, t-spine, etc.). Especially in the beginning or foundational period of their training, more is generally better.

Getting more specific, pre-workout mobility training is a slam dunk. But if someone is really restricted in their movement patterns or movement quality, I’ll have them perform mobility drills several times throughout the day to reinforce good movement. Unlike strength training, you’re not going to overtrain your body by doing some simple mobility drills throughout the day.

Are there different kinds of Flexibility, or is ‘bending over to touch my toes and stretch my hammy’ all young athletes should be doing?

With the athletes I work with, we include several different kinds of mobility throughout their day.

Pre-workout, we always do a dynamic warm-up. Always. They’ve been sitting in school or class all day, so my first goal is to get them warmed up and moving through a nice range of motion.

EQI’s are a little more advanced, but they’re still working to promote optimal/length tension relationships and develop active flexibility. Once someone has been training for a few months I like to get them doing this at the end of every workout.

Finally, we discussed static flexibility above, and I think it’s an integral component as well. Kids are a lot different now than they were 10, 12, or 15 years ago when I was a kid! They sit more. They play more games. They have more homework. Static stretching can help get them back in tune with their body and keep themselves healthy.

I think all these methods are important; what’s more important is using the right flexibility method at the appropriate time.

What is the single greatest mistake or myth people make when it comes to Flexibility training?

Not doing it!

Seriously, most people are so focused on their training and/or diet, they put no value or stock into recovery methods. Just using the methods I outlined in the above question can go a long way to improving the flexibility and mobility of your body.

3 Lessons From The NFL Combine

Posted on: February 25th, 2013 by IYCA No Comments

By Jim Herrick

This upcoming weekend, most of the nation’s top pro football prospects will gather in Indianapolis for the 2013 NFL Combine. It is what the league refers to as a ’4 day job interview’, where participants are subjected to a battery of physcial tests, position drills, interviews, and aptitude tests to determine how likely they are to succeed in the league.

Millions of dollars can be earned by top performers, and jobs are on the line for the team’s talent evaluators. Everyone has a huge stake in making sure this event truly measures what it takes to be successful.

And these days, you’ll find combine events for college and pro prospects in just about every other sport, as well.

There are some critical lessons we, as youth coaches and parents, can all take away from these high-stakes events. As you watch the incredible athletic feats demonstrated this weekend, remember that what you see is a product of the thousands of hours these college kids put in since they were very young. And remember too that there is a correct path to reaching the heights of athletic development. When followed correctly, it can add up to serious success in the long run.

 

3 Lessons From The NFL Combine

LESSON 1 – Do Everything You Can To Build Speed & Agility

3 of the 6 main physical tests (40 yd dash, 5-10-5 shuttle and 3 cone drill) measure pure speed and cutting ability. Why? Athletes who can get from Point A to Point B in the least amount of time – whether in a straight line or with some stops along the way – make more plays. This is not exclusive to football, it is true for almost all sports.

How should young athletes begin working on speed?

As early in possible as life, encourage your kids to move and move often. It doesn’t have to be a formal event or practice, in fact that may be detrimental in earlier years, so have some fun with them. Their nervous system will figure things out far better than our coaching cues anyways.

Put them in a coordination and balance rich environment often. Create engaging but challenging activities that enhance their ability to move better while building an early base of stability, which will help even further.

Develop healthy eating habits early on, as well. A large part of being fast involves maximizing your strength while minimizing your body mass. Poor eating habits will not only drain your energy but will also hamper your ability to stay both lean and strong simultaneously.

Get strong, and keep getting stronger at an age appropriate level. In your earlier years jumping, running and other basic bodyweight activities will do plenty. As time goes on resistance will need to increase. Band and free weight exercises, along with advanced bodyweight strength will achieve great results when implemented properly.

Refine speed and agility technique once your kids are mature enough where they can internalize specific coaching. In my experience I’ve seen kids as young as 9 years old learn and improve from specific technique tips, but this is rare. Usually it’s not until 12 years old or later, but the earlier the better as poor habits will be easier to break. Coaches will need to be a commanding force when technique drills are covered, since so much of speed development is about repeating and perfecting movements. Balance the seriousness of technique work with some game-based drills where kids can be kids and have some fun, but be sure to make clear your expectations for focus and effort when you transition back to skill work.

 

LESSON 2 – If Speed is the #1 Most Coveted Physical Ability, Explosive Power Is Clearly #1A

The NFL also has 2 separate explosive power tests, the vertical jump and broad jump. With the understanding that speed is a byproduct of power output, then 5 of the 6 performance tests this weekend will measure power in one form or another.

Power is highly sport-specific. The NFL uses the vertical jump and broad jump because the evaluate a prospect’s ability to tackle and block well. A soccer combine may be more concerned with kicking power, hockey combines may measure slap shot power, and all other sports may have their own variations of power tests too.

For youth performance coaches and parents looking to build sport-speicifc power, you should be focusing on two skills that form the foundation of almost all power movements – hip hinging and hip rotation.
By learning to hinge at the hip joint correctly, you can maximize power output while jumping, skating and sprinting. Young athletes sometimes incorporate too much knee or even lower back flexion and avoid using the more powerful hip muscles. Re-teaching this pattern will unlock their true power potential, and allow them to further improve their explosiveness by properly executing advanced exercises like Olympic lifting and plyometrics as they get older.

Hip rotation is critical to power output in sports like baseball, softball, ice hockey, field hockey, tennis, golf, and lacrosse. Done properly, you will be able to explode through the entire trail side of your movement, from the foot all the way through the shoulders. Being able to maximize total-body rotational power will once again unlock your current potential and make better use of development exercises using tools like medicine balls and functional training machines.

 

LESSON 3 – Elite Athletes Come In All Shapes And Sizes

This weekend you will see both 5’8″, 170 lb and 6’8″, 350 lb prospects, along with many others at just about every size in between. Extended beyond pro football, there is a much wider range of male and female athletic frames, skill sets and abilities.

The lesson? Kids should never focus on what they cannot become, and instead seek inspiration in all the things they can become some day with dedication, effort, and perseverance. No matter what your current size or skill level may be, there are doors of opportunity somewhere for you if you truly want to achieve excellence.

To increase a young athlete’s chances of success, the younger years should be dedicated to taking part in a wide range of activities, and developing basic physcial skills. Pigeonholing them into one sport or activity too early will make it much harder to create the large ‘toolbox’ of athleticism needed to excel later on.

The undersized and lightning quick 8 year old may grow to be the tallest person in his or her 9th grade class. Younger kids whose parents may see as being too stocky could find an active sport they love and completely transform themselves in their teenage years. Not knowing where a child will actually end up, by focusing on variety and foundational skills over a sport-specific track you will maximize their chance of long-term success.

 

If you do watch any of the testing this weekend keep in mind that it took a lot of hard work for each of them to get where they are right now. And also remember that although every kid will not become a professional athlete some day, there are certain traits that all elite athletes need to reach the top that are trainable and can be greatly enhanced over time.

A Quick Guide To Plyometrics

Posted on: February 20th, 2013 by IYCA No Comments

By Wil Fleming

A Quick Guide To Plyometrics

There is a lot of information about plyometrics that goes around. This is another one.

Books, blog posts, etc, most discuss the various (numerous) types of drills that can fall into the category of plyometrics. Plyometrics as a category of exercise can be nearly any “explosive” type exercise so this leads to a LOT of possibilities.

There is however an information shortage when it comes to how to apply and program plyometrics into your athletes program on a progressive scale.

50 contacts?

100 contacts?

What kind of jumps to do?

What about medicine ball drills?

This list can go on and on.

There are a lot of questions that arise when discussing using plyometrics in your program.

Even before we start thinking about the number of contacts to use with a particular athlete there are a couple of things that we need to consider.

 

Age of the Athlete

Younger athletes are going to be on a steep learning curve, so it is important that the desired outcome of the drill is known and in place. The technical skill that should be executed with the drill should be sufficient. Younger athletes do not need high impact plyometrics, but instead should be focused on grooving the motor patterns that are a part of jumping and throwing.

Type of Plyometric Drill

We program all plyometrics for the beginning of sessions in a period which we call “Dynamic/Explosive”. This can encompass a lot of different drills.

At Force Fitness/AR Bloomington we have 3 broad categories of plyometric drills

Repetitive Effort jumps
These drills are of moderate or low intensity and the focus is on minimal ground contact time. Once the pattern is learned athletes of all ages can benefit from repetitive effort jumps. Progressions of these jumps include adding external resistance in the form of bands, kettlebells or weight vests.

Pogo Jumps Video:

Lateral Hurdle Jumps Video:

Maximum effort Jumps
These drills are high intensity: box jumps, distance jumps (broad jumps) and depth jumps all fall into this category. These drills are more advanced and are not usually prescribed for younger athletes. The focus is on the generating the maximum amount of power in the movement.

Box Jump Video:

Depth Jump Video:

Medicine ball throws
This category can get very broad, and includes rotary throws, chest passes and overhead throws. Divided further these can be maximal effort, repetitive effort, or combined effort throws (Including another skill).

Number of Contacts

When it comes to the number of contacts for these drills the type of movement must be considered. In general the quality of repetitions of each of these explosive movement types will diminish over time, so large volumes are generally not prescribed.

Some general guidelines:
Maximum effort plyos: Repetitive effort Plyos:Medicine Ball Throws:

These numbers reflect programming of the drills as part of a larger program, some more aggressive numbers might be found if programming plyometrics as their own day of programming.

Frequency of training

The recovery time between sessions for plyometrics varies greatly based on the exercise. Maximum effort plyos require a longer recovery time. To account for that an easy way to program plyos is to alternate days on which you do max effort and repetitive effort plyos.

So on a 2 day training schedule one might program Max effort plyos and repetitive effort Medicine ball throws on day 1, repetitive effort plyos and maximum effort medicine ball throws on day 2.

Plyos and medicine ball throws are a great way to increase your athlete’s explosive power. They are essential to successful programs.

Baker’s Dozen: 13 Tips For Athletes To Have a Successful 2013

Posted on: February 4th, 2013 by IYCA 2 Comments

By Michael Mejia

 

1. Drink more water: By now, this one should go without saying. Water is the number one thing your body needs for survival (not soda, or Red Bull!), so how can you possibly expect to perform at a high level if you’re not drinking enough? How much is enough? Check out the new BASE Resource Page to find out.

2. Form is everything!: Nothing irritates me more than watching motivated athletes throw weights around with reckless abandon. I get that you’re young and feel invincible. I also get that many of you will do whatever is physically necessary to realize your athletic goals. That said, slinging weights all over the place is neither necessary, nor is it particularly smart. Take the time to learn the proper form for lifts like squats, deadlifts, Olympic lifts and overhead presses. Once you have the basic mechanics down, then you can gradually start increasing the weight.

3. Posture is more important than you realize: Besides looking unattractive, poor posture can adversely affect your breathing, your digestion and increase your injury risk by promoting widespread muscular imbalance. By simply trying to stand and sit up a little bit straighter several times throughout the day, you can help undue some of effects of all that constant texting and gaming.

4. Eat more fruits and vegetables: Here’s another area where the average kid’s diet falls woefully short. Fruits and vegetables are packed with vitamins, minerals and fiber that are lacking in many of the other foods you guys tend to favor. They’re also a great way to improve immune system function, lowering your risk for developing all sorts of diseases.

5. Want to get faster? Get stronger!: Doing endless speed and agility drills is not always the best way to get faster. If you’re not also working to increase strength through the lower body and core, as well develop good ankle and hip mobility, they’ll be of limited value. Concentrate on imparting force into the ground through a full range of motion and you’ll get fast in a hurry.

6. Don’t rely on supplements: Supplements are something you add to an already sound nutritional program; they’re not some magic elixir. If you think that something with a nice, shiny label, full of ridiculous claims is going to make up for a steady diet of McDonald’s and easy mac and cheese, you’re kidding yourself.

7. Change your internal dialogue: A bit of a change up from my usual advice, but lately I’ve noticed more and more athletes engaging in negative self-talk. When you constantly say things like “I stink”, or “I’m never going to..(insert athletic goal here), how do you ever expect to succeed?

Instead of saying “I’m a lousy free throw shooter”, try “I’m getting better
and better at making free throws”. Or, switch out “I’m not fast enough” for, “My speed is improving every day”. Even if it isn’t true right away, it will start getting you in the proper frame of mind to make those changes a reality.

8. If you can’t see it in the mirror, train it!: Stop focusing on all of your “mirror muscles” with lots of bench presses, crunches and biceps curls. The real key to athletic success (and longevity) lies in training everything on the back side of your body. Strengthening your upper and lower back, glutes, hamstrings and calves will give your body much more balance and stability.

9. Sweat the small stuff: If you’re not making time to warm-up thoroughly, stretch and foam roll on a regular basis, you’re making a huge mistake.

Though frequently glossed over, these represent some of the best ways for athletes to improve performance and reduce injury risk. I for one consider them every bit as important (if not more) than strength training, plyomterics, and speed and agility work.

10. Choose whole grains whenever possible: Minimize your intake of foods made with white flour such as white breads, bagels, white pasta and even white rice and potatoes. They bring about rapid spikes in blood sugar levels, leading to subsequent energy crashes. Instead, try and opt for whole grain breads and cereals, brown rice, whole wheat pasta and sweet potatoes.

11. Give “camp” the boot: Count me amongst those who are not big fans of bootcamp training for young athletes. While great workouts for more experienced trainees who are looking to test the limits of their strength and endurance, they’re seldom a good option for developing bodies. Contrary to popular belief, young athletes tend to do better with lower reps, especially when doing more technically proficient exercises like cleans, plyometrics and other compound exercises. Boot camps tend to feature way too much volume, which only invites fatigue and increases injury risk.

12. Be prepared!: Whether it’s forgetting to bring enough water along to practice, or not having any healthy snacks on hand, your lack of preparation is no one’s fault but your own. Take some time each evening to set up some nutritious meals and snacks for the next day. Here are some ideas if you need help.

13. There are no short cuts: That’s exactly why I’ve presented all of this to you in list fashion- so that you can chunk things down and make gradual, consistent efforts towards achieving your goals. I know all about the impatience of youth. Like it or not, though, if you really want these changes to stick, it’s going to take you some time.

Specialization

Posted on: January 25th, 2013 by IYCA No Comments

By Wil Fleming

 

As coaches we no doubt know about the pitfalls of early specialization when it comes to young athletes.

Despite much evidence that early specialization can lead to higher levels of burnout and dropout, many coaches still believe that the only way athletes can reach 10,000 hours of deliberate practice is to begin specialization at an extremely early age.

Recently several researchers (Moesch, Elbe, Haube and Wikman) published a very interesting article in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Sport Science examining just this theory and has amazing implications for the coaching in your program.

The researchers asked elite athletes and near elite athletes to answer questions about their experiences in athletics regarding their training and practice throughout their career.

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Resistance Bands and Olympic Lifting

Posted on: January 22nd, 2013 by IYCA No Comments

By Dave Schmitz

 

Wil Fleming recently wrote a very powerful article on “Why Olympic Lifts” that I found very thought provoking.

I agree with Wil that when you begin to discuss Olympic lifting with coaches, red flags immediately goes up about concerns for proper teaching, concerns for safety, and the stigma that Olympic lifting is only for the highly skilled or older athletes. For those coaches I understand their opinion and will not argue those points. Instead I will pose the question, is there a way to achieve some of the benefits of Olympic lifting without struggling with the teaching challenges or putting athletes at risk for injury.

As I read Wil’s article I continued to see a strong correlation between the benefits of resistance band training and Olympic lift training. Therefore as a follow up to Wil’s outstanding article, I wanted to touch on all 5 of Wil’s key points and relate them back to how resistance bands could assist young athletes and coaches with “improving” Olympic Lifting skill sets.

Please note that I am not suggesting you replicate Olympic lifting with bands but rather that you can get some of the neuromuscular benefits of Olympic Lifting by training with resistance bands. I also feel that performing certain movement with resistance bands will carry over to helping young athletes become better Olympic Lifting candidates.

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Fix your program: 7 movements you can coach better

Posted on: January 18th, 2013 by IYCA 1 Comment

By Wil Fleming

coach better

In the history of man, and of training there have been more than a few training programs that have been passed off as the best thing since sliced bread, and a lot of them have been exposed as bunch of junk as we (coaches and fitness pros) have gotten smarter.

Training programs are starting to include better and better movements. The general public and athletes alike are shying away from the use of machines and moving towards training on their feet, with free weights, and tons of other awesome tools. Unfortunately some great movements are often being done poorly.

When your training program has bad movements in it, your program is broken. When your training program has good movements that are being done poorly, your program is busted.

Even in my gym we have had to break down some of the movements we train regularly and figure out better ways to coach them and teach them. In some situations we have developed a keener eye for the movement itself and in some situations we have taken the advice of smart people and made some corrections to the movements we do.

Lets fix those busted programs. The next 7 movements are awesome to do, but not when they are done poorly.

Hang Snatches

Lets just get this straight first. There is no inherent problem with the movement itself. Hang snatches rock. The biggest problems I see with athletes doing the hang snatch is in the initiation and completion of the lift.

Athletes that need to fix the initiation of their hang snatch slide their knees forward immediately when starting the lift above their knees. This forward weight shift will lead to an incomplete extension of the hips and typically mean a missed lift at higher weights or a forward jump to receive the bar at lower weights.

At the moment of the catch the athlete needs to work on a timely and powerful punch overhead. Catching the bar with poor timing, arms unlocked with a press out following, is going to lead to a ton of missed lifts.

Box Jumps

As a movement in and of itself the box jump is pretty awesome. It gives athletes a target by which they can measure progress and reduces the impact of landing from a jump. That being said there are TWO big problems that need to be fixed when athletes are doing box jumps.

Problem 1: Jumping down from the top of the box. When we get down to it one of our benefits of using a box jump is the reduction of the impact of landing from a maximal effort jump. Why then, may I ask you, does it make any sense to jump down from the box? The answer is it doesn’t. Make your athletes create a path down from the box and step down.

Problem 2: Jumping on a box that is too high. Our goal while training athletes should be to provide them with opportunities to safely improve techniques that are applicable in the field of play. Jumping on boxes that require the athlete to pull their knees to their chest does not accomplish this task. Instead it creates an unsafe movement patterns, and will eventually ruin the athlete’s chances of becoming a shin model in the future.

Rotational MB Throws

For the most part I think that many programs are seriously lacking in work in the transverse plane, there is so much work done in the sagittal plane that athletes are hampered in their ability to move rotationally. There is much to be said about mastering the sagital plane first but for athletes that compete in rotational sports, learning the right way to deliver power rotationally is very important

The problem that I see all too often is rotational power being produced through movement in the lumbar spine. Regardless of what your opinion is about how much movement should come in the lumbar region, it definitely isn’t a region that is made for producing power. Rotational medicine ball throws need to occur through movement that originates in the lower body, and is expressed through the upper body, a stable lumbar region is key to making sure that the most power is transferred. Pay attention to the back foot on rotational movements to ensure that the movement is starting with the lower body.

Chin Ups

Lets all get together and say what we are thinking right now. Chin ups should never again be denoted as “chest to bar chin ups” because really, what’s the point in pulling only your chin past the bar? Chest to bar needs to be the standard from now on.

Doing chin ups, and pull ups for that matter, that go only to chin above the bar miss out on much of the great functional portion of the movement. When doing the partial movement there is little low trap involvement. Going a little functional anatomy on you, low traps are largely responsible for scapular depression, going only to the chin above the bar is primarily a movement dominated by the lats.

Trap Bar Deadlift

The trap bar deadlift is a great movement, but it doesn’t readily fit into the categories of movement that we like to use to create our training programs. Is it a squat pattern or is it a hinge pattern?

My personal preference is to make it a hinging pattern. Quite simply most athletes get plenty of squatting patterns in their training without our assistance. Making the trap bar a hinge pattern can alleviate this issue.

Teach athletes to do the trap bar deadlift just as you would teach them to go to the ground in the power clean. Hinge first (RDL) then squat until their hands are on the handles. Drive through the heels, keeping the knees back on initiation and then finish with hip extension.

Split Squats

Split squats are good right?

To me it all really depends on how you do them. As I have done coached this movement more and more I have realized that the tendency of most athletes while training is to let the knee slide forward very quickly after the getting them set up in the start position.

Cueing athletes out of this movement can correct the problem for many athletes, but we have adopted a solution that can fix this problem for EVERY athlete.

The concept of blocking a movement to prevent the incorrect pattern can be adopted for most any movement, while I was a thrower we would do this to prevent unwanted technical problems in the shot put and hammer throw by placing a physical barrier between myself and the bad pattern.

With the split squat we use a bench or a band stretched across a rack to prevent the knee from moving forward. In the bottom, 90-90 position the athlete’s front knee should be in contact with the bench. Push up and down from that position.

Power Clean starts

The start on the power clean is one of the most commonly butchered movements in the weightroom. Among many pre-lift rituals that can put athletes in terrible positions, the lift-off from the floor is often misunderstood.

While the bar is on the floor it is a distinct unit from the body, meaning that both the body and the bar have their own center of gravity. The bar’s center of gravity is always in front of the lifter’s while the bar is on the floor. The goal when lifting the bar off the ground is to link those two centers of gravity. This means that upon lift-off the bar must move back and up toward the athlete and not vertically (and definitely not forward).

Many athletes don’t get this right and always pull the bar in front of the body, and are unable to reach full hip extension in the final portion of the lift.

Fix these problems and your program might not be perfect but you are on your way to getting the most out of some awesome movements.

Plyo Boxes, Agility Discs and Push Ups with Young Athletes

Posted on: October 4th, 2012 by IYCA No Comments

Young Athletes Programs Using Plyo Boxes, Agility Discs and Push Ups

By Dave Gleason

In this video IYCA Board of Experts Member Dave Gleason discusses how to utilize agility discs and plyo boxes to teach push ups to young athletes. In this short 4 minute clip coach Dave talks about everything from the set up to how to make is as much fun as humanly possible.

The ‘Missing Link’ in your HS Long Sprints program?

Posted on: October 1st, 2012 by IYCA No Comments

 


High School Long Sprints Program Mistakes

 

By Coach Latif Thomas

 

The biggest mistake high school long sprints coaches make is wasting time and energy searching for solutions to problems that don’t exist.

 

You can write the most beautiful annual plan or the most individualized and specific workouts the universe has ever known.

 

But, if your sprinters secretly hate the 400, fear the 400 and/or don’t possess the level of inner confidence proven to fuel great performances, they’ll still get beat by inferior athletes running inferior workouts who Believe they’re going to run faster.

 

I’ll be honest:

 

I don’t excel at writing workouts. I don’t need to. Or try to.

 

The season is less than three months (and that’s only for your very best runners) of training little kids with low training ages. They don’t need nuanced workout progressions because they’re too inexperienced to absorb or apply that much detail.

 

The real secret to my High school long sprints program is simple:

 

I’m good at motivating kids. At developing self confidence. At inspiring them to buy into the program, system and philosophy… hook, line and sinker.

 

I look at it like this:

 

Like you, I only have so much time in the day. It means I can’t get to everything I’d like to do.

 

So I focus on what’s going to get me the most ‘bang for my buck’.

 

For my money, that’s spending more time studying and applying the ‘Science of Mind’ than the ‘Science of Periodization’.

 

We all coach for different reasons. But it’s generally a safe bet that near the top of that list is: 1) Help kids, 2) Develop faster long sprinters (200/300/400 runners), 3) Larger numbers of #2

 

All of which lead to more winning, which, last I checked, is a good time for everyone. So, if you want to experience more of the things I just listed, spend more time refining your system of developing self belief and less time trying to jack workout progressions from coaches whose programs have almost nothing in common with yours.

 

And remember this:

 

Since you coach one of the most disrespected and irrelevant sports your school has to offer, you have to think of yourself as a marketer. Because you’re competing against the soccer program, the basketball program, the lacrosse program and the baseball program. Against sports kids have been playing their whole lives.

 

If you want to grow your numbers, how are you going to compete with the Club Soccer or AAU coach who tells your young athletes that year round soccer or basketball is going to get them noticed by college coaches and scouts?

 

Or the dad who is reliving his failed baseball career through his son?

 

Simple. Make their experience on the track team more fun and rewarding. We have a unique opportunity in an individual sport like track and field because each personal best is an individual experience.

 

The ‘team’ didn’t PR in that 400, ‘I’ PR’d in that 400.

 

It wasn’t the starting point guard getting the credit while I stood on the wing. I did the work and I got full credit for reaping the full results of that work. It doesn’t matter if that result is winning an All State Championship or breaking 70 for the first time, everyone can take pride in their own individual improvement.

 

It’s going to take time to cultivate a default ‘I can’ mindset in your young athletes because right now they don’t really believe they can. They might BS you if you ask, but they won’t look you in the eye when they say it. They ‘hope’ to. They ‘want’ to.

 

But they don’t expect to.

 

If you want to find the Missing Link to sustained success, improvement and growth in your high school long sprints program, spend the bulk of your energy this season on the Periodization of Expectation.

 

My process isn’t random. I develop and apply it systematically, the same as I would if teaching acceleration mechanics or an Olympic Lift.

 

I do and say certain things at certain times in certain ways to certain people based on their current ability to receive and apply the lesson.

 

It’s a game changer. And the only thing more fun than winning is seeing the look on a kid’s face when you tell them they just achieved their goal time, something they thought was unobtainable just a few months before these changes in your High school long sprints program.

 

 

Throw Out Your Scale and Enjoy The Ride

Posted on: September 28th, 2012 by IYCA No Comments

 

 

Youth Fitness: Throw Out Your Scale and Enjoy The Ride

 

By Kyle Brown

 

Imagine yourself out in the park, with a basketball in hand, playing an impromptu game with friends. You’re laughing, smiling, and having a good time–not a care in the world. It’s like a form of Tai Chi, meditation in motion.

 

When do the best athletes in nearly every sport have their best performances? When they’re completely in the moment, acting like a kid, pressure-free, enjoying the process. They are not focusing on the mechanics or the pressure of the game. They’re having fun and everything simply gels. They’re laughing, they’re smiling–they’re remembering why they starting playing the youth sports in the first place.

 

This philosophy applies to youth fitness and anyone trying to live a healthy and fit lifestyle. Just like when you are on a road trip with your family, you need to enjoy the ride instead of whining, “Are we there yet?” Every aspect of your training and nutrition should feel this way. You eat healthy because it makes you feel good. The food tastes delicious, and when you are done eating you feel full and satisfied, your energy renewed. You’re excited to walk into the gym and lift weights because it makes you feel strong. You’re amped to go to practice because it makes you better at the game you love. You drink water because you feel healthy and energized.

 

They key is to get to the why.

 

When you were a really young kid, “Why?” was most likely your favorite question. I’m sure you constantly asked your friends and family why something was the way it was and “Because I said so” was never a good enough answer. The answer to “why” is your purpose. It’s the reason behind your actions, your effort, and your sacrifice.

 

It’s the reason you do what you do. And your “why” may be different from my “why” or from your friends’ or family’s “why.” One of the big mistakes your athletes make is that their initial “why” gets replaced by the fantasy of becoming rich and famous. Those are potential side benefits of achieving your goals but should not be the reason you’re striving for them in the first place.

 

Your “why” should be based around improving your quality of life.

 

You need to throw out your scale and focus on enjoying the ride. A healthy lifestyle needs to become part of your personal culture and who you are at the core. Not approaching your goals in this manner is the problem of nearly every adult. They know what they do and focus on learning how to do what they do, but they forget their purpose. For example, I have seen many young athletes do whatever it takes to become a professional athlete. Yet of these select few who actually make it, the overwhelming majority crash and burn once they get there. This phenomenon happens partially because they don’t set goals for what they’re going to do once they become a professional, but mostly because their “why” has become tainted in the process. They’ve lost their love for the game and stopped striving for greatness. The goal is to be happy but not content. You should always strive to be the best you can be.

 

And it’s not just young athletes and in youth fitness.

I’ve also seen this happen with people who are trying to lose weight or gain muscle. They focus all their energy on trying to reach a particular number on their scale and follow an approach based solely on temporary sacrifice. As soon as they reach their scale weight goal, they typically start eating poorly again and stop exercising as frequently. It’s disastrous!

 

For many others, after a week of dieting struggle and sacrifice, they step onto the magic box known as a scale and say, “Oh magic box. Please tell me that I am beautiful, that I am loved, that my program is succeeding.” And if the number that pops up is lower than the last time they checked, the answer to these questions is yes. If not, they’re an epic failure and it is time to find a new diet. Weight loss has little to do with willpower. It’s about developing a mindset and enriching yourself with proper information.

 

Many people trying to get fit put forth a ton of effort but are misguided by poor information. Instead, you need a game plan that helps create healthy habits and daily rituals that will get you to the top and keep you on top. And the process needs to be fun rather than a miserable sacrifice. Quick fixes are not acceptable, as they are inconsistent with long-term change. Thinking “the diet starts tomorrow” is setting yourself up for failure.

 

Instead, use my motto: “The healthy lifestyle starts now.” Do this for your own reasons, your own “why” for wanting to improve your quality of life today. And always remember: enjoy the ride, as it will make you emotionally fit and psychology.

 

 

Stop the Insanity!

Posted on: September 18th, 2012 by IYCA No Comments

 

 

Young Athletes Sports-Specific Training Insanity

 

By Mike Mejia

 

You see the ads all the time. Typically rife with promises of “radical increases” in strength, speed and power, they grab the attention of athletes, parents and coaches alike. Capitalizing on the desire of young athletes to gain any possible advantage over their peers, sports-specific training programs have been popping up all over the place in recent years. Whether it’s a soccer player seeking a more powerful kick, or a basketball player that wants to increase his, or her vertical leap, parents are shelling out big money for training that’s aimed at increasing their child’s physical prowess in a given sport. The question is, though, how specific does a training program really need to be for bodies that are still developing and as such, often have a variety of needs that far outweigh the enhancement of particular sports skills?

 

The unfortunate reality is that often times these programs do little more than contribute to the rapidly increasing rate of overuse injuries currently seen in youth sports! By replicating the same movement patterns and taxing the same muscle groups that are already being overused during practice and competition, this emphasis on “sports-specific” training is the exact opposite of what young athletes actually need. Rather than seek to enhance overall athleticism and reduce injury risk, many of these programs load kids up with bands, sleds and various other types of resistance, long before their bodies are physically prepared to do so. The thought process being that by overloading specified movement patterns, the athlete will be better able to meet the specific demands of his, or her sport.

 

Is this really necessary…

 

Young athletes sport specific training

 

Seemingly sound thinking; particularly when applied to young athletes age 16-17 and older, who’ve likely been training longer and as a result, possess a more sound physical foundation to work off of. Even then, however, such athletes should be thoroughly assessed to identify any weak links (i.e. strength and flexibility imbalances) that may serve as potential precursors to injury. For younger kids though, this trend towards sport specificity is an unmitigated mistake- especially when the intent is future sports stardom! As experts in the field of athletic development and sports conditioning continually point out, the vast majority of world class athletes didn’t specialize too early and instead, were exposed to a wide variety of sports that helped them develop more in the way of global athleticism.

 

In direct contrast to this, nowadays we commonly see kids who despite dominating in a particular sport, lack the ability to run properly, skip, throw a ball, change direction, land from a jump, or execute a host of other basic physical skills that require efficient, coordinated movement.

 

That’s why I’m imploring parents and coaches alike to stop buying into the hype and subjecting young athletes to this type of approach.

 

Get your kids working on improving things like mobility, flexibility and systemic strength and resist the temptation to have them mimic specific sports skills through training. If they play tennis, instead of having them try to replicate their swing against rubber resistance tubing, have them work on general core strengthening. If basketball’s their game, forget all of the intensive plyometric drills until they’ve first demonstrated the ankle mobility and knee stability necessary to safely engage in this type of training.

 

Granted, this may not be the popular approach and is in fact, often the last thing that scholarship obsessed athletes (and their parents) want to hear. I guess it just doesn’t pack the same marketing punch as potential division one success, or lucrative pro contracts. However, with up to half of the 2 million sports injuries suffered each year by middle and high school aged young athletes being attributed to overuse, it’s a message that desperately needs to be heard. It also happens to be where this industry is eventually headed and exactly the tact we need to take if we’re ever really going to get this young athletes injury epidemic under control.

 

 

Adventure Themed Programming Ideas For Young Athletes

Posted on: September 18th, 2012 by IYCA No Comments

 

 

Programming Ideas For Young Athletes

 

young athletes fitness games

 

By Dave Gleason

 

Without a doubt, the most popular game amongst our youngest athletes (Discovery 6-9 years) is the Pirate Game. Many Athletic Revolution coaches have successfully adopted and modified this multi-purposed game to meet the needs of their young athletes.

 

Coordination, systemic strength, cooperation, object manipulation and FUN are all the required elements of the Athletic Revolution programming templates. All of these elements are layered into the Pirate Game and can be duplicated and or expanded on with any other theme.

 

Themed games or programs are fantastic ways to incorporate several movement-based skills while masking them as fun for your young athletes

 

The adventure theme is a great variation. The following activities can and should be coached using the part whole method. These are suggestions and the art of coaching will allow you to modify these activities to suit the needs of your young athletes within the confines or your facility and equipment availability.

 

Climb the Mountain - Use Valslides or just do traditional Mountain Climbers. Cueing on this one is to “look up, don’t look down”.

 

Cross the River – Using balance pods, low balance beams or agility disks have the athletes cross the river that is already mapped out by you or have them cross the river while bring 2 or three implements with them.

 

Traverse the Canyon – Have your athletes cross a span of monkey bars, climb a cargo net or pull a battle rope attached to a sled, kettle bell or other weighted implement.

 

Anaconda – The young athletes must defeat the anaconda by working as a team to press the entire battle rope overhead.

 

Climb the Vines - Athletes will climb monkey bars, a cargo net or climbing rope.

 

Avalanche – This activity can be carried out in two ways. 1.) Coaches chase athletes by rolling stability balls 2.) Coaches roll multiple dodge balls (rocks) and athletes attempt to dodge them.

 

River Rapids – Place a UCS plyosafe box on top of an Airex pad for a bit of instability or utilize a Bosu ball (flat side up). The athletes must stay balanced on the implement in small groups for 8-10 seconds to “Ride the Rapids).

 

Quick Sand – Utilizing a gymnastics landing pad or “fat” pad, the athletes try to avoid sinking into the quick sand by stomping or running in place with quick feet. If they spend too much time in the quick sand they will surely sink!

 

If you do not have some of the above equipment at your disposal, be creative and if all else fails…ask one of your high motivation, high skilled young athletes to come up with some ideas.

 

Any themed game can be used for the game/cooperation portion of your programming, as a reward or for the entire class. Meet them where they are and observe. You will be able to ascertain when the game has run its course with them very quickly by observing attention level, effort and of course verbal cues – “Can we play something else?”

 

Remember your young athletes will mirror your energy and excitement so put on your Indiana Jones wanna be persona and have a blast!!

 

Keep changing lives…one at a time.

 

 

Dave Gleason

 

Giving Your Young Athletes Ownership

Posted on: August 30th, 2012 by IYCA No Comments

 

 

Giving Young Athletes Ownership Over Their Fitness Programs

 

By Dave Gleason

 

At times we speak about giving kids ownership over their fitness programs. Self efficacy, self confidence and a vested interest in long term health and wellness are all associated benefits of giving a little control back to the young athletes we coach.

 

With all of the documented and experiential proof of these advantageous rewards, why do we not allow for coaching in this manner on a more consistent basis? Once more, should we be digging deeper into the possibilities we could examine with our young athletes?

 

Many coaches may feel uncomfortable with giving up ultimate control of the sessions they run. Giving up control is not the point. The perspective must be that the session we run are theirs…not ours. The kids we serve are the owners of their sessions.

 

Yes, for the most part, we orchestrate the parameters and boundaries they are allowed to explore movement within. That said, coaches must trust in the fact that the opportunity to explore, discover and learn human movement patterns far outweighs the perceived advantage of the most technical of programs.

 

As stated, there are several reasons why we should allow for more engagement and decision making from our young athletes. Recently, I took this to the extreme, leaving positive lessons learned by myself, my staff and most importantly by the young athletes we serve.

 

If cultivating a physical culture in children is important…if physical literacy is lacking in today’s youth and we are charged with positively impacting lives…

 

Then consider this:

 

I gave full control of our 10-13 year old classes for one week…to the 10-13 year old young athletes!

 

We all know how difficult it can be to maintain focus and effort levels during the end of the school year, especially for our younger athletes.

 

So here is what we did.

 

Within the parameters of our programming templates our young athletes where asked to name the categories of movements and or activities we operate our classes within. Next they chose appropriate exercises, movements, activities or games within each category.

 

The individuals in each class were allowed to help each reach answers that were correct in category name and appropriate in activity selection.

 

The result was an astonishing realization that our young athletes were learning. They are learning how to structure an exercise plan – a life long lesson. Tissue quality, active range of motion, muscle activation, general preparation, systemic strength and game play were all nomenclatures they not only knew – they understood.

 

My staff and I would ask them, for example, what “systemic strength” means to them and the answers were miraculous and dead accurate.

 

“It means working the whole body coach. The entire system”.

 

“It means not to strengthen just one part of our body but to get all the moving parts working together”.

 

When asked what activities they would suggest for each respective element of training my staff and I were once again amazed.

 

Not only did they produce suggestions that were befitting the chosen category, some of our young champions remarked correctly that some of the activities could potentially be used for more than one category. Brilliant.

 

This was a lesson to us that if we truly want to empower our kids, we need to coach as such. Not just on special occasions or during times when traditional programming does not suffice…all the time.

 

Every session, every moment young athletes has in your program should be memorable, remarkable and exciting.

 

Start with giving them the ownership they deserve.

 

Keep changing lives!

 

 

Youth Fitness Resources From The IYCA

Posted on: August 28th, 2012 by IYCA No Comments

 

 

Youth Fitness Resources

 

By Wil Fleming

 

I get a lot of questions regarding what IYCA product other coaches should buy. To my inbox, in person, and on facebook the question is always “I am thinking of buying Product X, and also product Y if you had to rank them what would it be?”

 

Continuing education is one of my favorite things to spend money on. I know that there is a big return coming on the money spent on products that help me improve as a coach. So in truth, any information gleaned from a text or DVD is valuable for me, but if I had to rank them here is how it goes.

 

Youth Fitness Specialist Level 1

 

This product really is what sets the IYCA apart. There is no more complete text about youth fitness and training athletes from ages 6-18. This text defined for me what youth athletes need when it comes to training. It underwent a recent update and has been improved even more from the original.

 

http://youth-fitness-specialist.com/

 

IYCA High School Strength and Conditioning Coach Certification

 

This was the first product I was ever involved in creating and is the most practical text I have ever read about training high school athletes. There are dozens of done-for-you high school training programs. If they don’t fit the bill for your training situation, there is a huge text book giving you the tools to replace movements with ideal choices. The fact that it was written by Mike Robertson, Eric Cressey, and Toby Brooks makes it even better. Normal texts talk a lot about theory but this one really does tell you how to apply theory to make great high school athletes.

 

http://iyca.org/highschool/

 

The IYCA Youth Speed and Agility Specialist

 

Written by Dave Jack, Latif Thomas, and Toby Brooks there is not a better text about speed and agility available anywhere. It is required reading for all interns with me, and for all the coaches that work in my facility. The section on lateral speed alone is worth the investment. That being said I have never read a more practical de-construction of the mechanics of acceleration and high speed running than what is provided in this text.

 

http://youthspeedspecialist.com/

 

IYCA Kettlebell/Olympic Lifts/Resistance Band Instructor Courses

 

I grouped these together because there is always a weak point in coaches arsenal that needs to be improved. The IYCA has provided 3 manuals that can help you eliminate those points to become a better coach. There are no better kettlebell instructors than Jason C. Brown and Pamela MacElree at teaching kettlebells in an easy to process way. When it comes to resistance band training, no one surpasses Dave Schmitz in his knowledge, I have seen him train elite football teams with only resistance bands, creating some of the fastest and most explosive athletes I have been around. The Olympic Lifts course is designed by me, and in my honest evaluation, it is the only product that comes from someone with an elite Olympic lifting background that uses the lifts primarily to train young athletes and not competitive Olympic lifters. Each of these products can help make you a better coach in a chosen weak point.

 

http://iyca.org/kettlebell/

 

http://iyca.org/olympic-lifts/

 

http://iyca.org/bands/

 

 

There are plenty of other awesome products from the IYCA. The Youth Fitness Specialist Level 2 and Level 3 products can only elevate your knowledge, and are the most thorough texts I have ever seen on a given subject matter.

 

 

Top 5 Mindset Tips On Speed Training For Young Athletes

Posted on: August 23rd, 2012 by IYCA No Comments

 

 

Speed Training For Young Athletes Coaching Tips

By C.J. Easter

 

One of our jobs as coaches to set the tone, tempo, and intensity for our speed & agility training sessions. This tone needs to be clearly communicated to our team leaders, who then set the expectation for the rest of the team.

 

My belief is that tone should remain consistent, while tempo and intensity can be adjusted. Watch your team as they come in the locker room after school (their posture, their energy level, see how they respond when you greet them).

 

Are they pretty sore from yesterday’s workout? Are they mentally exhausted from a day of tests? Observe and adjust the tempo and intensity accordingly.

 

I want my athletes to know and trust me as a coach. So by keeping my tone and message consistent and adjusting the training, they know what to expect from me as a coach, but they don’t always know what to expect from the training session.

 

Methods change, but core principles don’t.

 

Here are 5 tips to help set the tone for your speed training for young athletes offseason program:

 

1. The #1 priority is injury prevention.
Goal 1A in any offseason program is to completely eliminate training injuries. If your offseason program is causing injuries, IT’S NOT WORKING! You can’t expect your athletes to improve if they are functioning at 75% due to an injury. It takes 100% to improve your 100%.

 

I constantly ask our athletes how they are feeling and observe how they are moving. And in the offseason, we err on the side of caution in terms of muscle tweaks and abnormal soreness and “live to fight another down”

 

Goal 1B is to prepare the body to minimize non-contact injuries in-season. The best athlete in the world is no good to your team on the sideline with an injury. And at the youth and high school level, where the talent gap between your starters and backups can be monumental, a nagging injury can be a season changer.

 

2. Expect 100% focus and effort.
Every rep is an opportunity to get better. We keep all our speed training for young athletes & agility training sessions under 60 minutes to keep the intensity, effort, and focus high.

 

100% focus means being receptive to coaching and paying attention to detail (like starting every rep behind the line and finishing every rep through the line

 

100% effort is flying around and keeping the tempo and energy up. We never walk on the field. We don’t expect our athletes to do every drill correct the first couple times, but we do expect them to make the effort to correct themselves and finish the drill.

 

3. Speed is a coordinated skill that needs to be practiced everyday.
Speed is a highly complex motor skill that requires total body coordination. The arm action must coordinate with the leg cycle and the core must remain stable to maximize the force applied into the ground at the optimal angle with every foot strike. The coaches who think speed is all genetic and say “speed can’t be taught” are the same coaches who don’t understand the concept of speed as a coordinated skill.

 

The offseason is the in-season for speed, so just like you practice the skills of your sport everyday in-season, so you should be practicing the coordination and mechanics of speed everyday in the offseason. In most sports you are running, jumping, and changing direction much more often than you are actually in contact with the ball.

 

4. Don’t look to induce fatigue, manage it.
A fatigued athlete basically performs at the same level as an injured athlete. So the “it takes 100% to improve your 100%” argument from above applies here as well. We are looking to build muscle memory proper and efficient movement patterns in our athletes. However, if our athletes are fatigued to the point where their movement is compromised, they are building muscle memory of poor habits and this is what they will fall back when they are fatigued come game time. We want to increase work capacity without compromising movement patterns.

 

5. Prioritize speed, agility, and movement training.
If I only have 30-60 minutes per week with my team and you give me a choice between being on the field or being in the weight room, I am going to choose the field every time. And on days when we are doing both speed and weight room work, I always schedule the speed training first. The end goal is to have my athletes stay healthy and perform better on the field and when time is limited, running, jumping, and cutting brings us much closer to that goal than moving around heavy weights. Being weight room strong is great, but speed is the application of that strength on the field.

 

Take at least one of these 5 tips on speed training for young athletes and put them into action today!

 

“Don’t let your learning lead to knowledge, let your learning lead to action.”

 

Thanks,

 

Coach C.J.

 

 

Give Them What They Need

Posted on: August 20th, 2012 by IYCA No Comments

 

 

Youth Football Training Program: Give Them What They Need

 

Youth Football Training Program

By Dave Gleason

 

There is often a dichotomy between what we know is the ideal training for young athletes and what parents/coaches want for them. We know through our education and in trenches experience(s) how to devise an athletic development program and implement it to athletes of various abilities and sports interests.

 

What are we to do when the opportunity presents itself to work with an entire youth league of athletes with a board president and coaches that have a philosophy that doesn’t match our ideals?

 

Make sure your keep your focus on their needs by asking questions…and a lot of them. You will gain the trust of the coaching staff when they know you are there to help them versus taking control over any aspect of their practice sessions. If you do this with care and patience the outcome can be very beneficial to your business and most importantly to the young athletes involved.

 

Youth Football Training Program Case Study:

 

After several conversations with the president of the youth football league and some of his coaches I was able to ascertain the areas they were most concerned with. They were, in their words a.) “Revamping the warm up” to get the kids ready to play b.) “Agility in small spaces” and c.) Injury prevention. Once we narrowed it down to these specifics I could devise a game plan. They did not want the new programming to be intrusive to their practice time or ability to coach football.

 

Keep in mind the relationship with the president of this youth football league began developing nearly 2 years ago. Be patient when engaging coaches.

 

The outcome was to implement a pre-written youth football training program for every age group in the youth football league that the coaches would learn and implement for every practice. Exposure to every football player from 1st grade through 8th grade and the buy in of every coach – you just can’t buy that type of exposure for your business.

 

Upon completion of the last practice session we set a time for the coaches and I to meet in order to trouble shoot any issues they were having.

 

The nuts and bolts

 

With the knowledge that the coaches have limited time to learn their new programs, I only had one practice session with each team…and what I know is ideal…the programs had to be prioritized. The youth football training program had to deliver what the president and coaches asked for combined with simple yet effective activities for coaches and players to learn.

 

Here are all of the youth football training programs that were put into action

 

(Not included are the descriptions and key points for each age group that were provided for each coach):

 

Pembroke Titans Football Mighty Mites (1st & 2nd Grade)

 

Warm up
1.) Reactive Game or Fun Activity
a. Simon Says
b. Tag Variations
c. Movement Mirroring (coach or each other)
d. Rhythm Machine (clapping)
e. Coaches Choice

 

2.) Monster Walks
3.) Bear Crawls
4.) Dragon Walks
5.) Log Rolls

 

Speed/Agility/Strength = Coordination Training
1.) Scramble to Balance 2x each leg
2.) Rats/Rabbits
3.) Red light – Green Light (add football themed lights)
4.) Push up hold/High Fives (partners)

 

Speed and Agility
1.) Dynamic Repeats (run to stop)
2.) Dynamic Repeats with Return (run, stop, return)
3.) 4 x 4 x 4 Drill (survive for 7 seconds)
4.) Bear Crawl to Hand Taps 6:4
5.) Forward Crab Walk to Table Top 6:1

 

Cool Down
A formal cool down is not necessary from a developmental standpoint and static stretching is not advised for this age group. To acclimate the kids to a structure and expectation for future youth football practices you can put them through the following passive active stretching activities.

 

1.) Cobra – 2 second hold x 5
2.) Alternating Knee hugs x 5 each
3.) Around the worlds 2x each leg

 

Pembroke Titans Football Mites (3rd & 4th Grade)

 

Warm up
1.) Activity – game, laps, etc…coaches choice.
2.) Spiderman 2 x 10
3.) Alternating Supine extension 20 Second Hold
4.) Squat to stand 2 x 5 (squat, knees out, arms up, stand)
5.) Prone Extensions 2 x 8
6.) Lunge with toe touch 1 x 10 each
7.) Dynamic Warm up
a. Skipping Patterns
i. Straight
ii. High
iii. Back
iv. Side
b. Knee Hugs 1 x 10
c. Butt Kicks
d. Straight Leg March 1 x 10
e. Heel Walks/Toe Walks 1 x 10 each
f. Side shuffle/Carioca (tight) 10 yds each x 2

 

Speed and Agility
6.) Dynamic Repeats (run to stop)
7.) Dynamic Repeats with Return (run, stop, return)
8.) 4 x 4 x 4 Drill (survive for 7 seconds)
9.) Bear Crawl to Hand Taps 6:4
10.) Forward Crab Walk to Table Top 6:1

 

Cool Down
1.) Static Stretching
a. Hamstrings
b. Inner Thigh
c. ITB/Hips
d. Cobra Stretch
e. Calf Stretch
Choice as needed

 

Pembroke Titans Football Pee Wees (5th & 6th Grade)

 

Warm up
8.) Activity – game, laps, etc…coaches choice.
9.) Spiderman/inside elbow to ground 2 x 10
10.) Alternating Supine extension 2 x 8 each side
11.) Squat to stand 2 x 5 (squat, knees out, arms up, stand)
12.) Prone Extensions 2 x 10
13.) Lateral Lunge with toe touch 1 x 10 each
14.) Dynamic Warm up
a. Skipping Patterns
i. Straight
ii. High
iii. Back
iv. Side
b. Knee Hugs 1 x 10
c. Butt Kicks
d. Straight Leg March 1 x 10
e. Heel Walks/Toe Walks 1 x 10 each
f. Side shuffle/Carioca (tight) 10 yds each x 2

 

Speed and Agility
11.) Pro Agility
a. 5-hold-10
b. 5-10-Hold
c. 5-10-5
12.) 4 x 4 x 4 Drill (survive for 7 seconds)
13.) Bear Crawl to Push Up 6:1
14.) Forward Crab Walk to Table Top 6:1

 

Cool Down
2.) Static Stretching
a. Hamstrings
b. Inner Thigh
c. ITB/Hips
d. Cobra Stretch
e. Calf Stretch
Choice as needed

 

Pembroke Titans Football Midgets (7th & 8th Grade)

 

Warm up
15.) Activity – game, laps, etc…coaches choice.
16.) Spiderman with hip lift 2 x 10
17.) Supine extension with rotation 2 x 8 each side
18.) Squat to stand 2 x 5 (squat, knees out, arms up, stand)
19.) Atlas Stretch 2 x 6 each
20.) Prone Extensions 2 x 10
21.) Alternating Lateral Lunge Walk 1 x 10
22.) Dynamic Warm up
a. Skipping Patterns
i. Straight
ii. High
iii. Back
iv. Side
b. Knee Lift/Heel lift 1 x 10
c. Straight Leg March 1 x 10
d. Cradles
e. Heel Walks/Toe Walks 1 x 10 each

 

Speed and Agility
15.) Pro Agility
a. 5-hold-10
b. 5-10-Hold
c. 5-10-5
16.) 4 x 4 x 4 Drill (survive for 7 seconds)
17.) Turn and Burn (Hip turn and go)
18.) Bear Crawl to Push Up 6:1
19.) Forward Crab Walk to Table Top 6:1

 

Cool Down
3.) Static Stretching
a. Hamstrings
b. Inner Thigh
c. ITB/Hips
d. Cobra Stretch
e. Calf Stretch
f. Choice as needed

 

So there you have some great examples of a Youth Football Training Program and some tips how to deal with coaches to best suit their needs and ideals.