Archive for “youth fitness” Category

Are We Really Getting Stronger?

Posted on: May 6th, 2013 by admin No Comments

By Mike McGurn

All sports I can think of require basic strength levels, and strength training has recently become a much sought after attribute in the athletic community. Kinesiologists, physiologists, athletic trainers, and professional strength coaches all tell us that if all we did was increase muscular strength by 35-40% in an athlete without changing any of the other attributes needed for the sport, there will be a definite improvement in performance levels.

The doubters may disagree and question how getting stronger can be of benefit in sports where the technique is the priority. Surely though, being a lot more stable or injury resistant when performing the activity is a major benefit.

I have always found that there is a massive transference from doing a proper strength program into improving all the other physical components that a sport requires. Various journals and abstracts on Muscle Activity tell us ‘without sufficient strength, factors such as skill, flexibility, and endurance cannot be used effectively.’

This is not ground breaking information, nor will it allow me to claim that I have discovered some amazing new angle in the fitness industry that I can exploit to become a millionaire overnight! The truth is, millions of athletes all over the world are now participating in ‘strength training’ programs.

The questions I have is whether these programs are actually improving strength or if they are one among the many overhyped fitness programs masquerading as the next best thing. Some so-called strength programs I witness these days resemble a gadget assault course, with all sorts of non essential equipment being used.

Another aspect of these diluted strength programs that winds me up are exercise machines. Equipment manufacturers saw a niche in the fitness market with their highly engineered exercise machines, and boy did they have an impact. Gyms, health clubs, and sports clubs embraced this concept and were covered in rows of fancy machines which had the sole purpose of allowing you to do one exercise!!! Of course we know that this type of equipment is nowhere near ideal for developing useful strength.

There are many other short term fads which are likely to go away as quickly as they appeared.

So how do we get back to actually building strength? I once heard the quote, ‘to get stronger lift heavy rocks.’ That isn’t too far wrong.

I call my approach to gaining real functional strength ‘the bullseye theory,’ which can basically be summarized by saying that throwing 3 aerodynamic darts to try and hit the bullseye is much more favorable than throwing 15 broken ones! In other words it is better to concentrate on a few aspects of training and do them well, rather than trying to cover a multitude of areas. Trying to do too many different things only leads to athletes spreading themselves too thin and diluting what they are doing. This means that despite busting themselves in the gym, they don’t really improve at anything in particular.

This is where I feel a lot of high school strength programs are seriously flawed. Some strength programs I have observed have up to 15 different exercises. The reasoning was that in order to make the athlete stronger, every muscle group needed to be activated individually. This is simply not the case.

In general, when it comes to dedicated strength training, I believe athletes need to focus on only three core movement patterns: Olympic lifts, squats, and deadlifts.

If all our athletes ever do in the gym is work on these patterns and their derivatives, and focus on them all the time, they will drastically improve their strength and athletic performance. My opinion is that to improve athletic performance Olympic lifts are king. Clean and snatch often and do it hard. Supplementing these lifts with squats and deadlifts will go a long way in developing strength in our athletes.

It really is that simple, a strength program does not have to be complicated to be effective. Rather than trying to implement 15 exercises in a program to make sure all the bases are covered, focus on the few that give the greatest return.

Mike McGurn has been a strength and conditioning coach for 18 years. He is currently based in Belfast in Northern Ireland.

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.

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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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.

Has the ‘Biggest Loser’ Jumped the Shark?

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

Childhood Obesity Tackled By The ‘Biggest Loser’

By Dave Gleason

On September 4th 2012 the Associated Press Reported that in the shows 14th season “The Biggest Loser” will have children between the ages of 13 to 17 engage in trying to lose weight and get in shape and combat childhood obesity. I like many other professional trainers and coaches in the fitness industry have strong opinions regarding the motivational techniques utilized on the show. In addition, the validity of the exercise programming and coaching of proper technique also comes into question.

My response today is intended to be neutral as well as based on the most important participants of the report I read… the children. The underlying principles of coaching/training young children should be rooted in human development, physical culture and physical literacy. A coach can affect the overall well being of the children they serve. All coaches have the opportunity to leave an indelible mark on a child. The choice must be made as to whether it will be positive or negative.

First and foremost, the premise of the show is incredible transformation. Physical and often positive psychological changes are witnessed by millions of viewers, inspiring even the laziest of couch potatoes to start leading a healthier life style.

Fat loss is the hook that has us tuning in. In this case ‘the fight against childhood obesity’ is the catalyst for viewership.

The inherent issue I have here is that childhood obesity NOT the problem. It is a symptom of much larger problems plaguing our nation…lack of play, lack of physical activity, lack of sleep and poor nutrition. As young children enter into adolescence without having explored and discovered movement and the fun of physical play, they do so with no sense of physical culture.

My fear is that the children on this show will see more of the same as the adults only in a watered down version. For kids 11-17 to be taught the brutality of metabolic training, the boredom associated with long bouts of cardiovascular exercise, or the tiresome repetitiveness of weight machine circuits would be a travesty.

What they will be learning remains to be seen. My hope is that the foundation is developmentally appropriate movement skill acquisition combined with as much fun as they can handle. Teaching these children pain free and fluid movement combined with the joy that comes from feeling energized and accomplished can last a lifetime.

In the same article published by the Associated Press, the popular Jillian Michaels is quoted as saying the producers of the show “are ‘incredibly sensitive’ to safeguarding them”. The new mom and trainer for the show also remarked, “…it’s going to be controversial, and we’ll do the best we can to handle it in the most positive and effective way possible.”

Once again, this remains to be seen. My question is what qualifies Ms. Michaels to coach young children? This is not an attack on Ms. Michaels. Being incredibly sensitive will mean more than merely not being weighed for the broadcast. Let’s face it. Her track record is not that of the sensitive type. Here are a few things to ponder as you watch the show for yourself to evaluate the approach being taken by all the trainers involved.

Is there in fact an awareness of the communicative styles, physical limitations/considerations as well as the some of the internal factors associated with the psychology of children 11-17 years old?

Communicatively, most of the young participants will likely display varied physical ability and moderate to low motivation. These contestants need to be inspired and guided. If they are delegated to or simply instructed it will be a nightmare for the trainers and more importantly the kids. Furthermore, any instance exercise intended as a punishment is a sure sign of ignorance as it pertains to training young children.

The changes a child goes through during normal human development are filled with ingredients that create a vast separation between the approaches of training adults versus children. That said it is very likely that even 2 children the same age could have a 5-6 year difference in development. How? Growth spurts aside, two 13 year old boys could be separated by one being a couple years ahead of his chronological and the other behind. A potential 6-year gap does not simply equate to lessening the weights used from one child to another.

From a biosocial perspective – aside from already knowing they are different physically from their peers they are also responding in some manner to other biological changes to their bodies.

Kinesthetically they are aware of their bodies in varying degrees.

Psychosocially these young contestants are learning social skills, self-efficacy, and the concept of fairness in addition to adjusting emotionally.

Cognitively kids are processing abstract ideas such as health and fitness, diet, and transferring what they already know (correct or incorrect) and applying it to new experiences.

My question remains are Jillian Michaels, Bob Harper and Dolvett Quince prepared for what they are embarking on?

There is one statement printed in the AP report that I do take exception with. Here it is in its entirety:

The goal is to focus on the kids’ health rather than their weight, Michaels said, adding, “It’s about getting them on the softball team, not into a size four.”

I could not disagree more. When dealing with childhood obesity, the focus should neither be getting them into a size 4 nor on the softball team. Weight loss will be an additional benefit if the approach is to serve the best interest of the kids. Fat loss will be realized no matter the strategy. Fat loss alone under the guide of medical professionals and 3 months of a sound meal plan and intense exercise will elicit fat loss every time. The how is the most critical aspect of long-term success through a physical culture.

If these children gain the confidence to pursue softball or any other sport for that matter then that is a bonus. This mentality also accentuates a paradigm that physical activity should include an organized sport. The primary goals, at the expense of sounding repetitive, must be to establish a physical culture and developing physical literacy in these children.

Weight loss alone as a mission to combat childhood obesity is merely a Band-Aid.

My last point will be directed toward the apparent plan to have at least one young contestant mixed in with each team of 6 six adults. For all of the reasons listed above I remain neutral yet skeptical until I view the show for myself.

There are far more factors to consider than what I have mentioned in this brief writing. Add in adults who are waging war against their own internal battles in addition to being obese with growing children and a potentially ill-equipped training staff…I hope and pray the producers, the trainers, the medical staff, and the childhood obesity experts will create the optimal environment.

Ms. Michaels has given us all a bit of wonder with her admitting “I’m not going to make any promises” in the AP article in regard to her over all and hard hitting approach.

When the show airs in January we will all see young miracles make big changes on NBC. From what I have read from the Associated Press, there is a tremendous opportunity to combat the Childhood Obesity and positively affect the live of the contestants and thousands of young children who may tune in…I know this – I will be watching. Will you?

Adventure Themed Programming Ideas For Young Athletes

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

Programming Ideas For Young Athletes

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!

What Is The Best Youth Speed Training Drill

Posted on: July 20th, 2012 by IYCA 1 Comment

Youth Speed Training

By CJ Easter

One of the #1 questions that I get from coaches is “What is your favorite youth speed training drill?”

And I always give the answer that everyone hates, “It depends.”

But this is not a cop out because it really does depend. Speed is a total body, coordinated skill. So the “best drill” depends on what exact skill that we are trying to develop and the skill level of our athletes to properly perform that drill.

“That drill looks cool” should not be the deciding factor when putting together your training session. The deciding factor should be what is the simplest, most time-efficient drill to work on the desired concept.

One of my favorite coaching quotes is “Coach the kids, not the drills.”

Does it matter what the drill is if all the kids are doing it wrong and not developing the desired skill…

OR if we cannot demonstrate or coach this drill properly, so we have 50 kids moving “just like coach showed me” (which isn’t always pretty)?

When I first started coaching, I made those exact mistakes. I tried to take all the drills that I learned at Stanford and use them on my younger athletes. The classic “this is what I did, so you should do it too” coach.

My athletes not only weren’t developing the movement patterns that I wanted, but they were also losing confidence because they didn’t look and feel coordinated.

That’s when I made a huge realization…

College and professional coaches are probably the worst sources for youth and high school coaches to get drills from because they work with superior athletes.

Athletes don’t make it to that level without a certain level of coordination, so at the highest levels, the job description is mostly “don’t screw the guy up”. Our job as high school and youth coaches is to completely develop or restructure a coordination. I am not assigning value to either job, but they are definitely much different tasks.

So the “best youth speed training drill” is the drill that is done correctly to develop the skill that you want to address.

Here is a general template on exactly how I coach concepts and skills regardless of the youth speed training drill:

1. Introduce the skill/concept and the drill:
“This drill is called X. We are doing this to improve concept/skill X.”

This helps build a mental bridge for your athletes. They might not always like the drill, but at least they know and understand how it’s going to make them a better player.

2. Demonstrate the drill and explain key coaching points as you are demonstrating.

In the social media era, the majority of our kids are visual learners, so proper demonstration is necessary. Explaining the coaching points as you go also addresses auditory learners.

3. Demonstrate what you DON’T want to see and address common errors.

This aligns with John Wooden’s coaching style of “Do this, not this, do this.”

4. Demonstrate it correctly one more time, reinforcing the correct movement pattern.

5. Have your kids do a walk-through rep or if it’s an extended drill, do a mental walk-through. This addresses kinesthetic learners.

This process will take more time than just setting up the cones and saying “do this drill”, but you will definitely see improvement in the quality of your youth speed training drills and the development of the desired skills.

Beat the Heat To Keep Fit

Posted on: July 9th, 2012 by IYCA 3 Comments

exercising in the heat for young athletes tips

Exercising In The Heat Can Be Beneficial

By Phil Hueston

Ok. So it’s hot. Really hot. But you still want to get your exercise in. Is it safe? You’re asking “How do I know when to go out and play in the summer sun (and heat)? How do I know when I should stay inside and exercise in the AC? Or should I bag it all and just hit the pool?”

There are risks and benefits to exercising in the heat. More risks than benefits, I’m afraid, but we’ll talk about both.

First, the benefits.

Benefit #1 - No snow. Ok, just kidding. The first benefit of exercising is in heat that you will definitely break a sweat. This is really only a benefit if you intend to sweat, of course! Sweating is good for the body in several ways. 1.) It is a very efficient way to remove toxins from the body. Sweating helps clean the toxins out of your body, helping to somewhat lighten the load on the kidneys, liver and other “clean-up” organs. 2.) Sweating is said to be moderately beneficial to cardiovascular health. When we begin to sweat, our heart and lungs work a bit harder to take in and distribute the oxygen needed to cool blood and keep organs and other body components cool. This contributes to improved cardiovascular strength and efficiency. 3.) Sweating can make you more beautiful (or handsome.) Sort of. See #1 – sweating clears toxins. The pores of the skin are often clogged with toxins, so when you sweat, you clear them out and let them “breathe.”

Benefit #2 - Improved stress levels and management. Exercise helps manage stress under just about any circumstances (except, of course, gladiator competitions and being chased by a tiger – very stressful.) Benefit #1 may contribute to the increased stress management when exercising in the heat. Sweating more is said to trigger endorphin release sooner during and after exercise. No conclusive proof of higher endorphins in the heat yet, but there IS something to be said for how great you feel after a good sweat and challenging exercising in the heat.

Benefit #3 - Muscles tend to warm up faster. It just makes sense – higher temperatures lead to more blood flow faster. Since that’s a large component of how muscles warm up, heat helps.

Benefit #4 - Enhanced fat loss. While the majority of weight lost through sweating is water weight, heat helps in fat loss, too. Higher temperatures help heat the body. This makes fat more “fluid,” for lack of a better term. Essentially, it becomes more easily transported in the blood, making it available for use as a fuel.

Benefit #5 - This benefit is a bit more specific in nature. Apparently, training in high temperatures can improve athletic performance at lower temperatures. According to a University of Oregon study, the results of which were published in the October 2010 issue of The Journal of Applied Physiology¸

“Heat acclimation improves the body’s ability to control body temperature, improves sweating and increases blood flow through the skin, and expands blood volume allowing the heart to pump to more blood to muscles, organs and the skin as needed.” – Science Daily, October 25, 2010.

The study was conducted on cyclists and found that their performance improved by 7 percent after only 10 heat acclimation exposures. Doesn’t sound like much until you think about what a 7% reduction would mean for Lance Armstrong’s fastest Tour de France time. In 2002, Armstrong finished in 82 hours, 5 minutes. A 7% improvement in that time would make it 76 hours, 21 minutes. 7% indeed.

So heat offers some unique benefits relative to exercise and the results you can expect. However, there are risks. So before you go hopping on the bike or grabbing your barbells, let’s make sure you know what they are.

Risk #1 – Increased Cardiovascular load. In the heat, your body tissues increase in temperature, often beyond the normal range for average temperature exercise. In response, blood is sent to the skin to cool the body. Add to this the fact that sweat doesn’t readily evaporate (how we cool off) and the job is tougher. This leaves less blood available to travel to muscles. That makes the heart work harder, stressing it.

Risk #2 - Heat Cramps. Less blood to muscles means higher risk of cramping. Heat cramps are painful muscle contractions, most often occurring in the calves, quadriceps and abdominal muscles. While the skin and body temperature may feel normal, the muscles themselves may be firm to the touch or even somewhat swollen.

Risk #3 – Heat Exhaustion. In this dangerous situation, your body temperature may rise to 104 degrees. It may be accompanied by nausea, headache, vomiting, dizziness, weakness, fainting, and cold, clammy skin. If no action is taken to alleviate it, heat exhaustion can lead to heatstroke.

Risk #4 - Heatstroke. Your body temperature reaches more than 104 degrees. This is a life-threatening situation and must be addressed immediately. Without immediate attention you risk organ failure, brain damage or even death. While the skin may be hot, your body may stop sweating, preventing cooling from happening. Confusion and irritability may ensue. Seek medical help NOW!

Beware the warning signs. Know the warning signs of heat-related illness or conditions. Muscle cramps, nausea or vomiting, weakness, headache, dizziness and confusion are all signs that it is time to stop, cool down and re-assess the exercise session based on the risks.

How to get the benefits without needless risks. You can enjoy the benefits of hot temperature exercise while minimizing the risks.

Remember these guidelines for exercising in the heat:

1. Know the temperature - Be aware of weather forecasts and temperature expectations. Generally, temps or heat indices over 100 are signs that you should take extra caution when exercising. Reduce the intensity of your session or use a shorter duration during these situations.

2. Get adjusted and acclimated - Increase the intensity of your exercise over time, say 1 to 3 weeks. If you’ve been working out indoors or in climate controlled areas, start with a few short (20-30 minute) session in the higher temperatures and work up from there.

3. Know your limits - High heat is not the time to “jump back in” at full effort if you’ve been slacking off or exercising at low to moderate intensity. Also, stick with what you know while adjusting to the heat. Familiar exercise types allow you to recognize your limits – which will be tested in warm temperatures faster than in moderate ones.

4. Hit the fluids – HARD - Drink more fluids than you think you need. Don’t wait until you are thirsty. By then it’s too late – dehydration is beginning. For sessions longer than an hour, sports drinks may be a better choice because of the sodium, chloride and potassium they can replace. Choose drinks with lower sugar contents. Avoid alcoholic beverages during hot weather activity.

5. Avoid the mid-day sun - Morning or evening are best. Even better – a brisk swim.

6. Dress right - You may think your solar sweatshirt and the hot weather are a great way to drop a few pounds, but it’s really a recipe for heat related illness, even heart attacks and strokes. Light, loose fitting clothes in light colors are best. Think about a hat – especially those of you (me too) who are bald, shave our heads or have thinning hair.

7. Have an alternate plan - Go climb or run some stairs in an air-conditioned building. Exercise indoors in the air-conditioning. It’s okay, the weather will cool off and you’ll be outside again soon.

8. Know your risks - Be aware of any medical conditions that might be made worse through heat exposure. If you aren’t sure, speak with your doctor before beginning an exercise program in hot weather.

9. Sunscreen, baby - Because sunburned skin doesn’t cool off as well as healthy skin.

So the temperature has climbed into the high whatevers. Don’t let that stop you from “getting after it.” Just get smart about it and you’ll be able to benefit from exercising in the heat and your hot weather workouts while avoiding the potential dangers.

Kettlebell Training: It’s All About Progressions

Posted on: June 27th, 2012 by IYCA 1 Comment

Kettlebell Training With Young Athletes

Kettlebell training progressions with young athletes

By Pamela MacElree MS

Just like every other training modality, kettlebells also have training and movement progressions.

I find it ironic that we often see people approaching kettlebell training far differently than they would barbell training or even the use of a dumbbell. Everything has a progression, always. I’ve talked about it before, you wouldn’t give someone additional weight in a squat if their bodyweight squat has poor form and you especially wouldn’t give them a weight to use in squats if they never squatted before.

If this is the case why would we automatically hand someone a kettlebell and show them how to do snatches if they had never done one before, if they had never used one before, or if they had never done any other similar movements before. We don’t.

This is where progressions come in to play when training young athletes. Progressions are highly important to understand and know to ensure that our clients and athletes both have good form and once they have maintained good form, can safely make increases in weight.

Since I mentioned kettlebell snatches earlier, let’s use them as the example. Keep in mind that I am not teaching how to do a kettlebell snatch, I am showing you the progression on where to start when first teaching the snatch.

Let’s take a look at things in reverse order:

Prior to doing kettlebell snatches we should ensure that being able to do a one arm kettlebell high pull is a proficient movement pattern.

Prior to doing one arm kettlebell high pulls, we want to teach and learn two arm kettlebell high pulls.

Prior to doing two arm kettlebell high pulls, we will teach the kettlebell Romanian deadlift.
Prior to learning the kettlebell Romanian deadlift we teach the good morning stretch.

As you can see there are several steps that need to happen before teaching young athletes a kettlebell snatch. The purpose here is to not actually teach you the kettlebell snatch but to show you the movement patterns that need to be learned and perfected prior to attempting the snatch.

The good morning stretch shows us that our athletes understand the hip hinging process of moving the hips back in space, rather than down toward the floor as in a squat.

The Romanian deadlift follows the same hip hinging pattern as the good morning stretch with external load, slow and controlled. When learning the Romanian deadlift you start with two hands on the kettlebell and move to one.

After mastering the slow and controlled movements, we will move into the more dynamic explosive exercises of the two arm and one arm high pulls and finally progressing to the snatch.

Here’s a video to help you coach young athletes bring all of these kettlebell movements together :

Your Youth Fitness Business Operating System

Posted on: June 11th, 2012 by IYCA No Comments

Youth Fitness Business Systems

youth fitness business operating systems

By Pat Rigsby

To run a youth fitness business that functions at a very high level you need the following Business Operating System components in place:

An Overall Business Growth Plan – Most fitness businesses approach growth very arbitrarily. They randomly try to do things and don’t really have a plan. It’s very much like the difference between designing a program based on a client’s assessment and goals versus just giving them random workouts.

It might work out ok – but the odds of it doing as well as the planned approach aren’t very good.

This plan should include:
Knowing who you want to serve
How you intend to reach those people and get them to become clients
A Marketing Calendar to put this into action

Specific Business Targets - You need to have targets for the number of leads that you need each month, the closing percentage for those leads actually becoming clients, specific revenue targets and specific profit targets at minimum. There are any number of other target metrics that you can (and should) track, but those are the basics.

Trackable Lead Generation System - For you to grow a successful and sustainable business you need to have several lead generation strategies that you can consistently execute and track for effectiveness. You need to be able to know that:
You’re getting enough quality leads per month.
Where those leads are coming from.
The cost of getting those leads, both from a money perspective and a time perspective
This way you can focus on what’s working and improve or replace what is not.

Trackable Lead Conversion System – You must know how effective you are at turning prospects into clients. You should know which prospects are higher quality (convert better and stay longer) and which aren’t.

Client Value Maximization System - You can call this what you want, but you must have a systematic way to:
Retain clients
Maximize their value to your business
Provide them the most complete solution for their goals possible
Most fitness professionals do not have this System in place and leave up to half of their potential revenue on the table.

Business Operations Systems - The systems for what go on ‘behind the scenes’ in your business, from how you answer the phone or respond to emails to how you clean your facility. A business might get away without these when it’s a one person operation, but they’re critical if you have a staff or want to.

Finance Systems - You must have systems to address:
Automated billing
Bookkeeping
Accounting
Taxes & Payroll (if you have staff)
Financial systems routinely either get overlooked by fitness business owners or are handled in a way that eventually costs the business a lot of revenue. Remember, it’s not what you make, it’s what you keep.

Hiring & Staff Training Systems - Almost every business owner aspires to have staff, whether it’s adding more trainers or coaches or it’s hiring someone to handle some of the administrative tasks that go into running the business.

If your going to have staff, then you need to have systems in place to hire the right people and develop them to do the job that you need done at the highest level possible.

Hopefully this gives you some more clear insight into the components of the Business Operating System you need to have in place to run your business at the highest possible level.

Obviously, there is far more to it than what I can address in an email, but these components should be present in your Youth Fitness Business. If not, you should immediately start working to build each of these systems.

They’re that important.

If you’d like to discuss how we can help you with your Business Operating System and in providing you all of those components, click on the link below and let me know. That’s exactly what Athletic Revolution was built to do:

Help great coaches build great businesses.

You can learn more about Athletic Revolution here:

Youth Fitness Business http://www.myathleticrevolution.com/more/

Also – with Athletic Revolution you can maintain your own brand while leveraging the best business systems in the industry. A true WIN/ WIN.

http://www.myathleticrevolution.com/more/

Becoming A Better Youth Fitness Coach

Posted on: May 23rd, 2012 by IYCA 1 Comment

Youth Fitness Coaching Tips From Dave Jack

By Pat Rigsby

It gets tough to access the credibility of coaches in this internet age. Many people that call themselves ‘coaches’ who haven’t actually coached anyone and there are many giving fitness advice that really shouldn’t.

So who do you trust?

That’s where the IYCA is here to help.

We constantly research and make sure to listen to coaches that are in-the-trenches getting great results. We know there is a lot of noise out there on the internet, so when we actually find quality information from a top-notch coach, we like to pass that info on.

I wanted to share a video with you from one of the best youth fitness coaches I know – IYCA Expert Dave Jack.

If you’ve never seen Dave present – it’s one of the most inspiring things you’ll ever see. The best part is, he not only talks the talk, he walks the walk.

Here is the link to the video -> http://youth-fitness- specialist.com

I know it’s a bold statement, but this one presentation will make you a better youth fitness coach.

Dave’s passion is contagious and this video will help you continue your mission on changing your client’s lives.

So, forget all of the internet ‘guru’ hype out there of pseudo coaches trying to sell you the next SECRET and checkout this powerful (and free) video and discover what a real elite coach does to become an even better coach.

Get the video here -> http://youth-fitness-specialist.com

Dedicated to Your Success,

Pat

PS – If you want to raise your level of coaching, I highly recommend you check this free video out by IYCA Youth Fitness Expert Dave Jack – http://youth fitness-specialist.com
pecialist.com

How to Create a Strength Training Program For Young Athletes

Posted on: April 5th, 2012 by IYCA 11 Comments

Strength Training Program For Young Athletes

By Jim Kielbaso

Strength training program design can get very complicated, but it doesn’t have to be. The bottom line is that you need to develop a well-rounded, comprehensive program that encourages hard work and progressive overload of the musculature. If those components are in place, you are well on your way to helping your athletes reap the benefits of a strength training program for young athletes.

Comprehensive

A strength training program for young athletes should address every major muscle group in the body: chest, upper back, shoulders, biceps, triceps, neck (for collision sports), abdominals, lower back, hips & glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings and calves. Certain sports will focus more on a particular body part or require specialized work on smaller muscle groups (i.e. baseball pitchers will train the rotator cuff extensively), but all major muscle groups should be addressed. In general, an equal amount of work should be done on each side of a joint.

Deficiencies can be overcome through a strength training program, but it generally takes specialized assessment to determine which muscles are deficient.

Progressive

In order for any program to be effective, there must be a systematic and progressive overload of the musculature. In other words, athletes should systematically attempt to perform more work on a given exercise. For example, an athlete who can perform a maximum of 10 push-ups today should attempt to perform 11 repetitions at some point. When 11 can be performed, 12 should be attempted and so on.

Progress can be made through any of the following: increasing the number of repetitions, increasing the amount of weight, increasing the number of sets, increasing the number of training days per week, decreasing the amount of rest time between sets, or a combination of any of these.

One of the easiest approaches is called “double progression”. To use this method, start by determining a range of repetitions you are going to use, for example 6-10 reps.If the athlete is unable to perform at least 6 reps, the weight is too heavy. If more than 10 reps can be performed, the weight is too light. During each workout, one more rep should be attempted until the top of the range (10 reps in this case) can be performed. When the top of the range is achieved, the weight will be increased at the next workout by the smallest amount possible.

How many sets?

The number of sets used on an exercise or within a complete workout can vary greatly, but the following guidelines can be used.In most cases, 1-3 sets will be performed for each exercise and 10-20 sets will be performed in the entire workout.

If fewer sets are used, each set should be performed with maximum intensity. In other words, the set should be taken to the point of momentary muscular fatigue, or no more reps can be performed. If the athletes are unable to perform with maximal intensity, it is generally a good idea to complete multiple sets of an exercise.

How many reps?

While there is great debate of the number of repetitions that should be used in a set, it really should not be confusing.In general, it is recommended that 6-20 reps be performed on each set. While this is a large range, it offers a guideline in which to create smaller rep ranges from. It is best to choose ranges of 4-6 reps, such as 6-10, 8-12, 10-15, or 15-20.

As long as your program continually challenges the athlete to perform a greater amount of work, strength gains will be made. Any rep range will work. There are, however, some subtle differences between the benefits of each rep range.

Lower rep ranges (i.e. under 6 reps) will stimulate the nervous system to a greater extent, but actual tissue changes may be limited. Very heavy weight (relative to the athlete’s strength) must be used which can be potentially dangerous because athlete may have a tendency to use improper technique to lift the weight.

In general, it is unnecessary for any high school athlete to use weights that cannot be lifted at least 6 times with good form. Prepubescent athletes should generally use weights that allow for at least 10 reps.

Medium rep ranges (i.e. 6-10, 8-12, 10-15) offer the benefits of increasing strength, eliciting positive tissue changes, and allow for greater safety than very heavy weights. These rep ranges are recommended for most sets on most exercises.

Higher rep ranges (i.e. 15-20) offer the greatest results when muscular endurance is the goal. Endurance athletes may want to consider higher rep ranges. Young athletes or beginners may also consider higher rep ranges because it offers the opportunity to practice good technique. Strength will still be gained with higher rep ranges.

How much weight?

Once a rep range is determined (for example 8-12 reps) selecting a weight is fairly easy. Have the athlete perform a set of as many reps as possible. If the athlete cannot perform at least 8 reps, the weight is too heavy and should be decreased at the next workout. If the athlete can perform more than 12 reps, the weight is too light and should be increased at the next workout.

Within 2-4 workouts, the optimal weight will be selected. This selection process gives the athletes the opportunity to practice technique and experiment with different resistances.

How often should you train?

Selecting the number of training sessions per week is dependent upon many outside factors such as practice time, game schedule, outside activities, facility availability, etc. Generally, there will be more time available for strength training during the off-season than during a competitive season.

The following are some guidelines for the number of training days per week during different phases of the competitive cycle, with routine ideas in parenthesis:

Off-season: 2-4 days/week (2 or 3 total-body workouts per week T & Th, 2 upper & 2 lower body workouts/week M-T-Th-F or 3 days/week alternating upper & lower body routines M-W-F)

Pre-season: 2-3 days/week (2 or 3 total-body workouts per week, or 3 days/week alternating upper & lower body routines M-W-F)

In-season: 1-3 days/week (1- 3 total-body workouts per week, or 2-3 days/week alternating upper & lower body routines)

How long should the workout take?

Each strength training session should last 20-60 minutes. There is no reason for any high school strength workout to last more than 60 minutes.

Rest between sets should last about 1-2 minutes. This allows time for a partner to complete his/her set and the next exercise to be set up.

Work large muscles first

In general, the order of exercises should begin with the largest muscle groups and move to smaller muscle groups.

Large muscle groups include the chest, upper back, and hips & quads. Smaller muscle groups include the shoulders, arms, hamstrings, calves and abdominals.

An example of a total body routine would be:
Hips & Quads
Chest
Upper back
Shoulders
Hamstrings
Arms
Calves
Abdominals
Neck

Variation

A workout routine should be changed every 6-12 weeks to offer new stressors to the body. A change can be very small such as changing the rep range, changing the number of sets per exercise, adding a new exercise or two, or changing the order of exercises. Change can also consist of a completely new routine. Small changes are all the body needs to continually make progress so don’t feel that it is necessary to create brand new programs.

The process of changing the workout routine is called periodization. This can get very complicated, and there are entire books written on the subject. To get started on a strength training program, it is absolutely not necessary to understand the intricacies of periodization. For now, all that is important is to modify the workout every 6-12 weeks.

Changing the routine too often does not allow the muscular tissue time to gradually adapt to the stress. If the routine is changed too quickly, it is difficult to determine whether or not the routine is working. Building strength requires a great deal of patience and persistence, so encourage athletes to be diligent.

Variety, however, can often keep athletes engaged, so it is encouraged to offer something slightly different every couple of weeks. All this means is that every 2-3 weeks, you change one or two things about the program for that day. You can increase or decrease the number of reps on an exercise, add additional sets of an exercise, add 1-2 exercises, or give an unexpected day off. Anything to make the workout a little different for the day in an effort to keep the athletes engaged.

Off-season vs. Pre-season vs. In-season

The time of the year is going to create more differences in your strength training program for young athletes design than just about anything else. While this can get very complicated, once again you are encouraged to keep it simple. The major differences between the programs you will design for each “season” are as follows:

Off-season: The off-season is the best time to make strength gains because fewer physical demands are placed on the body at this time. Overall training volume will generally be increased during the off-season. This means that more days per week may be used, more sets of each exercise and more energy overall will be spent on strength than any other time of the year. In general young athletes will train 2-4 days per week and use 14-20 total sets per workout.

Aerobic and anaerobic conditioning is generally de-emphasized during the off-season to allow more energy to be spent on gaining strength or the improvement of other deficiencies.

Pre-season: Strength training will continue through the pre-season, but the overall volume will gradually decrease as more time and energy are spent on conditioning or fitness. In general, strength training will consist of 2-3 days per week and 12-15 total sets per workout. The intensity of each set may be increased as the volume of work is decreased.

In-season: It is absolutely imperative that strength training be continued through the competitive season. The total volume of work will be reduced, so the relative intensity can be increased. The workouts will be less frequent and shorter in duration.Athletes should strength train at least one day per week, and no more than three days. Workouts will take 20-40 minutes with a total of 10-14 sets per workout.

The number of training days per week and volume of each workout will depend upon the competitive schedule and physical demands of the sport.

Decide what time of year it is, think about the facilities available, and consider which exercises you feel are most appropriate for you to teach and for your young athletes to perform.

Quads & Hips: Pick 1-4 Exercises
Squat Deadlift Leg Press
Lunges DB/Trap Bar Deadlift 3-D Lunges
Leg Extension Glute/Ham Raise Step Ups
Machine Squat Airball Squat Hip Flexion
Hip Extension Hip Abduction Hip Adduction
MR Squat MR Hip Flex/Ext/Ab/Ad/Leg Ext

Hamstrings: Pick 1-2 Exercises
Leg Curl Airball Leg Curl RDL/Stiff-leg Deadlift
Glute/Ham Raise Hyperextension

Calves: Pick 0-1 Exercise
Standing Calf Raise Seated Calf Raise1-Leg Calf Raise
Machine Calf Raise Donkey Calf Raise MR Leg Curl

Chest: Pick 1-3 Exercises
Bench Press Incline Bench Press Decline Bench Press
DB Bench Press Incline DB Bench Press Decline DB Bench Press
Machine Press Dips Push Ups
DB Flys Machine Flys Tubing Press/Flys
MR Flys

Upper Back: Pick 1-3 Exercises
Chin Ups Pull Ups Pulldown
DB Row Cable/Machine Row Close Grip Pulldown
DB Pullover Machine Pullover Straight-Arm Pulldown
MR Row Shrugs

Shoulders: Pick 1-3 Exercises
Lateral Raise Bent Over Raise Military Press, Seated/Standing
DB Military Press Machine Military Press Front Raise
MR Lateral Raise/Front Raise/Bent Over Raise Tube Raises
Internal Rotation External Rotation Empty Can/Thumbs Up Raise

Biceps: Pick 0-1 Exercise
Barbell Curl DB Curl Hammer Curl

Triceps: Pick 0-1 Exercise
Dips Close Grip Press Skullcrushers
Pushdowns DB Overhead Extensions MR Tri Extension

Forearms/Hands: Pick 0-2 Exercises
Wrist Curl Wrist Extension Reverse Curl
Wrist Roller Farmers Walk Pronation/Supination
Towel Chins Gripper Plate Pinch

Abdominals/Low Back: Pick 1-3 Exercises
Sit Ups/Decline Crunches Hanging Leg Raise
Twists Planks Side Core Hold
Back Extension Superman Ab Rockers

Neck: Pick 1-3 Exercises
Machine Neck Flexion, Extension or Lateral Flexion
Manual Resistance Flexion, Extension or Lateral Flexion
Shrugs Kelso Shrugs

And There You Have The Building Blocks of a Strength Training Program For Young Athletes

Non-Programming Elements of a Great Youth Fitness Program

Posted on: March 22nd, 2012 by IYCA 1 Comment

Creating a Great Youth Fitness Program

By Wil Fleming

Non-Programming elements of a great Youth Fitness program

That sure is a mouthful for a title. Maybe the meaning is quite self evident or maybe it is a little more veiled. Either way I think that these elements are essential to making your AR successful and helping you to develop great athletes.

What do I mean by “non-programming” elements?

Sets, reps, exercises, and their order are all the things that you put on paper when you are putting together their training program., those are the traditional “programming elements”. There are things that don’t end up on paper that can make your program successful though.

Those things that don’t end up on the whiteboard or workout card are just as important to the quality of your program as what’s written down. They create the environment in which your athletes train.

Coaching
This is first. It really should always be first. Great coaching can change the way athletes think, can improve technique, and can inspire. Each day in your AR you should seek to instruct, teach, and inspire each athlete. In fact in my training sessions I aim to do these 3 separate things with each individual I encounter. Your interactions with your champions will be deeper and more meaningful if you approach each athlete with these 3 things in mind.

Communication
The way that we communicate with our champions is very important. Maximum uptake of information is dependent upon how we choose to transmit ideas to our athletes. I like to communicate training technique in a “do this, don’t do that, do this” way (first popularized by the AMAZING John Wooden). In essence I tell each athlete how we should do a movement or piece of a movement, then give them 1 way to not do that movement, and then repeat using different cues how to do this movement. For instance in the hang clean if I am verbally communicating technique I might say “Get full extension in your hips. We don’t want to leave your hips behind the bar. It might feel like you are going onto your tippy toes” I communicated the same point to the athlete in 2 different ways and let them know what the improper way to do things might look like.

Fun
We hear about fun all the time, but what does it look like? In my AR it is often impromptu competition between athletes or between athletes and coaches. A quick game of wall ball, with rules made up on the spot, as we wait to warm-up. A race with a sled, or relay will do the trick as well. Impromptu feels better than planned, and we try to do something like this everyday. Fun makes communication easier and coaching easier and is the underlying note to creating a great environment for your youth fitness program.

I cannot remember who said it to me but I was once told “A horrible program implemented well, will always out perform a great program implemented poorly. ” The non-programming elements are what makes this true, those things which create the environment. If poor programs in a great environment can do well, imagine what a great youth fitness program (your AR program) can do in a great environment (your AR).

Pirates and 6-9 Year Old Kids Fitness Training

Posted on: January 16th, 2012 by IYCA 1 Comment

Kids Fitness Game

I have referenced the “pirate game” several times in the past in the context of utilizing a fun game to provide several aspects of fitness to young athletes 6-9 years old. As a back drop we must remember the very nature of our programming for this age group must be rooted in body awareness/movement exploration, coordination, object manipulation, and game play/cooperation. By extension, young athletes in need of approaching things from a systemic stand point while maximizing neural or bio-motor development.

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IYCA Member Spotlight: Melissa Lambert

Posted on: December 21st, 2011 by IYCA 1 Comment

IYCA Youth Fitness Specialist Spotlight

I am licensed professional counselor in the state of Connecticut
and work as a child and adolescent clinician at Natchaug Hospital.
I graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Eastern
Connecticut State University and was a four year collegiate soccer
player earning All-Region and All-New England accolades as a
defender. I completed my Master’s degree in Clinical Mental
Health Counseling with a concentration in child and adolescent
psychology at Springfield College.

My experience includes working inpatient, partial hospital
programs, in-home therapy for children and adolescents in crisis, facilitating
parenting classes and writing articles for parenting magazines. I
enforce the importance of movement and play with both children
and their families. I also work on youth nutrition with children

who are currently taking psychiatric medications that often
cause weight gain.

In addition, I’m an assistant soccer coach for the U-16 girls’
Southeast Premier Soccer Club and run high school soccer
strength and conditioning clinics. I currently have the following

IYCA certifications: Youth Fitness Specialist 1, High School
Strength and Conditioning, Youth Nutrition and Youth Fitness

for children with Special Needs.

The IYCA certifications have Impacted my work as both a therapist and coach.

I feel the overall philosophy of the program can be utilized when
working with any group of kids, whether it’s fitness related or not.
The IYCA emphasizes building upon the child’s current strengths
while empowering them to become better athletes with a focus
on injury prevention. I like the break down on how to work with

specific athletes based on both the level of skill and motivation.

The course material is easy to understand and can be applied
in various environments. I use many of the youth nutrition
handouts with both children in therapy and my high school
athletes as well as incorporating the games from the youth
fitness certification into group therapy.

In relation to coaching, my strength and conditioning clinic
sessions were based on the principles provided in the high
school strength and conditioning book (mobility, dynamic
stretching vs. static stretching, speed and agility with emphasis
on decelerating and accelerating properly, etc.) I would recommend
any professional working with children and adolescents (coaches,
various teachers, therapists and other childcare providers) to
become certified through the IYCA organization.

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Training Young Athletes: Concept vs. Cool

Posted on: May 8th, 2011 by IYCA 7 Comments

Training Young Athletes: exactly what the IYCA is all about.

Specifically related to our Concepts when training young athletes long-term development.

There are certain core values as it relates to training young athletes and people that we disclose within our ‘Youth Fitness Specialist – Level 1′ certification course, and you either need to hear them or hear them again…

These centralized principles extend to the entire litany of IYCA material, at large.

(1) Concept vs Cool (more…)

Young Athletes & Changing A Generation

Posted on: May 1st, 2011 by IYCA 14 Comments

How can we ‘convince’ young people to become more fit?

Is ‘convince’ even the right word?

You know, it’s interesting… I’ve been carrying the ‘Youth Fitness’ torch for so long, it seems that my opinions on what we REALLY need to do for and with young athletes tends to counter what we see in mainstream media and even governmental policy.

Watch this video and tell me what you think –

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