by Dave Gleason   Setting short, medium and long term goals is the foundation for any action plan.  Creating and attaining any goal is a process.   In the context of goal setting for young athletes, often a trainer or coach will direct the question of desired goal(s) by giving away the answers.  A [...] read more

It’s great to watch a video or DVD and see what a quality training session is supposed to look like.   I always enjoy having exercise photographs at my fingertips with a visual representation of what each rep should look like along the way.   I also adore being able to read key information about [...] read more

    Youth Athletes With Kettlebells by Pamela MacElree of www.KettlebellAthletics.com   There really are hundreds of ways to train youth athletes, all the way from traditional weight lifting to strongman training, and everywhere in between.  Some programs focus strictly on gaining mass, some focus entirely on sport specific practice, some can’t get enough speed and [...] read more

    Young Athletes Priorities 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 [...] read more

    Young Athletes Agility   Tony Reynolds says… Personally, I have never thought of flexibility or mobility as a factor that plays a huge role in an athlete being able to assume an athletic stance. I do not see where there is enough flexion/extension in any joint throughout the chain where this is really [...] read more

    Young Athletes Coaching I have seen a fair amount of discussion on the merits of individual long term training vs. team long term training.  I will submit a later entry to compare short term vs. long term training.  My question is:  Why do any of these things have to be mutually exclusive?   [...] read more

    Chris Blake gives answer some common questions about flexibility training for young athletes   What is the difference between Flexibility and Mobility? Flexibility can have two definitions: 1.) The ability of muscle to lengthen during passive movements. 2.) Range of motion about a joint and surrounding musculature during passive movements.   Mobility can [...] read more

    Coaching Young Athletes Do you Teach or Train and deliver great coaching young athletes?   If you are like most coaches and trainers I am familiar with, you likely ‘train’ your athletes as a means to elicit biomotor improvement.   You work on various forms of sprints and jumping in order to develop [...] read more

Young Athletes Programming One of my favorite things to do is chat with the ‘big name’ trainers in our industry about programming, speed training, strength development or flexibility for young athletes.   Sometimes, in the middle of a casual conversation about nothing at all related to conditioning, I will switch gears in an instant and turn the discussion to [...] read more

    Training Young Athletes Successfully I’ll be blunt, brief and to the point with this email.   You’re making a big mistake when training young athletes.   And it’s the same mistake virtually every single Coach and Trainer makes.   It’s got nothing to do with speed, agility, flexibility or strength.   It has [...] read more

Drills.   Drills for young athletes.   How do you create them?   Now that’s a question I get asked virtually everyday.   Here are three great ones to use with your young athletes – especially if you work with kids between the ages of 6 – 12.     (1) Line Jumps   Have [...] read more

    Young Athletes Can be Coached In Big Groups Now this is the kind of situation that baffles many coaches and trainers.   But for good reason.   What do you do when your job is to effectively train 120 young athletes, are only given 45 minutes and have nothing but an open gym [...] read more