Young Athletes and Resistance Band Stretching   By Dave Schmitz   What age is good to start band stretching?   Is it appropriate to stretch young athlete ages 10 to 13 with Bands?   Are there precautions when stretching young athletes with bands?   As a band expert I have never felt doing [...] read more

Youth Training Systems   (1) Create An Ascension System   Prior to my arrival, if you watched the Novice Teams (8 – 11 years old) go through their conditioning regime and then you watched the Senior Team (16 – 18) right after, you’d have trouble distinguishing the difference.   Exercise Selection.   Volume.   Coaching [...] read more

Young Athletes & Coordination Series Here is the third and final portion of ‘Young Athletes & Coordination’:   (3) Teenage Athletes Are ‘Too Old’   Now, while there is truth to the matter that many of the sensitive periods for coordination development lay during the preadolescent phase of life, it would be shortsighted to suggest [...] read more

Young Athletes & Coordination Series   Part 2: Coordination – Can You Teach Young Athletes?   The answer, in short, is yes.   Coordination ability is not unlike any other biomotor – proficiencies in strength, speed, agility and even cardiovascular capacity (through mechanical intervention) can be taught, and at any age.   The interesting caveat [...] read more

Young Athletes Coordination Series In this 3-part article, I will discuss the role and significance of ‘Coordination Training’ as it relates to both preadolescent and high school athletes:   The myths and falsehoods associated with young athletes Coordination Training are plenty.  I’ll outline the ‘Top 3’ here:   Coordination is a singular element that is [...] read more

Youth Sports Training It is customary to see young athletes being taught and drilled on how to run as fast as possible in a straight line.   Coaches spend hours teaching the mechanics of ‘linear speed’.  Arm drive, hip drive, ankle push, forward lean – all the usual suspects.  Whether on a high speed treadmill, [...] read more

Speed Training Many articles, books and information products discuss the development of speed from its physiological perspective of bio-motor enhancement.   How to get athletes stronger so as to create more force production and absorption.   How many sets and reps are necessary in a given training program in order to elicit the greatest possible [...] read more

    Young Athletes Development “It takes God a hundred years to make an oak, but it only takes Him two months to make a squash.” –President James Garfield   In our results-now, win at all costs, sports-crazed society, many athletes, coaches, parents, and professionals seem to have lost sight of the goal of sport [...] read more

    Young Athletes I have long supported the notion that the zeal many Trainers and Coaches show with respect to conducting high intensity training sessions with young athletes is akin to the unsure actor who feels a need to "over-do" his or her role in a given appearance for fear that the audience may [...] read more

    Youth Performance Training,/h1>   So here’s where I chime in.   Want the truth from my perspective?   Blunt and to the point as usual….     Injury prevention and youth performance training is the same thing.     When working with young athletes in a well-designed developmental process, the goal is simply [...] read more

    Youth Speed Training success Training young athletes for speed is a topic that I love to chat about.   Mostly, because I learn from a variety of sources.   What’s your philosophy on speed training?   Deceleration first?   Systemic strength as a base?   Multiple parts of different kinds of stimulus?   [...] read more

    Fitness For Kids Long Term Success Remember one of the critical pillars of the IYCA -   Don’t Train…. Teach!!   Here’s a look at our unique Fitness For Kids development system:   Discovery (Ages 6 – 9) – Creating A Champion   The purpose of this phase is to introduce participants to [...] read more

    Developing Young Athletes With the IYCA ‘Intelligence’.   Defined by the dictionary as -   “The capacity for learning, understanding and aptitude for grasping relationships”   That sets the stage very nicely for the meaning of this IYCA-based term.   What about ‘Athletic’?   It’s defined as such -   “Involving the use [...] read more

Youth sports training with kids You could open an interesting debate with respect to teaching sporting skills to kids.   I did last week during a presentation I gave to area basketball coaches.   Some trainers and coaches have decided that the skills required to achieve a certain task should be taught from the beginning. [...] read more

Young Athletes Development Tips Developing young athletes is not based solely on a given conditioning coach’s understanding of scientifically valid measures of motor stimulus, strength training or flexibility exercises. In fact, it could be argued that given all of the critical information contained in this textbook on exercise selection, methodology and sensitive period development, successful [...] read more

Youth Fitness Coach Factor #1   1) Understanding How to Communicate   It’s imperative that you assess your young athletes personality type and temperment prior to each training session.   On a given day, the stress of teenage life could alter your young athletes mood dramatically.   If you aren’t aware of that, then you could be offering instruction [...] read more

    Children’s Fitness… What Age? I received a very interesting email yesterday regarding children’s fitness.   Dan Coyle, a freelance author who writes for the New York Times among other publications, recently finished a new book he’d been writing.   He emailed to ask if I would read the manuscript and give him feedback. [...] read more

    Developing Young Athletes   ‘Intelligence’.   Defined by the dictionary as -   “The capacity for learning, understanding and aptitude for grasping relationships”   That sets the stage very nicely for the meaning of this IYCA-based term.   What about ‘Athletic’?   It’s defined as such -   “Involving the use of physical [...] read more

    Young Athletes Assessments Gray Cook is arguably the most well-known and respected man in the fitness industry today.   His ‘Functional Movement Screen’ has literally developed a cult following the world over.   He presents seminars throughout North America, Europe and beyond.   His FMS Certification is one of the most popular in [...] read more

    Youth Training Programs Most Trainers and Coaches don’t have a clue.   That isn’t meant to sound horribly negative, just something I’ve noticed a lot recently.   I was reading a textbook on Youth Training Programs recently that contained the following program for a high school football player:     a. Hang Cleans [...] read more