The fitness industry creates nonsense aerobic-style classes for children and the vast
majority of professionals claim them to be useful because "at least it gets kids moving"
Now understand, I’m the biggest proponent in the world of the "something is better
than nothing" way of thinking, but this is a matter of inappropriate standards and
the root cause of the issue is something we are going to sincerely regret in time.
The lowering of expectations and standards is one of the main causative factors in
the breakdown of our society’s overall fitness level.
We got fatter.
Much fatter.
And instead of someone (all of us) standing up and saying "NO, this is unacceptable"
we simply changed our standards in terms of what we decided was reasonable body
fat to carry.
Or how much exercise was truly necessary to maintain optimal health.
We’ve done this in our school system.
We’ve done this in our health care.
We’ve done this in the expectations we have in our elected officials.
And this slow decent of expectations and standards allow us to merely accept what
should be, used to be, considered entirely inappropriate.
Yes. Something is better than nothing.
But it’s not good enough, and our society (especially our youngest generation) will
suffer because of our apathy and ignorance.
Leave a comment below & let me know what you think.
It’s been a while since I trekked up to the Great White North and visited my
childhood friends and family.
Too long in fact.
It’s very easy to get sidetracked by the great standard excuse of "busy with
work"
Too easy in fact.
My family means the world to me and I admit to feeling overwhelmed at the
thought of seeing everyone again.
My oldest brother, Al, turned 50 earlier this year. Can’t wait to give him all
kinds of grief about that!
My other brother, Mike, is doing quite well, but given all the childhood
"beatings" he gave me, I intend to cook up something good to razz him
about as well!
My parents are both in great health and spirits.
My Irish Mom is feisty as ever and will most assuredly have a few choice
words for her baby boy considering he hasn’t been home for nearly two years.
My Dad, always the patriarch and calming influence over my family, is doing
absolutely great for a man of 80+ years and will almost certainly want to spend
some time with me showing me around his precious backyard garden.
Family is important.
But family comes in all shapes and sizes.
Truly and very sincerely, I consider my IYCA Family as an important an influence
in my life as I do my biological kin.
Almost without exception, every ‘sport-performance training center’ and youth sporting association in North America both markets and incorporates some degree of plyometric conditioning into the routines of the athletes they manage. More often than not, the trainer or coach prescribes an unintelligible series of jumping exercises and can be seen either holding a clipboard and a stop watch as they count and record the number of jumps or foot contacts a young athlete makes within a certain period of time, or barking out commands to ‘jump higher’. Plyometric training has become such a ‘catch-phrase’ in the vernacular of trainers and coaches that it is often marketed as a sole measure of distinction for a training facility or individual coach/trainer. Do you know how many sporting clubs, for instance, have told me that they would love to have their athletes train at my facility, but their Director of Coaching has a ‘plyometric class’ that he/she hosts every week and that’s all the conditioning they need?
Plyometric training has become watered down in North America to such a level that now even basic health clubs have introduced ‘plyometric jumps’ into their general group exercise classes as a means of achieving some measure of ‘high intensity’ training. Jumping and then abruptly stopping and holding a fixed position, jumping and then jumping again after a cursory pause or being taken through a series of jumping exercises without being taught proper execution of either the jumping or landing phases respectively are simply gross misappropriations of what plyometric training is or how it should be applied.
Here’s what IYCA Member Paul Clarke had to say in response to my
question about the biggest problem in youth fitness and sport training:
"The major problem as I see it is coaches that advocate and live the
mantra of working harder instead of smarter. Invariably this leads to
a quantity over quality approach."
I couldn’t agree more with Paul.
It’s being popularized in a different circle right now, but for roughly
ten years, I’ve been saying….
Any fool can make a young athlete tired, but it takes a real COACH
to make them better.
My first job out of college was as a Performance Coach at a training
center for professional, Olympic and National Team athletes in Canada.
We also did a lot of work with young athletes.
One of my first meetings as a staff member at this facility is a moment
in time that I will truly never forget.
My question to you last Friday certainly created a stir.
The IYCA Blog was literally LIT UP by passionate professionals worldwide,
all of whom chimed in with there thoughts to my query -
"What is the biggest problem in youth fitness and sport training?"
The responses were intelligent, articulate and clearly came from people who
have incredible fervor for this topic.
One of my favorite posts came from a good friend of mine.
Someone whose knowledge on the subject is truly amazing. I have enjoyed
learning from her since our first correspondence back in 2005.
Leigh Ashton is the former Director for the Long-Term Athlete Development
Program at the Millennium Institute in New Zealand and has recently opened
that country’s very first youth training center with her husband, Gareth, a man
whose intellect and passion for doing things "right" rivals Leigh’s.
Here’s what she had to say -
"This is a great thread and shows that:
A) there are many common issues worldwide with youth sports and fitness training
B) Brian and the IYCA are doing a fantastic job at calling these issues to our
attention.
I think the next issue for all of us commenting here is what we are going to do
about it? My husband and I have been friends of Brian’s since 2005 and have
just opened New Zealand’s first youth-only fitness centre.
The issue we feel strongly about (in addition to those outlined above) is for
those of us who have this knowledge to go beyond just talking about the issues
and have the courage to take action!!"
That last paragraph is as succinct and perfectly worded a message as I could
have hoped for when I asked my question last week.
Remember one of the critical pillars of the IYCA -
Don’t Train…. Teach!!
Here’s a look at our unique development system:
Discovery (Ages 6 – 9) – Creating A Champion
The purpose of this phase is to introduce participants to a wide spectrum on non-specific exercise stimulus that aids in the natural development of coordination habits.
Coaches utilize the principle of Outcome-Based Coaching which allows young participants to learn the physical skills of exercise through an experimental and self-discovery based means.
The IYCA Blog has been jumping of late with some great training-based conversation.
I wanted you to read an exchange I had with a reader named Keith.
It was in reference to my article on Early Specialization a few days ago.
Keith offered some great insight and thought. Here’s what he had to say -
"So, playing devil’s advocate once again, why is it that the world’s greatest swimmers have typically been identified when they were preteen, often then,setting world records and competing in world class events as mere teenagers, especially the ladies.
How many world and Olympic champion gymnasts and divers average 14 years of age. I wonder if plasticity really means that a child athlete can adapt to, cope with, respond to, recover from, progress with, focus on and develop with, all of the things in one particular sport, and become superior in that sport, without participating in other sports. Doing so like the 5 year old Italian child learns English perfectly by being immersed in that one thing.
I know I’m talking about world class athletes but they had to come from somewhere and mostly they were young athletes with a gift through which they were unilaterally developed within their one sport.
While I myself have participated in many sports and have coached many sports and I believe in multilateral exposure especially as a means of talent identification, I still need convincing that the multilateral approach is necessary or preferable to develop high level athletes in a given sport.
Still liked the article Brian. It keeps the wheels oiled in this old noggin. Keep them coming!"
