Archive for “American Sports” Tag

The State of Youth Sports

Posted on: June 3rd, 2010 by IYCA 20 Comments

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Youth Sports

For years, I have had to put up with youth sport coaches and parents echoing the words and mimicking the behaviors of successful coaches such as Vince Lombardi and Mike Ditka.

True.

You can’t argue with the success those guys had.

But do you really think that yelling at 10-year old football players for making a ‘bad play’ or chastising 12-year old soccer players for ‘missing a shot’ is the best and most sane way to coach kids?

Unfortunately, my arguments have fallen on deaf ears more than once over the past decade.

I just couldn’t make youth sport coaches realize that aggressive and negative behavior can be damaging to young athletes, and that a primary reason why so many kids drop out of sports at an early age is because of the often abusive treatments they get from their coaches.

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Youth Sports Conditioning Goal Confusion – Part 2

Posted on: March 30th, 2009 by IYCA 6 Comments

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Youth Sports Conditioning Principles

Soccer is no different than any other sport at the youth level – and I am not
inferring that anyone suggested otherwise – but every youth coach of every
sport, seems to think that the technical nuances of their sport are some how
more intricate or specialized than the skills of other sports… and that is not
the case.

And you can replace ‘Soccer’ with ‘Baseball’, ‘Basketball’ or any other sport
in the above paragraph.

The point of the Goal Confusion article can be summed up in one sentence –

Coaches and Trainers must learn how and when to apply certain teaching
techniques and when to let kids ‘learn’ things for themselves – and that is
especially true when we design drills in which we tell our players that the
success of a drill is based on the outcome rather than the form.

If you have been a subscriber for any length of time, you know exactly how
I feel about teaching skill – it is imperative and an ability that frankly, many
Coaches and Trainers lack (when in consideration of pedagogical science
and individual player temperament).

Having said that, by not letting young kids simply ‘have at it’ on their own
once in a while or at certain phases of development, we risk limiting free
nervous system adaptability at large – and this has been a prevalent problem
in North American sports for years.

We over-teach our youngsters and do not allow them free exploration
(which is at the crux of sport development) but then marvel at how much
more ‘naturally skilled’ international athletes often tend to be.

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Why We Confuse Our Young Athletes

Posted on: February 25th, 2009 by IYCA 16 Comments

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Young Athletes Correct Coaching

Soccer is no different than any other sport at the youth level – and I am not inferring that anyone suggested otherwise – but every youth coach of every sport, seems to think that the technical nuances of their sport are some how more intricate or specialized than the skills of other sports… and that is not the case.

And you can replace ‘Soccer’ with ‘Baseball’, ‘Basketball’ or any other sport in the above paragraph.

Goal Confusion for young athletes can be summed up in one sentence –

Coaches and Trainers must learn how and when to apply certain teaching techniques and when to let kids ‘learn’ things for themselves – and that is especially true when we design drills in which we tell our players that the success of a drill is based on the outcome rather than the form.

(more…)