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>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 of physical skills or capabilities”
String those two definitions together and you’ve got the basis for the main motivation needed when training and developing young athletes.
In short –
“Increasing the capacity for learning and understanding various physical skills and how they relate”
That is the crux and critical requirement with respect to programming for young athletes.
And how backwards do we have that these days?
Increase the capacity for learning:
It’s not about over-coaching pre-adolescent children.
Teaching them the ‘mechanics’ of how to throw a baseball or kick a soccer ball.
It’s about enhancing their knowledge and understanding of how to perform these actions via Guided Discovery.
Allowing them to play.
Get a feel for the motion themselves and through trail and error, develop bodily aptitude.
Understanding various physical skills and how they relate:
Through this ‘trail and error’ period of development, it can’t be about specificity, either.
It’s about indirect, global stimulus.
Running fast, for example, isn’t just based on the action of running.
It’s based on: