When Do You Train Young Athletes?

Posted on: September 17th, 2009 by IYCA 4 Comments

[wpfblike]

Train Young Athletes Correctly

From a study published in the Swimming Science Bulletin. Authored by Brent S. Rushall & John Marsden:

"All sports require high degree of skill for superior performance. The major emphasis of a (youth athletic) training program should be skill excellence. For skills to be developed, learning should occur in non-fatigued states… It is advisable to schedule auxiliary training sessions either after a (sport) session or at some time that allows complete recovery from its execution so that no residual fatigue is carried over".

I’ve never mentioned this in literature, but have advocated it several times through lectures and seminars. Learning how to create appropriate training sessions is crucial to working with young athletes. If you are forced to have the technical practice AND the training session within the same day (as is typical), make sure that the training session comes AFTER practice. This keeps the body and CNS rested and for skill acquisition and demonstration during practice.

Ever notice that the "science" of strength, conditioning and fitness is more
complex than many realize?

Train Young Athletes

It’s really got nothing to do with just throwing some exercises together and
counting sets and reps.

Does speed training come before or after strength training?

When is it best to train the "core"?

Where does flexibility training fit into the daily picture?

Getting the most from your young athletes and truly making them the very
best they possibly can be means knowing as much as you can about how
to train them properly.

It’s not a day-by-day concept or fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants situation.

It requires a system.

A complete and comprehensive system that is internationally proven to be
successful and can be implemented by you TOMORROW with ease.

A system just like this one…

The Biggest Problem in Youth Sports Training?

Posted on: April 17th, 2009 by IYCA 10 Comments

[wpfblike]

Youth Sports Training Mistakes

The most common problem facing Trainers & Coaches today with respect to developing young athletes over time is the ability to plan long-term. The personal training and coaching professions are most typically based on a session-to-session consideration – clients pay per session most often and Trainers create training programs one session at a time. The same is true for coaching sport – most Coaches script out one practice plan at a time, rather than create a relative flow for an entire month or even season.

Limited Plan… Limited Gain

The problem with this industry standard as it relates to youths and adolescents is that this type of shortsightedness serves to limit the potential gains made by a young athlete. It is not unlike running a business or corporation – when business owners take the time to organize their objectives and action steps for a given month or year, they almost always are successful at implementing the plan. Far too many business owners, Trainers and Coaches feel as though their actions during a sales drive, training session or practice is what will lead to positive change, when in fact it is the planning that occurs before these actions that accounts for the true gains

Become and Objective Monster

No one can learn how to create 6 or 12 month Youth Sports Training plans in a day.

It takes time and diligent effort to acquire this skill, but your ability to get better over time will have a direct and positive impact on both your young athletes’ success rate as well as your businesses ability to attract new clients. Set an objective for yourself to create a system or plan that allows you to develop long-term and wide-focused agendas for your young athletes. Take several days or weeks if need be to create a system that is streamlined and easy to implement – although your are looking for a comprehensive system, the more basic you make it, the more easy it will be to adhere to.

Action Steps

Start simply. Take a piece of paper and write out where you want your young athletes to be in 4 weeks. Create headings and then just fill in each category. For instance, what skill sets are you working on now? To what degree of competency do you want an athlete or team to be able to demonstrate that skill set in 1 month’s time? This can also be applied to elite adolescent athletes. Are you working on squat or power clean totals right now? If so, where do you want these numbers to be in 4 weeks?

(more…)