Archive for “Crux” Tag

Youth Sports Training Technique: Part 1

Posted on: February 15th, 2011 by IYCA No Comments

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I found this archived article and wanted desperately to bring it to your attention.

There is SO MUCH MORE to youth sports training than just selecting some exercises and counting reps… ‘Part 1’:

Demonstrating good technique from a sporting perspective involves applying optimal movement ability in order to accomplish or solve a particular task effectively. A young athlete, for instance, who demonstrates sound technical ability while running is getting from point A to point B in an effective manner.

Technical ability in a sport is typically the underlying measure for potential success. Good athletes are more often than not technically sound athletes. This reality, however, does not start and stop with respect to sport specific skills; this fact extends itself into the realm of general athletic development and the promotion or advancement of general movement abilities. The crux of athletic development as a science resides in the notion that before we create a sporting technician or specialist, we must first build the athlete by instilling competency in both basic and advanced movement abilities; this would include not only multi-directional movement skill but also the technical requirements of basic to advanced strength and power training exercises.

The technical abilities demonstrated in a given sport can be categorized based on the rules or requirements of that sport –

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Developing Young Athletes: Intelligent vs. Dumb

Posted on: June 15th, 2009 by IYCA 6 Comments

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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:

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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…)

Fitness Training For Youth – Even the Best Don’t Get it Sometimes…

Posted on: October 14th, 2008 by IYCA 8 Comments

Fitness Training For Youth – what age do you start training someone?

How old should your fitness training for youth clients be?

How about young athletes?

I have to admit to being utterly stunned by the opinions

some very esteemed members of our industry shared on this

topic on a popular website recently.

“No one under the age of 12”

“It’s hard to teach kids under the age of 14 proper technique”

I am more convinced than ever that the IYCA is 100% necessary

in this industry.

In the world for that matter.

What is magical about the age of 12?

Why is that considered an age that adjunct fitness training for youth is fine,

but 11 or 10 is an issue.

Here’s the real crux of the problem –

Many people in this industry simply don’t understand.

And although we live in a free country and I wholly support

the right of everyone to express there opinion, it really

makes me wonder why highly esteemed and influential

members of any community don’t first understand the issue

before stating a strong stance on the matter.

Notice how I never discuss the virtues of training highly

elite athletes or senior citizens?

It’s because I understand and respect my limitations as

a professional and find it silly to wield any sort of

influence over a topic I know nothing about.

Ideally, I wouldn’t want to have children pay for my

services either.

Kids should be outdoors, in the sun, playing and growing

physically for the exercise stimulus they encounter.

Just like I was as a kid.

The problem is they’re not doing that.

Kids should be enjoying at least 45 minutes of well-designed

and developmentally-sound physical education everyday in

school.

But that’s not happening either.

That is why we need fitness training for youth.

If you know anything at all about human growth and

development, you know that the plasticity of the nervous

system is such that exposure to physical activity is a

must at an early age.

And while I would love to see kids just step outdoors

again and enjoy ‘free play’ experiences or partake in

vigors daily exercise in gym class, I also long for the

days when the gas to fill my car cost less than an

entire paycheck.

Obese kids aren’t active and must outlets to become

active.

Young athletes are at the mercy of under-educated and

over-zealous Coaches so must have a voice of reason in

their adjunct training programs that involve more than

just pushing through biomotor increases.

I’m not going to say that our industry has done a fantastic

job of understanding and applying proper elements of fitness training for youth…

… But that’s all the more reason to LEARN them through

a credible organization rather than merely cutting off a

segment of the population who desperately needs help.

Let me know your thoughts…

‘Till next time,

Brian
fitness training for youth

Developing Young Athletes: What is Athletic Intelligence?

Posted on: July 14th, 2008 by IYCA No Comments

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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 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:

– Rhythm

– Movement Adequacy

– Efficient production and absorption of force

– Body position for optimal acceleration and deceleration

These physical skills aren’t only developed via performing endless sets of sprints or start and stop drills for young athletes

In fact, they are BEST developed singularly. Learned and understood in isolation and then eventually brought together in a relative format.

If you haven’t already, watch this basic ‘Skip Loop’ exercise from the ‘Coordination Development’ DVD found in Complete Athlete Development –

Rhythm

Timing

Movement Adequacy

Force Production and Absorption

Through drills like these, my young athletes are learning how to be ‘intelligent’.

It is through indirect methods of enhancing bodily knowledge that kids form the basis of becoming superior athletes in time.

It’s a process that can’t be rushed or overlooked.

The problem is, we rush and/or ignore this phase of athletic development all the time.

And that’s the main reason so few of our young athletes ever amount to much in terms of optimal sporting success.

They were rushed through a process.

Over-coached and ‘specified’ too early.

They simply aren’t Athletically Intelligent.

And when you don’t have basic intelligence, you can’t possibly expand your knowledge passed a certain point.

You lack the foundational aptitude on which to learn more.

Ask yourself this question –

Are the indirect aspects of learning addition and subtraction important to the eventual mastery of specific mathematical skills such as calculus or algebra?

You better believe they are.

Now apply that reasoning to developing young athletes.

Isn’t it time you saw firsthand what training for sporting success should REALLY look like?

Have a look at Complete Athlete Development and see what you’re missing –

Complete Athlete Development – Click Here Now

Brian