Archive for “Fitness Programs” Tag

The Youth Fitness Difference

Posted on: June 27th, 2010 by IYCA 10 Comments

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Youth Fitness

“Fitness” in Early Childhood: Part I

This article is Part I of a series by Dr. Kwame M Brown. There will be more to come, including details about programming and resources for our members.

I spend all day around preschoolers and parents. We have a great preschool here at Lee District RECenter in Franconia, VA and the teachers here are all about play! I don’t regularly work formally with the preschool children, but interact with them and play little games with them throughout the day as they bang on my window, or I see them in the hall, or play hopscotch with them on the sidewalk outside. Our teachers are wonderful all by themselves and don’t really need me that much.

I am often asked how to do fitness programs for kids at this age. The answer I often give is that the programming is easy: Combine outdoor play (mostly) lots of pretend play and obstacle courses. For older toddlers, you can begin adding simple tag games, crawling or hopping relays, and very simple throw, catch and kick games. There are tons of great activities available on the web for this age group.

The hard part: the teaching!

With this group you have to be in equal parts:

Understanding
Engaged / Energetic
Patient
Creative
Silly
Uninhibited
Authoritative (for safety only)

Running a fitness program for older children and teens is as much or slightly more about the personnel as the program. Running youth fitness programs for the preschool age is overwhelmingly about the personnel more than the program.

If you consider yourself a fitness professional, or a highly qualified coach, you may not be successful in running preschool program. If you, on the other hand, consider yourself a play partner, you can be incredibly successful. Kids will ask when they will see you again. My assistant and I have kids who run and jump into our arms when we see them! They know that we are having fun being with them. They know that we’re not there to get performance out of them, but to enjoy their play experiences alongside them.

Learn to Train Kids from 6 – 18 (Athletes & Non-Athletes Alike)…

…with the Youth Fitness Specialist – Level 1 certification

My Top 4 Reasons For Attending the 2010 IYCA International Summit

Posted on: November 11th, 2009 by IYCA 1 Comment

IYCA International Summit

1) Earn Valuable CEU’s:

Just for coming to the 2-day main event, you will receive a full 12 CEU
credits from the IYCA.

That’s enough to renew whatever level certification you’re on with us.

In addition to that, we are in the process of becoming accredited through
NSCA, NASM, ISSA and more.

A world-class education PLUS critical continuing education credits that
you can apply to multiple fitness organizations.

I can’t think of a better ‘bang for your buck’ than that!!

–> Reserve Your Seat At the IYCA Summit Today!

2) Your Future in the Fitness Industry:

According to the ACSM, the Top 10 fitness trends for 2010 include two
specific demographics that the IYCA International Summit is being based
on:

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Childhood Obesity: The Threat To Youth Fitness

Posted on: October 28th, 2009 by IYCA 21 Comments

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Childhood Obesity

Liz D:

I’ve posted a question on a local moms forum asking what parents think are the root causes of Childhood Obesity/inactivity.

Certainly the typical ideas came forth: too much fast food, lack of exercise, not getting kids engaged in good habits early.

One idea did strike me and I’ve heard other moms tell me this. Heck, I even live this circumstance now:

One serious threat to youth activity is the lack of safety in our neighborhoods. We have so much access to information that we know when a sex offender moves into the ‘hood. We also hear about creeps on the news and evildoers who have even taken a child, hand-in-hand away from her backyard to bring her off premises.

With all this scary stuff afoot, moms and dads are definitely afraid to give their young kids especially too much liberty outside.

Has anyone ever polled parents to see if this comes up? Heck, for you IYCA parents out there, is this a factor in your life? Is organized sports the only recourse people see? Is there a solution to this or at least a good rib-tickling one-liner I can give these people? (Just goofing there)

Please chime in on your ideas.

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Fitness Programs For Kids: Top 3 Keys To Speed Training

Posted on: October 7th, 2009 by IYCA No Comments

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Fitness Programs For Kids

Fitness Programs For Kids speed training for young athletes
International superstar Speed Coach Lee Taft and I agree on almost everything related to training athletes.

Together, we have found through our combined 40 years of experience that these are the 3 most important factors to a successful speed training program –

Speed Key #1 – Create a Developmental System
Training for speed has to be developmental in nature.

With younger athletes (6 – 9 years old) training for speed is a matter of allowing kids to explore various aspects of movement from a self-learning perspective.

As a Coach or Trainer, your objective is to create games and drills that provide a broad-base of multi-directional movement (i.e. forward, backwards) as well as timing-oriented skills (i.e. skipping to a specific cadence).

It is important to resist the urge to ‘over-teach’ or ‘make perfect’ the way your youngsters are performing these skills.

Young nervous systems must be given the opportunity to learn through a trial and error process, what quality movement feels like.

With athletes 10 – 18, your training efforts can become much more teaching based and focus will shift to perfection of movement habits and eventually ‘drilling’ (i.e. repetitive sets of specific skills).

Do not be fooled into thinking that young athletes and more mature athletes can learn the skills associated with speed & agility in the same way, however.

A developmental system is necessary for optimal speed & agility training.

Our new Youth Speed & Agility Specialist Certification contains the complete developmental process that Lee and I have used successfully for nearly 4 decades.

—> Click here for an example of that system

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Kids Fitness Programs: Should They Really Lift Weights?

Posted on: February 10th, 2009 by IYCA 21 Comments

Developing The Perfect Kids Fitness Program

The commonly held belief that strength training for kids is dangerous to the growth plates is simply not accurate provided that appropriate guidelines are followed with respect to, specifically, exercise execution. In fact, improved sport performance, increased muscular endurance and enhanced bone strength are all likely benefits of resistance training for children.

More over, an increased need for correct kids fitness programs due to the rigors of a typical soccer, football or baseball game place far more of a strain on the structures of kids than does a well-executed lift. In fact, Mel Siff in his book Facts & Fallacies of Fitness suggests that “stresses imposed on the body by common sporting activities such as running, jumping and hitting generally are far larger (by as much as 300%) than those imposed by Powerlifting or Olympic Lifting.”

The real crux of this issue stems from the argument of which type of resistance training is most safe or suitable. In North America, we tend to buy into the concept that fitness machines are most safe due to their static nature and fixed paths which remove our need to stabilize during a movement – which would be fine if the body actually worked like that, but it doesn’t! This is why I am so outspoken against ‘youth sized’ strength training machines. To the uneducated eye, they certainly appear more safe and prudent than training with free weights, especially in dynamic movements such as Olympic lifts… but are they? Should kids stay away from dynamic strength training exercises like the Olympic lift?

Dangers of Lifting in Kids Fitness Programs?

If there is not a fully qualified an exceptionally experienced coach involved, than yes – without question. However, can the Olympic lifts actually be beneficial for younger athletes… let’s examine that.

While machine-based strength training for children has been shown clinically to be positive, it does not appear that the clinical evidence supports anything other than the fact that isolated strength has increased. More over, due to their static nature, it can certainly be concluded that machine-based strength training does not positively impact coordination or movement skill – something that is extremely crucial for young athletes.

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Kids Fitness: My 15% Rule

Posted on: January 13th, 2009 by IYCA No Comments

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Kids fitness Education Success

I spend 75% of my time with resources from trusted names I know are
great kids fitness trainers.

I spend 15% of my time with resources from trainers I have never heard of.

I spend 10% of my time with resources that I completely disagree with.

This system has been the secret to my success.

In my 10% category, I force myself to learn something about a training
philosophy or exercise program that, at face value, I have no use for.

How different is that from most kids fitness trainers?

Do you ever spend time with training resources that you know you don’t
agree with, or do you brush them off as ‘not worth your time’?

The method to my madness is simply this –

I can never learn enough.

By reading a book or listening to an audio CD about a training style that
I disagree with, one of two great things happen.

Either I learn something I didn’t know (which often happens when you
actually read a book that you didn’t think you were going to like) or I
reaffirm and become more closely connected to the belief-system that I
already had.

Learn something new or validate that your system is the right one…
how is that anything but a positive experience?

The 15% category is reserved for trainers that I have never heard of before.

Why?

Because some of the best trainers I have ever met are simply NOT
household names.

They don’t have websites, they don’t market themselves and they don’t
try to become well known.

They just train people and then publish what they know to be true.

Professionals like David Jack and Carlos Alvarez come to mind.

David runs a CATZ training facility near Boston and Carlos is the Head
Strength Coach for a prominent high school in Ohio.

Both spend roughly 50 hours a week training young athletes from various
sports and kids fitness programs— and they do so successfully.

David has sent countless high school graduates on to successful college
careers and Carlos is responsible for the fitness levels of the 2007 National
High School Champion football program.

They don’t broadcast themselves.

They don’t have websites.

They don’t ‘beat their own drums’.

But they’re incredibly talented and insightful Coaches who know exactly
how to develop top level athletes.

And they’re both speaking at my International Summit in February.

Two guys in your 15%.

Two guys who know exactly what it takes to be the best.

And two guys you will absolutely never learn from again if you aren’t
at the IYCA Summit.

Something to consider…..

http://www.iyca.org/2009summit

– Brian