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Archive for “Habit” Tag

5 Traits Of A Champion That Coaches Love To See

Posted on: March 20th, 2012 by IYCA 2 Comments

 

Youth Sport Coaches Want These Habits

 

By Jim Herrick

 

Youth Sport Coaches

 

Do you want to make the team, get more playing time, or win a championship this season? If you do, stop worrying about ability and start focusing on habit building.

 

Athletic Revolution coaches around the country work hard to instill Champion habits into all the kids who work with us, whether they play sports or not. We do this because we see how important they are to a young athlete’s long-term success on the field, in the classroom, and in life.

 

Kids who focus on winning or other external goals often lose sight of the internal factors that in many cases lead to much more personal and team success in the long run.

 

For anyone going out for a team, remember that by developing these 5 critical habits you will help yourself to get noticed by youth sport coaches, contribute more to your team, and become the best player you can possibly be over time.

 

Attention to detail: There are so many small details that go into the successful execution of a play or game plan. Players who do the little things that most kids overlook send a message to their coach that they are the detail-oriented type that helps teams become more successful. Building this habit during your youth league experiences will make it far easier to succeed as you move through high school and beyond, where sport has just as much to do with execution as it does ability.

 

Focus: Youth sport coaches never have enough practice time to do all the things they’d like to in order to prepare their teams. Players that are focused and attentive help to keep things moving along positively in practices, helping the team as a whole to get more done. And since the habits we all build in practices or training carry over to game performance, improving your focus will help you deal with adversity from opponents, crowds and other distractions that come up during the heat of competition.

 

Passion: Nothing is more infectious than enthusiasm. If you live to play your sport and can’t get enough of it, let it come out! Show energy and excitement at appropriate times. Give 100% in everything you do, from the simplest drill to the toughest physical challenge. Project a feeling of excitement on a regular basis, and your youth sport coaches will surely take notice.

 

Leadership: You do not have to be the star of your team to be a leader. Leadership is about helping to do what is best for the group as a whole, especially at times when it is not easy to do so. When it’s needed, pick up a teammate who is struggling. Let your passion show when the team appears flat. In critical moments where your group needs a leader, step up and be the voice that moves everyone in a better direction.

 

Show Improvement Over Time/Perseverance: The gains you make over the course of a season are a byproduct of your focus, passion, and attention to detail. I mention it separately because it is possible your coaches may not immediately realize the value of all the little things you bring to the table. But with the right habits in place, over time you’re going to get significantly better. And when that happens, I can almost guarantee your youth sport coaches will see it.

 

If you are not getting the playing time or having the team success you wished for right away, hang in there. Keep training and practicing with passion, stay focused and do all the little things you’ll need for success. Often times it takes longer to reach your goals than you realize. The true achievers in this world are those that hang in there and fight through the struggles while continuing to build great habits.

 

Many young athletes simply want to win as many youth sport coaches know, but are either unsure or unwilling to focus on all the critical steps that lead to long-term success. A true Champion recognizes that those who come out on top in the end put in countless hours of focused practice, took hundreds or thousands of small steps forward along the way, and continued to stay energized despite the roadblocks that fell on their path.

 

 

 

Youth Sports Training Technique: Part 3

Posted on: February 17th, 2011 by IYCA No Comments

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Youth Sports Training

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The Importance of Speed Training for Young Athletes…

 

Click Here —> http://CompleteAthleteDevelopment.com

 

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Open versus Closed Habits?

 

‘Part 3’:

 

The core of technique development or learning is in the action of achieving perfect sensory-motor habits. A sensory-motor habit is simply a “learned activity of sensory and motor processes intentionally practiced to the point of nationalization”. From a physiological perspective, this entails creating a permanent conditional reflex connection that enables the exact same motor reactions to respond to the same stimuli. The development of a sensory-motor habit occurs through many stages:

 

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The Truth About Youth Obesity

Posted on: August 5th, 2009 by IYCA 30 Comments

Youth Obesity realisations

I’m going to start by telling you what very few other people are willing to…

 

… The truth is, there should be no incidents of overweight or obese youths
with the exception of those with medical conditions.

 

There should be no excuse beyond that.

 

With daily exercise and attention to proper nutrition, obesity and overweight
concerns cease to be problems.

 

As a matter of fact, the one and only solution to youth obesity and overweight
conditions lies in exercise and good nutrition.

 

And these things have to become a habit in your life and your child’s.

 

Because exercise and proper eating are the only methods I advocate, and the only
ones that work, I’m not going to spend time discussing trends, fads, or crazes.

 

Youth obesity is not a short-term problem

.

 

It is not going to resolve itself with a short-term solution.

 

It’s not about a magic pill. It’s not about restricting calories for a short period of
time or running on a treadmill for as long as you can stand.

 

It’s about honest to goodness, wholesale life changes, day by day, in small
incremental steps that eventually lead to a large change.

 

Our biggest mistake was when we started believing and buying into short-term,
lazy, and quick-fix solutions.

 

We have been naive, and we have been wrong, and look where it’s gotten us.

 

So, if you’re not prepared to hear the truth, then this free "Final Solution" report
isn’t for you.

 

This is not going to be a quick-fix solution, but it will be a solution, and a final
one at that.

 

It’s not going to take enormous amounts of work; in fact, it’s going to take a very
insignificant amount of work day by day.

 

It’s not quick and it’s not necessarily easy, but it will be effective, and it’s the
solution you’re looking for.

 

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How Do Young Athletes Learn?

Posted on: February 2nd, 2009 by IYCA No Comments

 

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Young Athletes Development Tips

 

Developing young athletes is not based solely on a given conditioning
coach’s understanding of scientifically valid measures of motor stimulus,
strength training or flexibility exercises. In fact, it could be argued that
given all of the critical information contained in this textbook on exercise
selection, methodology and sensitive period development, successful
coaches will be the ones who can teach and relay information to young
athletes well, more so than the coach who merely reads and digests the
scientific information offered via clinical research.

 

The science of developing young athletes, then, is centered in the particular
technical information associated with pediatric exercise science whereas
the art of developing a young athlete is based on a coach’s ability to teach.

 

There are several styles of coaching that do not adequately serve to aid in
a young athlete developing skill, yet are none-the-less common amongst
North American coaches and trainers.

 

An example of this would be the ‘Command Coach’. Command coaches
presume that the young athlete is a submissive receiver of instruction. The
instructions given and information offered moves in one direction only:
from the coach to the athlete. Coaches who display this habit believe that
coaching success is based on how well the athlete can reproduce the skills
as taught or demonstrated by the coach.

 

There are also various misappropriations relating to how young athletes
actually learn –

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The Speed Training Secret

Posted on: January 6th, 2009 by IYCA 4 Comments

Speed Training Coaching

I received this great question from a reader earlier this week:

 

"Hi Brian. When training young athletes 8 – 12, what are the most important concepts of speed and acceleration to teach or stress?"

 

The answer, my friends, is none of them…

 

… Well not really, anyways.

 

If I were to look solely at speed training and acceleration development with pre-adolescent athletes, my suggestion would be strength. Strength is an often forgotten variable in the speed and power equation and quite a critical component to the matrix of developing young athletes.

 

But the actual answer is deceleration skills.

 

To decelerate well means that you are in a position to re-accelerate effectively.

 

It means that you are likely one of the ‘fastest’ kids on the field (remember – it’s not who runs the fastest… it’s who can change direction quickest and with the most ease).

 

It means that you are likely injury-free (a combination of strength and quality mechanical understanding are the two greatest factors I have seen in terms of reducing the likelihood of knee and ankle injuries).

 

Now when teaching proper deceleration skills, it is critical that you move from Closed to Open Habits.

 

Closed Habits – skills being executed in a static environment.

 

Open Habits – skills that are adaptable to varying conditions and situations.

 

Closed Habits remove the external concerns of adjunct movement, opponents, teammates, speed and objects like a ball or puck.

 

In essence, Closed Habit skills are taught in the beginning stages of learning a given movement or series of movements.

 

For example, with my ‘Principles of Movement’ chapter and DVD in Complete Athlete Development (www.CompleteAthleteDevelopment.com) I show how to teach both linear and lateral deceleration skills starting with repeating the motion from a static environment.

 

Eventually, you move into more advanced variations of learning and mastering these skills, such as repeating them in harmony with a random cueing from a coach or trainer.

 

At this level, the skills are known as Open Habits.

 

It is the progression of learning quality deceleration skills that make young athletes truly ‘fast’, ‘quick’ and ‘agile’.

 

Not the answer you were looking for on speed training, perhaps