Archive for “Learning Styles” Tag

Whole-Part Coaching of the Hip Turn for young athletes

Posted on: December 30th, 2011 by IYCA No Comments

Young athletes hip turn whole-part coaching

By Dave Gleason

Coaching any exercise to Young Athletes
can be challenging.

One of the most effective methods is to break down an activity into its
component parts, often times all the way down to the smallest or
simplest part possible.

This is very true when teaching the hip turn, especially to younger
(10-13 year old) athletes. Unfolding this movement for Young Athletes
in an effort teach them how and why hip/shoulder disassociation is
crucial for their long term success.

At Athletic Revolution we use a 1-2-3 method to take full advantage of
variable learning styles and we have found that this tactic works
extremely well for our younger athletes.

Have fun and change lives!

Athlete Development- What I Did in Australia…

Posted on: August 21st, 2008 by IYCA No Comments

Worldwide Athlete Development . A post From Brian Grasso.

I just got back from Australia…

…. And let me tell you – I am jet lagged!

The trip home from locations that far away are always

toughest.

I ended up flying from Melbourne to Auckland – Auckland to

Los Angeles – Los Angeles to Chicago.

Total time = 28 hours.

But it was worth every second.

Not only is it an honor to get invited to share my

knowledge worldwide, but it’s also incredibly enlightening

to sit in the audience and learn from other athlete development professionals.

Most of whom you may never have heard of.

This past week in Melbourne, I had the sincere pleasure of learning from my athlete development co-presenters, Douglas Heel from South Africa and Paul Taylor from Ireland.

And although we didn’t prepare any topics together,

we all ended up talking about the same general thing –

Communication.

Not one second of time was spent on discussing sets,

reps, exercises or programming.

All three of us lectured on the importance of

communication when it comes to your clients and athletes.

And our messages were 100% congruous:

The program doesn’t matter if your clients don’t

‘buy into’ the message.

Paul discussed this topic from his perspective as a

human behavior specialist.

Douglas from his specialty of sports medicine.

And of course I presented my take on the topic from

the perspective of a coach.

:: How do you coach young athletes who have different

personalities and learning styles?

:: What is the approach you use with high skill athletes

versus low skill athletes?

:: Why communication is the most important, but most

misunderstood part of producing champion athletes?

These are the main questions I answered during my two

hour lecture.

And the reality is that I took every second of my

presentation from the material contained in Complete

Athlete Development.

Not only has this all-inclusive package become known

worldwide as the number one collection of speed, strength,

flexibility and coordination athlete development training for

young athletes, but it also contains my own personal

coaching template that teaches you how to get the very

best out of each and every one of your young athletes.

I was overwhelmed at the conclusion of my seminar to

see and hear the audience so incredibly appreciative of

the information I provided.

Time for you to look at Complete Athletes Development and

see for yourself why ‘communication’ is the most critical

factor to developing championship young athletes.

Here’s a link for you to look at –

http://developingathletics.com/cad-short-copy.html

I’m off to get some sleep…

‘Till next time,

Brian

The ‘X Factors’ to Training Young Athletes

Posted on: June 4th, 2008 by IYCA 8 Comments

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Training young athletes and kids is so much more than just the
‘x’ and ‘o’ factors.

Of course a strong base of knowledge in pediatric exercise
science, motor skill development and program design is critical for
you to truly create effective training and conditioning
agendas for this specific demographic.

But here’s something that may surprise you…

I find that coaches and trainers who have big personalities and
charismatic styles are often far better with kids than professionals
who really ‘know their science’.

That is not to knock education.

The IYCA has a very involved and complex 4-tiered educational
process that has been created to be a virtual vault of scientific
information for coaches and trainers to learn.

But a great deal of our material also focuses on teaching you
how to effectively communicate with your young clients and
understand their specific learning styles.

Here’s a simple metaphor that will help you truly grasp the
importance of this intangible factor –

It’s not always what you want to say that matters…

… It’s what they want to hear.

That doesn’t mean you need to placate to your athletes or not
say what it is you need to or want to say.

But you have to relay your message in a way that it will be
received.

This is the number one concern I see in youth sports, youth
fitness and even school.

We expect all children and teens to learn the same way and be
open to our messages irrespective of how they are offered.

13 years of working with this demographic has taught me that this
is just not the case.

Creating effective programs is the science…

But implementing them effectively is the art.

And the IYCA wants you to understand that your role as a coach
or trainer working with this demographic is not to be a
scientist, but an artist.

Understand the science.

Use it to create successful and developmentally-sound training young athletes
programs.

But BE an artists.

Learn how to implement these successful and developmentally-
sound training programs so that they are optimally received by
your audience.

Our coaching template found in the ‘Level 1 – Youth Fitness
Specialist’ certification offers a very detailed look at how to
understand your individual athletes motivation and learning
styles.

And while there is no such thing as a ‘one size fits all
approach’ to coaching, there is one specific ingredient that
you can bank on as a surefire way to make sure all your athletes
are interested in what you have to say…

ENERGY

Do you bring energy to each and every training session?

Are you thrilled to see your young clients – and can they tell?

Do you coach with an enthusiastic nature that is contagious?

These are the questions you must ask yourself when you are training young athletes.

Coaching, learning and communication variances per athlete are
unique and the ‘Level 1’ material certainly gives you a massive
amount of information in terms of understanding it all.

But ‘energy’ is the single factor you can bring to the table
each and every time.

It’s what makes the difference between a good coach and a great
one.

Challenge yourself to bring the energy each time you’re in front
of your athletes.

Better yet – bring it one day and not the next.

See for yourself how much differently your athletes respond to
you and how much more involved they become in your training
session.

More than the ‘x’ and ‘o’ factors, my friend…