Archive for “Movement Patterns” Tag

A Challenging-to-Teach Movement Pattern Made Simple

Posted on: October 28th, 2015 by IYCA No Comments

Movement Patterns Made Simple

Key Points:

The hip hinge is one of the hardest movement patterns to teach a young athlete
Using something the athlete already knows makes the transition to a loaded RDL pattern much easier
The explosive potential behind a quality hip hinge necessitates we as coaches are consistent and accurate with cueing and corrections

The elusive hip hinge—sometimes you get a squat, sometimes you get a stiff leg deadlift, and sometimes you get, well, I’m not sure there is a name for some of the things I have seen.

Bottom line: Teaching a young athlete how to hip hinge can be a challenge. However, we have been developing athletes for a number of years now and typically have no trouble using our progression system to teach a solid hip hinge within a week or two.

Often, it can be easy to teach a young athlete a hip hinge because it wasn’t that long ago that they developmentally learned it, even though they don’t realize it. When children first start standing and then see something on the ground they want to pick up, they will naturally hip hinge. I just saw our coach’s 8-month-old do a hip hinge as she latched onto a 90 lb. dumbbell to try to pick it up. (Note: She didn’t budge it, but trust me, she will someday!)

Besides just teaching the pattern, we run into some postural positions that force us to use our coaching tools to right the ship before we load a hip hinge. Frequently, we see young girls, in particular, come in standing with their butt and their gut out.

This anteriorly tilted position can cause either a poor hip hinge pattern, limited explosiveness, or, worst of all, low-back pain. You will see in our progressions below how we address that whether the athlete presents with an anterior pelvic tilt or not.

Ultimately, a high quality hip hinge gives a young athlete almost unlimited explosive potential, which is why we place such a high priority on the movement.

So let’s learn how to teach it!

Progression 1: Hinge from Athletic Stance

Since the hip hinge is truly one of the more difficult patterns to teach a young athlete, we try to use as much previous athletic knowledge to facilitate the pattern.

In this case, we have our athletes set up in an athletic stance (shortstop stance, defensive stance etc.). If they have played ANY sport, they were taught how to achieve this position. If they haven’t played a sport or can’t find this position, we will tell them to pretend like they are about to jump and then stop before they actually jump.

Once there, we simply tell the athlete to push their butt to the wall. The knees will shift back slightly, creating a vertical shin angle, and the torso will shift forward over the toes to counteract the posterior weight shift. Voila, a great hip hinge position!

Once there, the athlete should oscillate back and forth between athletic stance and the hip hinge position until it feels natural.

Quick tip: Use the words “hip hinge” or your term for this pattern frequently so the athlete starts to mentally associate “hip hinge” with the action they are performing.

Progression 2: Stick RDL

Once the hip hinge is ingrained via the athletic stance, we want to facilitate good upper body posture (via a PVC pipe or dowel) as well so the athlete can eventually handle the full spectrum of dynamic hip hinging exercises.

The athlete should be able to keep the stick touching their head/shoulders/butt at all times throughout the movement.

Initially, the athlete will place the dowel so it touches their head/mid-back/butt and then oscillate between an athletic stance and the end range position of a hip hinge. Once they are solid there, we will have them start from a fully extended position and work through the true hip hinge pattern. The stick should at no time leave the original position.

Notice in the video that the first thing we want an athlete to do before starting a hip hinge from standing is to unlock their knees. In doing so, he or she allows for a larger posterior weight shift with the hips and creates a hinge rather than a stiff leg deadlift or toe touch.

Progression 3: RNT Hip Hinge (Max’s Deadlift or MDL)

No, this is not a Max Effort Deadlift. Instead, one of our coaches, Max, came up with a logical progression for our younger athletes as a great superset to a Kettlebell RDL. The goal was to quickly progress our athletes into a correct hip hinge pattern with load.

We found our young athletes would do one of two things when they first loaded a hip hinge. Either they would do a great job of shifting their hips behind but forget about their back and round over like Quasimodo, or they would lock the back into so much extension they were unable to hinge properly and create a movement that hurt my back to watch!

So we implemented the RNT Hip Hinge or MDL. The athlete sets up with their hands on a dowel just outside of hip width while a band is attached at one end to the middle of the dowel and at the other end low on a rig or stable apparatus in front of them (in the video, I am the stable apparatus!).

From there, we allow the resistance to pull the athlete’s arms forward as they shift back into the end range of the hip hinge. It makes it very easy for them to figure out the posterior weight shift with minimal cueing on our part. Then as they pull back to standing, we cue them to pull the dowel into the body.

From time to time, your athlete might shrug their shoulders up here. I will cue them to pinch a penny in the middle of their back or say, “Shoulders away from the ears.” Both work well to correct this.

When they do this concurrently with a kettlebell RDL, they make huge strides in loading with great form.

Quick tip: This point in the progression is when we really focus on rooting the feet into the ground for the first time. The Hinge from Athletic Stance and the Stick RDL exercises are used early in training, and if our athletes shift from heel to toe here, no harm no foul since they aren’t loaded.

Once we put a kettlebell in an athlete’s hands, however, they need to learn to engage the ground. If we cue rooting in the MDL just before we introduce kettlebells, it reinforces the correct patterning.

Progression 4: Kettlebell RDL

The kettlebell (KB) RDL is our first real loaded progression for the hip hinge.

We try to get our athletes here as fast as possible, but we understand that an Active Straight Leg Raise (ASLR) score of 1s or asymmetrical 1s can cause potential low back issues, even in young athletes.

However, a score of 1s in the ASLR for a young athlete is more often caused by a lack of postural stability or motor control. Either way, it’s typically addressed and corrected in warmups so we can program the KB RDL early in an athlete’s development.

When performing the KB RDL, we need a few things set in place before an athlete starts adding kilos (beginning with them understanding what kilos are!):

“Shoulders down and back with the ribs down.” I really like using the cue “pinch a penny” because it works almost every time and is easy to recall if an athlete is getting sloppy with fatigue.
“Engage the ground and shift posteriorly.” We use the cue “rip the towel, butt to dowel.” It’s easy to remember because it rhymes and they can visualize ripping a towel between their feet and pushing their butt back to a dowel behind them. The cue is more effective if you initially provide the dowel as a kinesthetic aid (as shown in the video).
Similarly, we use Root/Rip/Wall (or Dowel). This helps to quickly get the feet grounded, pulling apart the ground and then shifting the weight. This cue can be used as three words or each individually, as needed.

If your athlete understands what these cues mean early on, your ability to coach multiple athletes effectively drastically increases. One word will clean up poor movement almost instantly!

Quick Discussion about Kettlebell Swings

Swings are great for explosive hip extension and can be used to confirm that an athlete understands the necessary trunk positioning for a max-effort jump or sprint.

We often use swings as a progression to more complex power movements like Olympic lifts. Otherwise, the Med Ball scoop toss (think keg toss in strongman competitions) functions great as a concentric-only dynamic hip extension exercise.

As an athlete’s season approaches, we also use swings to teach expression of strength through power, an important attribute on the field of play.

Progression 5: Barbell RDL

This is the pinnacle of hip hinge progressions (in this article!). Granted, we fully expect an athlete 14+ to at some point train movements like hang power cleans and/or snatches. But if an athlete can express a strong, explosive Barbell (BB) RDL, they will have all the necessary strength and power needed for most sports.

Since this is a step above the other training progressions, most of our coaching work has already been done.

All the cues that apply in the KB RDL apply the same to the BB RDL.

Also, in terms of hand position on the bar, the hands should start out at the same width as the RNT Hip Hinge.

And yet, with all this previous learning, the first time an athlete gets a barbell in their hands and starts to RDL, you are likely to see something that looks like a nice upside down U (what the heck?)

It can be quite difficult to get an athlete to understand that the bar needs to stay close to the body at all times. But the simple cue “shave the legs” down and up works quite well for girls and boys.

If everything else has been well trained and you add that cue once an athlete starts working with a bar, you will end up with a solid BB RDL pattern that can now be loaded, built for speed, and progressed to more aggressive hip extension patterns.

Wrapping It Up

On multiple occasions, we have had strength and conditioning professionals come check out our facility when our athletes were training. They are always amazed at how well our athletes can RDL and hip hinge.

It is a challenge, no doubt. But we see it as an imperative pattern to learn in order to be an explosive athlete. Thus, we have spent entire years figuring out what works best!

This is our progression. Take it and use it yourself. Find creative ways to get your athletes better, and share those ideas with the rest of us! We are always learning, and so should you!

ADAPT and Conquer,
Coach Jared

About the Author: Jared Markiewicz

Jared is founder of Functional Integrated Training (F.I.T.). F.I.T. is a performance-based training facility located in Madison, WI. They specialize in training athletes of all levels: everyday adults, competitive adults and youth ages 5-20+.

The long-term vision for F.I.T. is recognition as the training facility for those desiring to compete at the collegiate level in the state of Wisconsin. Alongside that, to also develop a platform to educate those in our industry looking to make strides towards improving the future for our young athletes.

Find out more about Jared’s gym by visiting F.I.T.

Career Highlights

2014 Fitness Entrepreneur of the Year – Fitness Business Insiders
2014 IYCA Coach of the Year Finalist
Volunteer Strength Coach for West Madison Boys Hockey and Westside Boys Lacrosse
Helped develop dozens of scholarship athletes in 3 years of business
Instructed Kinesiology Lab at UW-Madison
Houses an internship program at F.I.T. that started in 2013
Member of Elite Mastermind Group of Nationwide Fitness Business Owners

What Is The Best Youth Speed Training Drill

Posted on: July 20th, 2012 by IYCA 1 Comment

Youth Speed Training

By CJ Easter

One of the #1 questions that I get from coaches is “What is your favorite youth speed training drill?”

And I always give the answer that everyone hates, “It depends.”

But this is not a cop out because it really does depend. Speed is a total body, coordinated skill. So the “best drill” depends on what exact skill that we are trying to develop and the skill level of our athletes to properly perform that drill.

“That drill looks cool” should not be the deciding factor when putting together your training session. The deciding factor should be what is the simplest, most time-efficient drill to work on the desired concept.

One of my favorite coaching quotes is “Coach the kids, not the drills.”

Does it matter what the drill is if all the kids are doing it wrong and not developing the desired skill…

OR if we cannot demonstrate or coach this drill properly, so we have 50 kids moving “just like coach showed me” (which isn’t always pretty)?

When I first started coaching, I made those exact mistakes. I tried to take all the drills that I learned at Stanford and use them on my younger athletes. The classic “this is what I did, so you should do it too” coach.

My athletes not only weren’t developing the movement patterns that I wanted, but they were also losing confidence because they didn’t look and feel coordinated.

That’s when I made a huge realization…

College and professional coaches are probably the worst sources for youth and high school coaches to get drills from because they work with superior athletes.

Athletes don’t make it to that level without a certain level of coordination, so at the highest levels, the job description is mostly “don’t screw the guy up”. Our job as high school and youth coaches is to completely develop or restructure a coordination. I am not assigning value to either job, but they are definitely much different tasks.

So the “best youth speed training drill” is the drill that is done correctly to develop the skill that you want to address.

Here is a general template on exactly how I coach concepts and skills regardless of the youth speed training drill:

1. Introduce the skill/concept and the drill:
“This drill is called X. We are doing this to improve concept/skill X.”

This helps build a mental bridge for your athletes. They might not always like the drill, but at least they know and understand how it’s going to make them a better player.

2. Demonstrate the drill and explain key coaching points as you are demonstrating.

In the social media era, the majority of our kids are visual learners, so proper demonstration is necessary. Explaining the coaching points as you go also addresses auditory learners.

3. Demonstrate what you DON’T want to see and address common errors.

This aligns with John Wooden’s coaching style of “Do this, not this, do this.”

4. Demonstrate it correctly one more time, reinforcing the correct movement pattern.

5. Have your kids do a walk-through rep or if it’s an extended drill, do a mental walk-through. This addresses kinesthetic learners.

This process will take more time than just setting up the cones and saying “do this drill”, but you will definitely see improvement in the quality of your youth speed training drills and the development of the desired skills.

Outcome Based Coaching In A Nutshell

Posted on: April 30th, 2012 by IYCA 3 Comments

Young Athletes Coaching Style In A Nutshell

By Dave Gleason

The primary coaching style we want to use with our youngest athletes is called outcome based coaching. This style of coaching puts more emphasis on the outcome of the activity or exercise you have asked for from from your athletes.

Outcome based coaching utilizes very little cueing or technique modifications if any. Our 6-9 year old athletes can suffer from goal confusion, leading to frustration and a less than average experience. As athletic revolution franchisees our goal must be to provide an exciting, memorable and remarkable experience – EVERY TIME.

A communicative coaching style such as outcome based coaching is exactly what a young person needs to ensure the indoctrination of a healthy physical culture. At some point in life every athletic career ends. Our role is to provide an opportunity for their ability to move and exercise to continue long into their adult lives…no matter their current level of sporting success.

In addition, it is imperative that a young athlete discovers movement patterns on their own as much as possible. The central nervous system is considered more plastic for a young athlete. That is, a young athlete’s CNS is very sponge like or magnet like. Internal and external stimulus is more readily assimilated, learned from and transferred to movement patterns. This aspect of neural development is a crucial component of the natural development of a child. Let your young athletes “Discover” movement patterns on their own.

Here are some practical concepts to think about as you engage in outcome based coaching:

Be careful what you ask for. If you cue your athletes to skip across the length of your facility and what a few of them perform is a high skip in a zig pattern…they are STILL giving you what you asked for. Encourage their creativity followed by layering one or two appropriate boundaries with simple cueing. In this example ask the entire group to skip in a straight line on the next try.

Be a reflective coach. During and after your sessions reflect on the effectiveness of your coaching cues. Take note of what was successful and what you and your coaches need to improve on. Communicating more effectively with your young athletes will only result in more fun for them..and you!

Praise and praise often. When a child gives you their interpretation of what you asked of them praise them for it. If modifications or boundaries need to be communicated use simple cuing. For instance, a lunge walk with a pronounced forward lean at the hips can be corrected by saying “heads up, eyes up, or reach for the sky”.

Use names. Calling and praising a child by name will add tremendous value to the relationship building process and significantly increase the enjoyment your young athletes experience while in your care. In short, it makes it personal.

Take these concepts and coach your young athletes with your heart first, head second.

Keep changing lives!

Stretching Young Athletes with Bands

Posted on: March 16th, 2012 by IYCA 1 Comment

Young Athletes and Resistance Band Stretching

By Dave Schmitz

What age is good to start band stretching?

Is it appropriate to stretch young athlete ages 10 to 13 with Bands?

Are there precautions when stretching young athletes with bands?

As a band expert I have never felt doing band stretching with athletes younger than 14 was an effective way to improve passive mobility because of the hypersensitivity of the nervous system to passive over pressure stretching. Anytime I attempted to introduce band stretching to this age group, I met with a great deal inhibition and compensation. Passive overpressure stretching of young athletes for years seemed to be very noxious to the neuromuscular system which resulted in kids just putting their body through unproductive stress that the body was not mature enough to handle. The key word in this sentence was mature or from a functional standpoint integrated.

Band stretching is like any other movement skill, it must be integrated progressively which means eliminating inhibition by introducing the movement skill in a progressive manner. With band stretching that means:

Using the correct band strength that provides the young athlete with enough resistance to initiate a contraction but does not put their muscle under inhibitory causing stress
Providing a manual training stimulus using your hands and verbal cueing to guide them through the movement patterns
Stressing the importance of opposite side stabilization and manually assisting with this so they can feel the impact of locking out the opposite arm and maintaining a solid foot contact against the wall
Not overwhelming them by showing all stretching positions in one training session. Start with hamstring stretching first and then gradually introduce hip rotation, hip flexor/quad and ankle on subsequent sessions

Other important keys to remember are that many of these young athletes are going through abrupt growth spurts which disrupt their neuromuscular control and coordination instantly. Lever arms are lengthened which in turn challenges dynamic stabilization. Also with this added length neural tissues become shortened leading to neurotension restrictions which are best addressed with rhythmical dynamic stretching versus using a static stretching approach.

A Case Study

My son Carter was 13 years old, 135 pounds and 5 feet 1 inch tall going into 8th grade school year. Carter moved very well for his age but had recently gone through a 3 inch growth spurt over a 2 month time frame which dramatically increased his hamstring and hip rotation tightness. Carter played soccer as well as football. He had become very interested in becoming the kicker for his 8th grade club football team. In watching Carter kick during the summer prior to his 8th Grade year, he was not able to get effective hip flexion with knee extension during the follow through of his kicks which had decreased both his power as well as accuracy. In accessing his Straight leg Raise (SLR) Test, Carter demonstrated only about 30 degrees of hip flexion with full knee extension.

Up until this time, I had never implemented band stretching with Carter but decided to do a 3 week trial. For the first three 15 minute stretching sessions, I manually worked with Carter to insure proper movement and stability during the movement. I did not apply any overpressure but rather allowed Carter to create that with the band. My role was simply to guide the movements and assist with stabilization. After the first 2 sessions Carter started demonstrating very good neuromuscular control using a Red Small band and was able to perform all hamstring and hip rotation stretches effectively without my assistance. He stretched a total of 15 times over a 21 day period with each session lasting about 12 to 15 minutes. Many of the sessions were done prior to practice or before going out to play with his friends.

After 3 weeks of band stretching, Carter’s SLR Test increased to 75 degrees and his kicking accuracy from 30 yards was 90%. After 6 weeks his SLR Test was 90 degrees and his accuracy was now 90% at 35 yards.

Obviously after seeing this incredible change in Carter’s hip flexibility, I quickly started to adjust my opinion on band stretching for younger athletes. One of the other factors that I realized while going through this experiment with Carter, was level of muscle stiffness maturity he was experiencing. Carter’s tissues were stiff but not to the degree of an individual in his 20’s or 30’s Therefore by applying the correct stretching stimulus Carter’s tissues quickly adapted and lengthen which explained the dramatic improvement but also provided a stronger support towards instituting band stretching sooner than later in young athletes.

Recommendations for stretching young athletes with bands

Here are a few recommendations for starting a band stretching program for ages 11 to 14.

1. Begin by using a red band before considering any stronger level band. Very important to not over tension their muscle tissue and make them struggle getting into the correct positions.

2. As their coach or parent, you need to help them learn the movements and positions. They will need manual guidance and verbal cueing for at least 2-3 sessions before they can be allowed to stretch on their own.

3. Start with 1 or 2 stretches and gradually implement the others as they master the initial stretches. Again keep in mind, this is not fun stuff and the motivation to train flexibility will probably not be there initially. Until they begin to feel functional improvement, getting young athletes to stretch effectively will require coaching patience.

4. Stretch slowly but actively. 2-3 second progressive holds while performing at least 90 seconds of rhythmical movement in each position is important. Progressive holds are defined as maintaining increased tension for 2 to 3 seconds while still attempting to push further into the range.

The video below will take you through what stretches I feel you should start using with young athletes.

It should be noted the hip flexor- quad stretch is not performed but should be added into the routine once hamstrings and hip rotation stretches are mastered.

Training for Power: The Top 5 Exercises for Athletes to Dominate the Game

Posted on: February 20th, 2012 by IYCA No Comments

Training for Power with Young Athletes

By Wil Fleming

My young athletes are known for explosive power, from middle school volleyball players to football players preparing for the combine all of them out class the competition when it comes to quick bursts of power. Recently I put together a presentation outlining my favorite exercises to do just that. I have shared a brief outline of the topics covered in that seminar in the list below.

1. Hang Clean and Snatch-

You will notice that I did not say the Power Clean or Power Snatch. Power cleans are the staple of most training programs, but the key is by doing this movement from the hang position i.e. with the bar just above your knees. This position is much closer to ones athletes actually use in athetics and athletes have a much greater potential for technically sound lifts.

The snatch must be included because it is such a powerful movement as well and can lend diversity to the program.

2. CHAOS agility drills

Much of the need for power in football comes in the reaction to a movement of the ball or of the defensive player, because of this football players must also have the mental awareness to make explosive movements as a reaction. Credit Coach Robert Dos Remedios for this one, but my favorite training tool for this are CHAOS agility drills (it stands for Conscious to unconscious Have unpredictability Active to Reactive Open drills Slow to Fast). The idea behind it is to have athletes mirror one another in specific patterns first and then to open ended drills with many different movement patterns, more closely replicating the actions of actual game play.

3. Kettlebell Swings

This is a foundation movement for any athlete looking to develop more power. The action in the kettlebell swing is founded on the idea of a hip hinge, this is important because most athletes need to gain better control of the ability to hinge at the hips. Most athletes are very much Quad dominant and are losing out on the potential of their backside. The Kettlebell Swing does a great job of teaching these motions effectively.

4. MB Throws

Using medicine balls in throwing motions (chest pass, Side throws, Throws for distance) is a great way to develop power in the upperbody for young athletes while incorporating the important parts of hang cleans, hang snatches, and Kettlebell swings (hip hinging). Delivering a Medicine ball with force is a great way to engage the core in explosive activities as well, generating force with the lower body must require active core control to deliver the ball with the arms, This transfer of power is important to all sports.

5. Plyometrics

Athletes need to be adept at accelerating and decelerating their own body at maximum speeds. Plyometrics are the first way that athletes can learn to do so. Maximal jumps with a stuck landing will help athletes develop resistance to injury and will simulate many movements in sport.

There is a lot more than just power that goes into becoming athlete. It takes general strength, resistance to injury, proper conditioning and a well prepared mind.

Focusing on power will take athletes a long way towards getting to where they want to be.

Multi-Planar Warm-ups with Young Athletes: PNF in Your Movement

Posted on: February 16th, 2012 by IYCA No Comments

PNF Warm-ups With Young Athletes

By Wil Fleming

Ask coaches what their program should include and invariably the answer sounds like this “Strength, speed, agility, power and oh yeah warm-up“. The warm-up is always tossed in there, but not with much enthusiasm.

All too often our warm-ups occur in singular planes of motion, typically sagittal or frontal, and for certain joints this will not do. The hip and shoulder, in particular require motion that does not only go through these single planes, and in truth requires more than just the addition of motion through the transverse plane.

A great solution to this is to use PNF patterns of movement to truly warm-up the athlete. In using PNF patterns we are able to use patterns that efficiently recruit the most relevant muscle.

PNF or proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation, is commonly thought of as only a type of stretching pattern done by athletic trainers but is actually an entire system of movement.

In the great book Supertraining, Mel Siff described PNF movement patterns in this way “The importance of these patterns cannot be overestimated, since they can enhance the effectiveness of any training session.”

While the unloaded movement of a “warm-up” cannot satisfy all the necessary pieces to be considered PNF the important foundations of PNF which must be considered are as follows.

-The motion must use spiral and diagonal movement patterns

-The motion must cross the sagittal midline of the body.

-The motion must recruit all movement patterns including, flexion/extension, abduction/adduction, and internal/external rotation.

To use the techniques of PNF in our warm-up we use a lunge matrix and corresponding “reaches”.

Lateral Hip Rotator Lunge w/ Contralateral Reach

Have the athlete stand perpendicular to a start line, flex at the hip and knee with the lead leg. First internally rotate at the hip, move towards external rotation with the lead hip as they step outward as far as possible. Once the lead foot reaches the ground they will raise their opposite arm overhead and come across the midline of the body to reach the instep of their lead leg, the young athletes should follow this movement with their eyes until completion.

Reverse Lunge w/ X Reach

Have the athlete make a reverse lunge movement (that part is simple). While in this split stance they should reach with one hand to their opposite front pocket, move this arm across the midline of the body to an overhead position and rotate the torso. Again the athlete should follow the movement of their arms with their eyes. Do the same movement with the opposite arm and then reverse lunge with the other leg.

These modifications on traditional lunges will add multi direction skill and a more complete neuromuscular warm-up to your young athletes programs.

7 Steps to Kids Programming: Part 3

Posted on: October 13th, 2010 by IYCA No Comments

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Kids Programming

Picking up from yesterday…

Over the years, I have grown fond of referring to these issues as the ‘Likely Bunch’ and have created a training template intended to meet of the aforementioned needs as a matter of principle rather than what an assessment tells me.

Rather than programming for the day, week or month, my standard Training Template for a high school athlete looks as follows:

Tissue Quality – 10 minutes
ROM/Torso/Activation – 10 minutes
Movement Preparatory – 10 minutes
Movement – 10 minutes
Strength/Power Technique – 10 minutes
Strength Execution – 10 minutes
Warm-Down/Active Flexibility – 10 minutes

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Young Athletes and Skill Sets

Posted on: September 25th, 2010 by IYCA 3 Comments

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KISS Me: Skill Setting the Jump Shot for young athletes (Part I)

My college kinesiology professor may have been the first to introduce me to the KISS Principle, but I have come across it many times since. “Keep it simple, stupid!” is a mantra we might all do well to give some thought as we develop our programming. In my opinion, there is simply no better way of “keeping things simple” than skill setting.

A long time IYCA staple, skill setting is the process of breaking down movement patterns into smaller elements, teaching and refining those elements, then reconstructing them back into a full sequence that may eventually be perfected. The fun part is that skill sets need not be confined simply to boring and/or repetitive exercises. They are equally effective in simplifying complex sport skills, as well. And just like kids will eat their vegetables on the promise of a tasty dessert at the end of the meal, we need not withhold all form of “sticks and balls” for the sake of long-term athletic development. Oftentimes a well placed sport drill can enhance attention and give razor sharp purpose to a particular conditioning session.

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IYCA Family: Does This Make Sense to You?

Posted on: September 15th, 2008 by IYCA 5 Comments

IYCA is against everything you are about to hear

Because of potential criminal fallout, I’m not allowed to tell you where I saw this.

What’s criminal is the fact that this happened at all.

And the criminals in this case shouldn’t be allowed to hide behind our legal system.

But what can I say?

That’s the law I suppose.

So, with the details muddled and the offenders protected, let me tell you what happened while I was working out yesterday.

A Personal Trainer was conducting a training session with a middle-aged client.

That in itself is not a story.

The fact that I even noticed them at all was based on what I kept hearing.

Groans.

Groans of effort.

Groans of effort that eventually turned into screams.

I mean tribal screams – the kind you usually only hear from elite power lifters or world-class bodybuilders.

Rep after rep after rep, this middle-aged man was literally screaming, cursing and grunting his way through the workout.

All the while, his Personal Trainer was paying literally no attention.

I mean at all.

He wasn’t even watching.

His eyes were fixed across the gym at a couple of other Personal Trainers who had joined the rest of the people in the facility as we all watched in horror at what was going on.

Only, the Personal Trainers weren’t in shock, disbelief or concern.

They were laughing.

The Personal Trainer who was actually conducting this training session was looking at his buddies and laughing.

Rep after rep after rep.

I could go on about how poorly the middle-aged client was performing each repetition and how dangerous his movement patterns were, but that is not the point of this story.

And it isn’t where I believe the Personal Trainer erred most by not watching his client…

…This guy was turning greener and greener by the second.

And the laughing Personal Trainer, acting cool to his buddies, didn’t even notice.

And then it happened.

And anyone actually watching this freak show would have predicted it.

I did.

The middle-aged client leaps off the leg press machine (don’t even get me started on that one), and runs to the closest garbage can.

In a lucky twist of fate, he managed to pull the lid off the top just as the vomit started soaring out of his mouth.

And the Personal Trainer laughed..

He didn’t once go over to his client and see that he was o.k.

He just laughed, smirked and grinned at his buddies.

The vomit stopped, the lid was placed back on the garbage can and everyone in the gym went back to there own business.

The smug Personal Trainer walked over to the now completely exhausted and defeated middle-aged client and says – and this is not me exaggerating –

“Good job. That’s the price you have to pay. Let’s get back to work”

I want to end the story there and let you stew for a moment about all the things that are wrong about that situation…. But I have more to say about it in a second.

First, think of this –

I want you to realize and even internalize the fact that when the general public, our consumers at large, think of ‘Personal Trainers’, they think of you and the jackass in this story in the same way.

To the public, you and him are the same.

Here’s how the story ends.

As I’m walking out of the gym, pretty much ‘done’ with what I had just seen, I notice a sign on the front door that I hadn’t noticed when I walked in:

‘Coming This Winter – Our New YOUTH FITNESS PROGRAM’

There was a photograph of the Personal Trainer who will be heading up this gym’s new Youth Fitness program.

Any guesses who it was?

See, this is why the IYCA was created.

To actually differentiate you from Personal Training clowns like this guy.

I checked out his bio on the website, by the way.

He is certified by all those mainstream certification companies – the ones that you are certified by as well.

And because of that, the potential customers you and him as equal.

The IYCA is different.

We are the only certification agency that actually specializes in educating you on how best to train and develop young athletes and youth fitness participants.

In fact, we do such a great job at preparing Fitness and Sport Training professionals for the endless opportunities that exist in ‘Youth’ niche of the industry, we were recently featured in the internationally acclaimed magazine, Newsweek.

Our youth-based curriculum is not ‘one’ of the certifications we offer.

It is all we offer.

And I created it so that consumers knew that you were different than idiot-boy above.

Right now, the IYCA has certified professionals working in the ever-expanding field of youth fitness and sport development all over the world:

Canada
The United States
Singapore
New Zealand
Australia
England
Scotland
Wales
South Africa

I mean, our IYCA Testimonials page has letters and comments from professional Trainers all over the world who have been overjoyed at the way there careers have changed since becoming IYCA certified.

Have a look for yourself –

http://www.iyca.org/testimonials

The Wall Street Journal reported that over $4 billion a year are being spent on Personal Training and Coaching for youths in the United States alone.

Parents are going to take their kids to fools, or they’re going to bring them to you.

It’s your choice.

‘Till next time,

“What the IYCA has done for my career is worth more than I could ever repay”

Robert Belley
Youth Conditioning Specialist – since 2005

Become certified as a Youth Conditioning Specialist today and see how much your career will change.

IYCA Certification is the GOLD STANDARD… Click here to find out why –

http://www.iyca.org/fitspecialist1

P.S. – There was a recent story in media publications all over the world showing that nearly 1 million children and teens throughout the United States alone use Personal Trainers.

Client demands are changing in the fitness industry…

Are you prepared to change with them??

Become IYCA Certified Now –