Posted on: February 18th, 2011 by IYCA 21 Comments
Yes or No?
Teach them so you can use them in programming?
Recognize space, time and technique limitations so teach ‘3-joint-explosition’ in a different way?
… And I want to hear yours.
Leave your thoughts below:
Posted on: August 10th, 2010 by IYCA No Comments
(3) Teenage Athletes Are ‘Too Old’
Now, while there is truth to the matter that many of the sensitive periods for coordination development lay during the preadolescent phase of life, it would be shortsighted to suggest that teenage athletes should not be exposed to this type of training.
Firstly, much of the training of coordination takes the form of injury preventative. Any sort of ‘balance’ exercise, for example, requires proprioceptive conditioning and increases in stabilizer recruitment. With ‘synchronization of movement’, large ROM and mobility work is necessary. ‘Kinesthetic differentiation’, by definition, involves sub-maximal efforts or ‘fine-touch’ capacity which is a drastically different stimulus than most young athletes are used to in training settings.
Posted on: October 19th, 2009 by IYCA 6 Comments
by Wil Fleming – www.beforcefit.com
My answer? As soon as the athlete walks in your door.
As soon as a young athlete starts training at my facility we are either doing the Olympic lifts or preparing them to eventually perform the lifts.
I do not advocate loading up a bar and telling younger athletes to start cleaning and snatching immediately, but I do advocate training the technique and qualities that produce great Olympic lifts later in training. Athletes at any age must learn how to properly create and absorb force. Teaching the young athlete how to produce force from the ground up is not only important to their athletic endeavors later in life, but also serves the purpose of learning the basics of the pull in both the clean and the snatch.
Posted on: September 15th, 2009 by IYCA 23 Comments
I was speaking yesterday to a fellow strength and conditioning professional and the question came up “Do you like to do cleans from the floor or from the hang?”
Considering that my first experiences with training came at the age of 15 in an Olympic lifting club where we competed regularly in the sport of Olympic lifting, you might just assume that my answer is from the floor. It was what I was first introduced to and where I cut my teeth in training. It turns out though that the answer is not in line with traditional thinking. I choose the hang clean for all of my athletes (For the most part).
I choose the hang clean because for nearly all Olympic Lifting With Young Athletes it is the position from which they will complete most of their athletic skills. The start position from the floor is essentially a rolling start and the last time I checked linemen in football don’t get to take a running start to the line.. The response to this line of thought mostly comes in the form of, “Well I don’t ever get in a full squat position while pole vaulting/playing tennis, etc etc, So are you suggesting that I don’t ever squat?” The answer is emphatically, undeniably that……
Well they are missing the point. What we train by doing Olympic lifts from a hang starting position is the quality that often makes athletes successful not the specific movement pattern.
Olympic Lifting from the floor is a sport, and good Olympic lifters are built for and made up to be good at that sport. You probably wouldn’t make a 5’10” Olympic Lifter a basketball player to improve their Olympic lifting, so why make a 6’6″ basketball player an Olympic lifter to improve their sport?
All this said, I do have my athletes train movements from the floor for increased hip mobility and for some variation in their training program over the course of a typical program, but for the most part the focus is on developing the hang clean and hang snatch to the fullest.
The hang clean is a perfect way to overcome the difficulties in teaching and the physical limitations of many athletes. By starting from the above knee position the athlete can take advantage of the strong stretch shortening cycle and maximize their potential pulling power. I believe that the ability to move a load quickly and explosively is absolutely essential to being a good athlete. The hang clean is by far the best way to learn and develop this skill.
Where do you have your athletes start their cleans? I want to know…
You absolutely need to have progressive training systems in place for all areas of your programs. Speed, strength, power and especially if you are using Olympic Lifting with young athletes!
If you want to know how to start using Olympic lifting with young athletes in your program check out the Olympic lifting instructors course.
https://iyca.org/olympic-lifts/
Posted on: February 9th, 2009 by IYCA 4 Comments
One of my favorite things to do is chat with the ‘big name’ trainers in our industry about programming, speed training, strength development or flexibility for young athletes.
Sometimes, in the middle of a casual conversation about nothing at all related to conditioning, I will switch gears in an instant and turn the discussion to something related to training.
And that’s just what I did with superstar trainer, Alwyn Cosgrove this past weekend.
Alwyn and I are good friends, so it’s not really unusual for us to be chatting about sports or family late in the afternoon on Saturday.
“Ya, baseball doesn’t really do it for me – after all, I’m Scottish!” Alwyn was telling me.
“Uh huh” I replied, not really listening… I was planning my big move.
“It’s kinda like Cricket I guess, except for a smaller field, smaller bat, different throwing motion, different scoring system… actually, it’s not really like Cricket at all is it?” Alwyn continued on.
“I guess not,” I countered… about ready to evoke my patented conversation-switching technique.
“Ya, and besides, Cricket games can go on for like 4,000 years or something like that. Rugby, now there’s a game. I remember…” Alwyn stopped mid-sentence – I had finally sprung into action.
“What’s the biggest mistake trainers are making with young athletes in this industry, Al?” I finally asked.
Posted on: July 2nd, 2008 by IYCA 8 Comments
“We made it to the State Quarterfinals for two consecutive years.
This had never been done before in school history”
I would say that’s the crowning achievement of my career.
I’ve trained Olympic athletes.
Highly paid professionals from various sports.
National Team competitors from all over North America and
Europe.
But I have never been more honored or filled with pride than I
was when I received a letter from the head football coach of
a high school program I volunteer for.
The quote above was part of that letter.
There is something uniquely special about working with and coaching Young Athletes.
So much so that it’s left me sleepless tonight.
I’m writing this to you at 2:00am and am literally bursting at
the seams with energy and exuberance.
I don’t love my job.
I don’t love my career.
I love my place in the world.
My destiny and path.
To aid in the grooming and development of young men and women
through sport, but for the purpose of life preparation, is an
honor that cannot be described in words.
It is a calling.
Something you are compelled to do.
For years I have beencoaching young athletes and teams.
Over 15,000 to date and counting.
And I remember them all.
I stay in touch with as many of them as I can to this day.
They were not my clients and I there Trainer.
They were my focus and reason for getting out of bed every
morning.
For 14 years, I have not had one day of work.
I have had 5,110 days of enthusiastic joy, though.
This all may sound odd and a touch ‘mushy’ – but that is the
difference between a job and a passion.
My obligation to these kids far exceeds wanting them to get
faster and stronger.
It is in helping cultivate their futures.
And by default, the future of our world.
Yes, my young athletes are widely known as the fastest, strongest
and most injury resistant.
But they also are know to be the best students, most
trustworthy people and have gone on to have success in both
the sporting world and beyond.
It’s much more than speed training or understanding lifting
mechanics.
It’s about combining the best possible training methods with
a coaching system that truly helps young people reach for the
stars in every conceivable way.
My years of experience, trail and error, many mistakes and
re-evaluations have all been honed down into one system that
works – it works every time for any aged athlete in any sport.
It’s the entire system that has the right ingredients of speed,
strength, athletic development, agility and coaching.
I’ll never forget the look in the eyes of those 70+ high school
football players as they took the field for the State
Quarterfinals for the second year in a row.
It was over two years ago and I still get chills thinking about Coaching Young Athletes.
We lost that game.
But as several of the kids came off the field, crying with
disappointment, they sought me out, wrapped their arms around me
and said…
“Thanks Coach…. for everything”
That’s the difference between a passion and a job.
I’m going to be making Complete Athlete Development available
one last time at some point over the next couple of weeks.
I hope you can see how important an opportunity that is for you.
‘Till next time,