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Archive for “Quot” Tag

Youth Fitness Specialist From The IYCA

Posted on: April 8th, 2009 by IYCA No Comments

 

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Become a Youth Fitness Specialist

 

A 3-tiered Youth Fitness Specialist system that is guaranteed to boost your career
forever and completely recession-proof your business.

 

 

 

Here’s your direct link-

 

Become a Youth Fitness Specialist Today

 

We are facing some very difficult and scary economic times.

 

But your career doesn’t have to be effected at all if you plan wisely.

 

The youth market of the industry continues to surge with record-breaking
revenues being seen throughout the world.

 

I want you to quickly read IYCA Member, David Gleason’s story –

 

"From a pure financial perspective the IYCA has been an incredible catalyst
for my career. Supporting a wife and two kids with a single income (me)
these days is not an easy task no matter what the industry. With the economic
environment such as it is, my personal training business has taken a
substantial hit even though I work with in a fairly affluent area. With the
knowledge and insight I have gained from the YFS Level 1 certification,
IYCA continuing ed, and the IYCA members website – my business is
growing at a mind boggling pace.

 

To be completely transparent… I lost 9 sessions per week at $80 per
session. Simply, $2880 per month. Before I even had time to hit the
panic button I found out I passed my Level 1 exam and started my first
class for 6-9 year olds. I quickly surpassed that mark with just two
classes per week and I am now being requested for other age groups
and by organizations like the local PTO, Education Foundation, and
even pre-schools as well as moms and dads I have never met"

 

 

This is the kind of "beat the economy" story I see all the time
throughout Membership in the IYCA.

 

(more…)

Exercise Programs For Kids: Tip of the Week

Posted on: January 16th, 2009 by IYCA No Comments

 

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Exercise Programs For Kids From The IYCA

I had a great conversation today with brilliant and passionate
IYCA Member, Billy Corbett.

 

He mentioned that while tooling around on the IYCA website,
something caught his eye that he knew he had seen before, but
never really paid close attention to –

 

The photograph of me running around and playing with a group
of small children.

 

"It occurred to me that I should be doing more stuff like that, Brian"
Billy told me over the phone.

 

"Is that kind of coaching a good idea when working with kids?"

 

Excellent question and an easy answer….

 

Yes!
HECK yes!

 

There is certainly a fine line between goofing around with your
young clients and enjoying physical activity with them.

 

In my 13 years of coaching Exercise Programs For Kids experience, I can tell you that one of
the fastest and most practical ways of creating relationships with
youngsters that will bridge a level of trust and keep them coming
back for more (i.e. member retention) is to section off a period of
class time during which you participate in a game with them.

 

In fact, my standard training session for kids between the ages of
6 – 9 looks something like this –

 

1) Introductions (5 minutes)
2) Technique Instruction (5 minutes)
3) Technique Play (10 minutes)
4) Technique Instruction 2 (5 minutes)
5) Technique Play 2 (10 minutes)
6) Free Play (10 minutes)

 

And #6 is where I jump in and play WITH them during the Exercise Programs For Kids!

 

They love it, I love it and the parents LOVE it!

 

Be sure to get down and dirty with your young clients and play
with them during certain period of your training session.

 

To learn more about my Exercise Programs For Kids training system and why this ‘play time’
is absolutely critical to the proper growth and development of your
young clients, click on the link below to access the IYCA’s Level 1
Youth Fitness Specialist certification –

 

http://www.iyca.org/fitspecialist1.html

 

 

Have a great weekend!

 

Brian

 

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

 

 

The Young Athletes Injury Prevention Lie

Posted on: September 8th, 2008 by IYCA No Comments

 

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Young Athletes Programming Do Reduce Injuries

You can’t build a house on quicksand.

 

You just can’t.

 

When the base isn’t sturdy, the structure is bound to
topple.

 

And that’s the only real lesson you need to understand
when it comes to injury prevention for young athletes.

 

It’s all in building a foundation.

 

From the ground up.

 

As Trainers and Coaches, our entire obligation when
working with younger athletes (6 – 13 years old) is to
fill them with as much athletic knowledge as possible.

 

Nothing ‘sport specific’.

 

Nothing ‘position specific’.

 

Just a full and complete warehouse of information.

 

Force production and absorption.

 

Speed and agility skill.

 

Lift mechanics and positioning.

 

Teaching young athletes how to perform these critical
elements of sporting success in the undeniable key
to the becoming champions.

 

But it’s also the most important factor in preventing
injuries as well.

 

And that is one of the main issues we have wrong in
this industry.

 

True injury prevention does not come in the form of
6-week programs geared towards lessoning the risk of
certain incidents.

 

Real injury prevention occurs naturally as a secondary
result of proper developmental training.

 

It is not an isolating issue that needs to be addressed
separately.

 

Case in point, I was reviewing an ‘ACL Prevention’
program offered by a local hospital last week and saw
the curriculum they teach their young athletes during
this 6-week course:

 

a. Deceleration Techniques

b. Jumping and Landing Mechanics

c. Proper Strength Training Technique

 

Is there anything in there that shouldn’t automatically
be included in a well designed athletic development
training system?

 

What denotes this specifically as an ‘ACL Prevention’
program?

 

A good friend and colleague mine, Alwyn Cosgrove, is
found of saying, "If it isn’t injury prevention that
doesn’t that make it automatically injury promotion?"

 

Alwyn’s comment is meant to make you think.

 

All quality training programs should be based on
preventing injuries.

 

If they aren’t, than they’re promoting them – which
doesn’t seem to make any sense.

 

In the case of young athletes (6 – 13), the most
critical factor in preventing injuries is in understanding
the science and practical application of coordination
development.

 

 

Balance

 

Spatial Awareness

 

Kinesthetic Differentiation

 

Rhythm

 

Movement Adequacy

 

 

How each of these commodities apply to a training
session.

 

How to create fun and engaging drills for each of them.

 

Why they are critical for both future performance and
injury prevention.

 

And it seems to me that when it comes to working with
younger athletes, very few Coaches and Trainers truly
seem to get it.

 

ACL and other debilitating injuries that occur in the
teenage years can be prevented by applying the right
kind of exercise stimulus while athletes are still
very young.

 

Maybe worth looking at a resource that is considered
one of the greatest information products ever produced
when it comes to the training and development of young
athletes.

 

Complete Athlete Development has been field tested on
more than 15,000 young athletes worldwide and changed
the lives of countless Coaches, Trainers and Parents.

 

I’ve been coaching for 13 years now.

 

Not one major injury suffered to a single athlete
yet.

 

Could be chance.

 

Maybe I’m just lucky.

 

Or perhaps there’s some stuff about injury prevention
that you need to know better?

 

Have a look at Complete Athlete Development and find out –

 

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

 

Over 3.5 million young athletes will get injured playing sports
this year in the United States alone.

 

Tragic but largely preventable.

 

Give CAD a try –

 

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

 

 

‘Till next time,

 

Brian

 

IYCA Gang – How about some coffee?

Posted on: May 28th, 2008 by IYCA 1 Comment

 

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IYCA Executives Want to Meet You

In the din of the post ‘Level 1 – Youth Fitness Specialist’
release, I’d like to extend a special invitation to you.

 

There is no cost on this.

 

No investment from your end.

 

And I really don’t care if you are part of the IYCA or not.

 

I just want to say ‘thanks’.

 

Thanks for reading my emails, caring about kids and being
passionate enough to want to create change in this industry.

 

Now, I am 100% realistic and know full well that only a few of
you will be able to take advantage of this – because it is
geographically based.

 

But what I truly wanted you to see was how far I am prepared to
go in order to make sure you enjoy a lofty, successful and
fulfilling career.

 

The education the IYCA provides is virtually unmatched.

 

The training, business and personal development resources,
limitless.

 

But what separates us and truly serves as our internal compass
of excellence, is our personal attention.

 

We sincerely care about your success as a professional and are
entirely invested in your aspirations.

 

So as the awkward teenage boy says to the shy teenage girl…

 

"You want to go out next week?"

 

For the first time in a long time, the entire Executive
Staff will be getting together for some internal work on our
organizations future.

 

And we’d like to invite you to be part of that.

 

Pat Rigsby (Executive Vice President)

 

Nick Berry (Operations Director)

 

Sara Nylander (Managing Director)

 

And yours truly would like to invite you for a little
"Coffee, Tea and Talk" session next Thursday June 5th at 7pm.

 

We’ll be meeting at the very centrally located Starbucks in the
Streets of Woodfield in Schaumburg, Illinois.

 

Pat, Nick and Sara are among the very best business people I have
ever known.

 

If you have questions about your own business ventures or
operations, we’d like you to stop by and ask them.

 

I know a little something about the whole fitness and sport
training industry, so if you have any questions about that, ask
away!!

 

We’re giving back.

 

And even if you’re NOT an IYCA member, I’d love you to come by.

 

Have a little tea or coffee, ask some of the questions that have
been plaguing you, enjoy a couple of laughs…

 

… Not a bad Thursday night!

 

One more time –

 

Thursday June 5th
Starbucks – Streets of Woodfield (Schaumburg, Illinois)
7pm

 

Drop me an email to let me know if you need directions.

 

You can email me personally here – grasso.brian@yahoo.com

 

And if you are NO WHERE NEAR this area, fret not!

 

This isn’t the last time we’re going to be doing this.

 

And next time, it may be in a location near you!

 

We want you to succeed.

 

We want to provide you with more.

 

We want to help solve your problems.

 

We care about your career and your young athletes.

 

Hope to see you next Thursday!

 

Brian