Archive for “Sport Specific Training” Tag

Early Sport Specialization: Part 2

Posted on: April 21st, 2011 by IYCA 10 Comments

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sport specialization

Sport specialization the brief, but telling conclusion…

The study’s findings are relatively convincing. The elite group tended to devote far less time at earlier ages in sport-specific training.

Additionally, early Sport Specialization was found to be a likely predictor of classification as a near-elite athlete.

In other words, while the early sport specialization may have been beneficial to overall performance, the athletes who tended to excel the most had instead focused on multilateral athletic development early in their growth and avoided the high technical skill, intensity, and specificity of unique sport preparation until such foundational skills were well established.

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#1 Common Question From Parents of Young Athletes

Posted on: August 3rd, 2010 by IYCA 19 Comments

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Young Athletes and secrets to success

young athletes

“Do you do ‘Sport-Specific’ Training”?

Well, let me give you the cold hard facts… It doesn’t exist. Especially not with young athletes.

When working with preadolescent and high school athletes, the undeniable reality is that we are tending to an organism that is in the process of growth. And that fact is something that we cannot do anything about, nor cause disruption to the process of.

What a growing and maturing body needs in order to remain injury-free and develop optimal athletic skill is variety. With respect to training, this amounts to NOT having a hyper-focus on making a young athlete a better football player by only doing exercises in the gym that the NFL players would do.

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Youth Fitness Training vs Long Term Athletic Development

Posted on: May 24th, 2010 by IYCA 1 Comment

Youth fitness

A) What do I call my Athletic Development or Youth Fitness services to parents and Coaches who are otherwise laypeople and without knowledge of industry jargon?

As with any marketing effort, your best potential gain comes when you are tailoring your language to the audience you are dealing with.

When discussing and defining your services to Parents of young athletes or Coaches, the following words and phrases evoke the strongest emotional connection and familiarity:

a. Sports Performance Training
b. Sport Specific Training

Although we are defined internally as ‘Long-Term Athletic Development’, the uneducated ear will not understand or draw a connection to that title.

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My Top 4 Reasons For Attending the 2010 IYCA International Summit

Posted on: November 11th, 2009 by IYCA 1 Comment

IYCA International Summit

1) Earn Valuable CEU’s:

Just for coming to the 2-day main event, you will receive a full 12 CEU
credits from the IYCA.

That’s enough to renew whatever level certification you’re on with us.

In addition to that, we are in the process of becoming accredited through
NSCA, NASM, ISSA and more.

A world-class education PLUS critical continuing education credits that
you can apply to multiple fitness organizations.

I can’t think of a better ‘bang for your buck’ than that!!

–> Reserve Your Seat At the IYCA Summit Today!

2) Your Future in the Fitness Industry:

According to the ACSM, the Top 10 fitness trends for 2010 include two
specific demographics that the IYCA International Summit is being based
on:

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Young Athletes Training Facts

Posted on: June 11th, 2009 by IYCA 11 Comments

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Young Athletes long term development insights

In lieu of an article or interview, I thought that I would hit you guys with some great information and solid insight into the training & development of Young Athletes–

>> From a study published in the Swimming Science Bulletin. Authored by Brent S. Rushall & John Marsden.

"The question of whether (young athletes) should specialize in particular sports at an early age has been asked for many years. The evidence now seems to support programming activities that develop overall capacities rather than specialized functions while the young athlete is growing."

This is a fact that I have been preaching for many years. Contrary to popular belief, the BEST and MOST EFFICIENT means of developing a future champion is through slow progression and multilateral means.

>> From a study published in the Swimming Science Bulletin. Authored by Brent S. Rushall & John Marsden.

"If resistance training is to be done with children and young adolescents, exercises should involve sub-maximal loads, such as one’s own bodyweight, light dumbbells, weighted bags and/or medicine balls. Sophisticated and restrictive weight exercises, particularly on machines, are not ideal for children".

Did anyone read my article a few newsletters back on "Keeping Kids Off Weight Training Machines"? Trainers or coaches who advocate machine-based training for young athletes are simply not thinking straight.

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Fundamental To Sport Specific Training for Young Athletes

Posted on: May 28th, 2009 by IYCA 1 Comment

Young Athletes and Sports Training

Spida Hunter is a one-of-a-kind trainer from New Zealand. He has worked with participants of all ages and abilities. I thought that you might all enjoy a glimpse into how things are done with young athletes on the other side of the world!

IYCA: What’s your background in youth sports and athletics? Have you worked with young athletes?

SH: I don’t specialize in youth sports or athletics however I do train young aspiring athletes that are looking to produce the best results and performance that they can achieve. I have worked with puberty (and post puberty) athletes which is a very influential age and a very important age not just physically but mentally and emotionally as well! I will also be training a 1st XV high school rugby team next season.

IYCA: There are a lot of coaches, parents, and even trainers who treat young athletes as if they were "little adults." What I mean by that is they will take the training routine of a superstar athlete and use it as a guide when working with youngsters. Why, if at all, should we warn them against that kind of training?

SH: I used to get very frustrated with the mentality of; this is what they do so you can too! However other then a selected few I truly believe now, is that parents, coaches and unfortunately trainers are actually doing what they believe is the best thing for the young athlete. This is what they know so this is what they hand down I do not believe that a parent, coach, trainer would purposely harm a child through training but unfortunately this is what they do when they treat the child as a "little adult"!

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