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Archive for “Textbook” Tag

How Do Young Athletes Learn?

Posted on: February 2nd, 2009 by IYCA No Comments

 

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Young Athletes Development Tips

 

Developing young athletes is not based solely on a given conditioning
coach’s understanding of scientifically valid measures of motor stimulus,
strength training or flexibility exercises. In fact, it could be argued that
given all of the critical information contained in this textbook on exercise
selection, methodology and sensitive period development, successful
coaches will be the ones who can teach and relay information to young
athletes well, more so than the coach who merely reads and digests the
scientific information offered via clinical research.

 

The science of developing young athletes, then, is centered in the particular
technical information associated with pediatric exercise science whereas
the art of developing a young athlete is based on a coach’s ability to teach.

 

There are several styles of coaching that do not adequately serve to aid in
a young athlete developing skill, yet are none-the-less common amongst
North American coaches and trainers.

 

An example of this would be the ‘Command Coach’. Command coaches
presume that the young athlete is a submissive receiver of instruction. The
instructions given and information offered moves in one direction only:
from the coach to the athlete. Coaches who display this habit believe that
coaching success is based on how well the athlete can reproduce the skills
as taught or demonstrated by the coach.

 

There are also various misappropriations relating to how young athletes
actually learn –

(more…)

Youth Fitness: It’s Time to Change the World

Posted on: November 24th, 2008 by IYCA 3 Comments

 

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Youth Fitness and the Obesity Battle

I’ve done this once before.

 

And I’ll never forget it.

 

It was a very cold and quiet winter night.

 

To be entirely honest, it was more like 2am.

 

I was sitting at the desk in my home office and
Sara was sitting at hers.

 

Sara, if you didn’t already know, was a co-founder
with me of the International Youth Conditioning
Association.

 

It was late, we were exhausted, but mostly…

 

… We were scared to death.

 

Together, we were editing the newly written IYCA
textbook for a final time.

 

13 months, 11 contributors and a whole lot of blood,
sweat and tears had gone into this cause.

 

And at 2am that night, we were about 4 hours away
from releasing it to the world.

 

A very scary proposition for a 29 year old visionary who
‘decided’ one day to create an organization whose
mission was to literally change the world.

 

Our last minute work that night was certainly necessary
to make for a polished product, but more to the point,
we knew we wouldn’t be able to sleep and so needed
something to keep ourselves busy.

 

And keep the butterflies in our stomachs at bay.

 

I’ve always been a visionary.

 

A risk taker.

 

See a cause, become passionate about it, create a
solution to fix it.

 

That’s me.

 

I’ve never been ‘average’ that way.

 

A 9 – 5 kind of guy.

 

Same old routine day in and day out.

 

I like excitement.

 

I like to inspire and incite.

 

I like to make people realize that they can make a
change in our world no matter how big the problems
seem to be.

 

And the IYCA, 5 years almost to the day after that
cold and quiet winter night, has already caused great
change in the world of youth fitness.

 

It’s amazing what time, space and perspective can do.

 

From being exhausted and brutally scared that night
5 years ago, to being the leader of a global movement
that is actually working.

 

Here’s what some people have said to me since I released
the IYCA as a ‘solution’ 5 years ago –

 

 

"I really felt compelled to write this letter about my experience
at the IYCA seminar last month. For a lack of better words,
it was life-changing. I mean this in all sincerity"

– Kris Massaro (California)

 

"If you are a P.E. teacher, personal trainer, or strength
coach and work with children, it is absolutely ESSENTIAL
to attend an IYCA event"

– Aaron Larmore (Iowa)

 

"I do believe that you will change youth fitness in America"

– Jeff O’Connor (Nebraska)

 

"I would suggest that one of the greatest decisions
that I have made in my life was to take the Youth Fitness
Certification course that you offer"

– Bob Acton (Canada)

 

"The IYCA is changing the way we train youth"

– Men’s Health Magazine

 

 

Sometimes I sit back and reflect.

 

And when I do, I can’t believe that I’ve created such
wonderful change in our society with respect to youth
fitness and sport training.

 

To be the catalyst for a global change has been the
greatest honor of my life…

 

… And now, I’m doing it again.

 

Youth Obesity may very well be the most concerning
problem facing our society.

 

And there is no real solution yet.

 

Kids are getting fatter and more lethargic.

 

Obesity rates are climbing.

 

Our youngest generation is at the crossroads of a
massive crisis and no one is doing anything that
has shown proof of actually stopping this trend.

 

And that’s why I’m calling you to action.

 

I’ve done this once before and it worked.

 

I don’t need you to do much – just read something.

 

I need you to read the information contained on the
link below and just think for a second.

 

Think about how rewarding it is to change the world.

 

How necessary it is for our children.

 

And how the guy whose asking you to help as successfully
done this once before.

 

After that, you can decide for yourself what to do with the
information you’re about to read.

 

Right now, I’m wondering where I’ll be in 5 years.

 

Wondering where you’ll be.

 

And wondering where the state of this youth fitness problem will be
once the world sees my ‘Final Solution’.

 

I’ve done this once before.

 

And it worked.

 

It’s time to change the youth fitness world again…

 

You in?

 

Here’s that link –

 

http://www.TheYouthObesitySolution.com/

 

 

Brian

 

 

Designing Youth Training Programs

Posted on: June 3rd, 2008 by IYCA 4 Comments

 

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Youth Training Programs

Most Trainers and Coaches don’t have a clue.

 

That isn’t meant to sound horribly negative, just something I’ve
noticed a lot recently.

 

I was reading a textbook on Youth Training Programs recently that contained the following program for a high school football player:

 

 

a. Hang Cleans – 4 sets, 8 reps
b. Bench Press – 4 sets, 6 – 8 reps
c. Incline Bench Press – 4 sets, 6 – 8 reps
d. Front Pull Down – 4 sets, 8 reps
e. Dumbbell Shoulder Press – 4 sets, 8 reps
f. 1-Arm Dumbbell Row – 4 sets, 8 reps (each)

 

 

What do you think?

 

Is that a good program to you?

 

If you’re like me, it strikes you immediately as a horrible
program.

 

But let me ask you to take a second and answer this one question:

 

Why?

 

If you agree it’s a poorly designed program, what makes it so
bad in your eyes?

 

What I’m getting at here is the most important and critical
aspects of being able to write quality programs of your own.

 

Dissection.

 

The ability to assess and analyze a program based on three
critical factors:

 

 

1. Timing Requirements
2. Even Stimulus
3. Understanding Objectives

 

 

These three elements, and your ability to dissect them, is
going to change your ability to write effective youth training programs of your
own.

 

Let’s take the program from above and dissect it from those three
variables:

 

 

1. Timing Requirements

 

Here’s what we know.

 

The average 6 – 8 rep set takes roughly 45 seconds to perform.

 

Each exercise lists ‘4 sets’ as the objective.

 

There are six exercises in total.

 

Six exercises at four sets each, is a total of 24 sets for the
session.

 

At 45 seconds per, that totals 18 minutes of working time.

 

Roughly 2 minutes of recovery time will take place in between
each set, which amounts to 8 minutes of total recovery per
exercise.

 

With six exercises in total, that amounts to 48 minutes in
total.

 

Combined with the 18 minutes of total work load, this training
session will take roughly 70 minutes to perform.

 

Here are my concerns:

 

 

a. 70 minutes is far too long for high school training programs

 

b. 70 minutes does not include any sort of warm-up or cool-down

 

c. The work/rest relationship is roughly 1:3 – unacceptable

 

 

2. Even Stimulus

 

One point here, but it’s a biggie –

 

12 sets = pushing

 

8 sets = pulling

 

You don’t need to know much about athletic development or
functional anatomy to know that this ratio is entirely
unacceptable.

 

 

3. Understanding Objectives

 

Do high school athletes really need to perform a horizontal
pushing motion from two different angles?

 

Are bilateral movements from start to finish the best option
when trying to create a functionally fit and injury resistant
athlete?

 

Does the program outlined above seem way too much like a
standard bodybuilding program?

 

The key to creating effective training programs is to start with
objectives.

 

Yet ANOTHER reason I am not a fan of assessing biomotor abilities
in young athletes.

 

If you are intent on testing there vertical jump, bench, squat
and 40 time, than your youth training programs are going to naturally focus
on improving these elements – and be limited in other areas as
a result.

 

What do your young athletes need in terms of:

 

 

– Injury Prevention
– Age Related Factors of Development
– On Field Performance
– Correction of Body/Structural Dysfunction

 

 

When you identify your athletes’ needs, you have a much broader
and more complete understanding of the objectives necessary in
creating an effective program.

 

The point of this email is to show you that training program
dissection is critical in understanding how to create programs
of your own.

 

Not everyone can write programs that work well – it is a skill
that requires time, trial and error as well as practice.

 

But rather than starting with a blank canvas, use the 3 points
I mentioned above to assess your own youth training programs –

 

 

1. Timing Requirements
2. Even Stimulus
3. Understanding Objectives

 

 

I hope this helps!

 

 

 

Brian