Posted on: April 5th, 2011 by IYCA 9 Comments
Mobility & Active Flexibility
Injury Prevention – Mechanics
Injury Prevention – Deficits
Torso
I had 20 minutes, one volleyball court and 50+ young athletes…
So, here’s how I broke it down:
(A) Mobility/Active Flexibility (7 Minutes)
Posted on: April 4th, 2011 by IYCA 1 Comment
(1) Create An Ascension System
Prior to my arrival, if you watched the Novice Teams (8 – 11 years old) go through their conditioning regime and then you watched the Senior Team (16 – 18) right after, you’d have trouble distinguishing the difference.
Exercise Selection.
Volume.
Coaching Style/Intensity.
Across the board; identical.
Posted on: January 10th, 2011 by IYCA 6 Comments
There are a few key things that must be in every program that is designed to help athletes get faster. As you are putting together a program that is focused on speed training for athletes consider if your program includes the following:
1. Tissue Quality
2. Mobility
3. Torso
4. Movement Preparation
5. Skill
As you are developing your program for speed training for athletes it should have each of those components and the sessions should follow that progression.
Most of our progressions and programs when speed training for athletes are similar in nature, but today we wanted to share a quick video from IYCA Expert Dave Gleason on speed training for athletes that play soccer.
Learn How Our IYCA Experts Develop Speed Training Programs By Getting YSAS Certified! Click The Image Below To Get Started Today.
Posted on: October 13th, 2010 by IYCA No Comments
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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:
Posted on: August 4th, 2009 by IYCA 3 Comments
Tony Reynolds is a cut above almost every Strength Coach I know.
And that’s why he’s 100% in charge of the content for the message board
on www.IYCAMembers.com
When our Members have questions about training young athletes, their
is no one in the world I trust more than Tony to answer them.
But not only does Tony answer questions, he also contributes to the message
board every day with fantastic thoughts, opinions and suggestions.
Tony detailed some of his favorite strength training exercises to use with young
athletes last week and I just had to make sure that you saw this goldmine of
information. Below is a description of one of these exercises:
Single Leg Low Pulley RDL
Equipment:
Low pulley lowered as far down as it will go (ankle height) with a “D” handle attached.
Starting Position:
Grasp the D-handle in your right hand and face the pulley. Move far enough away from the pulley so you can perform a full range of motion without the plates touching the stack.
Stand on your left foot with your head up, base leg knee slightly bent (10-15 degrees), spine neutral but tilted, and hips pushed slightly back.
The Motion:
Flex at the base leg hip. As your torso moves forward and down “push” your free leg back for counter-balance. The free leg hip should not flex during the exercise.
You may need to slightly flex the base leg knee an additional few degrees as your hips travel back. This will allow you to keep your weight on the back half of your foot and reach forward maximally with the d-handle while keeping a neutral but tilted spine.
Descend until your back is near parallel with the ground. Reverse the motion and return to the top.
Things to Avoid:
Letting your hips push out to the side.
Dropping the base leg knee valgus
Over flexing the base leg knee…its an RDL not a squat
Losing a neutral spinal alignment
Loading the front half of the base foot
Hyperextending the hips/spine at termination of the ascent
Posted on: July 21st, 2008 by IYCA No Comments
During the ‘Activation/Torso’ portion of my training session.
That’s when I do it.
I literally walk around and chat with each athlete while they go through their
basic activation or torso drills.
And that’s where I ascertain and mentally plot the session.
Have a look –
It never stops amazing me how often I see coaches and trainers discussing
the finer points of making young athletes and general kids fitness better, but only ever focus their
conversation on things like speed training techniques or set and rep ranges.
COACHING and COMMUNICATION are the real keys to
Developing a system of training that works and then understanding how to
effectively implement it.
That’s what makes a great coach.
And not surprisingly….
…. Great athletes.
In Complete Athlete Development I took the time to create both for you.
My template complete with a training system that involves 5 separate categories
in a given session along with every instruction imaginable on how to implement the
entire program effectively.
Have a look at Complete Athlete Development through the link below and see for
yourself –
Complete Athlete Development – Click Here
Posted on: June 9th, 2008 by IYCA 7 Comments
Now this is the kind of situation that baffles many coaches and
trainers.
But for good reason.
It’s actually quite simple.
Here’s the rundown step-by-step:
1. Assess Your Athletes
Your assessment is not based on any sort of biomotor testing or
functional movement. It can’t be.
I was given very little warning about this contract and simply
don’t have the time or ability to perform any type of real
evaluation.
The assessment I’m referring to is based on knowledge
gathering in order to ascertain the ‘likelihoods’ of the
situation.
What many of the ‘assessment crazy’ professionals in our industry
don’t seem to understand about working with young athletes
is that you can evaluate and program for what I call the
‘likely’s’
120 young football players aged 15 – 17. It is likely that:
a. They are used to pounding weight in the gym so don’t have
much in the way of solid form with respect to lift mechanics.
b. Due to growth and other extraneous factors, they are tight
through the hip complex and weak in the posterior chain.
c. They don’t typical work on mobility, active flexibility or
concentrated torso strength.
d. Their movement mechanics have probably never even been
addressed.
In the absence of being able to truly assess, my ability to
program for these kids is based on the ‘likely factors’ of what
I know to be true.
2. Space versus Time
My objective here is simple.
Create a program that focuses on the following system –
a. Teach Effectively
b. Monitor Adherence
c. Keep the young athletes Moving
If I can’t teach proper execution, I may as well pack up and go
home.
If I can’t monitor to make sure execution is correct, I am doing
more harm than good.
If I don’t keep these kids moving, engaged and thinking relative
to the space I have them in, I should just let them have at it in
the weight room on there own.
The key is to factor all of these unique issues into your
program.
Creating effective training programs has as much to do
with intangible aspects of session flow as it does with the
exercise selection itself.
Here’s what I came up with given the above scenarios.
It’s a three tiered program that alters focus as the session
moves on –
SECTION ONE
Hip Circuits (hip complex)
Bridges (glute activation)
Elbows/Up (torso activation)
SECTION TWO
Hip/Hamstring Deep Stretch (hip mobility)
Lateral Squats (adductor mobility)
Split Squats (posterior chain activation + hip complex)
Ankle Mobility
SECTION THREE
Deceleration Technique (movement aptitude)
Bear Crawl (system strength)
Crab Walk (systemic strength)
45 minutes.
No equipment.
No evaluation.
No problem.
I’ll be hitting you with some video of these young athletes training sessions
later this week so you can see what it all looks like.
‘Till next time,
Brian