Non-contact knee injuries in the female athlete: A practitioner’s desktop meta-analysis By Dr. Toby Brooks, IYCA Director of Research and Education, Associate Professor, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center This will be a bit of an abnormal article for me. My job is to regularly review pretty much every contribution that comes to or through the IYCA and to edit, approve, or in some cases reject any submission prior to publication in any and all of our available media channels. Consistently, I tell contributors to back claims up with peer-reviewed literature and to substantiate any controversial claims or pull them.. More »

By Dr. Haley Perlus Many coaches seek me out to offer guidance on motivating female athletes to be more aggressive and overall competitive. Today, although there are many examples of females reaching new athletic heights and gaining respect in sports, certain codes of acceptable behavior and gender norms still exist. For many female athletes who still aren’t sure what they want to achieve in sport, to avoid social repercussions, their motivation to fit in overpowers their desire to perform at their peak. As a comparison, in and outside of sports, male athletes are valued for being brave, risk-taking, competitive, assertive,.. More »

by Dave Gleason, IYCA Director of Youth Fitness With the rapid rise of youth fitness and sports performance training options, programs and businesses popping up these days, it is important to discuss a very important topic as well as answer an extremely common question. What is appropriate equipment for training youth athletes? Before we dive into what can be deemed appropriate versus what equipment should be cautioned against—and certainly before I disseminate a broad list of equipment or once more include descriptions on how to use it—we need to put some parameters around a few things first. For the purposes.. More »

Three Areas Where CrossFit for High School Athletes Comes Up Short By Wil Fleming, CSCS Recently, a good friend of mine ran a social experiment. At nearly the exact same time, on the same date, and to the exact same group of people (his Facebook followers), he posted two videos: The first was an anti-racism video, depicting someone standing up against appalling racist and bigoted ideas. This was no doubt something that everyone could get behind and like. The second was an “anti-CrossFit” video. This video depicted poor exercise technique in a variety of settings and finished with a message.. More »

By David Kittner Developing an Athletic Foundation Through Play Long gone are the days when kids played outside only to come home each day to eat and then again at night when the street lights came on. Kids rode their bikes, ran up slides, rolled down hills, jumped off picnic tables, jumped rope, played hopscotch and hide-and-go-seek. In addition, pickup games of various sports could be found throughout neighborhoods, parks and playgrounds. Without realizing, kids through their play and non-structured activities were enhancing their development as human beings: socially, mentally, emotionally and physically. Today, kids are no longer engaged in.. More »

By Melissa Lambert, M.ED, LPC, YNS, YFS2 It wouldn’t be a typical work day if there wasn’t a knock on my office window from a child demanding that I play a game of basketball with her. She is a talented young lady who does a wonderful job rubbing my face in the fact that she once again crushed me in a game of “21.” However, when she plays with the rest of the kids in her group I hear swearing, threats, and—at times—aggression. What changes for a child who could present so calm playing with an adult and then display.. More »

By Toby Brooks, PhD, ATC, CSCS, YFS-3 IYCA Director of Research and Education As an educator, there are few things better than seeing a student transform from being physically present (and perhaps little else) in my classroom early in the semester to fully engaged and hungry for more by its end. An eager young professional in my midst who might lack experience but makes up for it with brimming enthusiasm is invigorating. Such a student not only provides a very palpable and infectious energy to the classroom dynamic, he or she often pushes me to go beyond my own limits.. More »

By Dave Gleason  When creating and delivering optimal programming for young athletes in the 6-13 years age range, there are certain factors that are critical to ensure success. In order to have us thinking in the same context, please indulge me while I define success for the purposes of this article. Success can of course be quantified by measuring your own criteria against the purpose of your training programs (much more on that at a later date, perhaps). As the popularity of sports performance training for children under 13 years increases, we will define success in terms of the following.. More »

By Brad Leshinske, CSCS Athletic assessment is nothing new in the world of sports performance, but the quality of testing and the ability to use the results has changed dramatically in recent years. When the assessment of an athlete is complete, the use of that information is what should be used in the role of programming for that athlete. Depending on the athletes with whom you work, having a system in place for assessment is the first step. In athletic assessment, having a reliable, in-depth protocol that helps identify strengths and areas in need of improvement is most critical. Within.. More »

Explore the Design and Implementation of an Optimal Training Session By Tony Poggiali While there is likely no such entity as a “perfect session,” we have tweaked and adjusted our athlete sessions over the past nine years to evolve into a system that works for us. So, instead of calling it the perfect training session, we are going to call it the optimal training session. While this works for us in our situation, it may or may not be conducive to your facility and situation. The Optimal Training Session: The First 5 For the first five minutes we spend some.. More »

Motivating Teen Girls to Take an Interest in Health and Fitness By Betty Kern, MS, CSCS Have you ever wondered if it was possible to get teen girls excited about exercise and eating healthier? Do you think it is possible to successfully reach that student who “has never liked physical education class or sports?” Here’s what some of the girls from Springfield High School in Akron, Ohio had to say about their “Personal Training Class” (a PE elective for juniors and seniors). “Joining this class helped me realize that I can do anything if I set my mind to it!”.. More »

Admitting When You Don’t Know Something to Become a Better Coach By Wil Fleming Nearly everyone wants to be a better version of themselves. Some of us want to BE that better version and work to get there, and some of us want to appear to be that better version of ourselves. This post is about becoming that better version of you and one simple tip to get to that place. Let me first take you to a position you have been in before… Sitting in a room full of great coaches, listening to a coaching idol talk about a.. More »

Making Training Fun with Young Athlete Resistance Band Games By Dave “The Band Man” Schmitz Making training fun is one of the challenges of working with young athletes. Adding resistance band games to your training is a great way to keep young athletes engaged and wanting more. If you really want your young athletes to enjoy resistance band training, start making the training game-oriented. However, before you attempt these types of drills, you must teach them and allow them to master the basic drills first. My goal with any young athlete resistance band games is to get them to train.. More »

Resistance Band Training: It’s More Than Just a Simple Rubber Band By Dave “The Band Man” Schmitz Resistance Band Training is a systematic training approach designed to create reactive strength and power using integrated, full-body movements. In short, bands make the body stronger as a unit, not as individual parts. Reactive strength is our body’s ability to create force in the correct plane, at the correct force level, and at the correct time, both instinctively and efficiently, to counteract changes in momentum. It’s not just another way to get stronger. It takes strength and makes it usable to the body.. More »