The 4 Steps of Developing Youth Athletic Success By Jim Herrick Many years ago while in college, I remember one of our engineering labs using a large machine to filter sediment. Basically, after our professor would pour a mixture of dirt and rocks into the top of this machine, it would separate the pieces by size. The sediment fell through a series of grated trays, each one with progressively smaller holes than the one above it. The largest rocks would catch and stay on the top filter, the next biggest pieces on the tray below, and so on. At the.. More »

3 Goals for Off-Season Training for Youth Athletes By Alex Slezak M.Ed, Youth Fitness Specialist “The more you sweat in times of peace, the less you bleed in times of war,” is a saying that is certainly full of wisdom. Off-season training is one area where athletes can get a tremendous bang for their buck. This article aims to provide wisdom, based on knowledge and experience, for training in the off-season. Before we get into specifics, we have to define what the off-season actually is. The off-season is a period of time when an athlete is not participating competitively in.. More »

Why Games for Young Athletes Are More Important Now Than Ever By Scott Abramouski We all know intuitively that games for young athletes are beneficial; after all, the very young athletes are still discovering the world and what their bodies are capable of. Focusing on the fun of the game rather than the outcome of fitness allows the kids to receive a huge training effect while having fun, which will make them want to do it even more. But today, perhaps more than ever, games for youth athletes are an extremely important training tool that calm the fears of parents.. More »

How to Incorporate Jumping Rope for Athletes into Your Programming By Tim Meyer If your child plays sports, then you know that the quickest, strongest, fastest, and most agile players are usually the most successful. What if I could give you a simple exercise that, done consistently, could increase just about all of those attributes with a minimum amount of expense and time? You’d jump all over it, right? Well, that’s just it. Your kids need to jump. Specifically, they need to jump rope! Benefits of Jumping Rope for Athletes Let’s take a look at what actually happens when you.. More »

How to Field Questions and Prepare for Coaching an Unfamiliar Sport By Brad Leshinske BS CSCS As sports performance coaches who are often found coaching an unfamiliar sport, a question we sometimes get is, “Did you play this sport that you’re training my son or daughter in?” If you’re training many athletes, chances are you haven‘t played every sport your athletes are training for. If you are in a special niche, that may be a different story. But for those who coach many sports, this is an important question you may face. How do we answer or recognize that it’s.. More »

I get a lot of questions regarding what IYCA product other coaches should buy. To my inbox, in person, and on Facebook, the question is always, “I am thinking of buying Product X and product Y. If you had to rank them, what would it be?” Continuing education is one of my favorite things to spend money on. I know that there is a big return coming on the money spent on products that help me improve as a coach. So in truth, any information gleaned from a text or DVD is valuable for me, but if I had to.. More »

Programming Fun, Function, and Youth Training Variety for 6-9-Year-Olds By Dave Gleason Programming for our youngest champions can be a tricky endeavor. Our primary focuses for our Discovery Classes are to a) create a broad, wide-ranging base of activity and b) allow our champions to explore movement through fun. That said, in order to teach movement patterns without running the risk of repetitive motion injuries it is imperative to use as much variety as possible. The phrase we often use when describing how to effectively program in this manner is “repetition through variety”. Now the question is how to provide.. More »

Easy-to-Follow and Very Fun Youth Training Templates By Dave Gleason As a coach, I’m sure you agree that although each kid is unique, having a tried-and-true youth training template to work off can spark a lot of fun and innovation in your sessions. So I’m going to do my best today to give you something valuable that will serve you for a long time. The athletes in our Discovery classes are generally ranging in age from 6-9 years old. There are commonalities as well as the potential for vast differences between the participants in this stage. Using our program templates.. More »

Education Can Catapult Your Youth Fitness Career By Alex Slezak – M.Ed, YFS, YSAS, HSSCS   In Economics 101, you learn about all different types of capital. One example that applies to fitness businesses is financial capital, which is the money used by businesses to lease a facility or spend on advertising. Another example is capital goods such as the kettlebells, bands, and equipment utilized to deliver your services. Today, I want to talk about a much lesser-known type of capital: human capital. Human capital is the measure of the economic value of an employee’s skill set, and it is.. More »

Putting Athletes on the Clock: Time Management in High School Football Training By Shane Nelson, MSS, CSCS Time management in high school football training is always a big issue. In fact, when working with large groups of athletes in any sport, we are always limited in terms of time and space. This is especially true in high schools, where several teams are competing for time in the weight room after school. High schools usually don’t have the luxury of scheduling teams in the weight room during the day or late into the evening. Therefore, coaches and athletes must make the most of.. More »

Huge Potential in High School Strength and Conditioning Programs for Small Schools By Shane Nelson, MS, CSCS As the high school strength and conditioning coach at Chesterton High School, a growing town in northwest Indiana, I’m fortunate to work in a school district that takes a great deal of pride in its athletic programs. Several years ago, our athletic director and administration decided it was time to have a strength coach, someone who has a firm understanding of strength and conditioning both in theory and in practice. This was a good idea for many reasons, as it brought new ideas.. More »

Perseverance Serves Young Athlete Development Outside of Sports By Cory Sims When it comes to athlete development, we need to be teaching our kids more than just strategy and technique. Indeed, it is imperative that we expose them to situations that can instill real life lessons. One of the most important character traits they can develop through sports is perseverance, but it can only happen if we are not too quick to protect and shelter our athletes but instead follow a long-term athletic development approach. Never Give Up! I’m not sure there is a better and more succinct statement about.. More »

A focus on sports in PE should be replaced with a focus on youth fitness By Alex Slezak – M.Ed, YFS, YSAS, HSSCS The headline Let’s Get Rid of Sports in Schools was meant to be eye catching to get you to dig into the content of this article. I am not calling for an end to all Varsity and Junior Varsity athletic programs. In fact, as a Varsity coach myself, I think those programs are a wonderful means to get youth active, competing, and learning valuable life lessons. Instead, what I am advocating is eliminating sports from Physical Education curriculums… More »

Are programs like CrossFit or P90X appropriate for youth speed and power development? By Mike Martin When it comes to youth speed and power development, as a former high school teacher, coach, and now current owner of my own sports performance training business, I have a pretty good feel for what middle school, high school, and even collegiate athletes in my area are being given for training programs to “improve” their speed, agility, and vertical jump at their respective schools. Believe it or not, quite a few coaches and teachers are using P90X, Insanity, Tap Out, and CrossFit as speed.. More »

By Dave Gleason What is one of the biggest keys to having success in training young athletes? Variety. The dictionary defines “variety” as something differing from others of the same general kind. As coaches we are striving to incorporate repetition of skill sets via variety. Using a template system to ensure all required developmental elements are contained in our programming, the optimal environment for our youngest athletes (6-13) is a broad base of activities and exercises to take advantage of the plastic nature of their CNS (Central Nervous System) and their ability to adapt and learn. Training Young Athletes with.. More »

By Shane Nelson, MS Recently, I had the pleasure of attending the IYCA International Summit in Louisville, Kentucky. To say the very least, it was an incredible experience and one that I’ll remember for a very long time. I was completely blown away by the knowledge of every speaker I was fortunate enough to listen to and their graciousness and willingness to share this knowledge, both on stage and off. I had a four-and-a-half hour drive home after the event, so needless to say, I had plenty of time for reflection. One of the recurring themes I heard over the.. More »

4 Steps to Successfully Training Softball Players by Building Trust By Susan Wade, M.Ed., CSCS Over the last few years, I have experienced a higher demand for training softball players in strength and conditioning, especially for pitchers and catchers. This, I believe, is due to the growing popularity of softball and the increased number of overuse injuries. Ever more softball athletes are competing on more travel teams, playing for more than one team at a time, practicing longer and more intensely, and (for pitchers) playing more innings per game. Typically, coaches are hired for their experience as a “winning” coach,.. More »