A post on High School Strength Programs by Jim Keilbaso Trying to copy some big time college strength program is common mistake made in high schools. I’ve been engaged in a series of e-mails with a coach about his situation at a high school, and I thought it was worth sharing. He has been asked to implement a high school strength program for a football team, and the coach has started to voice some strong opinions before anything has even begun. The football coach feels like he’s under some pressure to win because the team has been average for the past three.. More »
3 Lessons From The NFL Combine
By Jim Herrick This upcoming weekend, most of the nation’s top pro football prospects will gather in Indianapolis for the 2013 NFL Combine. It is what the league refers to as a ‘4 day job interview’, where participants are subjected to a battery of physcial tests, position drills, interviews, and aptitude tests to determine how likely they are to succeed in the league. Millions of dollars can be earned by top performers, and jobs are on the line for the team’s talent evaluators. Everyone has a huge stake in making sure this event truly measures what it takes to be.. More »
Power Exercises for Athletes: A Guide to Plyometrics
IYCA and Olympic Lifting Expert Wil Fleming gives a quick guide to plyometric training and shares some effective power exercises for athletes.
When The Body Says “Yes, But The Mind Says “No”
By Tom Hurley It is estimated that between 15 and 20 million sports injuries occur in the United States alone. These injuries can range from nagging constant pain due to overuse, to season ending injuries such as ligament damage in the ankle, knee or shoulder; and the age of the athlete’s affected can range from very young, (7 years) to not so young, (70 years and beyond). The statistics are staggering, but not necessarily unpredictable. The bottom line is, in terms of classifying athletes, it has been said that there are two types: those who have been injured, and those.. More »
Scoring Your Athletes
By Ryan Ketchum Let’s face it, parents and coaches want to see athletes tested and measured against other athletes. There is a sense of competition, rightfully so, in training this competition drives athletes to get better and become the best athletes possible. Not every athlete you see will become a superstar, but each athlete can reach his or her own full potential. To find that potential we must test and measure our athletes. I will leave the testing to the professionals; I am too far removed from being in the trenches to suggest what might constitute a testing protocol. I.. More »
Teaching Olympic Lifts To A Large Group
by Wil Fleming If I presented most people with the following list, the likely response would be "Psssshhhht, impossible" Actually finding a real live bigfoot. Water skiing with no boat. Climbing Mt. Everest with no ropes. Developing a cold fusion machine. Teaching Olympic lifts the right way to large groups of athletes. Like the guys on Monster Hunters, the mythbusters, and Bear Grylls I beg to differ (at least on the last point). No, like a mad scientist hard at work on a world changing project, I am here to present to you how to approach teaching Olympic Lifts to.. More »
13 Tips for Training Young Athletes
Important Differences between Training Young Athletes and Adults By Michael Mejia When training young athletes, the coach must take a different approach from one who works primarily with adults. Simply put, young athletes are different from adults and have different needs. Don’t get me wrong: Adults have their own problems, but there are a few that are much more important to keep in mind when training young athletes. The following is a list of 13 tips that you can share with your young athletes as you prepare them for games, competitions, or simply an injury-free, athletic life. The more you.. More »
Specialization
By Wil Fleming As coaches we no doubt know about the pitfalls of early specialization when it comes to young athletes. Despite much evidence that early specialization can lead to higher levels of burnout and dropout, many coaches still believe that the only way athletes can reach 10,000 hours of deliberate practice is to begin specialization at an extremely early age. Recently several researchers (Moesch, Elbe, Haube and Wikman) published a very interesting article in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Sport Science examining just this theory and has amazing implications for the coaching in your program. The researchers.. More »
Three Keys for Programming and Coaching Olympic Lifts
By Wil Fleming A lot of coaches include the Olympic lifts in their program, but few go outside the traditional power clean. Those that due may include a snatch or jerk, but what is next after that? How can you improve your programming and improve your athletes’ execution of these lifts? I have outlined three key ways to improve both your programs and your athletes’ performance.
Resistance Bands and Olympic Lifting
By Dave Schmitz Wil Fleming recently wrote a very powerful article on “Why Olympic Lifts” that I found very thought provoking. I agree with Wil that when you begin to discuss Olympic lifting with coaches, red flags immediately goes up about concerns for proper teaching, concerns for safety, and the stigma that Olympic lifting is only for the highly skilled or older athletes. For those coaches I understand their opinion and will not argue those points. Instead I will pose the question, is there a way to achieve some of the benefits of Olympic lifting without struggling with the teaching challenges.. More »
Fix your program: 7 movements you can coach better
Be A Better Coach: 7 Improvements For Coaching Strength Exercises For Athletes In the history of man, and of training there have been more than a few training programs that have been passed off as the best thing since sliced bread, and a lot of them have been exposed as bunch of junk as we (coaches and fitness pros) have gotten smarter. Training programs are starting to include better and better movements. The general public and athletes alike are shying away from the use of machines and moving towards training on their feet, with free weights, and.. More »
Sport Specialization for Young Athletes: Part 1
by Dr. Toby Brooks In the United States, the model of Sport Specialization for Young Athletes has grown from an obscure practice employed by relatively few parents and coaches seeking to give their children and/or athletes every possible advantage over the competition to a now widely accepted and seemingly necessary step toward a promising amateur and potentially professional career in competitive sport.
Changing Views on Long-Held Beliefs for Training Young Athletes
Training Young Athletes: 3 Changing Views Foam Rolling, aerobic training, and ice: In terms of training young athletes, conventional wisdom says one thing, but does the evidence really support it? We all know that the profession of training and coaching is a constantly evolving process of learning and adapting. Heck, that is what training itself is all about: staying ahead of adaptation to make continued progress.
Plyo Boxes, Agility Discs and Push Ups with Young Athletes
Young Athletes Programs Using Plyo Boxes, Agility Discs and Push Ups By Dave Gleason In this video IYCA Board of Experts Member Dave Gleason discusses how to utilize agility discs and plyo boxes to teach push ups to young athletes. In this short 4 minute clip coach Dave talks about everything from the set up to how to make is as much fun as humanly possible.
Resistance Bands and Olympic Lifting
Olympic Lifting and Resistance Bands By Dave Schmitz On September 10th, Wil Fleming wrote a very powerful article on “Olympic Lifting” that I found very thought provoking. I agree with Wil that when you begin to discuss Olympic lifting with coaches, red flags immediately goes up about concerns for proper teaching, concerns for safety, and the stigma that Olympic lifting is only for the highly skilled or older athletes. For those coaches I understand their opinion and will not argue those points. Instead I will pose the question, is there a way to achieve some of the.. More »
The ‘Missing Link’ in your HS Long Sprints program?
High School Long Sprints Program Mistakes By Coach Latif Thomas The biggest mistake high school long sprints coaches make is wasting time and energy searching for solutions to problems that don’t exist. You can write the most beautiful annual plan or the most individualized and specific workouts the universe has ever known. But, if your sprinters secretly hate the 400, fear the 400 and/or don’t possess the level of inner confidence proven to fuel great performances, they’ll still get beat by inferior athletes running inferior workouts who Believe they’re going to run faster. I’ll.. More »
Throw Out Your Scale and Enjoy The Ride
Youth Fitness: Throw Out Your Scale and Enjoy The Ride By Kyle Brown Imagine yourself out in the park, with a basketball in hand, playing an impromptu game with friends. You’re laughing, smiling, and having a good time–not a care in the world. It’s like a form of Tai Chi, meditation in motion. When do the best athletes in nearly every sport have their best performances? When they’re completely in the moment, acting like a kid, pressure-free, enjoying the process. They are not focusing on the mechanics or the pressure of the game. They’re having fun.. More »
Has the ‘Biggest Loser’ Jumped the Shark?
Childhood Obesity Tackled By The ‘Biggest Loser’ By Dave Gleason On September 4th 2012 the Associated Press Reported that in the shows 14th season “The Biggest Loser” will have children between the ages of 13 to 17 engage in trying to lose weight and get in shape and combat childhood obesity. I like many other professional trainers and coaches in the fitness industry have strong opinions regarding the motivational techniques utilized on the show. In addition, the validity of the exercise programming and coaching of proper technique also comes into question. My response today is intended.. More »
Stop the Insanity!
Young Athletes Sports-Specific Training Insanity By Mike Mejia You see the ads all the time. Typically rife with promises of “radical increases” in strength, speed and power, they grab the attention of athletes, parents and coaches alike. Capitalizing on the desire of young athletes to gain any possible advantage over their peers, sports-specific training programs have been popping up all over the place in recent years. Whether it’s a soccer player seeking a more powerful kick, or a basketball player that wants to increase his, or her vertical leap, parents are shelling out big money for training.. More »
Why Olympic Lift?
Olympic lifting With Young Athletes By Wil Fleming There is a large portion of coaches that don’t think Olympic lifting has any benefits whatsoever. These coaches believe that the benefits of Olympic lifting is over blown, inflated and doesn’t really pertain to athletes. They cite the time it takes to teach athletes the lifts (too long they say), and they cite risk vs. reward (they say the risk is too great for too little reward). This post is not for those coaches, if you are one of those coaches, then I applaud you for creating more explosive,.. More »