Coaching Young Athletes I have long contended that too much coaching when it comes to working with very young athletes is far worse than not enough instruction. Give them ideas of what it is you want. Offer more instruction if they need it. And then let them play. Allow them to figure it out. This process builds Athletic Intelligence and gives very young athletes the ability to warehouse knowledge through a trial and error sort of way. Do you agree? Disagree and want to explain why? Please watch this two.. More »
Setting Goals and Expectations for Young Athletes
[wpfblike] Young Athletes Goals The Pygmalion Effect can either elevate a workers productivity or entirely undermine it. For instance, workers who receive continuous verbal praise for their efforts, while being supported by non-verbal means, will aspire and ascend to even more productivity. In contrast, if a worker receives less praise or even communication from management than their peers or co-workers, although nothing is being conveyed verbally, the worker feels as though they are under-appreciated and will see a lapse or decrease in productivity. Livingston substantiated this point – “If he (the manager) is unskilled, he.. More »
Injury Prevention and Youth Performance Training
[wpfblike] Youth Performance Training,/h1> So here’s where I chime in. Want the truth from my perspective? Blunt and to the point as usual…. Injury prevention and youth performance training is the same thing. When working with young athletes in a well-designed developmental process, the goal is simply skill acquisition and advancement. Done correctly, injury prevention and performance gains take care of themselves. Now, this is in stark contrast to much of the industry who pontificate about specific "6-Week Injury Prevention Programs" or "8-Week Off-Season Speed Training Programs" A.. More »
ACL Young Athletes Injuries Revisited
[wpfblike] Young Athletes Injuries So yesterday I offered you a bevy of information from Erin Perry. But as always, I want to hear from you. IYCA Members are among the most talented and intelligent in the field today and trust me when I say that I learn from each and every one of them. Click on the link below, head over to my blog and tell me your thoughts about ACL prevention. Specifically…. What are we doing wrong? How can we curb the increasing problem of ACL young athletes injuries? What has.. More »
ACL Injuries and Young Athletes
[wpfblike] Young Athletes Commn Injury Sooner or later you’re going to get hurt. That’s what happens when athletes train hard and play intensely. But thanks to professionals like Erin Perry, young athletes are returning to action better and faster than ever before. Not to mention, her tips in this article will help you avoid injuries before they happen. Erin is a sought-after athletic therapist in Toronto, Canada, specializing in pediatric elite athletes. She has worked with the women’s national soccer teams for 8 years, as well as the national gymnastics team, and regional teams including hockey, rugby,.. More »
Youth Strength Training Mistakes
[wpfblike] Youth Strength Training Done Right Should pre-adolescent kids lift weights or shouldn’t they? Will it stunt their growth or increase their likelihood of future sporting success? Is growth plate damage a real concern or merely an exaggerated issue? This debate has raged on for years. Hopefully, this article will help clear up some of the concerns on youth strength training. To start, there are definitive differences between adolescent boys and adolescent girls with respect to strength and strength production. In boys, absolute muscular strength (the greatest amount of force an individual can produce) grows.. More »
Youth Speed Training Myths
[wpfblike] Youth Speed Training success Training young athletes for speed is a topic that I love to chat about. Mostly, because I learn from a variety of sources. What’s your philosophy on speed training? Deceleration first? Systemic strength as a base? Multiple parts of different kinds of stimulus? I love to learn from IYCA Members worldwide and would be honored if you would click on the link below and share with me your thoughts on Youth Speed Training – So, what say you about speed training, my friend? Please…. Leave.. More »
Outside The Box Youth Coaching
[wpfblike] Youth Coaching Strategies Through both my articles and seminar series, I discuss the Art of youth Coaching quite frequently. The Art of Coaching infers that it is not what you know as a coach that matters. It’s how you can relay it to young athletes. This is a common concern I see especially with younger coaches just out of college and still looking to impress people with there high intellect and advanced vocabulary. In fact, out industry is littered with coaches who talk a great game, seek out as much PR and notoriety as.. More »
Coordination and Movement Skill Development For Young Athletes: The Key to Long Term Athletic Success
[wpfblike] Young Athletes Long Term Athletic Success The key ingredient to working with pre-adolescent and early adolescent young athletes is providing global stimulation from a movement perspective. Younger athletes must experience and eventually perfect a variety of motor skills in order to ensure both future athletic success and injury prevention. Developing basic coordination through movement stimulus is a must, with the eventual goal of developing sport-specific coordination in the teenage years. Coordination itself, however, is a global system made up of several synergistic elements and not necessarily a singularly defined ability. Balance, rhythm, spatial orientation and the.. More »
Youth Fitness Protocols: Am I Being Unfair?
[wpfblike] Youth fitness Questions A great number of posts were placed on my blog yesterday. Some in support of my thoughts regarding the golf video I displayed and some in complete opposition (calling me, in fact, "mean spirited"). Now you know me. I’ve never been one to shy away from a good debate and certainly never afraid to admit that I’m wrong. But instead of defending my position on yesterday’s topic, I wanted to encourage you to post your thoughts. Don’t defend me for no good reason. If you feel I’m being.. More »
A Perfect Example of What’s Wrong in Youth Sports Training
[wpfblike] Youth Sports Training Done REALLY wrong How+to+Teach+Kids+to+Play+Golf — powered by LIVESTRONG.COM Here’s what I wrote to Scott – I often refer to this as "Ignorant Child Abuse". Most parents and Coaches like this don’t truly understand the complexity of what they’re doing wrong. I don’t mean to excuse them or vilify them at all, but it’s a lack of understanding regarding neurological, mental and emotional development that has gotten us to where we are in youth sports. From an "X’s & O’s" perspective, the teaching this golf pro is trying to do is both a.. More »
Brian's Close Call
I’ll just come straight out with it. I wrecked my car last weekend. Something I likely won’t forget anytime soon. I was driving from Chicago to Minnesota in order to present at a seminar in St. Paul. Scheduled to speak at 10:40 in the morning on Sunday, I opted to leave my house at around 11pm Saturday night. I had slept a bunch that day and was completely rested, so felt good about making the 6 hour drive through the night. At roughly 3am I found myself driving on a very poorly lit stretch.. More »
Your Opinion, Please
Our standards have sunk. Do you realize that? The fitness industry creates nonsense aerobic-style classes for children and the vast majority of professionals claim them to be useful because "at least it gets kids moving" Now understand, I’m the biggest proponent in the world of the "something is better than nothing" way of thinking, but this is a matter of inappropriate standards and the root cause of the issue is something we are going to sincerely regret in time. The lowering of expectations and standards is one of the main causative factors in the breakdown of.. More »
IYCA Brian in Toronto
IYCA is a family It’s been a while since I trekked up to the Great White North and visited my childhood friends and family. Too long in fact. It’s very easy to get sidetracked by the great standard excuse of "busy with work" Too easy in fact. My family means the world to me and I admit to feeling overwhelmed at the thought of seeing everyone again. My oldest brother, Al, turned 50 earlier this year. Can’t wait to give him all kinds of grief about that! My other brother, Mike, is doing quite.. More »
Young Athletes Power Training Myth?
Young Athletes and Plyometrics Almost without exception, every ‘sport-performance training center’ and youth sporting association in North America both markets and incorporates some degree of plyometric conditioning into the routines of the athletes they manage. More often than not, the trainer or coach prescribes an unintelligible series of jumping exercises and can be seen either holding a clipboard and a stop watch as they count and record the number of jumps or foot contacts a young athlete makes within a certain period of time, or barking out commands to the young athletes ‘jump higher’. Plyometric training has become such a.. More »
IYCA Passion: Losing Is Your Only Safe Bet
IYCA Criticism is something I’ve just come to accept as part of my job. It’s far easier to throw a brick at a house than it is to build one yourself. And thus far since creating and launching the IYCA, I’ve seen firsthand how that statement is true. From world-class, big name industry icons to local youth sports Coaches, I have taken my share of lumps over the past few years. People criticize. They publicly demean. They get personal and attack my character. It used to bother me some, I’ll admit… More »
Youth Fitness: The "Quality vs. Quantity" Mistake
Here’s what IYCA Member Paul Clarke had to say in response to my question about the biggest problem in youth fitness and sport training: "The major problem in youth fitness as I see it is coaches that advocate and live the mantra of working harder instead of smarter. Invariably this leads to a quantity over quality approach." I couldn’t agree more with Paul. It’s being popularized in a different circle right now, but for roughly ten years, I’ve been saying…. Any fool can make a young athlete tired, but it takes a real COACH.. More »
Is Your Lack of Action in Youth Fitness a Problem?
[wpfblike] My youth fitness question to you last Friday certainly created a stir. The IYCA Blog was literally LIT UP by passionate professionals worldwide, all of whom chimed in with there thoughts to my query – "What is the biggest problem in youth fitness and sport training?" The responses were intelligent, articulate and clearly came from people who have incredible fervor for this topic. One of my favorite posts came from a good friend of mine. Someone whose knowledge on the subject is truly amazing. I have enjoyed learning from her since our.. More »
Youth Fitness Industry Problems: I Need Your Input
[wpfblike] What’s the biggest problem you see in youth fitness and sports training? I want to know. Your perspective will help shape the IYCA Mission. So please, leave a comment below and share with me your thoughts on the state of youth fitness…
Developmental Fitness For Kids And Teens
[wpfblike] Fitness For Kids Long Term Success Remember one of the critical pillars of the IYCA – Don’t Train…. Teach!! Here’s a look at our unique Fitness For Kids development system: Discovery (Ages 6 – 9) – Creating A Champion The purpose of this phase is to introduce participants to a wide spectrum on non-specific exercise stimulus that aids in the natural development of coordination habits. Coaches utilize the principle of Outcome-Based Coaching which allows young participants to learn the physical skills of exercise through an experimental and self-discovery based means.