Whenever we talk about coaching a movement skill, we need to follow a framework or a model. This allows consistency and a way to know what’s right and what’s not. For instance, with a typical Defensive Basketball Shuffle, the athlete needs to complete a full lateral gait cycle when speed is the goal. The athlete’s …
When we all start as coaches, we want to show our stuff. We give the athletes everything we know in the first 10-minutes of a practice or training session- ha-ha! Been there, done that! Authentic coaching comes when we start to realize less is better. What does less mean? It’s about giving one thing to …
Don’t Empty The Tank of Your Athletes! It’s almost like a badge of honor. You know -when a coach gets a high off physically destroying their athletes with punishing amounts of conditioning! The problem with this approach is the athletes rarely recover from that kind of workout and don’t have enough left in the tank …
Isn’t it funny how we typically look at the feet, legs, and hips when we talk about speed and ignore the upper body, arms, and especially the head and eyes? I’m not going to talk about the upper body (arms, thorax, core…); however, I will dive into the influence of the head and eyes. When …
I often see coaches having their athletes perform “Quickness” drills for way too long. And, they wonder why their athletes don’t “develop explosive laser-like speed.” Simple drills, such as line drills, dot drills, ladder drills, box drills, etc., are excellent ways to train the neuromuscular system to adapt to faster speeds. The proprioceptive system learns …
Thoughts on Program Design Here are my thoughts on program design. Please understand these thoughts are not standards, but simply additional concepts that can make your programming more thoughtful. Remember, training is not just a science; it is an art. Program design may be the single most important area when it comes to training athletes. …
How often do we see athletes performing running arm drills in positions inconsistent with arm action during acceleration or max velocity? Actually, quite a bit. The problem is, we have been taught wrong from the get-go. How many times have you heard “arms should always be at 90 degrees”? I am here to tell you …
Know your “stuff” before you preach it and teach it! I just watched a performance coach, on video, teach three different areas of deceleration. I can honestly say, he went zero for three. The bottom line is you have to understand laws of movement and stop trying to change human movement to look pretty in …
How many times have you heard, read, or said “No Pain, No Gain”? Maybe a gazillion? There’s a lot of good and bad with this simple statement. We don’t want aimless pain and discomfort without purpose and without a plan of working through it. But we want to be challenged physically, mentally, and competitively to …
If you want to convince me to have my child train with you, come to me with more than shiny new equipment and a tee shirt. Those are what we call features, and these features are not going to sell me. If you are trying to convince parents, athletes, coaches, you are the place to …
Bells and Whistles Versus Concepts and Principles Read More »
