The Secret To Building Better Habits

May 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Some young athletes seem to be destined for greatness at early ages but never reach the heights that many thought they would achieve.

Others start slow but continue to make progress year after year, until one day they have gone much farther than the so-called ‘can’t miss’ kid from their earlier days.

How does this happen?

Habits, both good and bad.

In his excellent and highly-acclaimed book ‘The Power Of Habit’, author Charles Duhigg gives a very well researched and informative look into how habits form, and how they can be altered.

First, we need to understand that there are 3 parts to what he calls the ‘habit loop’.

Habit loop:   CUE–>HABIT–>REWARD

The cue is what triggers the habit to occur, and is most often an unconscious undertaking.   It’s what triggers the habit, and can be many things.  Emotions, time of day, and unmet needs are just some examples of how a habit can be triggered.

The habit is the thing you do.  It could be something positive like doing your homework, eating breakfast, or getting in a great workout.  Habits can also be less productive, like playing video games, eating junk food, or losing focus at work or school.

The reward represents why you do what you do, and is tied deeply to the cue, or trigger.  Rewards can be tangible things, like getting paid to show up for work, or they can be more subtle, like the satisfaction you get from completing a job that truly matters to you.

BUILDING GOOD HABITS

The younger you are, the fewer ingrained habits you have built into your life.  So it stands to reason that getting good routines in place early on will make it far easier to regularly do the things we all know promote health and success.

Eating a healthy breakfast

Being active

Getting homework done

Listening to and taking internalizing feedback from coaches and teachers

Being a good teammate

So how do you get kids to start doing these things routinely?  The key lies in the habit loop above, namely creating the cue and the reward to go along with what you want to see them do.

Cues need consistency to develop, they must be done regularly for them to take hold.  And the reward must be truly meaningful to the individual.

Let’s take listening to your coaches as an example. Coaches who set expectations for listening (eyes on me, no one talks when coach is talking, etc) are actually creating cues that build better listening habits.  Whether they internalize what you teach them may or may not happen right away, but at least you are setting up a routine that is more likely to lead to success.

On the back side, the reward may be the improvement the see and feel from what they were taught.  Far more likely though, the reward will be the recognition and positive feedback from that coach or a parent for making progress, especially if that athlete is younger.  Remember, rewards are often positive feelings that come from an activity.

UNDERSTANDING KEYSTONE HABITS

Studies done in the last decade have shown conclusively that those who begin exercising also start eating healthier, and become more productive at work or school.

It also showed that families who eat dinner together raise kids who do better in school, show greater emotional control, and have more self-confidence.

And here’s the amazing one:  Kids who make their bed every morning grow up to become more productive at work, possess a greater sense of well-being, and are far better at sticking to a budget.

How does this happen?  Because exercise, eating a family dinner and making your bed are what are referred to as ‘Keystone Habits’.  Keystone habits are those that create a shift in mindset that spreads to many other aspects of our lives.

It is these keystone habits that are what makes an athletic development program so powerful for kids when it is done correctly.  Some of the keystone habits we look to develop through training are:

Learning to overcome adversity

Pushing past your comfort zone

Working positively with others, especially those that are different from you

Taking on bigger challenges with no other reward than the satisfaction of succeeding

Sticking to your commitments

All five of those are critical to success in training, athletics, school, work, and relationships with others.  They go way beyond sports.

BREAKING BAD HABITS

So what about those who already have bad habits in place that need to change?

Author Charles Duhigg states that once habits are deeply ingrained they cannot be eliminated, only replaced by something else.  Yeah that sounds like bad news at first, but if you understand the habit loop you have the secret to changing them!

Do you want to limit the time your kids play video games?

Do you want your kids to eat healthier?

Do you want them to behave in a different way?

Be observant and search for the cues that trigger the habits you’d like to see improved.  Remember that cues can be triggered by a time of day, a particular emotion that kicks in (failure, distraction, stress, need for connection with others, etc), or something else.

Rewards are often not as obvious as they may first seem, so don’t jump to a quick conclusion.   Kids may play video games to get away from the social stress of their school day.  They may eat unhealthy food because they skip breakfast and lunch and became ravenously hungry later on.   Bad behaviors may be attention-seeking, independence-seeking, or something else entirely.  One thing will be true every time, the ‘reward’ for the habit will be deeply meaningful to the person doing it.

Experiment with changing the activity, but never eliminate the reward itself.  With patience, an observant approach, and a bit of trial and error you’ll find suitable replacement eventually.

In the end, it is far easier to build positive habits early in life.  Once they take hold they create a kind of upward momentum that leads to higher levels of success.

If you or someone you know has bad habits that need to change, remember that all is not lost.  Seek to make changes in the routine with the understanding that looking to eliminate the entire habit loop will be nearly impossible, but adaptations can be made that will have a life-long positive impact.

Nothing shapes a child’s future – whether positive or negative – more than the habits they build in their earliest years.   The more we can guide them to building better habits, the more likely they are to succeed.

 

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3 Lessons Coaches & Parents Can Learn From The NFL Combine

February 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment

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 successful.

And these days, you’ll find combine events for college and pro prospects in just about every other sport, as well.

There are some critical lessons we, as youth coaches and parents, can all take away from these high-stakes events.   As you watch the incredible athletic feats demonstrated this weekend, remember that what you see is a product of the thousands of hours these college kids put in since they were very young.  And remember too that there is a correct path to reaching the heights of athletic development. When followed correctly, it can add up to serious success in the long run

LESSON 1 – Do Everything You Can To Build Speed & Agility
3 of the 6 main physical tests (40 yd dash, 5-10-5 shuttle and 3 cone drill) measure pure speed and cutting ability.  Why?  Athletes who can get from Point A to Point B in the least amount of time – whether in a straight line or with some stops along the way – make more plays.  This is not exclusive to football, it is true for almost all sports.

How should young athletes begin working on speed?

As early in possible as life, encourage your kids to move and move often.  It doesn’t have to be a formal event or practice, in fact that may be detrimental in earlier years, so have some fun with them.  Their nervous system will figure things out far better than our coaching cues anyways.

Put them in a coordination and balance rich environment often.  Create engaging but challenging activities that enhance their ability to move better while building an early base of stability, which will help even further.

Develop healthy eating habits early on, as well.  A large part of being fast involves maximizing your strength while minimizing your body mass.  Poor eating habits will not only drain your energy but will also hamper your ability to stay both lean and strong simultaneously.

Get strong, and keep getting stronger at an age appropriate level.  In your earlier years jumping, running and other basic bodyweight activities will do plenty.  As time goes on resistance will need to increase.  Band and free weight exercises, along with advanced bodyweight strength will achieve great results when implemented properly.

Refine speed and agility technique once your kids are mature enough where they can internalize specific coaching.  In my experience I’ve seen kids as young as 9 years old learn and improve from specific technique tips, but this is rare.  Usually it’s not until 12 years old or later, but the earlier the better as poor habits will be easier to break.  Coaches will need to be a commanding force when technique drills are covered, since so much of speed development is about repeating and perfecting movements.  Balance the seriousness of technique work with some game-based drills where kids can be kids and have some fun, but be sure to make clear your expectations for focus and effort when you transition back to skill work.

 

LESSON 2 – If Speed is the #1 Most Coveted Physical Ability, Explosive Power Is Clearly #1A
The NFL also has 2 separate explosive power tests, the vertical jump and broad jump.  With the understanding that speed is a byproduct of power output, then 5 of the 6 performance tests this weekend will measure power in one form or another.

Power is highly sport-specific.  The NFL uses the vertical jump and broad jump because the evaluate a prospect’s ability to tackle and block well.  A soccer combine may be more concerned with kicking power, hockey combines may measure slap shot power, and all other sports may have their own variations of power tests too.

For youth performance coaches and parents looking to build sport-speicifc power, you should be focusing on two skills that form the foundation of almost all power movements – hip hinging and hip rotation. 

By learning to hinge at the hip joint correctly, you can maximize power output while jumping, skating and sprinting.   Young athletes sometimes incorporate too much knee or even lower back flexion and avoid using the more powerful hip muscles.   Re-teaching this pattern will unlock their true power potential, and allow them to further improve their explosiveness by properly executing advanced exercises like Olympic lifting and plyometrics as they get older.

Hip rotation is critical to power output in sports like baseball, softball, ice hockey, field hockey, tennis, golf, and lacrosse.   Done properly, you will be able to explode through the entire trail side of your movement, from the foot all the way through the shoulders.  Being able to maximize total-body rotational power will once again unlock your current potential and make better use of development exercises using tools like medicine balls and functional training machines.

 

LESSON 3 – Elite Athletes Come In All Shapes And Sizes

This weekend you will see both  5′ 8″, 170 lb and 6’8″, 350 lb prospects, along with many others at just about every size in between.  Extended beyond pro football, there is a much wider range of male and female athletic frames, skill sets and abilities.

The lesson?  Kids should never focus on what they cannot become, and instead seek inspiration in all the things they can become some day with dedication, effort, and perseverance.   No matter what your current size or skill level may be, there are doors of opportunity somewhere for you if you truly want to achieve excellence.

To increase a young athlete’s chances of success, the  younger years should be dedicated to taking part in a wide range of activities, and developing basic physcial skills.  Pigeonholing them into one sport or activity too early will make it much harder to create the large ‘toolbox’ of athleticism needed to excel later on.

The undersized and lightning quick 8 year old may grow to be the tallest person in his or her 9th grade class.   Younger kids whose parents may see as being too stocky could find an active sport they love and completely transform themselves in their teenage years. Not knowing where a child will actually end up, by focusing on variety and foundational skills over a sport-specific track you  will maximize their chance of long-term success.

 

If you do watch any of the testing this weekend keep in mind that it took a lot of hard work for each of them to get where they are right now.  And also remember that although every kid will not become a professional athlete some day, there are certain traits that all elite athletes need to reach the top that are trainable and can be greatly enhanced over time.

 

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Why We Do In-Season Training For High School Athletes

January 22, 2013 by Leave a Comment

High school athletes who are in-season must budget their time extremely well.  For most competitive athletes these days the time and energy commitment needed to succeed in their chosen sport is as intense as it has ever been.  Add to that (hopefully) an equally strong focus on academics, and you have a generation of kids that couldn’t get much busier when their season rolls around.

Often times, our athletes quickly assume they will not have the time to train even for a single hour each week once they start practices.  They probably do this because they remember what it feels like to be worn down and exhausted during the peak times of their last season, and can’t even fathom taking on a workout on top of their team commitments.

But just like anything else, we can always find an hour in our lives to devote to something that we know is important to us.  And if you are a coach or a serious athlete who wants to succeed, you should know that in-season training has a pretty strong list of reasons why it can give you or your team a big competitive advantage.

It will lower your risk of injury.  Let’s first understand that no workout routine, no matter how cutting edge and well thought out, will make you bulletproof from sports injuries.  But by doing regular soft tissue work (foam rolling, etc) for mobility and doing low volume, high-intensity stability training it is likelier that the contact injuries you do sustain will be less severe, or in the case of muscle strains may be avoided entirely.

You will have MORE, not less energy.  Foam rolling also increases blood flow to overworked muscles, allowing for quicker recovery from exhausting practices and games.   Workouts that emphasize lighter but explosive power movements will keep your nervous system more alert and energized than they would be otherwise.  The combined result is that you will feel fresher during the toughest parts of your schedule.

It will have a slight but noticeable impact on your conditioning.    Gravity is always trying to pull you down. When standing or running in poor postural positions you are allowing gravity to exert more downward pressure on your upper body, creating extra work through your midsection to have to keep from falling face down on the ground.  Since you would want to conserve as much energy as possible during intense competition, training for stability in your core and shoulder regions will enhance posture and reduce the amount of wasted energy that invisibly wears athletes down.  Thus, an athlete training in-season will have a greater capacity to play hard deeper into games.

You will maintain a greater percentage of the gains you made in the off-season.   This is the most obvious benefit, because by continuing on a work out routine during the season all those hard-earned gains you made previously will not fade away as quickly.

It is important to understand that your training will be much less intense during the season, so you will not be able to push hard enough to improve or even keep 100% of what you built.  However, if you can maintain 75% of your physical gains through playoff time, as opposed to 20%, you will play much better during the games that matter most.

It strengthens your resolve.  The more proactive an athlete is in their own success, the more likely it is they will sacrifice to achieve a goal.  Taken on an individual level, the simple act of prioritizing a workout in-season sends a powerful subconscious message that you are willing to go above and beyond to achieve excellence.  And imagine the impact of an entire team that willingly works on their development during the season while their competition gets more worn down with each passing week.

For the organized high school athlete who is balancing sports and academics during their season, finding a way to devote one hour each week to improving their explosiveness, strength, conditioning, resolve, and energy levels is a clear win for them.   At a time when everyone is looking for competitive advantages to separate themselves from the competition, a well thought out in-season workout routine can have one of the biggest impacts on your individual or team success as anything else you could do.

 

 

 

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20 Tips & Thoughts On Training

January 3, 2013 by Leave a Comment

1. Knowing your resting heart rate and measuring it daily to see when it is well above normal is a simple and effective way to know when you, as a fitness enthusiast or an athlete, need to focus more on recovery strategies.

2. Having a ‘fast metabolism’ is something anyone can work towards, but to get there you need to understand how metabolisms work. They are raised by being active of course, but also through the amount of muscle tissue you accumulate (more is better) and the type of food you eat (foods with protein raise it most).

3. Focusing on stability is the single greatest improvement to sports performance training I’ve seen in the last 15 years.  A stable athlete’s strength level always plays up, but an unstable athlete’s strength always plays down.

4. Getting in shape for a sport is uncomfortable because you need to work hard enough to create an after burn effect that forces your body to adapt.   But it needs to be done, because conditioned athletes in every sport are less prone to injury and play better almost all the time.

5. Training is about so much more than athletic performance.  If we can get a kid to understand what it means to commit themselves to a goal that matters to them, and then get them to focus their energies on how to properly go about working towards that goal, we’ve achieved something far more important than success on the field.

6. A 5 to 10 minute static stretch before bed not only relaxes muscles, but also your mind.

7.  Eating is supposed to be enjoyable, even when you’re eating healthy.  No one ever said you had to torture yourself in order to have a quality diet.

8. Focusing first on ‘how well’ instead of ‘how much’ in a workout is something every elite athlete I’ve ever worked with has had in common.

9. 2011 IYCA Coach of the Year and franchise partner Dave Gleason on why we train kids from age 6 to 13,

“You are building a foundation that will give their high school and college coaches more to work with when the time comes.”

10. Every athlete and coach wants their kids to be faster, but few are willing to put in the time to develop it.  Speed improvement takes time, repetition, and dedication to the finer points of athletic movement to be achieved.  If you are the athlete or team that’s willing to follow this path, you’ll end up way ahead of all the kids who give up when they don’t get better in a week or two.

11. If you want a simple way to get an edge on your competition, prioritize training the back side of your body. Most kids fixate on the muscles they can see on the front side, but it is the more powerful ones on the back side that do the most to improve speed, power, and limit injuries.

12. Athletes who get injured almost always struggle with self-confidence and self-image during their recovery.  As parents and coaches we must be very aware of this when digesting the erratic behaviors they will typically show during this challenging time.

13. Every athlete I know who follows a great diet eats breakfast. Every single one.

14. When middle school and high school kids spend more weeks during the year playing their sport than Olympians and professionals, we have reached the point where something is very wrong about how we approach youth sports in our society.

15. The last 30 years has seen an explosion in girls sports participation, and with it a meteoric rise in their injury rates (especially at the high school level).  Getting stronger and more stable are the female athlete’s secret weapons in reversing this trend.

16. Sport-specific training for those age 18 and under is not even close to being as important as identifying individual athletic needs (lack of balance, flexibility, core strength, etc) and hammering away at them until they are no longer a weakness.

17.  Proper warm ups before a workout or practice has been proven over and over to lower the risk of injury during the session that follows.  If you are a coach or fitness enthusiast make sure your warm up includes a good combination of light heart rate elevation and dynamic stretching.  For those who want to improve their flexibility over the long run, move your static stretching to the end of the workout and make it a cool down period that finishes off your practice or workout.

18. Training and youth sports participation has to be fun, no matter how high the skill level.   Would we as adults spend a huge chunk of our time and energy on anything that wasn’t engaging on some level?

19. Sometimes a setback is the best thing that can ever happen to a young athlete, if they are surrounded by supportive people.

20. For those under age 30 you can typically stay in good shape by being active, even if you have a poor diet.  Once you pass age 30, no amount of exercise is going to overcome bad eating habits if you want to stay fit.

 

 

 

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3 Steps To Improving Rotational Power For Sports

November 15, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Power in sports is usually thought of and measured by tests like the vertical jump, but more often it is rotational power that actually translates to athletic achievement.  If you compiled a list of every sport-specific movement that is best done powerfully, a great majority of them would have a rotational aspect to them.    Here are just a few:

  • Skating
  • Baseball/Softball swing
  • Baseball/Softball pitching
  • Hockey slap shot
  • Golf swing
  • Soccer kicks
  • Javelin throw
  • Discus throw
  • Shot Put
  • Lacrosse shot
  • Tennis serve

This is no coincidence.   Strength coaches and sports rehab specialists for years have identified a phenomenon they called the ‘serape effect’, which very simplistically states that there is a diagonal line of power that runs through your torso and generates high amounts of power.

Thomas Myers expanded on this concept in his book ‘Anatomy Trains’ by stating that the entire muscular system is made up of many lines of power moving in every direction.   The two that are most relevant to rotational power are the Functional Lines, which he states are “rarely employed in modulating standing posture.  They come into play during athletic or other activity where one appendicular complex is stabilized, counterbalanced, or powered by its contralateral (opposite side) complement.”

These lines consist on the front side of the body of the chest, oblique and inner thigh muscles working in combination with another set of diagonally oriented muscles on the back side.

So how does a young athlete maximize the use of these lines of force in creating sport-specific rotational power?  By learning to properly utilize and sync these untapped forces to improve their sport-specific skills

In training, there are 3 key steps a young athlete should seek to improve if they need rotational power in their sport:

1.  Make sure you are generating power from the ground up.   All power movements start from the legs, and other than kicking they typically project all the way up to the arms.  It is your opposite side leg that pushes into the ground to start the movment (left leg for righties, right leg for lefties), then moves up through the core and finally is released with the arm motion.

Each step in this chain can either add or subtract from the total force you produce.  Generally speaking, sports movements begin with rotation of the back side leg and hip turning on a stable front side leg.  Allowing your back side leg to turn into your rotational movement will immediately improve your power output if you were not doing so previously.

2. Utilize the hip hinge within rotational movements.  Many young athletes struggle to generate power through the hip complex, and instead overly rely on knee bend to move athletically.  Re-learning how to power through the hip joint with simple hinging movments (deadlift variations, proper squatting, etc) can unleash a huge store of energy that may not have been getting used.

As a side bonus, learning to power up through the hips instead of the knee joint will lower an athlete’s risk of tendonitis and other ailments that come from overstressing a weaker joint.

A simple band resisted rotational lifting movement will teach an athlete how to combine rotation with a good hip hinge.

3. Reduce energy leaks.   Being stable from head to toe removes any loss of power output through unwanted motions that do not directly contribute to the task at hand.  Critical areas that tend to be unstable in younger athletes are the ankle, hip, shoulder girdle and core.   Training that resists movement in these areas will tighten up the chain and allow all the energy created to be unleashed in the final throw, kick, punch, etc.

 

If there is one single reason why old-fashioned bodybuilding routines are not ideal for athletes, it would be that they lack a rotational power element to them.  Sports that move in three-dimensional space demand their participants can do the same.  And since a huge percentage of athletic movements are done rotationally, your workouts should be prioritizing them.

 

 

REFERENCES:
Myers, Thomas “Anatomy Trains”.  Churchill Livingstone, 2001  (pgs 182-184)

Gambetta, Vern  “Athletic Development:  The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning”   Human Kinetics, 2006 (p. 158)

 

 

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Let’s Race! The Sumo Wrestler vs. The Ultra Marathoner

November 8, 2012 by Leave a Comment

It’s a 40 yard dash! Our oversized and powerful sumo wrestler is up against the very lean and efficiently framed ultra marathoner…..which type of athlete is more likely to win?

Or how about an NFL defensive lineman versus a world-class distance runner?

If you play these general scenarios out in your mind, you’ll likely begin getting to the heart of a critical balance required to maximize speed – getting lean vs. improving your explosive strength and power potential.

Stronger and more powerful athletes, all else aside, are faster.    Athletes like the NFL lineman are likely to have more fast-twitch muscle fibers, either from genetics or through training.

But being lean and not carrying excess bodyweight, like the distance runner, makes you faster too, and has nothing to do with fast-twitch fibers.  Picture a speedy person running a 40 yard dash with a 30 lb weight vest on,and you should get a better sense of how extra weight can slow you down.

There is no right answer to either side of this equation, but it does lead us to one simple truth - one of the best ways to improve speed is to maximize  your strength and power whilie minimizing your body mass.

And for the math-minded folks like me, the equation form of this would be:
Minimal Body Mass + Maximum Strength & Power = Best Combination For Speed

Of course other factors – like coordination and SAQ tecnhique refinement – also play critical roles in maximizing speed.  But for the moment let’s focus on the mass to strength/power component.

Achieving The Mass/Strength Balance Through Training

Being lean and powerful is a really hard combination to achieve through training, in part because they require many different elements of program design all in one.  But strength training for speed CAN BE DONE if you carefully control the workout variables.

Strength workouts will need a blend of stability training, maximum strength training, and explosive movements.

Think of a very powerful spring being loaded, with the stored energy releasing iteslf to create a force.  The force will be greatest if you use a bigger and more tightly wound spring that has no weak parts that could snap.

Your legs work much like that spring. The force you create with each sprint stride is dependent on how strong and powerful you are, so training to improve these will add more ‘horsepower’ to your stride.  Stablility work repaires the weak parts that can lower your power output, or break the spring at its weakest point and lead to injury.

Muscle building workouts are recommended only for those who are truly in need of gaining size.  Although it is possible to build muscle and get faster in the course of the same year, it adds to the complexity of your training plan and often times is nowhere near as important as young athletes think it is.

Achieving The Mass/Strength Balance Through Proper Nutrition

You are never going to achieve a great body mass-to-strength ratio without excellent nutrition, especially for those in high school or beyond.  You’ll need to eat enough good food – rich with protein, vitamins and minerals – to transform and repair muscles while maintaining high energy levels for training.  But you also have to be acutely aware of overeating and putting on unwanted weight in your pursuit of more strength.

Weight training has been shown to increase your appetite at a subconscious level, which means you are likely to eat more while strength training for speed.  Be sure you eat at regular intervals throughout the day, and avoid sugary, fatty, and heavily salted choices.

Avoid extremes when it comes to how much or how little you eat.  Do not overfocus on protein or any other single food type, which never leads to anything but health problems.  And make adjustments bi-weekly or monthly  in your food intake based on the results you see.

 

So who would win our races?  For me, I’d take the typical ultra-marathoner over the sumo wrestler.  But I’d also bet on the NFL lineman over the long-distance runner.

What’s more important, though, is that you understand the best of both worlds is ideal and neither extreme will take you to the top.  Watch an elite 100 meter race and you’ll see every participant - either male or female – has achieved an optimal blend of being lean but extremely muscular and powerful

 

 

 

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Should High School Athletes Bench Press & Squat?

October 16, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Back in my football playing days a couple years (OK, decades) ago, our off-season lifting program revolved around improving our bench press and squat.  Sure we did some other exercises, but our progress was almost solely measured by whether we could bench 300 pounds and squat 400 pounds.  Everything else was secondary.

Since then, the sports training world literally exploded with new ideas, information, and training concepts that really work.  Systems have been created to develop the total athlete, which applies not just to football but to male and female athletes in all sports and at all levels.

So high school workouts have kept up with these improvements, right?   The bench and squat mentality has faded as bigger and better ideas have emerged?

As far as I can tell, not really.

Look, both exercises have their benefits.  I am not denying that at all, in fact we bench and squat with our high school kids here in our program.  What is different, though, is that they represent a small part of what we do.  It is not a giant focus for us simply because it is not any more important to an athlete’s success than, say, a quality skater jump or plank jack.

Maybe you agree with this, and maybe you don’t.  But before jumping to conclusions either way, let’s look at what each exercise does and does not do for a developing athlete.

BENCH PRESS

How It Helps Athletes
- It allows more experienced and stronger weight lifters to get heavy weights in place to lift safely, allowing them to expend more energy on the exercise itself.  Gettiing heavy dumbbells and kettlebells in place for a press can be much more difficult.

- Benching tends to build bulk a bit better than other types of presses, mostly because you can move more weight

- There is a strong, and maybe true, urban legend about benching that says it helps contact sports athletes (football, lacrosse, ice hockey) to absorb force from collisions better.   It is referred to by some coaches as an ‘armor builder’

Why It Is Not A Great Exercise For Athletes

- There is no core activation when lying on a bench, which is key because linking arm strength through your midsection is critical for many sport movements.

-  You are not on your feet, which eliminates the ability to summon force through your legs to drive and press the weight.  This is also a fundamental athletic skill.

- There is no single arm strength developed, unless you use dumbbells or kettlebells.  More than half the athletes we work with have one arm that is noticeably stronger than the other, which is a major risk factor in predicting future shoulder injuries.

- Overfocusing on pressing without an equal amount of time dedicated to pulling strength leads to a front/back imbalance at the shoulder joint, and almost certainly will lead to injury over time.

- There tends to be WAY too much emphasis on the amount of weight pressed, which often leads to flat-out terrible technique.

-  Benching, unlike pushups, does not activate the rotator cuff muscles at all.  This creates another imbalance between the larger chest muscles and the smaller rotator cuff stabilizers, another increased injury risk factor for the shoulder joint.

 

SQUATS

How It Helps Athletes
- Done correctly, it is an excellent leg muscle mass builder

- Done correctly, squats can greatly increase 2-legged vertical jump ability

- It is another ‘armor builder’ type exercise

- Squats tend to be the exercise that you can use the greatest total weight on, creating postural bone density growth in the right way if your technique is good.

Why It Is Not A Great Exercise For Athletes

- They are rarely done correctly, meaning balance is ideal and depth is to parallel (hips get as low as the knees)

- Another drill that overemphasizes weight, often coming at the lack of reaching that critical parallel depth.

-  No single leg strength is developed, and single leg strength is how you build speed in the weight room.

-  It can be mentally draining as there is a danger aspect to it, so rest periods tend to drag on and consume way too much of your workout time.

- Most of the time squats are done 1/2 way to parallel, making them mostly a knee extension-type exercise.  If this is how you squat, it is a major problem from an athletic standpoint because you are re-teaching your body not to use the stronger hip muscles and instead rely more on the muscles surrounding your knee (quadriceps, hamstrings).  Changing this primal movement pattern will lead to more knee problems, quad/hamstring pulls, and likely will make you slower.

 

If you are a coach or athlete who believes strongly in the value of these two exercises, it would be very wise to avoid focusing on weight and instead really dial in great technique.  This will avoid a decent amount of the downside associated with them.

For those who would like an alternative exercise for bench pressing and squatting, try these out:

Bench Press Alternative – Weighted Pushup

The weighted pushup is almost identical to the bench press, but activates both the core and rotator cuff stabilizers.  It is a fundamental movement that is easy to teach, and with weights placed on the upper back is a near identical movment to the bench that can progressively increase the resistance over time.

Squat Alternative – Hex Bar Deadlift

For this one you’d need to have access to a hex bar (hexagon shaped barbell).  The reason it works better than the squat is that the weight rests on the ground, and should not be picked up until the athlete is in a perfect ‘bottom of a parallel squat’ position.  It allows the athlete to find their balance point better, forces parallel position, and also has the nice added benefit of improving grip strength.  For those who do not have access to a hex bar, a regular barbell dedlift works close to the same….it’s just harder to coach the right starting position.

 

A lot has changed since the 1990′s in regards to helping high school athletes fully develop their physical abilities.  Those who have taken advantage of this progress have been rewarded with greater results for the same effort, and more success in their chosen sport.  By taking a more well-rounded approach to training, any athlete can multiply their training benefit compared to those who will continue to lag behind the times.

 

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Plyometrics: Are They Useful Or Dangerous For Young Athletes?

October 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Plyometrics have been a part of American sports training programs for over two decades now, and have slowly filtered down from elite levels into many youth sports practices and team training sessions these days.   They originally became popular because they were one of the hidden secrets of the old Soviet Union’s training regimen that produced so many world-class athletes, and as the iron curtain began to fall the rest of the world became aware of how these drills could help their own players.

So what are plyometrics?   They are a subset of movements, usually involving jumping or medicine ball throws, that maximize the explosive capabilities of an athlete’s upper and/or lower body.   They emphasize a combination of speed and strength together, and often times require little or no equpment to execute.  They are commonly done with agility ladders, medicine balls, plyo boxes, hurdles, or even just bodyweight.

At first glance, ‘plyos’ are an ideal tool for kids to use so they can build speed, strength, quickness and explosive power simultaneously.   And because you don’t need much (or any) equipment, they are easy to add into a sports practice or beginner training program.

But because of the high-intensity nature of many plyometric exercises, they can potentially be dangerous for some young athletes.  And done incorrectly, they can be dangerous for almost any athlete.  They can lead to joint damage, stress fractures, and tendonitis relatively quickly.

Athletes most at risk for injury from plyometrics are those who are in-season or are training and practicing at a high volume, are going through a growth spurt (and have associated chronic pain because of it),  or are too young for the level of intensity of a particular exercise.  In addition, those who do not have at least an average amount of bodyweight strength are also at higher risk for injury from plyometrics.

And even if you are an ideal candidate to benefit from these exercises, coaches and trainers must still be careful in how they are implemented into a practice or training session.  Plyos are quick movements and do not take long to complete, but put a great deal of training stress on the body.   Spending even 15 minutes on pure jumping-type plyos represents an extreme amount of volume, and will seriously increase the likelihood you’ll see fatigued and injured athletes at some point in the near future.

So how can a young athlete get the benefits of plyometric training while avoiding the pitfalls?  Follow these 4 simple rules and you’ll be sure to get the most from your plyo training in the future.

1. Make Sure Your Exercises Build Intensity Gradually
One very popular Soviet exercise was called the Depth Jump, where they had athletes step off a high box and, immediately upon hitting the ground, jump up into the air.  This is a perfect example of a drill that is ideal for the world-class Olympian who has a decade of training under their belt, but extremely problematic for the teenage athlete.  Start by learning proper landing technique, then proceed to drills that give a low level of stress, and continue to increase the challenge over a long period of months and years.

2. Strictly Limit The Number Of High Intensity Repetitions To A Very Conservative Number
The more complex and intense the drill, the less repetitions should be completed.  Low level agility ladder jumps, jump roping, and other quicnkess-related drills can be done in higher amounts, but single leg jumps, vertical jumps and other higher-intensity drills should be capped at a very low number.  For those age 18 and under that is likely around 20-30 jumps per day no more than 3 days per week.

3. Build Strength First
Any explosive movement in sport (hitting, throwing, kicking, etc) is fundamentally an expression of how fast you can utilize the strength base your body currently has.   The greater your strength, the higher your capacity to express elite explosiveness in your sport-specific skill.  Overemphasizing plyometric jumps and throws without increasing your strength base too will not only lower your potential, it will also increase your chances of getting hurt over time from your training.

4. Hammer Home Great Technique
More so than with any other type of training, plyometrics demand great technique to maximize safety and effeciveness.  Only use drills you know how to do correctly, and if you are a coach be sure you know how to correct poor technique if it does show up with your players.

 

Done the right way, plyometrics are a very effective and safe type of training for athletes of any age.  Running and jumping are plyometric movements that kids do all the time, almost from the day they learn to walk.  The key is not to get caught up in doing too much too soon, but to keep the long-term development needs of your players front and center at all times.

 

 

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How To Reach Your Athletic Goals This Year

August 21, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Everyone has dreams and goals they wish to achieve at some point in their life.  For athletes, having a sports-related dream is usually one of the most powerful driving forces in their earliest years.

Some have visions of becoming a pro or college athlete, maybe even an Olympian.  For others the dream is more tangible, like getting more playing time on their team or reaching the varsity at their school.

Whatever it may be, having a dream and focusing your energy towards that single purpose is a major reason why athletics is such a great teaching tool for life.   Learning how to set and reach goals is how we all achieve success.   To actually reach up and accomplish them, though, you are much more likely to get there with a well-defined plan.

To anyone who wants to make this school year one that sets them on the course to long-term athletic success, follow these action steps closely and watch how far you get over the next 10 months.

STEP 1 – Determine where you want to be by the end of the school year.
Like any journey, you’ll first need to pinpoint your destination for any of it to be worthwhile.  Be clear and honest with yourself about what really matters to you, and how much you’re willing to do to reach this goal.  The bigger your dream, the more you will have to make sacrifices in other areas to get there.  There is nothing wrong with setting smaller goals if that is more in line with what you feel right now.  What is important is that you set a goal that matches the power of your dream, and fully understand that the bigger it is the more you’ll have to do to reach it.

Step 2 – What are your biggest roadblocks to achieving this goal right now?
This is a really hard step, because it is where you have to look in the mirror and really admit what you need to get better at.  None of us enjoy that feeling, but without it you’ll be oblivious to what is really separating you from the success you want.

Probably the best way to accomplish this is to have an honest conversation with a coach you trust, whether it be a current or former one, and get their perspective on what you need to develop most.  If you are a higher level athlete, this step is likely a bit easier because scouts have already pointed out your greatest needs to you.

Your roadblocks could have something to do with a sport-specific skill, game knowledge, physical limitations, or in your behaviors and attitudes.   It is important to remember that none of us are perfect, and no matter who you are there is going to be something you can get better at.  It does not mean there is anything wrong with you, it just means you have the courage to be honest with yourself and are ready to move forward.

Step 3 – Map Out A 10 Month Plan To Achieve Your Goal.
Armed with a clear vision for where you want to go and what you need to work on most, it is time to plan out the actions you will take to reach your destination.  Just like any set of directions, you can make adjustments along the way and still get to where you want to go.

Put as much as you realistically can in your first month to avoid procrastination.  If you are busy playing a sport, are involved with other activities, or do not have the resources to get started on something now then find smaller things you can achieve immediately while putting the bigger tasks off to a part of the year when you have less commitment.

Many things can be done immediately.  If your limiting factor is a behavior or attitude, become aware of your poor choices and look to elminate them,  If your gap is in game knowledge, you may have to wait until you can go to a camp or clinic to pick up what you need to know, but you also may have good resources around you (coaches, parents, family friends) who can help out as well.  For physical skills it is hard to improve in-season but you can commit yourself to staying in good shape while playing and eating right.

No two people will have the same 10 month plan, and it does not have to be perfect, but the clearer your action steps are the better the chance you will start following them.

Step 4 – Get started NOW!
If you do not start taking the first steps toward reaching your goals immediately, it becomes far more likely you never will.   Procrastination is a dream killer, don’t let it happen to you.  Give yourself a handful of achievable goals to get done this week and make sure they are completed.

Step 5 – Re evaluate every week and adjust.
Your journey will be filled with unforeseen bumps and new opportunities along the way, becuase of this your plan should change often.   Each week  look back at your progress for the last 7 days, and set a new plan for the upcoming week.  The passion you have for your goal and the satisfaction you’ll get from achieving steps forward will fuel your fire to continue making progress.   Make weekly updates a regular part of your goal-setting routine and you will stay on the path to success.

As our franchise director Pat Rigsby says, 9 times out of 10 your greatest limiting factor is in your own mind.   Dreams only seem impossible to reach if you are not willing to put in the hard effort to accomplish them.  If you have something you want to achieve and are truly passionate about getting, start taking action today towards getting to where you want to be next summer.

 

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Practicing Safely In Hot Weather

August 14, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Heat illness is a very real concern for fall sports athletes, and it seems like this time of year there is always a story or two about health problems brought on by a youth sports practice in the heat.

Coaches are, by and large, a very caring group who only want to see their players succeed.  And to do that they know their kids need to be challenged from a conditioning standpoint in order to best prepare for the challenges of the upcoming season.

Preexisting health conditions aside, there are many ways that coaches, parents and athletes can still achieve their performance goals while also lowering the risk of heat stroke brought on by conditioning in extreme weather.    Follow these simple steps and you can go a long way to increasing your ability to benefit from practicing in the summer time.

GET ACCLIMATED
Your body is an incredible adaptive machine, and with repeated exposure to hot weather you will undergo physiological changes that help you to function better in hot conditions.  By getting outside and exercising for progressively longer times during the summer, you will be much more ready for that tough August practice than those who have been inside most of the time.

And what if that is you, the kid who has been indoors?  It’s never too late to get at least a little adaptation going, so use your last few days to begin some light conditioning outdoors while also following the other tips below.

STAY HYRDATED
Staying hydrated allows your body to remove heat from inside the body, which is part of why we sweat during intense exercise.   A lower amount of water in the body limits your ability to remove heat through the sweating process, and takes away your natural ability to drop your core temperature.

Coaches and athletes know that frequent water breaks are necessary for sustained exercise in heat (or any weather, for that matter).    What tends to get overlooked is that staying hydrated is a 24-hour process.  It’s not enough to drink during and right after practice.  It starts from the minute you get up to the minute you go to sleep.   Sipping water all day and consuming at least one ounce for every pound of bodyweight (more if you are doing a lot of conditioning) is key.

Eating fresh fruits and vegetables, especially water-based types like oranges, apples, peppers, and others can also do wonders for maintaining proper hydration levels.

EAT FOR ELECTROLYTE  BALANCE
Sodium and potassium are two electrolytes that need to stay in balance in order for your cells to function properly and keep you humming along during exercise.  However, any time you sweat heavily for at least an hour your electrolyte balance can be seriously thrown out of whack.

This is mostly due to a loss of sodium, which leaves your body through sweating.  Replacing this sodium loss with a salted, low-fat snack like pretzels will replenish your electrolyte stores and keep you performing at your best.

LIMIT SUNLIGHT EXPOSURE WHEN POSSIBLE
Practicing in direct sunlight causes your body to absorb radiant heat, and further raises your core temperature on top of everything else.  For teams that play outdoors in the fall, it is pretty much unavoidable to practice in the sun.

But on the hottest days it would be helpful to get athletes out of the sun about once per hour for at least 10 minutes or so.  Even this is not ideal, but it would make some difference in keeping your body temperature down.    Practicing earlier or later in the day, when the sun’s rays are not as intense, is a common strategy many coaches already use and should continue to do.

PROGRESS CONDITIONING DAILY
As mentioned above, the human body is an incredible adaptive machine.  From day to day, it is constantly trying to keep up with the demands imposed upon it, whether it be from exercise, weather conditions, or both.

To get the best results from your players and to maximize their health, conditioning should progress over time to give their bodies time to adapt.  Starting out with a punishing 2 or 3 day conditioning start to the season is not only more dangerous for them, but also much less effective.

If you do plan to emphasize conditioning during your first week of practice, make each day progressively more challenging so the toughest workouts come towards the end of the week.  And keep in mind that conditioning is an ongoing development, so continuing to build endurance over the course of many weeks is really the best way to develop your players for the long grind of the upcoming season.

 

Despite a coach or parent’s best effort to keep their kids safe when practicing in hot conditions, sometimes athletes do get overheated.  Feelings of lethargy and nausea are immediate signs an athlete needs to be cooled down.  It is in everyone’s best interest to have a bucket of ice water (separate from drinking water) readily available with towels that can be soaked in the ice water.  Placing a wet ice towel on the back of the neck and forehead can almost immediately drive down their body temperature.  Drinking a cold beverage also helps to get your internal temperature down quicker.

Practicing in hot summer weather is not an ideal situation, but it is one many coaches face this time of year.  To get the results your team needs and to maintain the safest training atmosphere possible, stress these tips to your kids and enjoy the start of what hopefully will be a very positive season for you.

Filed Under: Athletic Reviolution, Ayer, Bolton, Clinton, Fitchburg, Gardner, Harvard, Lancaster, Leominster, Lunenburg, Massachusetts, Shirley, Sterling, West Boylston, Westminster, Youth Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,
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