Coaching Kids - Day 5, Youth Training

Youth Training... Think Outside the Box

Brian Grasso is the CEO of the International Youth Conditioning Association and is considered one of the premier authorities on youth athletic development in the world. Access Brian's free database of articles and exercises at Developing Athletics.

Through both my articles and seminar series, I discuss the Art of 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 they can, but don’t truly have any degree of experience or ability when it comes to effectively applying training strategies to athletes in unique and varying settings.

In that, I want to discuss today a coaching strategy that I have used that truly enables young athletes to master a given technique.

Rewrite Strategies

If you have ever been driving in a car with a small group of teenagers and had a familiar song come on the radio, you have already experienced in practicality the essence of a rewrite strategy.

By most contemporary definitions, a rewrite strategy is simply “a teaching strategy designed to help students explore content area topics using music”.

For the purposes of sport and training, it involves using common musical tunes to both learn and support the retention of a given set of instructions.

Those teenagers in your car, once they hear that familiar song, all begin to sing along – word for word. That is the point… we all tend to remember the lyrics of our favorite songs. Even if 20 years has past, we can still sing the words or hum the tune of a given song, because of music’s innate ability to stay within the long-term memory of our brains.

Training Application

As you know, I am a strong proponent of teaching young athletes the skill set of a given exercise. That is, a 4-point instruction series on how to set-up their bodies prior to initiating movement (primary skill set) followed by a brief one or two instructions, which define the movement (secondary skill set).

Let’s take the basic squat for example.

My secondary skill set is as follows:

Hips Back - To ensure that the athlete is driving into hip flexion/extension and using the powerful muscles of the hip to execute rather than the anterior thigh.

In-steps Off – To protect against valgus knee motions and further elicit a kinetic chain that runs outside heel to glute medius.

Although the young athletes are taught this sequence and have it reinforced constantly, some youngsters may still fail to execute session to session.

The Art of Coaching

Many times in my career, I have used rewrite strategies to force these basic instructions into the vernacular of my young athletes’ brain.

I challenge them to take the words of my skill set and place them into the tune of a favorite song or catchy jingle that they can recount at will. Once in the form of a common tune, the skill set literally comes alive to the young athlete and they can communicate it immediately. I even have them repeat the ‘song’ in their heads as they perform the movement.

One young athlete I trained comes to mind as I am writing this article. Her name was Mary and she couldn’t seem to get her hips back during the eccentric phase of a squat. More over, her heels kept coming off the ground as she descended.

Her solution?

Mary wants to learn to squat

Learn to squat

Learn to squat

Mary wants to learn to squat

Hips back, insteps off

Say those words aloud to yourself…

Now sing them to the tune of ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’.

Beware… rewrite strategies work and this little jingle may stay with you for some time!

Learn more about Brian's complete system of developing young athletes - www.CompleteAthleteDevelopment.com

Coaching Kids - Day 4, Goal Confusion

Goal Confusion

Brian Grasso is the CEO of the International Youth Conditioning Association and is considered one of the premier authorities on youth athletic development in the world. Access Brian's free database of articles and exercises at Developing Athletics.

You could open an interesting debate with respect to teaching sporting skills to kids.

I did last week during a presentation I gave to area basketball coaches.

Some trainers and coaches have decided that the skills required to achieve a certain task should be taught from the beginning.

Others believe in the concept of motor patterning - allowing the young athlete to find his or her own way of achieving a task.

The debate gets even trickier when you factor in the varying nuances and therefore objectives of different sports.

For example, in basketball, if the ball goes in the hoop, it doesn't really matter how it got there.

But in diving, you know going in that once you jump off the platform, gravity will pull you into the water - the style in which you get there is all that really matters.

Where do you sit on this debate?

I asked the coaches in my audience the same question.

Should you teach or over-teach a certain style of execution to young athletes from day one, or should you allow the young athletes to learn the relative motor patterning via exploration and natural refinement?

The actual answer falls in line with a concept that I discuss constantly in my newsletter.

You have to have a system.

Effectively and safely developing a young athlete is not something that you can do in one practice or one training session at a time.

You must have a direction-based path that extends over several months or years.

This path must, of course, be dynamic in nature, but a "system of development" is what is lacking globally in the youth sports world at large.

Let me explain this by using the example of "form vs. outcome" as discussed above.

The central nervous system of a young person is very plastic - meaning i is explorative by nature and extremely sensitive to new stimulus.

The old adage "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" really does have merit when it comes to learning the skills of a sporting task. The older you are when you experience a new motor skill, the less likely you will be able to cultivate that skill in an optimal way.

But, as a child, your ability to learn new skills and solve motor tasks is quite high.

The essence of this reality, however, is founded on the notion of free exploration. Kids seem to learn the best when they are given nothing more than loose instructions on how to accomplish a task, and then allowed to work at solving the objective in their own way.

This is especially true when the form of execution of the skill in question is not a critical as the outcome.

And this is the crux of the debate.

As you know, I am a huge proponent of teaching young athletes proper execution-based foundations...

...And here's where the audience of coaches started challenging me.

"This doesn't make sense, Brian"

"You are known as the guy who preaches about teaching first"

"Agree", I said. "But what do I always equate that to?"

"Training young athletes", the coach responded.

"Exactly! TRAINING young athletes. That is substantially different than COACHING young athletes to perform the skills of certain sports."

I went on to explain the difference.

"When I teach a squat, the outcome doesn't matter to me. In fact, I think it matters TOO MUCH to most trainers.

"Too many trainers focus on how much they can get a young athletes to lift - all I care about it that they lift it well. The amount of force they can produce will be both proportional to and synergistic with how well they perform the movement."

The coaches were starting to get it.

"Shooting a basketball is not a form-based event, though. It's an outcome-based event."

"You just lost me", responded the coach.

"Okay, look at it this way. Does anyone grade or evaluate the way a young athlete shoos a basketball?"

"No."

"Then all that really matters is that the ball goes in the hoop. You get two points for a successful outcome, and there is no scoring system in place that either adds points or takes them away based on the execution of that shot, is there?"

"No."

"Then shooting a basketball successfully is nothing more than an outcome-based event."

"Are you saying that we should not be teaching how to shoot a basketball? Just let the kids have at it any way they want?"

"No. Learning the proper execution of a skill as it related to motor tasks such as shooting a basketball, throwing a baseball or hitting a tennis ball with a racquet are important to eventual success, but the style with which you do those things are directly related to solving those motor tasks," I countered.

And herein, my friend, is where I made the coaches finally understand everything...

"If you tell a young athlete that the goal is to make a basket, throw a baseball right over the plate or return a volley over the net, but at the same time tell them how they should do it, all you end up doing is confusing the young athlete in terms of what the actual goal of the event is."

'Goal confusion' is a term coined by researchers (Gentile, 1972) which explains the 'form versus outcome' debate.

It also forms the basis of the groundwork for the 'system of development' I referenced above.

Athletes as young as 6 and 7 are being taught and over-taught the specific skills and nuances of how to perform various sporting skills in youth leagues, camps and clinics the world-over.

And this is tragically counter-productive.

When training or coaching young athletes, you must understand and then categorize how you will introduce them to certain sporting skills.

More often than not, your task will be to tell them the outcome of what you are looking for and stave off your desire to teach them the form of how to accomplish it.

By creating only outcome-based events and exercises for young athletes and allowing them the freedom to solve the task on their own recourse, you will be fostering and enhancing their globalized athletic ability and taking advantage of the extreme adaptability of their central nervous system.

Over time, it will be necessary to change the goals or objectives of your practices or training sessions into more form-based events in which you begin to refine and improve the execution of the motor task.

And in a nutshell, that is the ‘system of development’.

Understand the importance of free discovery and its impact on the central nervous system.

Create less confusion in your young athletes life by remaining either form or outcome-based with your practices and training sessions.

“O.K. Now that makes sense”, the coaches agreed.

Learn more about Brian's complete system of developing young athletes - www.CompleteAthleteDevelopment.com

Coaching Kids - Day 3

Global Development vs. Sport Specific Training
It's All in the Science

Brian Grasso is the CEO of the International Youth Conditioning Association and is considered one of the premier authorities on youth athletic development in the world. Access Brian's free database of articles and exercises at Developing Athletics.

The goals of any trainer or coach working with a young athlete (pre-pubescent) should include increasing proficiency of motor ability, developing functional versatility (from a strength, movement and biomechanical standpoint) and lastly, inhibiting the potential negative effects of specialized training. Upon reflection, these points, both individually and collectively, lend to the credence that when working with young, pre-pubescent aged athletes, the mandate should be one of global, all-encompassing development rather than specialized ventures into sport specific training.

With pre-pubescent children, muscle innervation is completed by roughly the age of 6 years. Muscle innervation refers to the final expansion of motor nerve endings within a muscle fiber’s interior. The impact of this action on motor coordination is quite profound. At the conclusion of the muscle innervation process (again, roughly by the age of 6, although individual variances occur), children are now able to learn and begin the process of establishing functional proficiency in gross motor skills and movement patterns. It is critical to understand, however, that the innervation process happens more quickly and earlier (chronologically) in larger muscles. Again, innervation being linked to coordination and motor control, it stands to reason that children gain proficiency in gross motor skills more quickly than finer skills. This remains another argument for why early specialization is counterproductive – every sport requires various degrees of fine motor skills, which can simply not become functional abilities in younger athletes. Global aspects of gross motor skill development are most understandably the crucial component of training pre-pubescent children.

No one can learn how to create 6 or 12 month plans in a day. It takes time and diligent effort to acquire this skill, but your ability to get better over time will have a direct and positive impact on both your young athletes’ success rate as well as your businesses ability to attract new clients. Set an objective for yourself to create a system or plan that allows you to develop long-term and wide-focused agendas for your young athletes. Take several days or weeks if need be to create a system that is streamlined and easy to implement - although your are looking for a comprehensive system, the more basic you make it, the more easy it will be to adhere to.

Start simply. Take a piece of paper and write out where you want your young athletes to be in 4 weeks. Create headings and then just fill in each category. For instance, what skill sets are you working on now? To what degree of competency do you want an athlete or team to be able to demonstrate that skill set in 1 month’s time? This can also be applied to elite adolescent athletes. Are you working on squat or power clean totals right now? If so, where do you want these numbers to be in 4 weeks?

Once you have organized your thoughts on where you would like to be in 4 weeks, you have to consider how you are going to get there. On the same or a different piece of paper, right out how many training sessions or practices you have with this athlete or team between now and 4 weeks from now. Date each training session or practice on your piece of paper. Now, using your skills as a Trainer or Coach, literally, just fill in the blanks. Compare where you want to be in 4 weeks with the number of training sessions or practices you have between now and then. In order to accomplish your 4-week goal, what action steps along a critical path must be taken? This is the essence of how to develop a long-term approach to working with young athletes. You will simply just write out your next several training sessions or practices in order to meet the objectives you have laid out for 4 weeks from now.

This system can easily be applied to 6 months or even a year. Just follow the same type of procedure as mentioned above - set out an objective for the time frame and decide where this athlete or team needs to be within that time frame. Let’s say you have a 13-year-old athlete for 6 months and you want to determine an objective and critical path. Take out a piece of paper and write out where you want this athlete to be in 6 months. Be descriptive with this - what skill sets do you want him to have mastered? What kind of movement-based techniques will he show great competency in. Once you have decided that, break those large objectives down into more manageable ones and make them your first 4-week objective. To get to your end destination, where to you have to be at the end of this month? From there break it down even farther by deciding on how many training sessions or practices you will have over the course of the next 4 weeks and design them in accordance with your 4 week objective. Next month, do the same thing.

An amazing thing happens when you create objectives and critical plans like this. You will start seeing results in your athletes and teams beyond what you ever-dreamed possible. Failing to plan is one of the biggest concerns facing this industry. It seems everything is taken on a session-by-session basis with no vision or thought to the long-term. It could argued that individual Trainers and Coaches didn’t know how to plan for the future... well; now you do!

Practice the skill of objective writing and critical path creation. It will take time to design a system that flows well for you, but it is more than worth it to your young athletes and teams.

Learn more about Brian's complete system of developing young athletes - www.CompleteAthleteDevelopment.com

Coaching Kids - Day 2, Teaching Technique

Teaching Technique -
Laying the Foundation for Sporting Excellence

Brian Grasso is the CEO of the International Youth Conditioning Association and is considered one of the premier authorities on youth athletic development in the world. Access Brian's free database of articles and exercises at Developing Athletics.

Demonstrating good technique from a sporting perspective involves applying optimal movement ability in order to accomplish or solve a particular task effectively. A young athlete, for instance, who demonstrates sound technical ability while running is getting from point A to point B in an effective manner.

Technical ability in a sport is typically the underlying measure for potential success. Good athletes are more often than not technically sound athletes. This reality, however, does not start and stop with respect to sport specific skills; this fact extends itself into the realm of general athletic development and the promotion or advancement of general movement abilities. The crux of athletic development as a science resides in the notion that before we create a sporting technician or specialist, we must first build the athlete by instilling competency in both basic and advanced movement abilities; this would include not only multi-directional movement skill but also the technical requirements of basic to advanced strength and power training exercises.

The technical abilities demonstrated in a given sport can be categorized based on the rules or requirements of that sport -

Group One -
A sport in which making a good impression on a judge is crucial (figure skating, gymnastics, etc.) often involves coalescing intricate movements together. Within these sports, the techniques being demonstrated are described or clear (and therefore can be judged for efficiency). They are being performed within a fixed environment and without impediment (i.e. no one is interfering with you). The athlete’s task is to develop technical skill that can be showcased in a performance of pre-determined and practiced movements.

Group Two -
The techniques in this grouping allow the athlete to attain maximal and impartially measured results; there is no consideration for how well the technical abilities were displayed, just objective measurement for how effective they were (i.e. how fast did they run, how far did they throw the object, how much did they lift etc.). Sports in this category would include track and field events, swimming and weightlifting. Outside impediment is not an issue in this grouping either. In this grouping of sports, one’s motor abilities will define success - Meaning, the fastest or strongest athlete will win.

Group Three -
The ability to display adequate technique within this grouping aids in overcoming an opponent. This would include combat sports, racquet sports and virtually all team sports. In this group technical ability is combined with tactical sense and reacting to a continually changing situation and varying conditions. In this category, motor abilities (strength, speed, endurance and flexibility) are submissive to technical ability. That is to say that the fastest or strongest athlete in this grouping of sports is not necessarily the most successful. Motor abilities are developed in order to improve your application of technical skill.

How efficiently an athlete learns the technical skills of a sport, strength training exercise or movement is determined by several variables -

• Age - Complex skills are often understood and comprehended better by more mature athletes (although individual exceptions certainly apply).


• Emotional State – Relaxed and easy-going athletes tend to learn and reproduce new skills better than athletes who are uptight and self-critical.


• Motivation – So many parents, coaches and trainers just assume that the kids they are working with WANT to be at practice or in that training session. This goes back to my argument on effective coaching includes knowing your athletes and what kind of stresses they are under OUTSIDE of your 60 minutes with them. Athletes who are motivated to learn new skills will do so more easily than unmotivated athletes.


• Natural Talent – Athletes with innate natural ability are far superior at learning and reproducing new skills.

Critical to note within this topic are the methods being employed by the Coach/Trainer to teach new techniques. With the lack of stringent regulations at the youth sport coaching level and the youth training industry, it is certainly more than fair to consider the quality of instruction being given:

• What kind of personality does the coach have? In a study released by the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology in 1999 (Youth Athletes & Parents Prefer Different Coaching Styles), it showed that adolescent athletes (ages 10 - 18) enjoyed coaching styles that involved concerns regarding the well-being of each athlete, a positive group tone & feeling and supported friendly interpersonal relationships.


• Does the coach have a solid working knowledge of the technique? This goes right to the route concern of inadequately credentialed Trainers and Coaches – if you aren’t sure yourself how to correct the problem, how is the young athlete supposed to get it right? Remember, when working with kids, you are building habits, good or bad. Your job is to make sure that each repetition is forming a strong, positive habit in that young athlete. That can only be accomplished if the Trainer/Coach understands what they are teaching and can instruct the technique properly.

The core of technique development or learning is in the action of achieving perfect sensory-motor habits. A sensory-motor habit is simply a “learned activity of sensory and motor processes intentionally practiced to the point of nationalization” . From a physiological perspective, this entails creating a permanent conditional reflex connection that enables the exact same motor reactions to respond to the same stimuli. The development of a sensory-motor habit occurs through many stages:

1. Generalized excitation of motor centers in the cortex.

Application
When young athletes are first learning a new skill, they will often become overly tensed as they concentrate hard on performing that skill correctly. This often leads to needless additional movements and a lack of ability to ‘zero-in’ on movement of skill execution perfection.

2. Concentrated excitation in the appropriate motor centers.

Application
This is when young athletes become much more comfortable with a new skill. The movements become much more economical, flowing and precise. Young athletes' attention is drawn more towards the rhythm and speed at which skills are performed as well as specific details of technique.

3. Nationalization of the entire action

Application
There is no need for any sort of conscious effort with respect to movement control. The skill is performed in the right situation, in the correct way and all via nationalization

Sensory-motor habits are either "open" or "closed" -

• Open Habits are variable or adaptable to unexpected situation changes.
• Closed Habits are suitable for when the movement is being executed in a static situation or environment.

In sports involving closed sensory-motor habits, athletes practice precise and preprogrammed movements. The athletes learn via feedback from their bodies and are eventually able to detect very small divergences from proper execution, divergences that would lead to a poor result or performance. Elite figure skaters or track and field throwing athletes, for example, will know immediately upon executing a jump or throw weather or not it was their best effort based on the feedback their bodies give them in relation to an automatic understanding of what perfect execution feels like.

In sports relating to open sensory-motor habits, once the essence of the technique has been taught and perfected, the young athlete should be placed in constantly changing situations that will demand that the athlete learn to make quick reactive choices and maintain the ability to apply the learned technique in varying conditions. True aptness or perfection of open sensory-motor habits involves making them more plastic. This is a neurological reference that means making these skills more adaptable to a variety of situations.

There are three basic phases in learning a technique:

1. Basic Learning - The learning of a new technique should be done at a slow pace. Especially with younger athletes, coaches must refrain from ‘drilling’ a new technique at ‘normal time’ rates. That is, simply showing or describing an exercise or technique once or twice and then asking young athletes to replicate what they have just learned at a quickened or ‘game speed’ tempo is counterproductive to learning that technique on an optimal level. Remember, when dealing with young athletes QUALITY OF TECHNIQUE is inherently more important than performing a certain number of drills. I try to equate developing a young athlete to progressing through the academic levels of a school system; a teacher simply would not give an example of advanced calculus to a third grade class and expect them to understand it nor be able to solve calculus-based problems. Basic addition, multiplication, subtraction and division is taught at a young age and progressed upon with advanced conceptual understandings of mathematics as the student progresses in both age and intelligence. The same should be promoted with regards to developing a young athlete. In this example of ‘Basic Learning’, Coaches and Trainers should teach new techniques in a controlled manner, making sure that the athlete understands the concepts of body mechanics and angle of force, thereby increasing their awareness of movement economy.
   
   
2. Controlled Application - Once the athlete understands the skill and can perform it at an increased pace during isolated practices (i.e., NOT game situations), the Coach should now incorporate ‘opponents’ into the next phase of skill/technique learning. This would entail controlled practices or scrimmages in which the techniques are practiced against another team or competitor. This phase of learning should also be based on quality of repetition, again refraining from ‘drilling’. By drilling, I am referring to the Coach or Trainer who uses the common phrase ‘Do it again!’ at regular intervals during a practice. Remember, learning a technique is a process of which this is phase two. The Coach or Trainer should continue to provide feedback and instruction that supports the athlete in learning and refining this technique to an optimal level.
   
   
3. General Application - The Coach has very little influence over this phase during the actual event/game itself. The athlete will react and succeed based largely on how well they were taught. Quality, positive and constructive feedback should still be offered to the athlete either after the game or at the next practice.

Learn more about Brian's complete system of developing young athletes - www.CompleteAthleteDevelopment.com

Coaching Kids - Day 1, Coaching Styles

Coaching Styles

Brian Grasso is the CEO of the International Youth Conditioning Association and is considered one of the premier authorities on youth athletic development in the world. Access Brian's free database of articles and exercises at Developing Athletics.

Previously, I discussed the need to look at the personality traits of your young athletes when considering a coaching style. I do not believe in a ‘one size fits all’ approach to coaching and work to make Trainers and Coaches understand that within every training session and team setting exists the need to conform and streamline your delivery style to fit the situation or athlete(s) - indeed, respect the ART of coaching.

I had one very insightful subscriber email me a great question based on the information I presented last week. Specifically, what do you do when you have more than one personality represented on a given team or within a given training session?

Points to Consider

This is not only common, but also almost impossible to avoid. Whenever you bring two or more young athletes togethers, you are bound to see more than one personality type (and therefore need to employ more than one coaching style).

When coaching a group of 2 or more athletes, restrict the tendency to have each of the athletes performing the same drill at the same time. For example, during a standard warm-up for me, my athletes will do some basic ROM activities (typically through the hips and shoulders) and then proceed on to technique skills instruction. Let’s say you have a group of 4 athletes. As opposed to each of them performing a hip circuit at the same time and then moving on to the next ROM activity, create 4 different exercises and segment them in such a way so that each athlete is performing a separate drill.

To the casual reader, that may sound like a chaotic mess!! In actuality, it allows for a much simpler training session, an individualized approach to coaching and an important feature missing from many basic training sessions - instruction and explanation time.

Here's the Scenario

Athlete 1 (low motivation & skill) - requires a "direct" coaching method
Athlete 2 (low motivation & high skill) - requires "inspire" coaching method
Athlete 3 (high motivation & low skill) - requires "delegate" coaching method
Athlete 4 (high motivation & skill) requires "guide" coaching method

Warm-up Routine

Hip Circuits - 2 sets/leg, 3 reps/exercise
Prone Bridge with Leg Lift - 3 sets, 5 reps/leg
Shoulder Circuit - 3 sets, 4 reps/exercise
Hurdle Walk-Over - 3 sets, 10 hurdles

Sequence & Flow

First off, bring the whole group together and explain what the task of the day will be. Address each participant individually by name and welcome them. Explain what the training session will look like for the day and encourage verbal and non-verbal compliance.

Then... TEACH!

I have long maintained that every development program must begin with an introductory or assimilation phase for the young athlete. The bulk of your basic teaching should fall into this category. The teaching component at the beginning of each training session should be reminder-based or build off of previously taught skills.

Take 5 - 7 minutes to teach each of the 4 warm-up drills. Explain why the athletes will be performing these drills and why they are important (and yes... do this with even young pre-adolescents. You are building a long-term approach to their development and need to invest the time to acquaint them with your system. Even young kids are ‘teachable’ given the proper application of stimulus).

Once the teaching time is done, assign them each to an exercise.

Now, you have the time to flow and work with each of them individually and correct body alignment, movement habits and execise adherence. Because they are all doing different things, you can apply the proper style of coaching to each individul.

Application

Athlete 1 (direct) - Hip Circuit
Athlete 2 (inspire) - Prone Bridges
Athlete 3 (delegate) - Shoulder Circuit
Athlete 4 (guide) - Hurdle Walk-Overs

Coaching Cues

Athlete 1 - Get down to his level (which would be on your knees given the ‘Hip Circuit’) and quietly let him know what a good job he is doing. Ask him if he has any questions about what he is doing. Chances are, if he did have questions, he would not have asked them when the entire group was together. The key here is the tone of your voice - be patient, relaxed and easy-going.

Athlete 2 - ‘Seriously Johnny, that is even better than last week!’. ‘Your making this look easy, let me show you a more challenging method, because I know you can do it!’. Remember, they have low motivation, but high skill - Encouraging and challenging are good methods to employ.

Athlete 3 - Ask him what he thinks. ‘How’s it feel?’ ‘You feeling good with that today or you want to switch it up a little?’ ‘What do you think we could add to it?’ Delegate some of the responsibilities of their training to them and help them make it work . Empower them to seek out and create new ideas.

Athlete 4 - Verbally reward their effort and work to make them understand the movement better. "That looks great, Sally! Now, you see how your left leg is pointing out to the left when you go over the hurdle? How can we fix that?"

This flow and sequence of coaching can be taken through the entire workout - even through your movement and strength skill portions. Just create and segment the exercises, include a teaching component preceding each portion and apply the appropriate style of coaching to each individual athlete.

Learn more about Brian's complete system of developing young athletes - www.CompleteAthleteDevelopment.com