The Deadly Sins of Mental Preparation Part 3

The third Deadly Sin that we will look at I think all athletes, including myself, have been guilty of without even knowing it.

Deadly Sin #3
Getting caught up on the whole atmosphere of the game and the experience

I can remember when I was playing little league our coach throughout the season had put emphasis on us never being scored on during a game. We were going into the playoff game against a cross town rival. We were so caught up in the hype of playing against another undefeated team on a college football field that we weren't focused and prepared mentally. Ultimately it cost us the game preventing us from going to the championship bowl game that year.

The atmosphere of playing in the big game such as a state championship, a big tournaments, national golf and tennis tournaments, for example, distracts athletes during the pregame routine. Do you feel additional pressure to perform well in the big game when the hype leading up to the big game causes you stress?

Why do you think the Super Bowl, or the NBA Finals, or the World Series have all that hype built up towards the actual game? The media can jump on all the stories and expose every nugget of information about the players and coaches. If you allow the pregame atmosphere to distract you from your real mission, you will not be completely prepared to compete.

Sometimes it doesn't have to be the big game that gets us caught up, we can get caught up in the moment of playing the game and forget the ultimate goal of the team. Take a look at the NBA playoffs recently with the Chicago Bulls and the Boston Celtics. Both teams could not afford to get caught up in the hard fouls to cost them their chance of advancing the next round even though during the series at times that was the turning factor to the outcome of the game. Another example can be seen when a team comes in and tries to play the pace of their opponent forgetting their game plan and instead of playing their style of play.

Finally, athletes and teams must be mindful to not put additional pressures or define certain games as too important. I tell athletes constantly when consulting to define and treat all the games with importance therefore the athlete will not end up with unwanted/additional stress that can cause them to move further away from their goal which is optimal performance.

The Deadly Sins of Mental Preparation Part 2

We continue our blog post on the deadly sins of mental preparation by continuing with Deadly Sin #2.

DEADLY SIN #2
NOT HAVING A PLAN IN PLACE FOR YOUR SELF CONFIDENCE

An athlete's level of self-confidence is often a determining factor of whether or not he or she has a peak performance. However, an athlete's positive self-confidence doesn't just happen, it has to be developed over many years. It is often the result of a positive learning environment and positive self-talk. A positive learning environment is important in the development of self-confidence because people learn by watching. Being negative is bound to bring on negative self-talk, low self-confidence and a poor attitude.

Self confidence is paramount in sports. If you have a high level of belief in your ability you will not become over anxious. Many athletes who lack self confidence in their ability leave their confidence to chance. If you can only feel confident when you make a couple of good plays at the start of the game, your confidence is prone to waver.

Are you unsure how you will perform prior to competition? I teach students how to be proactive with their pregame confidence. You don’t want your confidence to be thrashed around by immediate results at the start of the game. What happens if you start the competition with mistakes or errors? You want to have a proactive approach to confidence- not a reactive approach.

Finally, here are some tips to maintain positive thoughts and confidence: To play as well as one can, a player MUST focus his or her mind on the shot being played, in the here and now, and forget about past mistakes. Almost all athletes would be better if they forgot about the score, and just played their game. If athletes focus on performance, they cannot perform as well.

Building confidence can do wonders for athletes. With practice and positive reinforcement, athletes can achieve their peak performance. Remember that the confident athlete is the successful athlete.

The Deadly Sins of Mental Preparation

In continuation from the last post about overcoming butterflies in order for you as an athlete to be at your optimal for performance, today, we are going to look at some of the mistakes that most athletes make with regards to them prepare mentally for their competition.

DEADLY SIN #1
Pigeon holding themselves to a particular outcome or expectations on your performance

Contrary to what coaches teach their athletes, having high expectations, maintaining high, strict expectations can hamper the athlete’s performance. One tennis player that I worked with had high expectations of wanting to always finish first or place high in their tournaments that they were in. Their sole concentration was on their outcome. I teach my students the hazards of strict expectations and how to identify strict expectations. Your objective is to replace expectations or the outcome with manageable objectives of small tasks that you want to accomplish.

Why do expectations limit your performance? First, you set yourself up for a success/failure proposition. You either achieve your expectations or fail to achieve them. Second, if you don’t achieve your predetermined expectations, you tend to question your ability that day-either during or after performance. Essentially, expectations set you up for failure before you even get started.
In addition, expectations are usually about results such as obtaining a specific score or achieving a personal statistics such as achieving a perfect floor score in gymnastics. Athletes usually judge their performance based off of these expectations. In most cases, high expectations also is associated with pressure to achieve whatever expectation that has been set, which in turn cause a decrease in your optimal level for performance.

We will continue with our topic on the mistakes that athletes are making with regards to mentally preparing for their competition. Until then know that mental toughness is a learned skill that needs to be practiced daily and in every opportunity that presents itself.

How to Overcome Butterflies and Nervousness

Most athletes, including myself, have at some time or another experienced what is commonly know as butterflies in the stomach or jitters- which usually comes from the excitement of the competition or contest. As a result, their nervousness can cause a drop in performance. Butterflies before a contest is common in sports; however, pregame anxiety can cause athletes to perform poorly due to tension in their muscles and restrict them from performing in the manner that they desire.

Pregame anxiety can cause athletes to lose sleep and stay up the night before worrying about the performance and outcome. Athletes may experience lack of an appetite the day of the contest because of pregame anxiety. It can cause some to have the feeling of throwing up before going out to perform. On the contrary, it can cause some to have a heighten sense of excitement to want to perform to the best of their ability.

Athletes should want to have positive butterflies when going into competition that will help them optimize their focus and performance. However, too much or little can decrease their desired performance because their anxiety levels are either too high or too low for performance. The desired outcome of every athlete is to be able to consistently control their emotions for optimal performance.

Your pregame preparation is the best time to control your emotions and to plan the optimal performance that you are seeking.

Later in this series, we will create a checklist for you to examine if you are committing some of the top mistakes during your pregame preparation.

3 Quick Feet Drills for Athletes

No matter the sport, quick feet can be the difference between a good athlete and a great one. There are endless drills that can be done to improve a player's foot speed, and here are a few that will help you in any sport.

Here are 3 quick feet drills that I like to do with my athletes:

Drill #1:The grid- There are endless drills that can be done with the grid and here are just a few. Put some tape on the floor if you are in a gymnasium and make a "T" or a cross. If you are on a field you can use some field paint and paint a square. The there will be 4 quadrants numbered 1 through 4. You will pick numbers to call out and jump from one quadrant to the next. Make sure that your hips and shoulder stay square during the course of the exercise. Perform for 20 repetitions. Rest for 30 seconds between repetitions doing sets of 4.

Drill #2 Tire- You've all seen the old football movies where players are running through tires, athletes can use tires or rings. High-step through tires or outstretched string forces the athlete to get their knees up, be precise with their feet, stay on the balls of their feet and keep their balance. To keep the athlete on the balls of his feet, try having him backpedal back to the starting point instead of just jogging.

Drill #3 The square- Set up four cones in a 10 x 10-foot square. Have the player start by shuffling (side-stepping) from left to right along the outside of one side of the square. Once she gets to the end, have them backpedal, then shuffle back the other way, right to left, and then have her sprint to the front and repeat. Depending on age and ability, have the player do this anywhere from five to 12 times. Make sure the player takes short steps as she shuffles and that she doesn't cross their feet. Also make sure as the player gets tired, that she keeps her knees bent and her torso upright.

Remember, reading these drills will not make you quicker. But actually performing them regularly two or these times a week will provide you with great results and a noticeable increase in your foot quickness and explosion.

If you have trouble at first on some of the drills, don’t worry. Just slow yourself down until you master the movement. Always remember form before speed. It takes over 17,000 times to build a new habit so be persistent.

We Breed Champions!

Charlotte Speed and Strength Coach

5 Tips for Optimal Nutrition

Everyone needs fuel and everyone needs nutrients. Yet everyone eats for completely different reasons. Sports Nutrition can provide you that extra edge over your competitor and is an essential component to being a high performance athlete. There are so many different opinions, ways of doing things, answers to weight loss, answers to weight gain everywhere you turn that it can become confusing to a point where acting on good intentions seems to halt.

Here are 5 Tips that athletes should keep in mind when dealing with their nutrition.

1. Stay hydrated – Because our bodies are made up of 55-65% fluid, it is essential that athletes stay adequately hydrated in order to avoid heat illness and cramping. When practicing in hot, humid weather, some of the larger athletes can lose as much as 10-12 cups of fluid (he/she would need to drink double this amount to re-hydrate). Even being slightly dehydrated can impair performance, so athletes should drink liberal amounts of water and sports drinks throughout the day, during and after practice. Usually it is too late when you actually start to feel dehydrated so don't use that as your indicator to start drinking water.

2. Consume adequate calories and carbohydrates – Because food is our fuel, athletes need to ensure adequate calorie and carbohydrate consumption every day. Complex carbohydrates including whole grain breads, cereals, pastas, fruits and vegetables should make up at least 50% of our diets. Carbohydrates, our body’s chief form of energy is stored as glycogen in our muscles (and liver). A diet deficient in carbohydrates and calories, can increase the risk of fatigue, injuries and a drastic decrease in performance.

3. Eat Adequate amounts of protein - Adequate protein, in addition to serving many metabolic functions in the body, is also essential for rebuilding and repair of our body's tissue. Because athletes are continuously tearing down muscle tissue through regular workouts, they should consume adequate amounts of meat, beans, fish, poultry, nuts, peanut butter, eggs and dairy products.

4. Regular meals and snacks - For most athletes, it is almost impossible to meet the nutrition requirements with less than 3 meals and 2-3 snacks each day. Eating regularly (every 2-4 hours) helps to maintain blood glucose and energy throughout the day and through practice. A mistake athletes often make is thinking that they don’t have to eat adequately on "non-workout days." These "off" days should instead be treated as "re-fueling days" and athletes can take advantage of having more time to prepare well-balanced meals.

5. Avoid fad diets and supplements – Frequently looking for that extra edge, athletes are often targeted by the market industry with products promising special "energy boosting," "performance enhancing" or "muscle gaining" results. Frequently these products or diets have little (if any) scientific data backing them and can actually be damaging to an athletes performance. A high performance diet is often the key that athletes need to help them get that extra edge over their competition.

Charlotte Speed and Strength Coach

Jump Training For Volleyball and Basketball Players: Part 2

This article will describe a basic jump training program with an emphasis on the sport of basketball and volleyball to help those that are coaches and players improve in the area of jumping higher. Even though it is designed specifically for those athletes that play sports such as basketball and volleyball, coaches of other sports that require jumping can also use the information as well.

Very few athletic measurements evoke awe-inspiring glances as a forty-inch vertical jump. While incredibly important when dunking a basketball or spiking a volleyball, the vertical jump test is a standard measurement of one's explosive power; that is, the amount of force one is able to generate in a specific, in this case immediate, amount of time. A high vertical jump requires the athlete to coordinate a whole body movement to drive a downward force onto the ground sufficient to propel the body against the force of gravity and into the air.

Many athletes attempt to improve their vertical jump through gimmicks such as the strength shoes that are marketed on the Internet or in catalog magazines; however, the only true way to increase one’s vertical is through the traditional strength training that is done in the gym through Olympic lifts and jump training exercises.

Jump training is very individual and must be tailored to the specific athlete it is intended for. Every athlete has different concerns and needs. Additionally, injury can result from the incorrect use of it.

Jumping is a complex multi-joint movement that requires muscle coordination best improved by specific skill development. Traditional strength training, explosive types of weight training, jump training and Olympic lifting can be effective for increasing the vertical jump. Before embarking in a jump training regiment, athletes and coaches must consider the athlete’s goal. In addition, they must determine the relative strength and weakness the athlete has at the start of designing a program.


Some program considerations.

As discussed in previous articles, the principle of specificity must govern the training regimen. What this means is the exercises selected for the program must simulate basketball movements in speed, biomechanics and resistance. Train athletes so that they are able to transfer what is being taught into their sport. (This is the reason for them coming to me in the first place.)

Safety and proper progression must be at the forefront of the program. It is better to under-prescribe then to over-prescribe.

Advanced exercises must be reserved for only advanced athletes.

Beginners always want to progress faster than they are capable of. It is the coach’s job to explain, and insist on, proper progression.

Although beginning jump training programs may be performed by most people, to participate safely in an aggressive jump training program many authors suggest that the athlete should be able to squat 1.5 times body weight. Therefore, a considerable strength base becomes imperative when embarking on a challenging jump training program. For most athletes, 8-12 weeks of periodized, resistance training should be sufficient to bring strength levels to adequate levels.

A proper warm up and cool down can not be emphasized enough. The warm-up must proceed from general (e.g. jogging or skipping rope) to specific preparatory exercises (e.g. dynamic stretches similar to exercises being performed). The cool down should focus on flexibility via static stretches and allow the gradual return to a pre-exercises state.

The correct amount of jump training must be provided. High intensity must govern the jump training training session. Quality, not quantity, is the cornerstone of jump training training – all exercises are to be performed at maximal effort. When training, emphasis should be on the athlete training in game time speed so that the muscles train in the manner needed when they are actually in the competition.

However, there must be a balanced relationship between stress and rest. Insufficient rest is the most common cause of injury in jump trainings.

Let me repeat that statement again. Insufficient rest is the most common case of injury in jump training. Too much, too soon.

Athletes should rest 1-3 minutes between sets and 3-5 minutes between exercises within a single training session. Recovery between sessions becomes more complex due to the many variables to consider (e.g. practice schedules, strength training volume, level of athletic development, etc.). It is here where the experience of a trained professional becomes paramount.

Finally, individual program design must be part of the final process. Although a general program can be designed for a team. The coach must “tweak” each program to deal with the specifics of the individual athlete. Adjustments to fit the athlete’s characteristics are always made. Because of individual variations, cookie-cutter jump training programs are a sure way to hurt athletes. Medical history, training age, muscle imbalances, sport and position played are some of the variables that will dictate the specific design of the program. For the sake for simplicity there are three basic categories of jump training exercises.

Jumps, hops and bounds.

Jumps are exercises where you land with both feet (e.g. long jump). The take off can be performed with one foot or two feet. Jumps can be done in place (e.g. jumping jacks) or for distance (e.g. multiple long jumps).

Hops are exercises where you take off one foot and land on the same foot (e.g. single leg hopping). Hops can also be done in place (e.g. stationary single leg ankle hops) or for distance (e.g. multiple single leg hops). Since hops are a single leg exercise, they require much more strength than jumps.

Bounding exercises are exercises where one takes off on one foot and lands on the other foot (e.g. alternate leg bounding). Bounds are usually done for distance. Bounds can be the most challenging of the jump training exercises. However, there is over lap between the categories. For example, a very advance jump exercise can be more demanding than a beginning bound exercise.

Athletes should make sure they seek the advice of a professional who is trained and experienced in this method of training before you embark on a serious jump training routine. A good program put together by a professional strength coach can aid an athlete and improve the athlete's speed, quickness and jumping ability, and these gains may transform the player's playing career.


Charlotte Strength and Speed Coach

The Importance of Reaction Training and Speed

Sports are made up of many different components as it relates to speed and quickness. One must not only be able to initiate enough power and strength to start and stop their bodies against momentum, but they also must be able to maintain their speed during the designated time they are in play. In addition to these concepts, many people forget that there is one more skill that needs to be addressed that could improve one’s speed in sports. Miss this one and even a player whose considered fast can be considered slow.

Reaction Time.

Reaction time is paramount when one looks at speed training.

Reaction is defined as the interval time between a stimulus and muscle contraction. In layman terms how long it takes the body to respond to a particular cue i.e. gun blast in track and field, the signal to hike the ball and start of the play in football, the reaction to jump after a rebound in basketball, or the cue to run after the ball is hit in softball or baseball. Overall reaction ability is something that be trained over time with practice like all the other components of speed and agility. As with all the rest of the speed components, coaches and athletes need to analyze what type of reaction is needed for their sport in order train and improve their reaction.

Coaches need to consider these concepts when addressing reaction:

• Detecting the cue - in a sprint start, focusing on the starter's voice and the sound of the gun and separating this from background crowd noise and negative thoughts
• Detecting relevant cues - a goalkeeper learning to analyze body language at penalties
• Decision making - working on set pieces and game situations
• Change in attention focus - being able to switch quickly from concentration on the opponent to concentration on the field of play in invasion games
• Controlling anxiety - which slows reaction times by adding conflicting information
• Creating optimum levels of motivation - 'psyching up'
• Warm up - to ensure the sense organs and nervous system are ready to transmit information and the muscles to act upon it

When I train my athletes, I tell them to always anticipate the cue that is being used to start and engage them in their exercise or drill i.e. the whistle being blown or me giving them a cadence. Anticipation is a strategy used by athletes to reduce the time they take to respond to a stimulus i.e. the defensive lineman that anticipates the center snapping the ball, or the receiver that anticipates the snap by looking at the ball instead of paying attention to the snap count at the start of the play has a better chance of getting off the ball and making their opponent react to them as oppose to starting at the same time as everyone else. In these scenarios, the player has learned to detect certain cues early in the play and has predicted when the start of the play will begin. I teach all my athletes to respond to the cues. What I mean by this is they are able to anticipate and react to the early sound which gives them a greater lead and advantage over their opponents.

I am not only an advocate of reaction but I have my own experiences as to how reaction has helped open up opportunities for me as well. In college, reaction time was the factor that helped me get on the travel squad my freshman year for special teams (punt team) because in practice time and time again I would beat my opponents off the edge and block the punts. What distinguish me from my teammates was that I didn’t concentrate on the snap count; I was more focused on when the center moved the ball. Every time I lined down I would look directly at the ball and when the center moved the ball slightly, I would take off putting the offensive guy on defense because now he had to react to my momentum instead of vice versa.

Finally, as mentioned previously, the objective of reaction speed drills is to improve your reaction time to a stimulus. The drills can include the control of an object (e.g. football or hockey puck). The cue for the reaction to take place can be visual (movement of an object) or a specific command (voice) or sound (starter's gun). The cue should be appropriate to your event or sport - starter's gun for a sprinter. Take these suggestions and work on them so that it improves not only your speed but also can improve your overall athleticism.


Charlotte Speed Coach

Lateral Speed Development

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that speed is imperative in an athlete being successful in whatever sport that he or she participates in. More and more parents, coaches and athletes are implementing some type of speed training into their workouts to gain that extra edge or just plain keep up with the competition. Even though I have in recent blogs, posted the importance of straight ahead speed and first step quickness, lateral movement and being able to change direction is just as if not more important. In must sports, change of direction can mean going home or going to the next round! Usually in most sports, the athlete must first have to elude their opponent or obstacle before being able to get in the clear open field or court to demonstrate their straight ahead speed. Like I tell my parents and athletes, the emphasis should not just be on teaching sound technique, but also on being able to translate what is taught onto the court or field. Let’s face it, that’s the main reason why parents, coaches, and athletes seek out performance consultants to enhance their current level of performance! To do this successfully, training should focus on footwork transitions and shifting from a straight ahead movement to a side to side movement and vice versa efficiently. I stress with my athletes when teaching speed training to master the technique before adding speed!

LINEAR VS LATERAL SPEED

So that we are all on the same page let’s define a few definitions as it pertains to speed. Linear speed refers to running forward and backward with movement mechanics focusing on the sagittal plane. Lateral speed refers to side to side movement in the frontal plane, while diagonal drills are the combination of both. Barry Saunders was a great example of linear and lateral speed in motion. If you watched one of his games, it was like he was possessed and had two brains operating in two separate parts of his body. He was able to stop on a dime and without breaking his stride, generate top speed in the new direction.

Speed is not as simple as people think. When I talk to parents and coaches, I try to explain to them that there are many aspects to consider when their athlete comes to me for speed work. When one is learning the basic mechanical movements of speed, they must consider a lot of factors such as: the starting position, stride mechanics, leg turnover, and arm action, as well as other factors such as leg and hip strength and torso, hip, and ankle rotational speed. Each of these factors, when controlled and properly trained, will improve overall sport speed.

BODY POSITION AND ARM MECHANICS

Every sport has the same mechanical movements however; they serve for different reasons. For example, lateral movement and change of direction in football can be seen as important for a running back trying to elude a defender. In baseball, a runner may use lateral movement to steal second and third base. Likewise, in basketball lateral movement may be beneficial for a defender that is shuffling over quickly to take a charge from a guard that is driving the lane. Even though each player in the scenarios is using lateral movement and change of direction in their sport for their own purposes, their bodies are all doing the same thing in essence.

To successfully implement the lateral movement for each player in each scenario, their body should be in its sport-specific position, with weight on the balls of the feet and the head and chest should be up and looking forward. The arm action should originate from the shoulder with arms at about 90o of flexion. During movement, the arms should pump back and forth rather then opening up as in a triceps extension. I usually tell my athletes to envision their arms moving more so at the shoulder and doing more of an elbowing back motion and upper cutting forward motion instead of extending as if they are playing the drums. Even in lateral drills, the arms should not move across the body. Again, I tell my athletes to imagine them having a zipper that runs down the middle of their body from head to toe. Everything on the right side stays on the right side and never crosses over to the left and vice versa.

When warming up for lateral movement, emphasis should be placed not only on linear movement but also on movement that is in the sagittal plane preparing the athlete for all lateral movement work. During the dynamic stretches to prep the athlete for lateral movement, the muscles that should be highly concentrated on are the abductor and adductor groups. And as always with any dynamic warm-up the emphasis should be specific to the demands of the activity.


LATERAL MOVEMENT TRAINING (LMT) PROGRESSION

Lateral movement training has the same myths facing it as that of linear speed. Coaches and parents think that both are natural born traits that can’t be taught, however this is not true at all. Lateral movement training is a combination of agility and coordination that can be taught and should be taught at an early age starting at ages 6 or 7. Mike Boyle in his book Functional Training for Sports states that there are three things that every parent, coach, and athlete should take into consideration when it comes to change of direction and the essence of lateral movement.

1. Do you have the single leg strength necessary to not only stop movement, but to restart movement after a stop? Single leg strength is the major key to developing agility. Without single leg strength no amount of agility will allow athletes to make cuts at top speed.
2. Can you decelerate? Eccentric strength is the real key. Think of eccentric strength not as the ability to lower a weight, but instead as the ability to bring the body to a rapid stop. Eccentric strength is the ability to put on the brakes.
3. Can you land with stability? Is the proprioceptive system prepared to create a stable landing?

When teaching my athletes I like to use a technique called the plant, push, and reach in which it teaches athletes that in order to move from one direction to the next laterally, they must push off with the opposite foot to go in the new direction. In order for the athlete to be able to successfully and efficiently perform the plant, push and reach, they must have strong gluteus maximus and minimus muscles so that they are able to generate enough power to decelerate and push into the new direction. In addition, athletes need strength in the glut group as well so that they are able to stabilize their whole body on that one limb before moving into the new direction. When training the athletes the main focus is on technique as stated earlier. We concentrate on the footwork and proper body mechanics and movement in order to become faster, more agile, and quicker on the court and field. The plant and push leg’s insole should have majority of the pressure. In addition, their new directional leg’s knee and shin must be pointing in the new direction that they want to go. We start each athlete off with a step drill in which we emphasize how the foot should be placed and how it should feel when the athlete executes the plant push and reach successfully. Then we progress to adding another step in the new direction making sure that the trial leg’s shin and knee is pointing in the direction that the athlete wants to go. Finally we then progress to the full movement with drills such as the clock drill. During all drills, emphasis is placed on keeping the hips low so that the athlete can change direction as well as wanting them to move their feet quickly, accurately, and low to the ground.


Charlotte Speed Coach

Jump Training: What is it, When and Who Should Use It?

Over the course of the last couple of weeks, I have found myself running into parents that are interested and are requesting that their athletes get involved in some type of jump training program designed to increase their jumping capability and prepare them for the sport that they are to participate in. As a performance enhancement consultant, it has been my experience that “jump” training better known by some as plyometric training or plyos, is one of the most requested forms of training by athletes.

Majority of the readers reading this article has heard a little about jump training and some benefits of its use in training. If you haven’t you wouldn’t be reading this or it wouldn’t have sparked any interest to you to read this article.

Plyometrics is the formal word that we in my industry use to describe jump training. It originated as a training method in the secretive eastern block countries where its common name that you are familiar with originated. As the eastern block countries rose to become powerhouses in sports, plyometric training was credited for much of their success. In the 1920s, the sport of track and field was the first to employ a systematic method of using plyometric-training methods. By the 1970s this methods of power development was being used by other sports that required explosive power for successful competition.

Plyometrics can best be described as “explosive-reactive” power training. This type of training involves powerful muscular contractions in response to a rapid stretching of the involved musculature. These powerful contractions are not a pure muscular event; however, they are a series of events put together. They have an extremely high degree of central nervous system involvement. It is a combination of an involuntary reflex (i.e. a neural event), which is then followed by a fast muscular contraction (i.e. voluntary muscular event). Sound complicated? Well it’s not. Let me break it down with some illustration to help you understand what was just wrote.

Every person that has been to a physician has experienced a plyometric event. When the doctor tapped under your kneecap, causing your leg to jerk, what do you think he/she was checking? The tapped caused a sudden stretch of the tendon that connects to all of the quadriceps (i.e. the muscle involved in extending the knee). Small receptors within the quadriceps create a stretch reflex, which makes the quadriceps responded by contracting explosively. The stretch reflex that caused the leg to extend is called the “myotatic reflex” and is the basis of plyometric physiology. A great illustration that I use with my youth athletes is to visualize a bed box spring coil. When someone pushed down on the coil the energy is stored in the coils ready to be released. When that person, releases their hand off the box spring, it explodes and pops up. It is that stored energy in the box spring coil that produces the force that causes it to spring up the way it does. The same occurs during plyometric training.

The most common human movement, running, is completely a plyometric event. Other common plyometric events include throwing, swinging a golf club/bat, jumping and skipping!

This stretching of the muscles, prior to the explosive contraction that follows, is often called “loading”. In our box spring illustration this would be equivalent to the person pushing down on the spring and the energy being stored inside the springs. The faster and greater the load, the more powerful the reflex and subsequent contraction. In our box spring illustration, the more the person pushes down on that spring, the more height the spring will pop up when it is released from under the person’s hand.

Another good example of this is watching any basketball player jump. They jump higher when they take a drop step. The reason for this is that the few steps create momentum. This momentum is used to create a bigger and faster “load” on the leg plant prior to jumping. The response to this greater load is a greater contraction by the legs and a higher jump height. The same phenomenon exists with all explosive actions.

Many times people confuse some forms of power training for plyometrics. Plyometric training is only one form of power training. A true plyometric exercise must contain a very fast loading phase. That is, for the stretch reflex (i.e. myotatic reflex) to invoke a powerful contraction, it must occur extremely fast.

Going back to our doctor analogy, if the doctor pushed on the tendon below the kneecap, instead of quickly tapping it, would the knee involuntarily jerk up? Of course not, no matter how fast the doctor pushed on that tendon. Therefore, a jump (i.e. from an athletic position) onto a 24-inch box is a power exercise, but not a plyometric exercise. To make it a plyometric exercise one can jump off a 6-12-inch box, hit the ground and immediately jump onto the 24-inch box. Remember our box spring, the energy has to be stored in the coil in order to generate power for the pop. The landing from smaller box loads the legs quick enough to create the stretch reflex needed in plyometric training. This is very demanding – don’t try it without consulting a professional!

By now you should have a better understanding of what constitutes a plyometric exercise. Hopefully, they are not as mysterious as you once thought they were. You should realize that everything we do fast has some plyometric component in it. That’s how come we can do it fast! This is why you parents are looking for it to be implemented into your child’s training regiment.

So, who can participate in plyometric training? The answer is everyone! With proper supervision and progression, everyone can partake in plyometric training, from children to the senior population. If you want to see the real kings of plyometric training, go to any playground and watch children play. Some of the athletes I train have performed many exercise “stolen” from six-year olds. Does the games hopscotch or hopping on one leg ring a bell?

Since I’ve harped on proper progression, let’s define it as it pertains to plyometrics. First and most important, the proper strength base must be developed to support the increased force production that results from the stretch reflex. Remember that the reflex involved in plyometric training allows you to contract your muscles with greater force then you could through a voluntary contraction. Therefore, we must make sure that the musculature can support this increased force production. Secondly, a higher degree of balance and stability are also needed for the quick loading phase. Although a specific body part may seem exclusively involved, the percussive shocks that bring about the myotatic reflex are felt throughout the entire body – all structures must have good integrity to support this training. Third and last, simpler skills must be mastered before progressing to more difficult exercises.

Jump training has received some bad press. Inappropriate use of plyometric training has been associated with various forms of “over-use” injuries, especially in the lower extremities (e.g. patellar and Achilles tendinitis and plantar faciitis). This type of training, especially when done at a very high intensity, is a high-risk endeavor (i.e. high returns but at high risk). Like any other high-risk maneuver, high intensity plyometrics should not designed or performed without the supervision of a professional overseeing the training, and response, to the exercise protocol.

Finally, everyone should understand that like speed training, plyometric training is a continuum. We are all involved in plyometric events everyday. Regardless of the level of intensity, the key to safe participation in plyometrics is proper progression.


Charlotte, NC Performance Enhancement Consultant

The Importance of Agility Training and Youth

Recently I have had the opportunity of the last month and a half to train a plethora of youth during the speed programs that I am operating both male and female ranging from ages 5 years to 15 years of age.

Today we're going to talk about the importance of agility training in speed programs for youth athletes.

'Agility' is defined as quality of being agile; the power of moving the limbs quickly and easily; nimbleness; activity; quickness of motion; as, strength and agility of body. Agility is one of those words that when asked, has a lot of different responses to what it is. When people talk about agility, most often they are talking about an athlete's ability to make cuts and change directions quickly. In my opinion, the primary components to improved agility are through the development of BALANCE, COORDINATION, and TIMING WITH RHYTHM.

What is balance? Balance is the ability to maintain equilibrium when stationary or moving (i.e. not to fall over) through the coordinated actions of our sensory functions (eyes, ears and the proprioceptive organs in our joints). There are two different types or categories of balance:
1. Static Balance - ability to retain the centre of mass above the base of support in a stationary position
2. Dynamic Balance - ability to maintain balance under changing conditions of body movement. Dynamic balance is what most of the parents and athletes that are reading this article are interested in with their speed training.

Agility rhythm is the coordination of balance and body control. Every agility drill and exercise has its own timing and rhythm. Timing and rhythm helps develop what is needed in improving special athletic skills. Sports specific training with athletic gain requires that agility of the movement be practiced to make the movement of the exercise be as close as possible to the actual sport's movement.

Before you introduce any complicated drills that have athletes going in multiple directions over the course of a time period, one must take a step back and address the athletes' level of coordination, balance, and rhythmical patterns.

In my experience, even the best athletes have problems in these areas.

The thing about agility is this:

The earlier this issue is addressed, the better the long-term results. If your athletes don't begin developing their balance, coordination, and rhythm until their mid-teens, they will be limited in the amount of development they can make.

That's why I train kids as early as possible, preferably before pre adolescence.
I'm not saying a 18 year old senior can't improve their agility to a significant degree, but then if they had started when they were 5, they'd be much better off. See the video!



Just something to think about for those coaches who work with youth at an early age.

OK, here is what to do...

STEP 1: Improve balance, rhythm, and coordination

My favorite way to both expose an athlete's lack of balance and coordination and also develop it is through the use of an agility ladder.

You can do an infinite number of drills that focus on single leg movement, double leg, linear, lateral, backward movement, change of direction - The list goes on and on.

All of these movements are sport specific because it trains their body to imitate the movements that they will go through during their competition.

As we get those down, we implement the traditional cone drills that allow for more instruction on movement patterns that are more applicable to game situations.

I always preach to my athletes that technique comes before speed when doing any agility ladder drill. The emphasis should not be placed solely on how fast someone completes the drill, but if their technique is sound and they are able to perform the skill correctly.

Transfer of sport

As stated earlier in this article, I use agility work with all my athletes no matter what type of sport they participate in field or court. Transfer of the timing and rhythm is necessary for improvement. The separation of the good athlete from the great athlete lies in developing the creative characteristics of timing and rhythms in agility. Each sport and each athlete of that sport has a synchronized timing and rhythm which defines their relationship to each other. The more specific the agility drill is to the actual sport's task, the more benefit will come from the drill and exercise. From the practice field, court, mat, or diamond, the physical and mental rehearsal is the trigger to accomplishing the most difficult movements.

Repetition of the Agility Drills

By practicing repetition of agility drills and exercises, the athlete is better able to:
• Limit wasted motion;
• Limit wasted movement;
• Develop a natural flow and athletic grace;
• Become more competent in agility of speed and strength;
• Become more efficient in movement - eliminate incorrect arm action, etc.

RAQ-Reaction, AGility, Quickness Speed Training in Charlotte, NC

“KNOT” being the Best Athlete that You can be?

Here are a couple of things to help you improve and enhance your athletic performance…

Did you know that by receiving Sports Massage Therapy and stretching can prevent sports injuries and enhance your performance no matter what sport you participate in? Let’s first begin by explaining what Sports Massage Therapy is and then why stretching is so important.

What is Sports Massage Therapy?

Sports Massage Therapy (SMT) is a type of massage that uses specific massage techniques that enhance or relax the muscles for your specific sport or event. Sports massage therapy is essential for optimum treatment of certain injuries and becomes part of an athlete’s conditioning. This applies to Olympic athletes, professional athletes, and college athletes. They incorporate this into their athletic regimens; so why shouldn’t you do the same?

What are the benefits of SMT?

Several benefits to receiving Sports Massage Therapy

1. Improves flexibility and elasticity of muscles
2. Reduces the tightness and/or soreness
3. Boosts power and performance
4. Decreases the chance of injury
5. Speeds up recovery time
6. Improves range of motion (ROM)
7. Restores mobility to injured muscle tissue
8. Increases the flow of blood and nutrients
9. Helps eliminate muscle cramps and/or muscle spasms

How can SMT specifically help you as an athlete?

Between practicing, working out, training and then playing a sport, your body is put under a lot of strain as you push your muscles to their limit. When muscles become overwhelmed they can cramp up or spasm and if left untreated you could end up with a sport injury. Then something even worse may happen, you get injured and you’re on the bench or worse yet, out for the season. Massage therapy helps break up the “knots” and/or scar tissue as well as releases the toxins within the muscles. Once the muscle releases and become loose, there is an improved range of motion (ROM), flexibility and the chance of injury has decreased. The best part of receiving a sports massage, as you begin to run, cycle, play football, basketball, soccer, baseball, tennis, swimming, hockey etc. is your improved and enhanced performance, which allows you to be the best athlete you can be. When receiving a sports massage it can even lengthen your gait. Because your muscles now have the capability to extend further you are able to have a bigger gait allowing you to run faster. Examples: if you are a football receiver, you can run down the field faster; if you are a baseball player you can run to home plate faster; if you are a soccer player you can out run your opponent to score a goal; if you are a basketball player you can run faster to make that layup shot; if you are a runner, you can decrease your finish time. I think you get the picture. The benefits for each sport and muscle group just go on and on…

Why is stretching so important?

Now that you know the importance of receiving a sports massage, it is also and just as important to stretch. Stretching is something that is easy that you can do on your own once the correct stretches are shown for each muscle groups. Keeping your muscles flexible and mobile is the key in reducing the chance of injury. Stretching should be a part of your athletic regimen every day just as you are on a specific nutritional diet, exercise, strength training, receiving sports massage therapy treatments and meet with a trainer or coach. You do all of these things to help you achieve your athletic goal. Why not add stretching as another tool to help you? Olympians, professional athletes, and collegiate athletes all stretch every time they practice, hit the field, court, pavement etc. and most of them receive a sports massage therapy. Why? Because it helps to improve and enhance their performance and helps prevent sports injuries.

Sports Massage Therapy and stretching can improve and enhance your performance, decrease recovery time and keep you at your peak allowing you to achieve maximum results time and time again. So get the “knots” out and be the best athlete you can be! Receive a Sports Massage today and feel the benefits and let us help you become a better athlete.

You can learn more about Sports Massage Therapy and about the massage therapist by checking out this website www.thesportsmassage.com or by calling 704-277-4169.

Jessica L. Marriott, NCTMB, LMBT



Jessica L. Marriott, NCTMB, LMBT is a nationally certified and licensed by North Carolina. She has been a therapist for over 12 years. She loves to watch and play sports. She has always been an athlete and has played some type of sport most of her life. She love helping people especially athletes. She has worked on professional athletes such as the Pittsburgh Penguins and Carolina Cobras as well as the "every day athlete". She helped athletes in a variety of sports ranging from hockey, football, soccer, basketball, baseball, golf and tennis as well as dancers, gymnast, runners, cyclist, and tri-athletes. As your sports massage therapist she strives to help you become a better athlete by helping you achieve your goals and help improve and enhance your performance.


Charlotte Licensed Sports Massage Therapist

Charlotte Leading Strength/ Speed Coach Expert and Personal Trainer

Stretching Can Hurt Speed Training

Here are some of the dynamic exercises in the video (lunge walk, high knee, Frankenstein, lateral lunge walk, leg swings forward and side to side, butt kicks, and curtsy walk).

Flexibility training is perhaps the most undervalued component of speed training. While recent and ongoing debates question its role in injury prevention, athletes can still gain much from a stretching regime. Flexibility is defined as the range of motion about joint surrounding muscles during a passive movement. Passive movement refers to gravity or partner assisting the movement instead of actual muscle contraction to activate the stretch. This article is dedicated to explaining why flexibility is important in developing speed. In addition, we will look at the difference types of stretching and when to use them, when they are beneficial, and when they are detrimental in an athlete’s speed workout. We also will discuss how to stretch and develop a stretching program for a speed workout.

Flexibility may reduce injury and increase range of motion ROM. There are factors that also affect flexibility:

Age: flexibility particularly extensibility decreases with age
Gender: Females exhibit greater ROM
Activity: those that are active are more flexible
Internal tissue temperature: temperature influences ROM which is why it is important to warm up before stretching. Athletes should take 10-15 minutes after their workout for static stretching and should concentrate at least 30 seconds per muscle group.
Injury: scar tissue from previous injury affects ROM in a joint

A more flexible athlete equals a more mobile athlete. A good flexibility regiment enhances movement on the court and field and causes athletes to have a greater ease of movement as well as increases the body’s awareness and promote relaxation. For instance, take the hip flexor muscles which are one of the most important muscle groups for running. The hip flexor is located above the thigh and affects the stride length and stride frequency (which is the most important) of athletes. Increasing flexibility in the hip flexor results in an increase in stride length. Athletes in different sports have varying flexibility needs in order to avoid injuries. For example, sprinter type athletes (soccer players, football players, rugby players, basketball players, and baseball players) have a much larger movement and ROM requirement for their sport in comparison to an endurance/ distance runner. As a result, the sprinters would need more of a flexibility regiment than the distance runners. In addition, even though flexibility is important, it can vary between individuals.


Static stretching is the most common form of stretching and is a more traditional way to improve flexibility. Static stretching just prior to an event may be detrimental to actual performance due to the nature of the stretch and hold component. It is performed with no bouncing during the stretch and there is no emphasis on speed. The athlete holds the stretch for at least 30 seconds. It should be incorporated into the cool-down phase of a training session. Static stretches are often simple to learn and perform and require little effort.

However, dynamic stretching is more beneficial because it mimics the actual movements that will be engaged in the events and activities. It should be done after a proper warm up prior to training. Dynamic flexibility is performing stretches or movements that would simulate the actual movement required of the activity. These movements are performed at similar speed to the movement and differ from ballistic stretches in that they do not involve any bouncing or jerky movements.

Sample stretching workout

Dynamic stretching
Lunge walk
Butt kicks
Frankenstein
Lateral Lunge walk
One sided carioca
Curtsy walk
High knees
Skipping
Figure 4
Spiderman
Backward runs
Leg Swing (Forward/ Lateral)

Static Stretches
Hamstring Stretch
Sit on the ground with both legs straight out in front of you.
Bend the left leg and place the sole of the left foot alongside the knee of the right leg.
Allow the left leg to lie relaxed on the ground.
Bend forward keeping the back straight.
You will feel the stretch in the hamstring of the right leg.
Repeat with the other leg.

Calf Stretch
Stand tall with one leg in front of the other, hands flat and at shoulder height against a wall.
Ease your back leg further away from the wall, keeping it straight and press the heel firmly into the floor.
Keep your hips facing the wall and the rear leg and spine in a straight line.
You will feel the stretch in the calf of the rear leg.
Repeat with the other leg.

Hip and Thigh Stretch
Stand tall with you feet approximately two shoulder widths apart.
Turn the feet and face to the right.
Bend the right leg so that the right thigh is parallel with the ground and the right lower leg is vertical.
Gradually lower the body.
Keep you back straight and use the arms to balance.
You will feel the stretch along the front of the left thigh and along the hamstrings of the right leg.
Repeat by turning and facing to the left.

Adductor Stretch
Stand tall with you feet approximately two shoulder widths apart.
Bend the right leg and lower the body.
Keep you back straight and use the arms to balance.
You will feel the stretch in the left leg adductor.
Repeat with the left leg.

Groin Stretch
Sit with tall posture.
Ease both of your feet up towards your body and place the soles of your feet together, allowing your knees to come up and out to the side.


Charlotte Leading Speed and Strength Coach

What Every Speed Program Should Have

One of the most sought after athletic attributes is speed, unfortunately it is also one of the most difficult areas to improve. One of the biggest mistakes made when training for speed is focusing mainly on running mechanics and speed and agility drills. Minor improvements in speed may be seen by improving running mechanics, however real speed is not attainable without good core strength, leg strength, and efficient movement. Here are a few areas that athletes need to address when improving their performance in any sport.

1. Core stability. For an athlete to reach his or her full strength and power potential there must be a specific focus on core stability and strength. Any speed program should originate from or through the core. A well-developed core allows for improved force output, increased neuromuscular efficiency and decreased chance of injury. Core strength training provides the athlete with a solid base around which all athletic movement occurs. The center of all power and strength in the human body used to make explosive athletic movements originate in the core of the body. The core is the center that coordinates all human movements. The more quality training performed with the core, the more potential the athlete has to transfer the training to their specific sport and enhance performance.

2. Agility. Athletic movements are often quick, ballistic and powerful. Athletes are required to start, stop and change directions in an instant. Agility is the ability to change directions quickly and explosively on command or in reaction to a stimulus. Agility is the process of accelerating then decelerating to a quick stop and then accelerating to top speed. Agility drills are an effective way to increase and athlete’s quickness and reaction time.

3. Flexibility. Flexibility training is perhaps the most undervalued component of speed training. While recent and ongoing debates question its role in injury prevention, athletes can still gain much from a stretching regime. Flexibility may reduce injury and increase range of motion ROM. A more flexible athlete equals a more mobile athlete. A good flexibility regiment enhances movement on the court and field and causes athletes to have a greater ease of movement as well as increases the body’s awareness and promotes relaxation.

4. Balance and coordination. Balance and the ability to react to auditory and visual cues are all important elements of coordination. Balance training helps the athlete develop good coordination through a series of balance exercises that progress from simple static poses to more dynamic drills. With more advanced exercises the athlete is challenged to maintain balance at increased speeds and in constantly changing environments. Training the athletes to have control of their bodies in space is the main focal point.

5. Strength training. The stronger the athlete is, the faster they will be able to run. Performance enhanced strength training, especially in the off-season, is the initial basis for improved performance in the next season. By getting stronger, athletes are able to work longer and harder in developing our skills in practice. It can help to create more power in each of their sprint / running strokes and therefore increase their speed output.

Regardless of the sport the athlete competes in, these 5 main components are the focal points that should be address when training to improve the playing speed of an athlete in their sport.


Speed and Strength Coach in Charlotte NC

The Need For Quickness Training

As a speed coach, I get asked by parents and coaches if speed and quickness are different, or the same, or if one is more important than the other. Every coach and parent wants the same result, for their athlete(s) to be faster and quicker. I always say that usually athletes need to be quicker to get to one point before their opponent does and then speed to finish off the play. In most sports the average time of a play is a couple of seconds. For example, in football the average play takes about 3-5 seconds. In addition, athletes are required to cover a small amount of distance in a short amount of time. You seldom see athletes that are required to run for a long distance or for a long period of time.

So to answer the question they both speed and quickness are important in order for the athlete to be successful in whatever sport they are participating in.

Quickness training is one of the most overlooked areas in speed training - and sometimes seldom addressed or forgotten.

Just as the myth that some think that athletes are born with speed, the same applies with the concept of quickness. Quickness too can be taught and learned over a period of time if taught properly.

Quickness is how fast someone responds to a stimulus; whereas, reaction time is a part of someone's quickness and can be trained. Quickness training drills can be implemented in an athlete's agility training so that they can also train for speed and quickness during the same session.

Here are some training drills you can use for quickness development:

-Ball Drop
Your partner holds a tennis ball out in one hand. You start in an athletic stance and when the tennis ball is released/dropped, you sprint to the ball and snatch it before it bounces more than once. This is a great drill for first step quickness training.

You can change the distance that you partner stands away from you.

-Partner Mirror Drill
This is like the shadow game that you use to play as kids. This drill is performed between partners. One partner starts moving and the other partner follows and doesn't allowed to be juked. You need to try and mirror the movement and match each reaction.

-Fox and Hound
One person will be designated as the fox (leader). The other will be designated as the hound (chaser). The leader’s/ fox job is to try to elude the chaser/ hound as much as possible without the hound touching him/her. Place four cones in a square and designate the distance between the four cones, with a fifth one in the middle. The fox can run around the cones in any order or direction trying not to get touched. Remember the hound has to follow the same pattern as the fox. Note: have the fox run out about five yards or 5-6 seconds before releasing the hound to make the drill harder for the hound if the goal is to work on reaction for the defensive player. For offensive player, have the hound released earlier to have the fox work harder to elude and cut harder.

Variation(s): Have a third person (coach) with a watch or a whistle to time the two for a designate amount of time during the drill. At the beginning, the coach yells “Go!” and the drills begin for the amount of 20 -30 seconds. Then the coach yells “Stops!” The roles are switch. Points are awarded to each player. If the hound is able to catch and touch the person he/she is awarded one (1) point. If the fox is unable to get caught, he/she is able are awarded two (2) points. Penalties: (1) one point is taken away from the fox if he/she runs outside the designate boundaries. Also if the hound dives, then one (1) point is taken away. Have the loser perform a designated amount of push ups or some other form of punishment in order to make the game or drill better. For a more reaction and situational setting have the coach blow the whistle at unexpected times to change the role from the fox to hound and vice versa.

These quickness training drills with help your athletes become faster and should be added to every sports speed training program.

Speed and Performance Coach in Charlotte, NC

Top Speed Training Myths Revealed

As a speed coach, I receive questions about training speed. So I've taken those questions that I hear the most and answered them in a slightly different format.

1. Static stretching prepares you to compete/practice

Static stretching actually reduces power output. The best type of stretching that an athlete should utilize before practice is dynamic stretching which warms up the body and prepares and mimics the movement that the athlete’s body will be engaged in doing. The progression of movement should start off from basic, low intensity movements to faster, more explosive movements as the muscles loosen up.

2. Stretch and then do a warm up

You should never stretch a cold muscle because you can cause more harm than good to the muscle belly while the muscle is cold. Instead, athletes should do some small warm up to increase the body temperature so that the muscle is warm and plausible to stretch. Think of the muscle as a rubber band. Would you stretch a cold rubber band that has been in the freezer for days?

3. Strength training makes females too bulky

This is a popular mindset with many female athletes that we have worked with. However, this as far fetched of a myth than any of the ones that I have to debunk. Strength training not only is of injury prevention because it assists with building the muscles, tendons, and ligaments to withstand the stress of the sports. In addition, we know that the female population is more susceptible to anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries than their male counterparts. Fatigued lower limb muscles can inhibit the ability to control dynamic sports landing movements, increasing the risk of non-contact injury to the knee’s anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), particularly among females. Prevention and prehabilitation is always better the rehabilitation. Strength training will improve performance and reduce injury if done correctly. If you look at Mia Hamm, Venus and Serna Williams, these athletes train with weights and have a great physique on and off the court.

4. You can’t train speed


For some reason it is a popular belief that you are born with a certain amount of ‘speed’ and you can’t improve it. If that’s the case than the Olympians that participate every four years waste their time throughout training to get better because they have nature born speed that will just come on when the touch foot on the track. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Speed is a skill that can be learned and the problem that I see with most young athletes is they are so physically weak and mechanically out of tune that significant improvements in speed can be made often just by working on technique and form. Athletes at any age and any level can improve speed when implementing a complete speed training program designed to improve and develop the entire athlete.

5. Training slow makes you fast


I don’t think coaches directly believe this way, but their training implies otherwise. I think they understand this when it comes to practicing for their sport for they know that in order for the athletes to get a true feel and understanding of what is required when in competition, the athlete must be put in ‘game speed’ situations so that their bodies are able to react. The same is true for speed training, in order for an athlete to be able to get faster, they must train their fast twitch muscle fibers consistently and properly so that they will be able to translate their training to the competition. Athletes must train how they play or train the way their sports demands of them. For example in sports that involve a higher aerobic element such as soccer, field hockey, lacrosse, etc. I see kids out running mileage and doing long slow intervals of several minutes of continuous running. If their goal is to get faster for the season and want to improve their overall speed and first step quickness to the ball, they must train their muscles to fire and work in the same manner that the demand will be placed on them for the sport. If you want athletes to improve their acceleration and top speed so they can get to the ball faster or get back on defense, then you have to train by running at full speed in practice.

6. You can train hard every day

Most coaches and parents understand this concept when it comes to strength training with training the same body part over and over. However, when it comes to speed training this concept gets thrown out the window for some reason. The workout itself is only a piece of the training puzzle. Just as with strength training, athlete’s muscles aren’t built in the weight room but during the recovery period, so is true with speed training. It is the time between intense workouts, the recovery, where athletes make their improvements. And generally it takes 36-48 hours to recover from high intensity training. If athletes are doing too much, too often they become over trained. Coaches can expect to see an increase in injuries, athletes complaining that they are sore more often, decreased performance, higher levels of fatigue earlier in games, and the BIG ONE—burnout. It’s always better to under train an athlete than over train. Err on the side of caution to get maximal results.

7. Strength training will stunt a young athlete’s growth


This is another myth held over from a different time. With parents having their kids participate in year round sports, strength training can assist with preventing some of the injuries that these athletes may be susceptible to with year round participation. These loads on the body can have a much greater physical impact than a well designed strength training program. Though I don’t usually begin training with weights with pre pubescent athletes, they can benefit from body weight exercises such as push ups, full body squats, pull ups, crunches, sit ups, etc. This will increase muscular efficiency, speed up recovery, improve coordination and overall speed.

8. The harder the workout, the better the result

Some athletes (and coaches) have this mentality that if a workout doesn’t reduce them to complete exhaustion and/or make them vomit, that it wasn’t an effective workout. I hated coaches that thought like this and now that I am a speed/ performance coach, I still hate it. The reasoning behind the vomiting is that the body is trying to buffer the blood due to it being too acidic and the lack of oxygen left for the muscles to use during the workout. Now that young athletes are dying due to myocarditis and other abnormal heart conditions, ‘old school’ coaches that have this mentality need not apply with working with youth athletes period. Also those who have this mentality probably see a lot of injuries and frustrating performances. The purpose of a workout is to stimulate an adaptation by the body. If the body is forced to do too much work in a given time period, it will break down. The skill in coaching is to stimulate the adaptation in the body, without reaching a point of diminishing returns.

9. Interval training is the same as speed training

Running repeat 100s, 200s, etc will not improve top speeds. Even running
repeat 40s with short recovery will not improve acceleration and top speeds. I wish someone had explained this myth and concept to my college coaches when they had us doing repeated 100s and 200s in the hot summer heat to improve our speed! Speed work is defined at 2-8 seconds of maximal intensity running with full recovery. That means at least 2 minutes of light dynamic movement between each effort. This
goes against the experience of some coaches, but simply put, is the only way to improve speed. An athlete must be able to focus on proper form and maintain intensity in order to get faster. If they do not recover properly from each interval, they will not be able to replicate proper mechanics with consistency and they can not improve.

10. Flexibility won’t help you get faster

Both coaches and athletes spend so much time on the skills of their sport, speed training and conditioning that they often forget a fundamental component of success: flexibility. After practice or a game, the muscles are warm and loose. Now is the time to work on increasing flexibility. So many athletes suffer injuries or compete below their capacity because poor flexibility inhibits their range of motion and speed. I see this often in the hips and hip flexors where athletes’ stride length appears conspicuously short. Most often I see this in male athletes who will lift weights, train hard and then skip out on their cool down and flexibility work. Hey I have been guilty of this one myself throughout the years of my high school and collegiate career.


11. Lift your knees

I hear so many parents and coaches yelling to their kids when they want them to run faster or when they are beginning to fatigue, “Lift your knees, Get your knees up”.
This is one of the most backwards cues you can give to athletes. The way to run faster is to apply more force to the ground. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, so the more force you apply to the ground, the more the ground will give
back. So when we cue athletes to lift their knees we’re doing two things incorrectly. One, we’re telling them to use their hip flexors to lift instead of their glutes and hamstrings to drive down. Just think about the size of your hip flexor versus the size of the glutes and hamstrings. Now which muscles do you think can create more force and therefore more speed? Second, we’re cueing them and teaching a movement that is in opposition to what generates speed. If an athlete learns at age 7, to lift their knees when they need a burst of speed, that improper cue will be hardwired into their brain. To unlearn that as a teen and try to do the opposite and drive down, that athlete will have a difficult time coordinating an entirely new way of running and will potentially have to take a step or two backwards. That’s why it is critical to learn proper form early and get an advantage over those who still aren’t getting the best instruction. So cue athletes to step over the opposite knee and drive the foot down into the ground, with the foot landing underneath the hip.

Speed/ Performance Coach and Speed Camps in Charlotte, NC

Dear Mr. Obama: Help our kids play

I thought since we all have been glued to the news rather you voted for the new President or not this past election, this blog post was appropriate for the occasion. It was taken from ESPN.com on my blackberry and it's an open letter to President Barack Obama. I hope you enjoy it.

Dear Mr. President:

Every 50 years or so since the rise of the U.S. as an industrial power, someone with your impending job title takes a hard look at the athletic activity of children.

He finds neglect and opportunity.

He takes action.

He leaves the nation -- and, ultimately, the sports nation -- in a better place.

Just over a century ago, it was Teddy Roosevelt. Ascending to the presidency at a time when America was about to make its play as leader of the free world, he didn't like what he saw happening with teenage boys. Roosevelt grew up an asthmatic, a sickly boy from polluted New York who made his body strong by embracing a life of vigorous exercise. He wrestled and lifted weights, and he boxed even after moving into the White House. He worried that the comforts of urban life had rendered middle- and upper-class boys soft and effeminate, raised, as many of them were, by their mothers. They hardly seemed fit, the way he saw it, to take over the businesses that their more manly fathers were hard at work creating. At the same time, the nation needed dependable laborers to pave the expansion into new markets. Sports, and team sports specifically, became seen as a way to indoctrinate immigrant boys into the ways of American capitalism. "Only aggressive sports can create the brawn, the spirit, the self-confidence, and quickness of men essential for the existence of a strong nation," Roosevelt roared.


Stirred, TR's contemporaries introduced organized sports to school systems in Gotham and other large cities. And they built thousands of playgrounds, green spaces where kids could get off the streets and get into games like baseball.

A half-century later, Dwight Eisenhower was fighting a Cold War that seemed as if it might turn hot on a moment's notice. As a former general, he knew that half of all men who had shown up at draft boards around the nation were considered physically unfit. And a study presented at the American Medical Association had shown that U.S. children were far more out of shape than their European peers. Over there, kids still walked or rode bikes to school and chopped wood for home heating. In the new suburban America, boys and girls were being driven everywhere. Home chores consisted of making their beds. As for school sports, they were focused on interscholastic competition, the province of the certified jock.

An alarmed Ike created in 1956 what ultimately became known as the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, which promoted physical education classes as early as first grade. Intramurals exploded, giving the less athletically gifted kid a chance to compete. Also, the groundwork was laid for passage a few years later of a federal program to help fund the construction or renovation of 40,000 parks and recreation centers in just about every county in the country. Today's baby boomers, the first generation to grow up with an exercise ethos, were the chief beneficiaries of these investments.

Your turn, No. 44.

I know you have a lot on your plate, between fixing the economy and smoking out bin Laden. But you've got a big brain, so let me introduce you to another mounting crisis that will require your leadership to solve: That of our sport system at its base. Maybe as you're trying to modernize our schools and mend our health care system, you can think about building in reforms to the opportunities our children have for physical activity.

From the top down, the system looks pretty good. Our pro leagues are thriving, as are the owners of their franchises. Our athletes are worldwide brands -- Kobe; A-Rod; Peyton Manning; the Williams sisters; and, especially, Tiger. From the window of an airplane, our mega-stadiums sparkle like 10-carat diamonds amid urban and college-town landscapes.

But viewed from the bottom up, the setup looks a lot more like the Wall Street we have come to know of late: a system compromised by greed and ignorance, in which the haves increasingly get rewarded at the expense of the have-nots, with the support of government.


To understand where the priorities lie today, start in America's largest burg. Last week, officials for the city and the New York Yankees were hauled before a state assembly committee to justify the most expensive stadium project in U.S. history. The $1.5 billion ballpark is being built on one of those historic playgrounds built a century ago, Macombs Dam Park, whose fields over the years have served countless youth and school teams in the South Bronx, the poorest congressional district in the U.S. The city effectively gave a 22-acre parcel to the richest team in baseball, then allegedly jacked up the estimated value of the land to gain access to $940 million in federal tax-exempt bonds. Now the Yankees have been granted another $370 million in such bonds -- just weeks after signing Mark Teixeira and two other free agents for a combined $423 million.

The city promises to build a series of smaller replacement parks elsewhere. But some won't be ready for years, one will be on top of a parking garage, and another is in an industrial area far from the neighborhood. And we'll see what residents really get once the economy wreaks full havoc on city budgets.

"In New York City, 70 percent of kids are kicked to the curb at the end of the school day," said Al Bevilacqua, a wrestling coach whose nonprofit organization, Beat the Streets, is trying to reintroduce that sport to public schools using private funding. In the city that pioneered the uniquely American tradition of school sports, the options for many students are very limited. As an undergraduate at Columbia, you lived in New York long enough to get a sense of the experiential gap between that of a large public high school there and an elite private school such as the one you attended in Honolulu. Well, it's grown. Intramurals and quality P.E. classes are scarce, and only so many kids can make varsity basketball. Do you know how many U.S. Olympians the Big Apple sent to Beijing? Just eight. Four fencers, one boxer, one judoka, one riflewoman and one table tennis player originally trained in China.

Australia, which draws from a population only some two and a half times the size of New York City, won 46 medals.

Just about everywhere in America, inner-city kids struggle to find athletic opportunities. That's true even in places like Miami, with its reputation for producing elite football players. Miami Northwestern Senior High School won the mythical national championship in 2007 with a team that sent more than a dozen seniors to D-I programs, yet the school profile shows most students at the school couldn't pass the annual fitness exam. So is Northwestern a jock factory -- or a fitness flunkie?

You'd never know it from watching pro sports, in which African-American presence has grown, but black teenagers play sports less often than they did decades ago. In 1980, no ethnic group had a higher participation rate, according to U.S. Department of Education statistics. Not anymore. In fact, since then, no group has lost more participants. The obesity crisis is a national problem, but especially in black and Hispanic communities.

Those at the top of the sports pyramid aren't unaware of deficits at the bottom. Perhaps no league does more than the NFL, which has created an endowment that spends $25 million a year on refurbishing community football fields in distressed areas, according to a league spokesman. But such gifts are table scraps in the all-you-can-eat feast that is pro sports, where growth has been fueled by billions in public subsidies and tax advantages.

"They're more or less P.R. campaigns," says Scott Lancaster, who ran the NFL's youth programs for 12 years until 2007.

The NFL recently stopped funding one of its main youth programs. Junior Player Development, created by Lancaster, had helped repopularize football in poor urban areas by introducing the game to hundreds of thousands of kids through trained coaches. Many went on to play in college. Now the well-regarded program has been shut down, likely for good. The NFL cites the economy. Lancaster suspects it had more to do with posturing for negotiations with the players' union, a desire to plead poverty where none exists. "They've put youth in the middle and made it a victim," he says.

In tough times, sports funding for kids is always an easy cut. Even in the 'burbs now, school districts are talking about eliminating teams -- or even entire athletic programs. "You're going to see decisions made in the next two years that we've never seen made," one Connecticut high school athletic director told me. Youth sports in these communities will become further privatized, the realm of parents who can afford to sign their kids up for an endless slate of organized activities, from sport-specific camps to private lessons to travel teams with paid coaches.

It's hard to get your mind around how much the sports activity of children has changed since we were boys. As recently as the mid-1990s, the average age at which kids began to play organized sports was 8. Now, many start slipping on uniforms by 5, and after that you rarely see kids playing games without one. When my daughter was in second grade, there were girls on her rec league soccer team who were in their ninth season of soccer, having been signed up each fall, winter and spring since kindergarten (three seasons a year).

By third grade, in some sports, elite travel teams are being formed that stand apart from the in-town rec leagues that historically have provided opportunities for all kids. Ghettoized, the rec leagues begin to wither, while the travel kids go on to dominate varsity rosters. We're effectively holding high school tryouts now in grade school, sorting the weak from the strong before kids even hit puberty.

You seem like a man who can appreciate that youth sport is the most important institution in all of sports, because that's where the magic begins. It's where we learn to love these games, picking up fitness habits and rooting interests that can last a lifetime. But many kids start falling away from sports around age 11 now. The system has become less accessible to the late bloomer, the economically disadvantaged, the child of a one-parent household, the physically or mentally disabled, and the kid who needs exercise more than any other: the clinically obese.

We also risk burning out the "winners" of this premature struggle. It's worth keeping in mind the modern cautionary tale of Elena Delle Donne, the 2008 national high school player of the year in girls basketball. Soon after arriving at UConn with a full ride, she quit the game, later explaining that she had stopped enjoying hoops back in middle school. All those AAU national championships, all those sessions with the personal trainer her parents had hired for her since second grade, led to no return on investment. She chose to walk on instead with a volleyball team at the University of Delaware, closer to home and friends.

Government policies have shaped this landscape. It's tempting to point to Title IX for the spread of scholarship mania among parents, as the amount of athletic aid handed out by NCAA programs has quadrupled since the early 1990s, to $1.5 billion annually. But that law also has been the greatest tool for growing participation since, well, the advent of organized youth sports, by forcing high schools and middle schools to create opportunities for girls.

It's clear that you, Barack, get that.


"I am the father of two young girls who are growing up playing sports and who are the beneficiaries of the doors Title IX opened," you said last year, signaling your intention to strengthen enforcement of the law down to the "pre-kindergarten" level.

Far more problematic is the Olympic and Amateur Sports Act, which charters the U.S. Olympic Committee and makes requirements of the national governing bodies of individual sports. The law asks that the USOC coordinate amateur sports activity in the country, but it's an unfunded mandate, a real bridge to nowhere (which was a specialty of its author, former Senator Ted Stevens). The USOC has focused its limited resources on the elite of the elite, making little effort to push coaches' education down to the youth level. In Europe, coaches are certified and trained in athlete development; here, the scene is dominated by millions of parent volunteers, well-meaning but winging it.

Attrition drops when coaches are trained in working with kids. It's been proven.

You are no doubt looking for ways to cut, not add to, the federal budget. But look at it this way: The economic consequences of Americans' physical inactivity are huge, costing more than $76 billion a year in direct medical costs alone, according to one academic study. Health care is a major priority of yours, with an emphasis on prevention. There's no better preventative care than finding a sport for life, like those weekly pickup hoop games you'll soon bring to the White House, Cabinet members in tow.

A bunch of your advisers got game, from education secretary nominee Arne Duncan (former Harvard co-captain) to attorney general nominee Eric Holder (former Columbia player) to brother-in-law Craig Robinson (current Oregon State men's coach). So get them in a huddle and come up with a new model for grassroots sports, built from the bottom up with a simple premise: sport as a human right, just like education. Here's how to do it:

• Offer incentives for schools to create more teams, not fewer, which is what is happening in the era of No Child Left Behind, with its strictly academic focus. The least that schools can do is modernize P.E. by connecting teens with local clubs that sponsor lesser-known sports in which they might find success. "You have to connect the national governing bodies with the schools," says Judy Young, a top expert on school-based sports. "Schools just can't teach the full array of 45 sports seen in the Olympics."

• Restore funding for urban parks and rec centers that have been gutted in recent years. Perhaps you can pay for it with a tax on the pro leagues that do business in these cities and whose empires have been built on the public dime.

• Rewrite the Olympic and Amateur Sports Act so that Job 1 for the USOC is tending to the base of the participation pyramid. While you're at it, enlist Larry Probst, its new chairman, who comes from the video game industry, to share what he knows about creating games that engage today's children. "A lot needs to be learned about making sports a contemporary experience for kids," says Lancaster, who while at the NFL experimented with hybrid games that married hand-held video with real play. "We're still asking them to play games the way their dads did a generation ago."

The key is getting progressive, not sentimental, about youth sports. Parents just aren't going to let their kid ride a bike halfway across town anymore to play sandlot ball, unsupervised. The murder of Adam Walsh changed all that.

And now, you can change it again, for the better. Imagine a Chicago Olympics in 2016 -- the first truly "Sport for All" Olympics, as you can pitch it when the host city is selected in October 2009, deploying an ideal celebrated by the IOC. An Olympics in which national governing bodies like U.S. Swimming and U.S. Badminton already are making new efforts to go into the inner city and get kids involved. An Olympics with a legacy of facilities that will benefit regular athletes, not just elites. An Olympics measured by growth in the number of Chicago kids who play sports into their teenage years and beyond. An Olympics that can cap your eight-year run as a president known for fresh ideas, with a statement in your adopted hometown about the possibilities of American sport.

The moment is there for the taking, Mr. Obama. It's one Teddy and Ike would surely seize.

Hope that gets you thinking.

Sincerely,

Tom Farrey

Tom Farrey is the author of "Game On: The All-American Race to Make Champions of Our Children," an exploration of the culture of modern youth sports. The book, his first, was recently named the 2008 Sports Education Book of the Year by the Institute of International Sport at the University of Rhode Island. Tom can be reached at tom.farrey@espn3.com

Youth Fitness Professional in Charlotte, NC