First thing in the off-season...

Poor nutrition will minimize off-season gains

High school and junior league football seasons are either over or coming to a close. So now its time to start thinking about what to do in the off-season. Most people immediately think weight lifting. But there is something else that if not taken care of, will quickly reduce off-season performance:The first thing that needs to be done is to evaluate what your kids are eating.

Sure everybody wants to talk about sports training and weight lifting to get ready for the next sports season. But in honesty now is the time to look at the nutrition habits of your athletes, and even your family.

Here are some simple rules to follow when putting together a weekly menu for you and your young athletes.

4 days of lunch done.

1. Make sure your kids eat a breakfast of grains and protein. A quick and easy breakfast for them is to have some Wheaties, Cheerios or All-Bran with a sliced up banana or some berries tossed in for some sweetness.
2. Have them take their lunch to school. One thing you can do to spice up their lunches is to grill 4-5 pieces of chicken on Sunday afternoon and then they have a great source of muscle building, fat burning protein to take to school. Chicken is so universal you can do make a laundry list of great lunches using grilled chicken. 
3. Have a bowl of fruit sitting out around the house and challenge your family to eat it all before the week is up. Fruit is not meant to last weeks on end. So you should be shopping for fruit on a weekly basis.
4. Have mixed nuts in a small bag that your kids can take to school and munch on. Kids should be eating every 3-4 hours. If they have a healthy snack on hand they are much more likely to eat a healthy snack rather than the junk that's floating around their school.
5. Buy your kids an BPA free water bottle to take to school. Water is essential for the body to function. And most kids aren't getting NEAR enough. Again, if they have a resource on hand, they are much more likely to use it.

These tips will help ensure your young athletes stay well nourished during the day and are also fueled up when game time arrives. 

Check the link to the right for the "Athlete Nutrition BluePrint" from physical therapist and strength coach Jeff Cavaliere. He's put together an awesome program that will put your athletes on the path to success.

The forest and the trees...how to treat an overuse injury

Many athletes who play a single sport will begin to develop an injury. I use the term "WILL" because it is almost a certainty that if an athlete performs the same motions over and over, certain "links in the chain" will begin to breakdown due to being used too much. 

Delivery car? You mean delivery "trike."

Think of a delivery car that drives in stop-go traffic every day for 8-10 hours per day, for the life of it. Now compare that to a car that is used to drive to work, sits in the parking lot and then is driven home at the end of the day. In addition this car is used on longer trips up and down the interstate highway on an every other month basis.

Young athletes who play the same sport year round are basically driven like that delivery car. Eventually the hardware is going to break down from being overused. 

Usually at that point parents become very concerned with their child's injury and are scavenging the internet looking for solutions. 

Here's a quick tip: look at the injury. Its called an "overuse" injury for a reason. Assuming that no structural damage has been done, the primary way to let an overuse injury heal is to stop doing whatever they were doing. 

Lets say we've got a baseball pitcher experiencing shoulder pain. The young athlete will most likely want to know how he can rehab but still pitch. Or sometimes the parent wants a second look at their child's mechanics because "they have to be doing SOMETHING  wrong, right?"

The truth is even major league pitchers get 4-5 days between starts. Yet many young kids will have a busy summer tournament schedule and pitch every other day.

How many pitches am I at coach?

Some will counter that with, "well they aren't throwing as hard or as many pitches as major league pitchers!" I will respond with the obvious statement that these are not 25 year-old men who are pitching every other day, nor do they have the bone density, muscular density or muscular endurance to tolerate that throwing schedule. In addition to that, many coaches and parents don't even know how many pitches their kids throw in a game. Do they count warm-up pitches before each inning? These things need to be considered.

The first response by ANY parent, coach or doctor to an overuse injury is to stop doing what you were doing. Don't get so overwhelmed by the injury, its possible treatments and the "threat" it poses to a 10- year old's "college potential" and let your kids heal. Stop looking for the forest past the trees. It's right in front of you.

Let your child play multiple sports throughout the year. This will prevent many overuse injuries on its own. A child who is playing baseball in the spring, football in the fall and basketball in the winter will RARELY have any overuse injuries.

I hate seeing kids not being able to play the game they love. But us as parents need to know that overuse injuries are almost certain if we don't give our kids a significant time off during the year to heal, recover and develop other motor skills Your kids will thank you as will their long term health and enjoyment of a sport..

How to WRECK your swing in the on-deck circle...

Every player wants to have every swing be their best. Every batter should be standing in the on-deck circle preparing for the next at-bat to be their best.

But many hitters in both softball and baseball are wrecking their swing in the on-deck circle. How?

Two ways. The first is by taking half-hearted swings. From a motor learning standpoint, any movement has what is called a General Motor Program, or GMP. That GMP has what are called parameters that are constantly refined to execute the skill. Think of parameters like lane markers on a highway. They tell you where to drive.

But if you change the parameters, such as changing the weight of a bat, or the center of mass of the bat, then you will change how the program is executed. When a player simply goes through a half-hearted swing in the on-deck circle, they are training their muscles to move at that speed. So when they get up to bat, their first swings are going to be slower because they have just changed the speed at which the GMP is executed.

As a result of using a batting donut, a player gets up to bat and now their swing mechanics are altered and the first couple of swings are not as efficient as they could be. In addition, adding a batting donut distributes that extra weight unevenly through the bat. 

The concept behind using a heavier bat is called "post-potentiation activiation." In layman's terms it says that you'll use more fibers faster after performing a few repetitions when weighted. However, as I just stated above, using a donut adds too much weight and as a result changes the mechanics of the swing. 

So how can you use the on-deck circle to its maximal potential? Here are 3 suggestions.

1. Use the on-deck circle to actually warm up. You can do some light stretches to loosen up and then 5-8 quick "squat jacks" to prep your body for quick lightning fast muscle recruitment. Also work on hip rotations to groove the movement pattern of that "perfect swing."
2. Get rid of the batting donuts and simply have multiple bats with a range of 4-5 oz. Using a bat that is slightly heavier (2-3 oz) will give you the post-potentiation effect without altering the motor program.
3. Swing the bat as hard as you can with each swing. Each time you take a swing, you are refining the motor program of the swing - you either improve your swing, or degrade your swing. Make every swing the "perfect" swing.

The magic bullet for speed and agility is....

I recently read an article by one of my favorite strength coaches, Mike Boyle. I have a handful of his instructional DVD's as well as his most recent book "Advances in Functional Training." 

In his article he stated that so many people are looking for the "magic bullet" to speed and agility. Some people think it's the speed ladder. I mean, it isn't called a speed ladder for nothing right?

While the speed ladder does improve coordination and rhythm, it isn't the magic bullet.

Still other coaches thought that the key to speed and agility was the resistance parachute. So these became all the rage. And for good reason. They provide resistance, but not so much resistance that it changes an athletes running mechanics. But alas, the speed chute was used, but players did not become more agile.

So what is the "magic bullet"? The magic bullet is a quality training program that addresses:

• Ankle, hip and thoracic spine mobility
• Knee, low back and shoulder stability
• teaches basic movement patterns such as a lunge, squat, push, pull, and hip rotation
• Corrects muscle tightness and poor posture
• Teaches the body to move quickly with minimal self-imposed resistance

Basically training athletes is like working on a car - adding a new engine won't give the car top performance if the suspension is horrible. Likewise a new suspension won't do as much as if the tires were improved. And last but not least, if the driver is not competent, then the car won't drive well no matter what you do.

Developing a quality athlete requires development of all skills, not JUST those used in a specific sport. Think about the last post I wrote about the multi-sport athlete. The multi-sport athlete is a rare specimen these days. Yet, they are often the most coveted athletes by scouts, coaches, colleges and pro teams.

The magic bullet is activity. Let your kids play and play a lot. Oh yeah, and let them play with minimal interference from coaches, parents and a ton of rules. Let them make their own rules and settle their own conflicts on the field. They need it to grow not only physically, but also emotionally and psychologically.

The magic bullet is really a toolbox filled with tools that is used to tune the car. When you add tools to the box, you become much more valuable and usable. 

In addition, when a player has a toolbox full of tools, they can attack any problem and be successful. Isn't that what you want for your kids?

Don't hijack your player

Remember growing up and being the athlete who played a sport in the fall, another in the winter and another in the spring?

What happened to that athlete?

When did an athlete become a baseball player? And why do we encourage athletes as young as 8 to be single sport all-star's? 

The other day I was talking with an athlete who usually plays baseball, but wanted to play football and is now prepping for soccer. He said he really enjoys playing all of those sports but because there are so many factors involved, he was going to stick with one sport. 

What are some of these factors?

• Coaching pressure
• Peer pressure
• Parental pressure
• Niavity

Face it, coaches can be a bit demanding. Others still are very demanding and have the potential to place an unusual amount of pressure on players. They sometimes say silly things like, "If you don't play for our team this fall, you won't be able to play on our team in the spring." I've heard it from some of our athletes. 

Now sometimes things like this are said because coaches don't want to lose the player. But sometimes the coach says this to manipulate the player into staying. Essentially saying, the only way the player's position is secure is if you don't leave. So what is a 14-year old to do?

They stay. They give up the fun the used to have playing multiple sports because they have just been "caged in" by the coach.

Other ways that players are manipulated is by peer pressure. They want to stay on the club team because their friends are all on the club team. If this is the case, then it should be the coaches responsibility to give the team some time off - a minimum of two months spread out through the year (weekends don't count!).

Parents sometimes add to the pressure by constantly talking about scholarships and college and the "pride they feel" that their child is playing on an "elite" team. Sometimes the kids don't even have to be near. But if a mom tells her friend that her 11 year-old son is planning on playing baseball in college and that comes back around to the child, there is pressure now that the child does not want to disappoint the parent. 

If you are one of these parents, make sure you let your child know that your pride in them and love for them is not based on how well they do in sports or whether or not they go to college on a scholarship. You may think your kid knows that you love them regardless of sport. But I've never seen a kid struggle with a sport because their parents say "I love you" too much. And don't just say it after a game. That's bad timing. Tell them you love them in their worst moments and in their best. Tell them always.

Kids need security. A secure child will develop an internal love for the sport if they are secure in their standing with their parents. Emotional need have to be met. Otherwise a child will play a sport simply as a means to get some attention from the parent. 

Coaches should do the same. Make sure your players know that you care about them, their future and their well being. They will be much more likely to respect you and play hard for you. One way to show them you care about their well being is to mandate some time away from the sport. 

A club coach came to me one afternoon and told me he mandated that his team take 1-month off after a heavy summer tournament season. He said the players actually didn't want the break. But he made it a requirement. A month later he said his team came back hitting better than ever. 

Why? 

They were able to decompress and unload all the pressure that had been building on them over the summer. When his team resumes practice, you can bet his team will come back hitting better than ever. 

Give them time off. Time time away and time to do something different. They will return with the vigor you saw when they first started.

Get big or die tryin'....

This is the weight room motto that so many high school coaches live by. They think if their players aren't getting huge, then obviously the kids are failing, not putting in enough effort and will never end up as quality athletes.

But what is this telling the kids who enjoy working out, who enjoy seeing themselves get stronger (but maybe not bigger) and who really like playing sports but happen to be a "late bloomer"? It is at this point where I think many high school coaches who supervise a weight lifting program, tend to lose their focus.

The first goal of any strength and conditioning program should be keeping their players safe and in full function. Yet so many lose focus on the fact that squatting is not JUST about lifting as much weight as possible, but is instead about TEACHING a solid movement pattern, and then slowly and progressively loading it to stimulate muscle growth.

Far too often coaches are saying, I don't care how you do it, just squat it! I have a freshmen baseball player who is working out in the mornings with his coaches and I can't believe the exercises that I am hearing they do and also the loads/weight they are using.

At such a young age, players need to develop quality movement skills instead of focusing on "getting huge." Yet coaches everywhere are concerned with their players not being big enough. Hypertrophy (increase in muscle size) is difficult to come by for even grown men. So to put that much emphasis and pressure on younger athletes is something that should not be done. 

Body builders usually have poor flexibility, chronic injuries of the shoulders and knees and are not very well equipped for sports other than posing on stage.

Encourage young athletes to get stronger, but don't be surprised if they don't get a whole lot bigger. Strength comes from the muscle(s) functioning better as a unit. Hypertrophy may be a side effect, but it should not be the outright goal. Training for muscle size has its own sport: body building.

6 Steps to a Better Athlete - Part 2: Agility

What is agility? If you had to explain it to a parent, could you? Sure most coaches have heard of an agility ladder, but what is it exactly that you are attempting to teach with an agility ladder?

Agility is simply the ability to accelerate for a given distance, decelerate, change direction and re-accelerate.

Teaching agility doesn't require any fancy tools or devices, just a sound understanding of what it is and what physiological principle it relies on. Once that is understood, the practical application of that principle is a piece of cake.

Agility relies on the same principle as plyometric exercise does: the stretch shortening cycle (SSC). The SSC is a series of actions that occur within a muscle. When a quick stretch is placed on a muscle it will contract quicker than if the muscle were held in a stretch and then shortened. 

This is not to say that you train agility in the same way that you train for jump height, just that the principle is the same. Basically, the muscle can contract quicker when it is quickly stretched and then released with a muscle contraction. 

Here is a way i explain it to our young athletes. I got this from Mark Verstegen and it is a terrific way to explain it to kids and parents alike. 

Place your hand flat on your chest with your palm against your chest. Now lift your middle finger down and slam it against your chest as hard and as fast as you can. Pretty quick. But now what I want you to do is take the thumb from your other hand and lift the middle finger of the hand that is on your chest to a quick stretch and then move your thumb. That middle finger comes down a lot quicker. 

The thing is, you didn't have to think about it. Instead the mechanics of the muscle caused it to contract quicker. So in a practical sense, you have to teach the muscle to move faster. 

However, there is one thing that must be considered when training for agility: deceleration. Being able to hit full speed and then decelerate is a very complex skill, one that most kids do incorrectly in a sport setting. 

Now most deceleration takes place by loading only a single leg as that leg is planted and then pushed off of in another direction. One exercise you can do to improve deceleration and strength is a single leg hop to squat. 

Have your players balance on a single leg then jump up. As they come back down have them sink into a single leg squat and tough their shoe laces. This should really open your eyes as to which kids are going to be the most agile. 

Athletes basically have to slow themselves down like a car going from 60-0 mph. This means not only controlling their own body weight, but also controlling the inertia created by their body weight. 

Another exercise that you can use is a lateral bound to squat. This is a similar exercise but focuses more on lateral deceleration. I hope your catching the major concept of agility here. 

To perform the lateral bound, have the athlete balance on a single leg and then jump laterally to the other leg, where upon landing they will squat and touch their shoe lace. Now remember that a squat must come from the hips. If the athlete simply bends at the waist, then this is not going to be very effective and will actually encourage a bad, BAD habit.

Continue to enforce control upon landing, making sure that the foot is perpendicular to the direction of travel. This will make sure the glutes are used in both deceleration and reacceleration.

Stay tuned for the next post as we talk about rhythm and how to incorporate it into your practices for improved movement, speed and agility!