Growing up as a young kid, I was always looking for mentors when it came to performance training.
My first basketball (also my cross country coach) read bodybuilding and general fitness magazines. Looking back we did everything from bodybuilding splits to the infamous “100-Rep Set.”
Yes, you read that correctly – imagine doing 100 reps in one set on a bench press, or leg extension.
For conditioning? He made me run cross country. You know, to “get into shape.”
That’s where I started.
And the really crazy thing? With only a few short months of training, I noticed changes.
Significant changes.
As a basketball player, I had a bit more zip on my passes.
My shooting range increased.
And some of those bigger kids who had pushed me around during my freshman and sophmore years?
Well let’s just say they were getting a lot more resistance!
Even with horrible programming, I was seeing a difference. And perhaps more importantly, I felt a difference.
19 years after my first experience with “strength and conditioning,” I still love getting in the gym and training.
One of the areas I’m most passionate about reaching out to is young kids and their parents, so that instead of doing the 100 rep challenge, or running cross country to “get into shape,” they learn how to do the right things early on. I’m on the Board of Advisors for the International Youth Conditioning Association (IYCA), and every year I talk to coaches about how to improve their athletic development programs.
A kid can get bigger, faster and stronger by doing just about anything. But that doesn’t mean it’s optimal.
Nowadays, I see more and more young kid getting injured. These kids claim to have “strength and conditioning” coaches at school, yet the programs I see may be worse than what I started out on 19-20 years ago.
They’re doing hundreds of reps of plyometrics, with little to no strength base. This is like building a bigger engine for your car while never checking to make sure the brakes work.
They’re doing the same dated program the coach used from 20 years ago. Programs that we know cause injuries to the hips, knees, shoulders and back. It pushes you out of alignment, like driving a car with crooked wheels.
Or arguably the worst offender, coaches that run the crap out of their kids to “get them into shape.”
As I’ve said time and time again, anyone can make an athlete tired. Make someone who has never run go out and put in 10 miles, they’ll be tired.
But a real coach will make an athlete better. And that’s what we do here at IFAST.
If you have a young athlete and you want to give them the best chance for success, I’m offering a dirt-cheap seminar on athletic development here at IFAST on Tuesday, November 12th from 7:30-8:30 pm.
Registration is only $10, and I guarantee I will teach you a thing or two about athletic development. If not, I’ll give you double your money back.
Plus, I’m going to take all the proceeds and give it back to the Boys and Girls Club of Indianapolis. I’m not trying to make money off this – I just want to educate people so they don’t make the same mistakes I did.
Register now for the IFAST Athletic Development Workshop
At the end of the day, remember this:
There is a smarter, more efficient way to improve sports performance. Going out and training hard is all fine and dandy, but our goal is to train hard and smart, to maximize development and performance.
All the best
MR
P.S. – I’ve been in the trenches for 15 years, putting in work and making athletes better. For only $10 (which goes to charity) and one hour of your time (which you would probably spend watching TV anyway), you can learn how to maximize athletic development.
What are you waiting for? Sign-up now!
THANK YOU Mike! Well said! It’s one thing to make kids hot sweaty and tired but it’s another to make them better. Keep up the amazing work you and the IYCA are doing to help parents, coaches and teachers become better at their craft. ~ David