The same applies to sports and sports performance training. What's the best exercise for my athletes? How do I get my athletes to their potential the fastest? What's the best supplement for my high school/college athletes to be taking? What's the best training tool to use for elevating my athletes physical skills? All good questions and I get feedback from people all the time on what's the best program, machine, product, etc. People often get sold on one product and feel that what they are doing is absolutely the best and better than anything else out there. I have had dads tell me that kettle bell training is better than any other kind of strength training and they don't know why anyone would waste their time doing anything else. I have had coaches tell me that Olympic lifts are the best, most comprehensive, and result driven exercise technique there is. 

While I do not discount any training method; the reality is there are lots of great training methods and techniques out there that will produce results. There are also lots of ridiculous gimmicks that I can't believe people waste their money on. I always believe that being open minded is best and trying to understand what the positives are to any program or training method and what the risks and negatives are or could be is imperative to getting the most out of your goals. If you gather that information then you can make a sound judgement in your case or the case of your athletes as to what will give you the most benefit. You should always assess the sport, gender, age, goals and time constraints you are working with as it relates to how best to train your athletes. Just like the time you put into planning practices and game strategies the time your athletes put into training will make all the difference when it comes to game day. We live in a highly competitive world these days and athletes have to put in the extra work not just for the increased performance but also to reduce the risks for injury. Having a strong musculoskeletal and neurological foundation sets athletes up to receive maximum enjoyment and competitiveness out of their sport.

I am including a couple of my favorites body weight based exercises for you to try out. Check them out, give them a try and let me know what you think about them. If you have any questions about training athletes at any age and/or for any sport please contact me at jeff@traincompetedominate.com or check us out on the web at AFSP on the web

Enjoy!!

Or just as perplexing is the parent of a undersized 12 year old who for the kids first experience with exercise puts him on P90x. Now there is nothing wrong with that program and for many people it can be appropriate and effective, but sorry not for an undersized 12 year old or any 12 year old for that matter. They don't have the physical stability or foundation to optimally be using a program like that.

So why do I rant about this? I apologize for sounding negative and there are many good, even great coaches, out there who have got it going on. I'm just very passionate about helping athletes develop properly, getting the most out of their experience both in the short term and long term, and seeing there training maximally benefit their sport.

I believe that most parents and coaches have the best intentions when it comes to youth athletics. We all want to win, we all want it to be fun, we all want the kids to learn team work and make friends. The goal is and should be to create a good experience building self confidence and work ethic in our young athletes. 

What does it take to do this? I believe a good plan that addresses practice, game time, fun, and personal development is important. A lot of coaches have the practice schedule and game time strategy down but don't spend time thinking about how they are going to develop the kids as kids. I have seen a lot of cases where coaches run their teams, even sometimes as young as 8 & 9 year olds, like they are coaching a college team. It is of course imperative to teach them how to play the game and help them be physically ready for the game. However, it is also imperative to get to know them, make sure they get to know each other, and incorporate some items just for fun. Games, conversations about what interests them, and even skill work that has nothing to do with their particular sport are all important considerations when creating a coaching strategy. As a coach if you can add these concepts to your agenda you will find you have a more cohesive, energetic, and happier team. They won't even mind working harder and more focused if they know that they are also going to get their other needs met. Even when I work with college kids they value the fun and interpersonal relationship building as part of the program.

No matter what age or sport you coach give this some serious thought. Let me know what you think of the article and if you have any questions or comments please post them. You can find more information about Absolute Fitness & Sports Performance and what we do by visiting us on the web at AFSP on the web or on facebook at AFSP on facebook

In the same vein that players need to know their role, coaches, parents, and trainers also need to know their role. In order to make our teams and athletes succeed we each have a role to play. We can not be all things in all situations. As an example look at your typical football team; head coach, offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, O & D line coach, qb coach, receivers and db coach, running backs coach, special teams coach, kickers coach, I'm sure there are more but you get the point. Why so many coaches? Simple, because there are techniques and responsibilities that each of those positions requires and you need a coach who understands the specific aspects and needs of that position and can teach them and watch them during the course of competition. That way the athlete can learn the specific techniques and skills for that position and can also begin to understand what he needs to be doing situationally.

As a sports performance trainer I also need to know my role. Since I have had experience in the past with coaching football, baseball, and soccer it would be easy for me to involve myself in specifics of each sport and possibly come at it from a sport specific coaching aspect. However, that is not my role or my area of true expertise. My specialty is movement training. I know the proper techniques and progressions for true neuromuscular training in order to maximize speed, agility, quickness, balance, coordination, reaction time, power and strength. I know what to look for when an athlete is training and how to help that athlete learn the adjustments needed. I also understand age appropriate training so whether I'm working with a 7 year old or a 17 year old I understand how to structure their training to develop the most benefit. My role is not to teach athletes how to catch, throw, shoot, or strategize game plans. I know my role, it's to teach movement, make athletes faster (in every direction), stronger, and more durable.

The parent role in an athlete and a teams success is a little more complicated and I could probably write a book solely dedicated to parenting in sports. Let's keep it simple though, parents need to be positive and encouraging. It's important for parents to work with their child when possible, find good coaching to help their child learn the game, and good movement training to make sure their child is physically safe and getting the most out of their bodies. One final note, parents need to let the sport be their child's and not live vicariously through their child. Children feel the push when the motivation is not genuine and may come to resent it in the future.

In conclusion, our teams and athletes will find true success if everyone knows their role and sticks to their role. It's also important in todays world of sports that we have a development plan for our athletes based on their age, level of experience and the sport or sports they play.

Let me know what you think about this article and your thoughts on "knowing your role" in todays sports world. 

For more information on speed & agility training and what we do here at Absolute Fitness & Sports Performance visit us on the web at AFSP on the web or on facebook at AFSP on facebook

Over this past holiday weekend I enjoyed a mini-vacation with my wife in San Diego. One of the side effects of my profession is that I am always analyzing movement, consciously and subconsciously. Yes, this even happens at Sea World. There we were, with hundreds of people watching Shamu and his friends doing their routine on a beautiful sunny day. But I found myself analyzing every movement of those amazing creatures. I couldn't help marveling at the efficiency of their movements. If you really study them, you see that they do not waste motion or create any ‘extra’ movements. Every single aspect of their movement serves a distinct purpose.

It got me thinking about what sports performance training looks like, what the ultimate goal in movement training is, and what it should be. The ultimate goal of movement training should always be the quality of movement. When you train, do you know what quality movement looks like? The answer can be gained by watching our aquatic friends at their Sea World show. They have no wasted effort. All the energy they generate goes directly into controlling and guiding their body through whatever trick they are intent on doing. Our goal is the same in Speed & Agility work. Unfortunately it's not as easy for humans as it is for whales and dolphins. 

To attain this kind of efficiency and effectiveness in an athlete’s movement it's important to create a strong neurological connection for every movement. This is how the body can learn to move without wasting time or energy. It is to easy for athletes and/or coaches to get caught up in pushing the pace of drills or exercises before the appropriate neurological pattern has been developed. This creates dysfunctional and inefficient movement that does not properly develop speed and agility. It also creates a heightened risk of injury from improper stabilization during athletic performance.

Whether you are a coach or an athlete working to improve speed & agility, it is critical that you focus on quality first. As you become proficient at quality movement you can begin to push the quantity of movement to truly maximize performance.

If you care about quality of movement and have feedback or questions regarding this blog, please contact me. For more information on what we do at Absolute Fitness and Sports Performance visit us at Train Compete Dominate.

Honestly in most sports there is more to teach and master than there will ever be time. Add to that conditioning, speed & agility, and flexibility and it can start to be overwhelming. The reason I'm sharing this with you is the reality is that something has to give and usually, not always, but most of the time movement skill development during practice suffers. At best the time and expertise a coach has to truly teach movement skill is minimal. I have often had coaches tell me about a cool drill they picked up on you tube or saw on TV. While I commend them on the effort, not understanding the skill of movement or how to teach the skill that a particular drill is supposed to work on makes that drill just conditioning. Understanding where an athlete is developmentally and what they truly need is critical to there success.

Developing and maximizing movement ability is a long term process that requires a systematic approach utilizing a set of developmental protocols designed to maximize neuromuscular efficiency and awareness. In other words, there has to be a plan. That plan has to be long term and progressive in nature. It also has to take into account the age of the athlete. The mindset has to be that this time of development is more like running a marathon (metaphorically) than running a sprint. It can all seem a bit overwhelming sometimes, but with the correct approach and pace the abilities of an athlete can develop to amazing levels which coupled with their developing sports specific skills can really create game changing scenarios.

Don't allow movement skill development to be neglected.  Have a plan, it'll pay big dividends on the long term health and performance of your players.

For more information on our facility and what we do or if you have questions,  please visit us on the web or on facebook at the following links. 

Thank you and I look forward to your feedback.

The reality is fast kids are not rare. The more impressive attribute is not how fast an athlete is, but how fast they are at multi directional movement. Meaning how fast can they be moving one direction and then abruptly change directions. You see this in every sport except track and field. Multi directional movement ability is actually a better indicator of athletic ability than is linear speed. Not to say that linear speed is not important because it is. It is also a component of multi directional speed, but it's not even close to the most important part.

The most important part of multi directional speed is the deceleration acceleration phase. This is the phase  you see when an athlete is going one direction has to slow down (deceleration phase) then redirect their body and speed back up (acceleration phase) to full speed again. The goal has to be to decelerate as quickly as possible and then reaccelerate in the new direction as quickly as possible. The most successful athletes often look like they don't slow down at all when changing direction. The reality is they are or have become really good at minimizing that transition time in that phase of movement.

The question often asked is whether it is natural or can be taught? The answer is that it's both. On one hand, we all have a certain amount of God given natural ability and that obviously varies from athlete to athlete. However, just like all movement skills,  an athlete can be taught the skills involved in the deceleration acceleration phase. As that athlete masters those skills the speed at which they can perform them will increase and it will become more effortless thus greatly increasing their multi directional movement ability.

Just remember, it's not the drills they need it's the skills to perform them that make the difference. And those skills are teachable.

For more information please visit our website at : Train Compete Dominate

In the most simple of definitions sports performance training is anything that directly impacts the athletes abilities on the field or court. So the argument could definitely be made that weight lifting fits the definition and in some cases it does (most directly however to bodybuilders and power lifters ). What most people think of when they think of sports performance training is speed & agility training which has really become a trendy type of training to say that you are doing. 

The unfortunate part is that although a lot of athletes are going through what they perceive to be "speed and agility" training the reality is that they are just doing conditioning. Coaches and even a lot of "trainers" will set up some cones or create some repetitive drills (20's,30's, 40's, repeat) have the athletes run through them repeatedly and call it good. That is not speed and agility, that is conditioning. 

Why do I say that? Simple, there are movement skills involved in developing increased speed and agility and just going through a pattern or doing a drill x number of times does nothing to teach those skills. The problem is that it looks cool and it seems like your working hard so it must be accomplishing the intended goal, but that's like me trying to teach you how to throw the discus and just saying i want you to throw it 50 times as far as you can then your done. Would you be any better at it by the time you got done? No you wouldn't but you would probably be tired and your arm/shoulder might be fatigued. Now if we spent the time and learned the technique and practiced the technique then you would without a doubt get better. Then with the proper technique you could begin to increase your distances and the amount of work you can handle.

The main point to this is that movement is a skill. Learn the skill, practice the skill, continue to the develop the skill and the speed and the agility will come. 

For more information on athletic development visit our website at www.traincompetedominate.com