5 Training / Coaching Lessons that have evolved for me since 2010.
When they say "Kids haven't changed, adults have changed......"
Well, that's NOT the whole truth.
Everyone has changed.
Technology has changed people.
And the BIG change is this: Regardless of age, technology has removed a LOT of the work involved. Everything is easier to gain access to. But, the beautiful thing is this: RESULTS still and always will require intelligent, hard, consistent effort.
With world class information available at your finger tips, we still see horrific / dangerous training and shitty coaching. So, lack of information is NOT the problem.
If you've been watching / listening to me for a while, you have heard me talk about my changes in coaching / training as well as how the athletes I train are different today compared to pre 2010 years.
Here's 5 Changes I want to share with you that I've shared inside The SSPC Cert as well:
1) Because athletes are much less active on their own today thanks to the "smart" phone, they are showing up weaker and less athletic / less coordinated.
This means they are showing up in need of a slower introduction to train and more athletic / coordinated movements. Athletes need to MOVE.
Our movement prep / athletic warm up has expanded even further than it once was. We've always done a lot of movement, jumping and sprinting but since 2010, it has become an even more integral part of our overall training.
Here's a short clip from The Underground which is also in The SPPC Cert.
2) Athletes show up with less muscle.
In fact, boys in high school are showing signs of the female body. Boys have big hips and breasts. Boys can not do 1 push up.
The reason for this is not just because of being less active, but the excessive processed foods of today have boys looking like girls. We see boys with breasts and big hips. They lack muscle mass. This means they need more attention to nutrition, parents need more education and the athletes need a longer time period to adjust to training.
Pre 2010 athletes could show up and work. They could squat deep and there was no concern of things like ankle mobility. Athletes could do pull ups, push ups, sprints. They showed up with a level of fitness that gave you a starting point. Today, we start at a deficit. This includes athletes who are specializing in sports year round such as hockey or soccer all year long.
Showing up with a base level of strength is not the case on the regular today.
3) Longevity and Preserving the Body - This is on my mind on the regular.
We've always used specialty bars and the conjugate method but now we implement warm ups and prep similar to Matt Wenning. This builds muscle, improves technique in training and builds tendon / ligament / connective tissue strength.
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4) Implementing Weightlifting - Once I met Travis Mash and begin co teaching our seminars together, I learned how to coach cleans. We incorporate front squats and cleans into our warm ups and weekly training on the regular.
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Our middle school kids perform cleans and front squats this as well! We start them young and introduce the light barbell work when they are both physically AND emotionally ready for these exercises.
In the SSPC Cert, front squats and cleans are something we highly recommend. The athletes love it and contrary to popular opinion, teaching the clean is NOT complicated!
The athletes pick it up quite easily!
5) More Jumps and Sprints - We've always incorporated jumps and sprints but we've taken our jump and "speed training" to new heights.
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Speed Training is NOT just performed when jumping, sprinting or throwing med balls. It is also performed with weights (Dynamic Effort), bodyweight, etc via the Dynamic method.
Athletes "Believe" in this style of training and a big aspect of coaching is building an athlete's confidence. If you get them to believe in their preparation, you have a more confident athletes which leads to more success.
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We implement Speed into the weights, the bodyweight, med balls and more.
Powerful, Explosive, Athletic athletes are a MUST.
I heard a Coach say this: "Bullets, Not bowling balls."
Makes perfect sense. It's the same as the articles I have written on "Strong and Useless".
I want to build agile, mobile & hostile athletes.
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