Athletic Performance Toolbox

The Little Big Things

by

This post is also found on the Coaches Toolbox, a collection of free resources for coaches of all sports.

By Dr. Cory Dobbs


A note to student athletes. Excellence Begins by Sweating the Small Stuff. Do you have one minute to help your team? Sometimes simply taking one minute to help clean the weightroom can make all the difference in the world.

The small stuff matters.

To me, a clean and attractive restaurant is the best indicator that the people running the show—at the restaurant, school, hotel, you fill in the blank, care about the people that use the facilities (and this includes the workers!).  Make no mistake, the restroom screams commitment to excellence.  It takes great leadership to ensure clean restrooms.  If you want to be different—successful—a great place to start is your locker room (And here’s the kicker…each and every one of you will be running a show somewhere and sometime in the future.).

How do you and your teammates care for your locker room?  Do you use it and wait for others (coaches, janitors, etc) to pick up the mess?   To me, a clean and attractive locker room tells me the people running the program care (Come to think of it, the way you take care of your playing field, court etc. tells a lot about your commitment to excellence).  If you’re a team leader then you’re running the program.  We are all leaders.

The small stuff matters.  What little things might you do today to make a big difference in your team?

Humility matters.  Your actions reflect not only on you personally, but also on your team.  Act in a manner that honors yourself and your teammates. Act in a manner that will reflect well on you and the others in your life.

Today’s headlines and daily news stories are filled with accounts of self-centered and irresponsible professional athletes.  The world of sports often breeds excess—it is noble and ignoble, beautiful and ugly.  Sports reveals the best and the worst of human nature in a highly visible action-packed arena dominated by intense emotion.

Humility is the quality of being respectful.  It is displayed in conduct that dignifies others.  Humility is found in the small stuff.  How you talk to your teammates reveals your care and concern.  How you listen to others reveals your commitment to them and your team.  Leadership matters.  And the best team leaders model humility, they serve and honor their teammates.  We are all leaders.

Sometimes one minute makes all the difference.

How long does it take for you to care for your locker room?  Your playing field?  Your teammate?  My guess is you can do a lot in one minute…and when all those small one-minute actions accumulate…

The small stuff matters.  What little things might you do today to make a big difference in your team?  Select at least one thing.  And do it.

You can make excuses for not doing that one thing.  If so, then excuses are probably small stuff to you.  And remember, the small stuff matters.  In the final analysis, it is the small stuff that determines what we draw out of sports and what we draw out of life.  The little things make all the difference.

To find out more about and order Sport Leadership Books authored by Dr. Dobbs including Coaching for Leadership, click this link: The Academy for Sport Leadership Books

Squatting and Olympic Lift Teaching Progression

by

This post is provided by Training-Conditioning

A good example of how to build movement and lifting skills is a well designed teaching progression for the squats and Olympic lifts.

By Tim Crowley
Tim Crowley, CSCS, PES, is the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at Montverde (Fla.) Academy. He holds elite coaching licenses with USA Cycling and USA Triathlon, and he has been named Development Coach of the Year and Elite Coach of the Year by the latter organization. He is also the owner of TC2 Coaching, LLC.

In an earlier post, Tim Crowley described how he teaches fundamental movement patterns to develop total athleticism in the weightroom. This week, he provides an example through a squatting progression.

A good example of how we build movement and lifting skills is our squatting progression. Squats are a standard in most college strength programs, so we want our athletes to have a good squatting base to build from. Once they master bodyweight squats, we start them on goblet squats with a 22-pound kettlebell. When they can goblet squat at that load with perfect form, we progress them to a 45-pound kettlebell. This makes the transition to squatting with a 45-pound bar seamless and reduces their injury rate when they begin heavier squatting.

Like squats, Olympic lifts are common in collegiate weightrooms. Developing skills in these movements while athletes are in high school builds their athleticism and explosive power and better prepares them to execute at the next level.

While teaching Olympic lifts, it’s beneficial to start with transitional exercises. These allow us to focus on a single aspect or skill of the lift as part of our warm-up to the key lifts. Some of my favorite transitional exercises are:

• Vertical leap from a hang position, which teaches athletes to push their feet into the floor and drive their hips to move the bar explosively

• High pulls from a clean or snatch grip to teach high elbows on pulling

• Snatch balance to teach speed of movement and shoulder mobility

• High cleans from the waist to teach quick pulling to a catch position.

Lateral Movement

by

The ability to effectively move laterally is critical for athletes in many sports. Here are some speed and agility exercises that are designed to improve lateral movement.

In the video clip below Bobby Smith, strength and conditioning coach at Reach Your Potential Training (RYPT), shares his thoughts and ideas on how to effectively train for better lateral movement in your athletes. His presentation was delivered at a recent Glazier Athletic Performance Clinic.

This clip is just one portion of his presentation. If you would like information about how to gain access to his entire presentation, as well as hundreds of other athletic performance clinic presentations, click the link Glazier Athletic Performance Clinics.

The YouTube video below has audio, so please make sure that your sound is turned up and that you have access to the site. Note that some schools block access to YouTube. Click the arrow to play the video.

Super Set Your Bench Press

by

Here are three exercises that can really help to accelerate your bench press. These can be utilized to super set a heavy bench press set.

In the clip below Michael Cano, from ONEighty Athletics, demonstrates three explosive  exercises that he uses to super set a bench workout.

Here are the three exercises demonstrated in the video clip.

  1. Plyo Push-ups
  2. Med Ball Drops
  3. Plate Punches

 

The YouTube video has audio so please make sure that your sound is turned up and that you have access to YouTube. Note that some schools block access to YouTube. Click the arrow to play.

Prevention of Noncontact ACL Injuries

by

This position statement offers guidelines for athletic trainers, and strength coaches on how to prevent noncontact and indirect contact ACL injuries in athletes.

This article was provided by Training-Conditioning

The National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) published online first its new position statement, “Prevention of Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury.” Created by the NATA Foundation, the statement will appear in the January 2018 Journal of Athletic Training, NATA’s scientific publication.

Lower extremity injuries make up 66 percent of all sports injuries, with the knee being the most commonly injured joint.1  Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries are quite common in athletes, and unfortunately, surgical reconstruction and rehabilitation do not prevent long-term morbidity or decrease the risk of a future ACL injury.2-7 The costs associated with surgically reconstructed ACL injuries range from $5,000 to $17,000 per patient; however, the estimated long-term societal costs may be as high as $38,000 per patient.8-13 Perhaps even more alarming than the high financial costs was a report14 indicating that the rate of ACL injuries was rising rapidly.

“Preventing ACL injuries during sport and physical activity may dramatically decrease medical costs and long-term disability,” says lead author Darin Padua, PhD, ATC, professor and chair, department of Exercise and Sport Science and director, Sports Medicine Research Laboratory, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “Implementing ACL injury prevention training programs may improve an individual’s neuromuscular control and lower extremity biomechanics to reduce risk of injury and improve one’s functional performance.”

The position statement offers guidelines for athletic trainers, physicians and other health care professionals on how to prevent noncontact and indirect contact ACL injuries in athletes and physically active individuals.

Position Statement Recommendations

Effects of Injury Prevention Training Programs on Injury Reduction and Performance Enhancement – two primary areas of benefit include decreased risk of ACL and other knee injuries as well as improved performance.

  • Multicomponent training programs that include feedback regarding technique and at least three of the exercise categories (i.e., strength, plyometrics, agility, balance and flexibility) are recommended to reduce noncontact and indirect contact ACL and other knee injuries during physical activity in females and males.
  • These programs are advised for improving balance, lower extremity strength and power and measures of functional performance.

Development of Multicomponent Injury Prevention Training Programs

Elements of injury prevention training can vary among programs to help decrease injury rates and improve neuromuscular function and physical performance. While these guidelines do not promote a specific program or group of exercises, general recommendations are provided.

Exercise Selection and Training Intensity

  • A multicomponent preventive training program involves offering feedback on movement techniques and should include at least three of the following exercise categories: strength, plyometrics, agility, balance and flexibility.
  • Injury prevention training exercises should be performed at progressive intensity levels that are challenging and allow for excellent movement, quality and technique.

Training Volume (Frequency and Duration)

  • Multicomponent training programs should be performed during preseason and while in-season at least two to three times a week.
  • To maintain the benefits of reduced injury rates and improved neuromuscular function and performance over time, multicomponent training programs (preseason, in season and offseason) should be performed each year and not discontinued after a single season.
  • Implementation of Multicomponent Injury Prevention Training Program (Program Adoption and Maintenance)
  • Multicomponent training programs should be regularly supervised by individuals such as athletic trainers, who are skilled in identifying faulty movement patterns to ensure excellent movement quality and provide feedback on exercise technique.
  • Multicomponent training programs are effective when implemented as a dynamic warmup or as part of a comprehensive strength and conditioning program. If time constraints are a concern, evidence shows they can be performed 10 to 15 minutes before the start of practices or games.

Targeting Individuals for Injury Prevention Training Programs

All individuals engaged in sports and physical activity are advised to participate in a multicomponent preventive training program. Those who participate in specific sports or display certain traits should be targeted for this training as they are either at a higher risk of ACL injury or have a greater potential for benefit.

  • Athletes participating in high-risk sports that involve landing, jumping and cutting tasks (e.g., basketball, soccer, team handball), especially females, and those with a history of an ACL injury, especially young individuals who return to sport-related activities, should be targeted for injury prevention training.
  • Children who participate in these sports should also be targeted.