Athletic Performance Toolbox

Phases of Off Season Training

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Young athletes need to spend a portion of their year focusing on their body. The off season is critical to the overall success of the athlete. In this post you will see how to divide off season training into distinct phases.

In the video clip below  Angleo Gingerelli, Seton Hall Strength and Conditioning Coach, discusses the need for off season training as well as how he divides the off season into three phases. The clip is from a Glazier Athletic Performance Clinic.

Coach Gingerelli begins by stating how important training is for young athletes. He believes that athletes must continue to train through certain events/competitions. He also believes that it is important to declare an off season or a time of the year where their focus is on improving their bodies. He points out that not every “Body” is suited for year around competition and that while skill development is important, there is no substitute for bigger, faster stronger.

Here is a summary of Coach Gingerelli’s 3 Phases of Off Season Training and the emphasis in each phase:

Phase 1 – Basics

  • Flexibility and Range of motion
  • Body Weight Control (push-up, pull-ups, body weight squats etc..)
  • Balance, Posture and Biomechanics of basic body movements
  • Core Development
  • Work Capacity
  • Being comfortable being uncomfortable

Phase 2 Weight Room Basics

  • Squats
  • Bench
  • Deadlift (variations)
  • Shrugs
  • Overhead Press (limited and must be done properly)

Phase 3

  • Plyometrics
  • Olympic Lifts
  • Single Leg and Single Arm Movements
  • Maximum Effort Sets
  • Complexes, Supersets, Circuits

This clip is just a portion of Coach Gingerelli’s presentation. For information about how to gain access to the rest of his presentation as well as hundreds of other clinic presentation click the link Glazier Athletic Performance Clinic

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

Tips for Goal Setting

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This article was provided by InnerDrive, a mental skills training company

Goals are important if your athletes are to be successful. They are also important for you and your career. In this post get 11 ways to improve your goal setting.

HOW TO DO GOAL SETTING RIGHT

Why do so many people mess up goal-setting? Maybe it’s because goal-setting research has been around for so many years that different suggestions are being made left, right and centre (often with too many acronyms). This causes mixed messages and it just ends up confusing everyone. To combat this, this blog looks at what the science tells us about what actually works in goal setting, and simply suggests simple ways to do goal setting right.

HAVE BOTH LONG & SHORT TERM GOALS

Long term goals can help improve your focus, motivation and meaning. Focusing on a long term goal can help you overcome the minor setbacks that inevitably happen along the way.

Setting shorter term goals (i.e. what you need to do this week) can help break down a seemingly impossible and distant goal into more tangible simple steps. These small steps can help keep you on the right path and provide short term incentives and accomplishments.

MAKE IT CHALLENGING

If you consistently set goals that you know you can already achieve, you are limiting how much you could potentially improve. You will not be giving yourself the motivation to work any harder than you already are. That is why it is important to make your goals challenging, as this will encourage you to apply more effort, giving you a higher sense of accomplishment once the goal has been reached.

JOINT GOALS

How to do goal setting rightGoals that are co-created and agreed between the teacher and student, or the coach and athlete, encourage a sense of ownership. This also has the benefit of letting people know that they are supported, which is needed to excel in pressurised situations.

Feeling supported is a big part of how Olympic gold medallists develop their resilience. In addition, team sports should set team goals as well as personal ones, as this will help them work together collectively to reach their shared goal.

CONSIDER OBSTACLES

A new area of research into goal setting is investigating how thinking about potential obstacles can help people achieve their goals. This may sound negative, but it actually isn’t, as long as it is followed by a conversation about how they will overcome these barriers.

Research suggests that only thinking about the positives can do more harm than good, with these people doing worse in sticking to a diet, reducing their motivation and performing worse in exams.

WHAT IS THE WHY?

Understanding what your “why” is, and the importance behind your goals, can really help. Research suggests that getting students to identify why they are doing a task can help increase their motivation and engagement as well as how much they learn. You can read more about these studies here.

MAKE IT SPECIFIC

Try to avoid vague terms when setting goals as this makes it harder to monitor the progress. Aiming to be better is a good thing. Clearly identifying which areas you want to improve is better. These sort of goals can play a key role in helping students develop their metacognition and self-regulation.

FOCUS ON SKILLS

For continuous personal growth and progress, setting goals that focus on improving your skills (and not just on what you want to achieve) will help. Most of the time the end outcome relies on being able to execute your skills under pressure. So make that what you are focusing on. As legendary American Football coach Bill Walsh used to say, the score will take care of itself.

BE FLEXIBLE

We can’t always predict how a situation may unfold, or have things happen the exact way we want them to. If the situation changes, goals may need to be tweaked. Monitoring, tweaking and amending your goals is the hallmark of a mature learner and leader. This will help maintain your motivation over long periods of time.

SHARE YOUR GOALS

Sharing your goals and aims with others can help. If other people know about them, they may be able to help you. An outsider may come up with different and better ways to reach certain goals, ways that you may have overlooked before. Social support has been found to be highly valuable in both sport (and we think in education too). Therefore, don’t be afraid to share your goals and ask for help.

ENSURE THERE IS TRUST

Trust is a big mediator of behaviour. In a famous study, participants were told not to eat the marshmallow in front of them. If they could wait for a while, they would be rewarded with two marshmallows. Those that did not trust the person giving them the instruction were only able to wait for 3 minutes before giving in to temptation; whereas, those that trusted the instructor were able to hold out for over 12 minutes. If people don’t believe what they are being told, their motivation and determination to achieve a goal will suffer.

MONITOR PROGRESS

Monitoring your goals is an important process as it helps to ensure that your goals are translated into action. Monitoring progress needs to occur frequently. It is easy to start with good intentions, but when left alone, people often fall back into old habits. That’s what makes monitoring your goals such an effective strategy.

FINAL THOUGHT

Goal setting doesn’t need to be seen as such a daunting task. In the past, when done wrong, it can actually demotivate people. The above simple tips offer an idea of how to effectively set targets. Goal setting should be a continuous process. If there is flexibility, short and long term goals, that focus on developing skills that are monitored and supported by others, it should help.

For even more info take a look at our page How to Improve Metacogntion, where you’ll find links to blogs and research.

We would like to thank Kate Lord for her great work in helping us write this blog. She is a great addition to our research team. You can follow her on twitter @kateemilylord

Training for Speed

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Speed definitely has a genetic component, but you can definitely enhance an athlete’s speed with proper training. In this post you will three strength training in drills designed to improve speed.

In the clip below Barry Kagan (C.S.C.S., L.M.T., R.N.) earned a Master’s Certification from the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association in 2008, a private practice strength and conditioning coach;
former University of Maryland Strength Coach, discusses stride frequency and stride length and the role that fulfill in producing speed.  He also offers three exercises that are designed to improve speed.

While stride frequency ( how quickly your foot can strike the ground over and over) has a large genetic component, technique training can help to make that process more efficient. Stride length is how much distance that you cover and it is heavily influenced by training.  Strength and power training can have a tremendous effect on an athlete’s stride length and thus his/her speed. This is done through resistance training. Whether it is in the weight room, using bands, running hills etc…. , strength and power training will increase your stride length and therefore your speed.

In this clip from Coach Kragan’s training DVD he shares three exercises to help develop speed. The three exercises that he demonstrates are:

  1. Broad Jump followed by a Tuck Jump
  2. Single Leg Broad Jump
  3. Single Leg Tuck Jumps.

These exercises are taken from his DVD entitled Sport Performance Preparation: Fit, Fast & Flexible – Drills for Year-Round Performance Training. This video can offer year round preparation for multitudes of sports in ALL AREAS of Strength and Conditioning. For more information click the link above.

The YouTube video below has audio, so please make sure that your volume is turned up and that you have access to the site. Note some schools block access to YouTube. If you are having trouble viewing from school, please contact you network administrator.

 

For more information about Coach Kagan’s year around complete training program click the image below

Which Athletes are Risk for Knee Injuries

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Preventing knee injuries are important for all athletes. In this post see data the indicates which sports and specific activities produce the most knee injuries.

This article was provided by Training-Conditioning

Each month, The Center for Injury Research and Policy at The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital provides T&C with an inside look at their studies of high school athletic injuries. In this installment, Dawn Comstock, PhD, takes a look at knee injuries, examining gender-specific trends and breaking down each sport’s most common mechanisms of injury.
Athletes often devote hours to strengthening their legs and increasing knee flexibility, hoping not only to excel at their sport, but also prevent a season-ending knee injury. And athletes have good reason: knee injuries are one of the most common sports injuries, with U.S. doctors and surgeons treating over half a million high school student-athlete knee injuries every year. They are also among the most costly, and knee injuries account for almost half of all surgeries performed among high school athletes.

The National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study, in its third year of data collection, has found that high school athletes sustain approximately one knee injury in every 2,500 exposures. As one might expect, risk of knee injuries varies by sport and whether an athlete is practicing or competing. Here are some important facts on knee injury incidence:

• Knee injuries are three times more likely to occur during competition than practice.
• Football players are at greatest risk for knee injury–on any given day, for every 460 athletes playing in a football game, one will sustain a knee injury.
• Among girls, soccer players are at greatest risk for knee injury–on any given day, for every 850 female athletes playing in a soccer game, one will sustain a knee injury.
• Girls participating in soccer, basketball, and softball are about 50 percent more likely to sustain knee injuries than boys playing these same sports.

Athletes dread knee injuries because they can signal a premature end to their season, particularly if a knee ligament is torn. The National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study has found that incomplete ligament tears (32 percent), contusions (15.2 percent), complete ligament tears (13.2 percent), and torn cartilage (eight percent) are the most common knee injuries. While 43 percent of athletes sustaining a knee injury are able to return to play that same week, 30 percent miss at least three weeks of play or are forced to discontinue the season. This rate is particularly high in girls’ basketball, where half of all injured players miss at least three weeks of play or are forced to discontinue the season. Following a knee injury, 25 percent of all girls and 12 percent of all boys require surgery. Overall, knee injuries commonly result from contact with another person (52 percent), no contact/overuse mechanisms (25 percent), and contact with playing surfaces (15 percent).

While knee injuries will never be completely eliminated, sports injury surveillance can help trainers and coaches develop sport-specific strategies to decrease their athletes’ risk for knee injuries. Here is what the latest research shows us regarding which activities are most commonly cited in a knee injury event:

Football
• Being tackled (27 percent)
• Being blocked (19 percent)
• Blocking (15 percent)
• Tackling (13 percent)

Boys’ Soccer
• General play (23 percent)
• Ball handling/dribbling (20 percent)
• Receiving a slide tackle (10 percent)

Girls’ Soccer
• General play (23 percent)
• Ball handling/dribbling (16 percent)
• Defending (15 percent)
• Chasing a loose ball (13 percent)

Girls’ Volleyball
• Digging (31 percent)
• Blocking (16 percent)
• Setting (15 percent)

Boys’ Basketball
• General play (24 percent)
• Rebounding (21 percent)
• Defending (15 percent)
• Ball handling/dribbling (11 percent)
• Chasing a loose ball (10 percent)

Girls’ Basketball
• General play (24 percent)
• Defending (17 percent)
• Rebounding (17 percent)
• Ball handling/dribbling (16 percent)

Wrestling
• Takedown (57 percent)
• Sparring (20 percent)

Baseball
• Fielding (32 percent)
• Running bases (25 percent)
• Sliding (20 percent)
• Catching (10 percent)

Softball
• Sliding (29 percent)
• Fielding (16 percent)
• Batting (15 percent)

Dawn Comstock, PhD, is a principle investigator at the Center for Injury Research and Policy at The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. She is also an assistant professor at The Ohio State University in the College of Medicine and the College of Public Health. Her research interests include the epidemiology of sports, recreation, and leisure activity-related injuries among children and adolescents as well as the life-long health benefits associated with an active childhood. She can be reached at Dawn.Comstock@NationwideChildrens.org.

Tips for Coaching Today’s Athletes

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Are your athletes different than you were at their age? Of course they are,  and that is why we must coach them differently than we were coached. In this post get 22 Tips for coaching today’s athletes.

 

By Alan Stein, Basketball Strength and Conditioning Expert

As Notorious B.I.G. once said, ‘Things done changed.’

One of the biggest changes to our society as a whole has been technology… more specifically the Internet… and even more specifically… mobile smartphones and social media.

What does that have to do with athletics?

Everything.

Sports have always been and will always be an interpersonal activity that requires human connection and communication.

Coaching is all about building quality relationships. As they say, ‘it ain’t about the X’s and O’s… it’s about the Jimmy’s and Joe’s.’

But because of things like social media and the ‘everyone gets a trophy’ mentality, the Jimmy’s and Joe’s of 2015 are not the same as they were in 1995.

And even though we can’t stop the waves… we can all learn to surf.

Here are 22 tips for coaching today’s players…

  1. Find out how to truly connect with your players. Find out what makes them tick, what motivates them and what is the best way to coach them (in front of their peers and behind closed doors).
  1. Embrace social media and technology… it’s not going anywhere. It’s important to your players, so it needs to be important to you.
  1. Learn to speak their language (I am not referring to profanity). The top 2 ways players communicate today is through text message and social media (particularly Instagram and Twitter). Learn to use those platforms.
  1. Understand this: consistency breeds excellence – excellence breeds trust – trust breeds loyalty – loyalty builds a strong program. Be consistent with everything you do. Players won’t respect you if you don’t.
  1. Encourage this 3-step mistake policy with your players – Admit it. Fix it. Don’t repeat it! The first time it is a mistake. The second time it is a decision.
  1. Coach attitude and effort before X’s and O’s. Without proper attitude and effort the X’s and O’s don’t matter.
  1. Clearly articulate your core values, principles and each player’s role. These are non-negotiable. They make up your program’s culture.
  1. Players want to know the why behind everything. So tell them! Explain why you do what you do, why you believe what you believe, and why you expect ABC from them. The higher the perceived relevance, the higher the buy-in. And at the end of the day, a coach’s #1 job is to get buy-in from every member of the program.
  1. Social media has created an abundance of superficial ‘friends’ – make sure your players know you truly care about them (on and off the court). That you have their back.
  1. Don’t try to be ‘friends’ with your players. If you are too close to them personally you can’t hold them accountable. You should be a role model, a teacher and a mentor… but not a buddy.
  1. Players all learn differently. Make sure you can effectively teach each type of learner (audio, visual, intrapersonal).
  1. Players want to show their individuality (shoes, haircuts and especially with pre-game starting line-up announcement antics and routines). Don’t fight it. Have some leniency within your program rules. Respectfully, today’s idols and role models are a lot different.
  1. Create a climate and culture that values people over productivity. Your players must know you care about them as a human being first and a player second.
  1. If you want to know if you are a good coach…ask your worst player.
  1. You’re either coaching it or you are allowing it to happen. You either accept it or correct it.
  1. Replace ‘but’ with ‘now’ when instructing a player. For example, “I like your release, now try to get your elbow over your knee.” This minor change will make a huge impact.
  1. Focus on what your players can be… not what they are.
  1. Science shows that most people have a pretty firm definition of what is right and wrong by age 13. Hold them accountable. Ignorance is not an excuse. However, learn to choose your battles. Kids will be kids. If a players posts something stupid on social media… don’t condemn them for life. Use it to teach a life lesson. Hold them accountable, but use it to teach.
  1. Players actually want to be held accountable.  It shows them that you care and are invested in their success.
  1. Most of the players today have grown up in the ‘trophy generation’ – which has created an immense sense of entitlement. Players need to learn another ‘E’ word… earn. Create a system where players have to earn
  1. Players today want to play immediately. They don’t understand the concept of ‘right of passage.’ Freshman want to play varsity. Young players want to play serious minutes. Learn to channel this desire but keep them focused on the process and the long term.
  1. One of the biggest changes between the players of 1995 and 2015 is with the parents. Parents are much more involved and much more vocal (especially on social media). Parents can be a tremendous support system… or they can be a total thorn.
    I’m honored to be in the coaching fraternity.Alan SteinHardwood Hustle Blog
    http://www.About.me/AlanStein