I here you loud and clear on youth athletics. If it were up to me and only me, my kids would not be involved in game type situations so soon. My wife is trying to find out what sports he is interested in and gets him involved in a lot of things. I tell her as nicely as I can- if you want to find out what sports our kids like, then spend the time (hours) out front with us.
BTW, If I only have 30 min. for something and the lawn needs to be cut…there are no and, ifs or buts about it…I’m working on my game/body first. She knows this to be true. She is STILL trying to figure that out as well. She just thinks I have a fast metabolism lol
“Coach one element at a time…Don’t move away from one training element until it is correct. Teach increasing levels of skill- according to the individual’s needs when the athlete’s body and performance of training elements indicate a readiness to handle them.”- Charlie Francis
Who in the world has calls an athlete un coachable, unteachable, etc??
I had to speak up last week and hand a coach their own ass.
In most cases it is the ppl who think they know it all…that is who!!!
They feel they are so smart that they miss the Goal completely when the going gets tough.
They think with all their knowledge and occasional success with very easily coachable athletes at all levels that there is something wrong with them but that is where true teaching comes out.
It is a cop out- face a difficulty squarely and learn.
or sometimes there is just not a connection with that athlete…that is ok…wish them well with the next coach…don’t label them. I have taken my share of rejected athletes and built them back up…I will always continue to do so.
Two months ago I was in several Meetings with a PhD in ADHD, several teachers and one teacher who had a kid with ADHD and knew a lot about the subject from her own research and practicing it. I am not a teacher but I am always looking into different subjects and learning.
All these other teachers were all very good and took the time to come in and learn more about it…a great thing to do…BUT…they were clueless and so far behind that one teacher that I couldn’t believe it at first. I assumed all teachers knew about teaching/coaching kids with ADHD. NOT!
Me being me…gave several examples of Coaching that they could connect with when needed.
The kids are there to challenge/improve your game…if you refuse to learn how they learn…they will defeat you time and time again.
The last link reminds me of my own story-
the first time I ever benched 315 x 1 was at SBCC after work where I took a P.E. Class for fun.
It was unplanned and I didn’t want to max out but was pressured by the instructor to give it a try. I just barely completed the rep. Phew!
The very next Monday…I am benching Light and hurt my shoulder so I took some time off.
The next time I Benched 315 was two yrs later when I was fully prepared to handle it. According to the chart I was using at the time and how many times I did 295…I was ready for 4 reps of 315lbs.
B/c I got hurt a week after I first did 315 I took it slowly.
Weights were my 3rd session of the day…on Mon. and Thur.
6:15 to 7am was light GS, circuit work, abs…
1- 3:00 or so was speed.
Weights were at 7pm.
I was working full time so this was by far the best set up…b/c I worked FT I rarely lifted super heavy on Mon. nights…I did not want to dragging ass at work on Tue. and Wed. The Director of the Dept. I worked in let me take off from work as long as I needed so I could train and I did not want to let her down either. Balancing act for sure.
Anyhow, I start out with Heavy Dumbbell rows…two sets.
followed by BP-
Warm-ups
155 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 5
245 x 1
275 x 1
295 x 1
I felt good so I would go for it.
Working sets-
315 x 3
295 x 6
1st 3 reps felt easy but when I came to the bottom on my 4th rep and pushed…I knew it would be possible to do the 4th but I would barely make it and the TUT would be a tremendous cost to me…I told the spotters to Lift it. I was thinking before the set that 4 was going to be easy…Heck no. You never know til you do it. Normally, I would leave a rep on the table.
I have known many ppl about my age or past 35 try to make a comeback in an explosive event only to get hurt in training early on.
Even the really really smart ones. I have not been injured so far but I am not out of the woods yet either.
I am going to try and push it to the next level and If I make it …Great!..if not, let the next person learn from my experience and take it a little further or all the way.
I’m a throwback from the 80’s and 90’s. When I come to compete…I seek and destroy.
Well…Except in the 4x400 where I ran from fear…fear of being embarrassed by the badass who got the baton 10 meters behind me and was going to snatch me …all I could do was run my ass off and try to postpone the inevitable.
Payback is a Bitch!
Look at the WRs set in the 1980s that are still there. New Century Records.
Tyson Gay vs. John Drummond now.
Last year, “Memo” was still throwing Mo under the bus on Twitter saying that the Feds decided to look the other way for him even though they had more than enough evidence…
Conte is always giving some Boxers, at least, the ones with the shady trainers a hard time in the Public eye for not doing VADA testing, etc.
3 Day weekend coming up…the last 90 min. of today’s Market is what I am waiting to see as well. Fund managers tend to sneak in OR out right about now.
I’ll be jumping in Nor. Cal. in less than a month to see where I stand (or land). I’m doing it to put together a story for my side business.
My son is hitting well from both sides of the plate now.
So I don’t wreck my arm…I throw about 30-40 lefty, 30-40 Righty and 30-40 sub-marine style like kent tekulve or dan quisenberry and they are easy on my arm…these balls have A LOT of movement but he still hits them…the other kids that live next door play with us and swing the bat very well…too bad they can’t hit the ball though. If they weren’t moving soon, I would help them.
this is why so many prefer the distance events, generally easier to avoid snapping in half…
Somehow i turn 39 this year??? - I’m now running Faster in km/hr than what i have ever done (generally i was a 800m + guy)
I find - Therapy - and bucketloads of it. No therapy = no explosive action. Which is probably why i suffered in my 20’s and why i’m faster now, rarely had any consistent therapy back in the day.
The really big one is Patience. which let me slow things down and feel my way through it.
The other is Conditioning. It is all about conditioning, conditioning, conditioning and even more conditioning at this stage of my life and after being out of training mode for a long while.
I was already fast enough and strong enough as I needed to be I thought…why risk pushing those two things and end up like most of the others hurt?
I wish I could say it was all by design but I got my Weight back in check before I began any of the training, so yes, that helped out a great deal to avoid issues.
A wait and see approach is what I used. I started with very low volumes of ext. tempo…if you can call a snail’s pace that lol…forwards and backwards about 10M both ways. I haven’t missed one week of training due to any sort problems since I started.
I threw timelines and technology out the window and just listened to my body. Just letting my body tell it’s story to me instead of me following some brilliant plan that I or someone else came up with. No anticipating and no hesitating with the work.
Eventually, I was able to add exc. to regain some of my jukes and jumping ability. Again, done with patience.
At 19yrs old…I simply went through the motions for the warm-up as instructed.
at 29 yrs old…I knew that it helped and could see it in performance with a proper warm-up.
at 43 yrs old…I can feel it and describe it much much better now.
This is a very short version of the story but you get the idea.
I find that I need more therapy the more I sit around on the couch which puts me in bad positions.
Often times I just lie down on the floor with my legs sometimes elevated to avoid all those issues.
Hopefully, this makes sense…I was interrupted a few times trying to write lol
With my son’s Baseball Season over (Sat. Games) it is now time to focus for some Meets. The things I have learned on this go around are priceless so I am thankful for that.
Also, a friend of mine has his girl jumping at the CA State Meet today who has been over 20’ this year. You go girl!
CF Ref. in the last two weeks or so. What is the name of this site after all?
My Family went out last weekend to a Fitness Event that the City was hosting…saw a lot of good things there. One thing that was cool was somebody doing all those cross fit exercises. My son asked me…Dad…do you think he can run faster, throw harder and jump farther than you? (mini me lol) I don’t know for sure son but I doubt it. If he ever steps foot out of the gym we can always find out. (The problem is…is if he finds something he needs to “work on”…he will probably run right back to the gym to do it lol) His body may have left the gym but his mind/solutions never did.
Risk Savvy-
I don’t jump in weekend warrior activities if I didn’t prepare myself for it.
If your car runs out of gas…and you need my help…I don’t push the car…you ran out of gas…YOU Push…I will get in and steer it after putting it in neutral. I’m not potentially blowing myself up like so many others have being good Samaritans.
Like Brian Tracy said/wrote…once a goal is set…things either help or hurts you getting to that goal and nothing is neutral
The Director of the Dept. I worked in all those years ago who let me take time during the week to train also allowed me to Coach the LJ/TJ at the Local College as well. When I first made the request for time to Coach as well…I thought she would say -you are pushing it now B. She never got back to me about it but instead had her asst tell me that my request was approved the next week b/c I was “giving back to the community.” In addition, I was not required to make up any time that I took off for it. I was floored b/c I thought I was being a little selfish but she helped me understand it from a different perspective.
Well, I never told her but I always stayed an extra hour a day everyday to show my appreciation. She may not have known it but the Team I led did.
there was another link or two I came by but have to look for them later…short on time. One was from a Member here
Maybe I should put this in Baseball but here it goes anyways…
Environment.
I often pitch to my son in front of our house. If he pulls the ball batting Righty he will hit it into a wall that is angled.
If he hits it to the Shortstop position he will hit my vehicle…I park it where I don’t want him to hit.
The opening is either over my head or between 1st and 2nd but closer to 1st base.
He’s a kid. He wants to see the ball he hits travel so he hits the ball in the openings fairly often. I’ve haven’t instructed him to hit anywhere at all ever.
Again, I show him many different looks and he adjusts like a champ to hit it in “the Holes”
He likes to keep count now and I attempt to strike him out or make him chase bad ones once in awhile.
You win some you lose some son…just be ready each and every time.
It’s a real treat to get to watch him learn.
Speaking of the environment. I just found out that my neighbors are planning on moving into a new house when it is done very soon and if their house next to us sells as well.
They are expecting another boy in a month or two.
When we moved into this house 9 yrs ago we were also expecting.
Little did we know that the -
New Paint
New Carpet and padding
New Furniture
New blinds
Sh!t underneath the carpet…saw dust, etc.
would be overwhelming to my son’s skin. He had a bad case of eczema on his poor face-Cheeks.
We kept going to the Dr’s office and all they did was give us a new prescription every time one didn’t work for him.
I didn’t know back then that the safest place in this house was in the Garage with the door wide open.
He’s tough as hell now…he hasn’t got sick in over 7 years. Crazy!
I didn’t tell them this to scare them but to let them know that I have been there before and that I wish I knew back then what I know now.
Installed the best filters that money can buy for the house as well as one of those UV hospital grade thingies that go up in the attic to kill 99.99% of the harmful viruses etc.
BTW, my mind is right for competing now. My mind is right b/c my body is ready.
Man, I DID NOT need to see that…dang. That is just horrible! How is he doing nowadays?
I had a Teammate get his faced crushed when the bar dropped on him during a set - BP. B/c of it, I would usually have three spotters when I BP heavy. It was like I was a Movie director in the gym.
Imagine someone (Me) lifting in a commercial gym with one person helping me lift the bar.
one person on each side of the Barbell AND a personal trainer/track coach making sure I was technically sound.
Yes, even though I was at the top of my Strength Game back then…I invested in myself to make sure I was good. It didn’t hurt that she was HOT and would have trained me for free lol
speaking of commercial gyms…great place to see what not to do.
Also a great place to see time stop in its Tracks.
I went away for two years only to comeback to the same gym seeing a lot of the same ppl, lifting the same way, looking the same way. time machine. I was like WTF! Really weird experience.
It’s pretty incredible what goes on in gyms. Once I started coaching track and learned more about training principles, I drastically changed my own training in the gym, targetting strength/power, and made some pretty significant gains for a guy who was never a particularly great athlete. I was very happy with the movements that mattered to me until hurting my knee a few months ago.
