September 28th 2010 by admin

How to Conduct the Perfect Practice – PART Three – A Practice Model for Any Sport

As a volunteer coach you have enough on your mind and things going on in your life (family responsibilities, your job, and your very own social life) that leave limited time to prepare for a well organized practice. Yet practices are the most important part of a young athletes sports experience. As a matter of fact, practices make up a majority of time your team spends together throughout the entire season in comparison to games played.

In order to make the most of this valuable time at practice, we have designed a template that can be used with any sport you coach. This practice blueprint provides a great way to create the proper flow of every practice. The flow of practice is as important as the skills being taught. It creates an energy level that keeps everyone engaged in the learning process, and provides you, the coach, the opportunity to control what and how skills are being taught.

A Multiple Sport Template
This template is not exclusive to any one sport. You must however fill in your own creative instruction/drills/& competitions. In future blogs we will provide suggested drills & competitions for specific sport fundamentals, this template is where a coach would place those drills and competitions they find useful. We also divide each practice template into individual, small group segments, with limited segments designed for the entire team. The reason: more can be achieved (more repetitions) over a shorter period of time when the team works in individual (players working in pairs) and small group segments. Of course sports with smaller rosters (basketball & ice hockey) are the exception, but should not disregard small group (3 player) training segments.

Practice set-up & use of skill stations
Set-up and coaching responsibilities are vital to a fast paced flow to any practice. Be sure to organized every training segment into stations with a coach assigned to that particular station. Multiple stations with an equal dispersion of players assigned to pairs is an essential ingredient to running a successful practice.

Place your practices on the clock
We strongly believe you should limit practices to 90 minutes. Anything longer becomes counter-productive. Over the 90 minutes a practice is broken down into 5,10, & 15 minute timed segments. The reason we recommend short segments is to keep the flow of practice moving quickly to maintain energy with the full engagement of every player. The other reason, kids cannot focus their attention for longer periods of time.

Establish a theme for every practice.
Themes are a powerful way to engage a team and remind them what their goals are, it’s an excellent way for coaches to focus on a particular point they observed was lacking in a past game or performance. A theme can be as simple as correctly holding onto the football to limit turnovers, more passing/less dribbling in soccer, limit mental errors in baseball, or more quickly covering your man after losing possession of the ball in basketball, etc. Start practice with the theme, have everyone remind each other throughout practice, and end practice by reviewing the theme. It will keep you and the team on point all practice.

Compete to Improve at Practice
A part of every practice should include time for multiple competitions. Competitions that measure each player’s individual progress and how well they can apply that as a team. I first designed competitive practices when I worked at the NFL and created a program called the NFL Junior Player Development Program. This program was actually an introductory season dedicated entirely to learning the fundamentals of tackle football. Since we did not include traditional games during this season it was important to provide ways to measure success and include the important element of competition, something every athlete craves.

Pete Carroll describes his first experience of witnessing this in his new book “Win Forever”, when I invited him to attend one of these sessions in the Bronx, NY, as the New England Patriots Head Coach. Pete describes how blown away he was to witness the emotion and passion the coaches and players had as they were learning and competing. That template we used that day is outlined below.

A Practice Blueprint for Any Sport

Segment One: Dynamic Warm-ups for 10 minutes.
A warm-up that provides continued movement that jump starts the flow of blood to the large muscles in the body (shoulders, hips, & legs) through creative drills and methods. Warm-ups should be conducted with high energy since it’s the way you begin and set the tone for the entire practice. Change up warm-ups every practice and rotate different activities throughout the season. Set-up an obstacle course that forces athletes to move (increase their heart rate) and challenges their basic athletic elements of agility, balance, coordination, & flexibility. Or create a free flowing game (ultimate frisbee) that focuses on the same athletic elements.

Segment Two: Individual Fundamental Skill Station for 10 minutes
Set-up three stations with one assigned coach that introduce different individual fundamental skills to pairs of players that rotate through every 15 minutes. For example a soccer practice may be working on ball control and crossing the ball this particular practice. The three stations of individual skill work would possibly be (left foot dribbling technique drills, right foot dribbling technique drills, left & right foot passing technique drills).

Segment Three: Individual Fundamental Competitions for 5 minutes
Follow every 10 minute skill development segment with a 5 minute competition that self-measures each players execution of that particular skill just taught. Record & track scores of every player, comparing scores over the course of the season.

Segments Four – Seven: for a total of 30 minutes
Repeat the individual fundamental skill sequence as the team continues to rotate through the three stations of different fundamental work with 10 minutes designated to skill repetitions, 5 minutes to competitions.

Segment Eight: 5 minute Halftime to review drills and practice theme

Segment Nine: Small Group Team Skill Station for 15 minutes
Divide team into two groups (i.e. offense & defense) of a equal number of sub-groups. Extend the fundamental training introduced during the individual segment into the small group segments. For example, extending upon the soccer drills suggested above, small group work would then focus on dribble out of trouble/pass cross field, dribble up field followed by give & go down the wings.

Segment Ten: Small Group Skill Station Competition for 15 minutes
Bring the two groups together, still keeping them in their small assigned sub-groups to compete against the other half of the team. Design competitions and a scoring system based on executing skills taught in their skill stations. Multiple competitions should take place at the same time, allowing every player to be active and moving with no downtime.

Practice Ends by reemphasizing the theme with a quick review of skills taught.

Note: this particular template was heavily weighted towards individual skill development, more appropriate for the beginning of the season. A coach can easily reverse the emphasis and weight a practice by assigning more small group training with a fewer amount of segments assigned to individual fundamental training. We do however recommend continuing individual skill work throughout the season.

September 27th 2010 by admin

The Three Most Important Sports Links Parents Must Read

In our weekly search to bring you some of the most informative and interesting articles that relate to youth sports we have found three important links that you may have missed last week:

Joe McDonald’s ESPNBoston.com article – “Concussion cases hard to figure” Aftereffects can vary dramatically, must be taken seriously, expert says . Athletes that suffer concussions can have symptoms reappear during rigorous training and exercise, months after injuryoccurred. Another cautionary note to parents. http://bit.ly/aDMffk

Athletic skill assessment can vary by sport, but the one common trait most all sports are seeking is size. Another great read for parents who think they may have the next major league pitcher, NFL player, or tennis player. No matter how talented, your son or daughter may be, they could be ruled out simply on size & strength. Howard Bryant of ESPN.com points out the truth when he states in his article “What Happens to Skill When Sports Emphasize Size & Power” “… talent evaluators find it safer to miss on a 6-foot-5 prospect than a 5-11 one.

http://bit.ly/dvvQBm

Greg Easterbrook from ESPN,com writes how coaches from the pros to the high school level are rewarded for winning games, sometimes at the expense of their athletes health. In the article “Concussion Hazards must be Addressed” Easterbrook points out that the wrong incentive structure has been developed in sports, my concern is that youth coaches value wins in the same vain and prematurely encourage their athletes to play when not fully recovered from injuries as well. http://bit.ly/aDMffk

September 27th 2010 by admin

Elitism in Youth Sports Ruins Your Child’s Future

The results are in regarding Travel/Select Teams: they’ve done more to ruin your child’s athletic experience and future by:

- not providing proper Athletic/Skill development
- unfairly and prematurely judging their ability and potential
- taking away valuable time on town fields & facilities for a handful of chosen ones
– ultimately destroying your town’s future success at the high school level.

We have allowed a universe of parents to ruin sports for kids. A universe that most likely experienced little or no athletic success themselves. A selfish universe that doesn’t care about other kids in their community, and feel their children are entitled to play on elite teams over others. This group of ignorant souls are relieved when their child’s competition is whittled away and told there not good enough to make a team before they’ve reached puberty. Everyone, this is the harsh reality of today’s youth sports experience.

Unfortunately the trend is getting worse rather than better. When parents do ask why there is only “one travel team per town per age group” and why there cannot be “multiple travel teams of the same age from the same town equally divided talent wise” they’re denied. Their reason, “we need to be competitive when we play other towns”. In other words, it’s more important to win a 9 year old travel team game than it is to unselfishly develop many more athletes with a passion to play.

If you’re a high school coach with any sense of athletic and program development experience you would put a stop to segregating kids before the age of 14, and allow all kids the opportunity to develop equally. Let’s face the true reality, the kids you see on Select /Travel Teams now will most likely not be starring or playing in high school. Ultimately Travel/Select Teams build false hope among entitled parents at the expense of destroying many other kids hopes to play with their friends and develop athletically.

If you’re a town administrator or athletic director, it should be your responsibility to put a stop to elitism in sports. The results would be the opportunity to keep more kids involved and active therefore cutting down on the many bad things that happen when active options are taken away from kids.

If you’re a parent of a child on a travel/select team you’ll selfishly glance right past this issue, but if your a parent that has young children not yet involved in organized sports, this is your opportunity to fix it now, and demand change.

Does your town take a fair approach to providing equal opportunity to play and develop in sports? If so, let me know how your town goes about it.

September 23rd 2010 by admin

THE PERFECT PRACTICE DOES NOT REQUIRE PERFECTION

Let me start by explaining there is no such thing as a “bad practice”. The more mistakes that are made the better. This is where we should celebrate kids making mistakes by taking a positive approach in correcting them.

Often coaches will get frustrated with mistakes. But everybody makes them. You probably made several already today (you took the wrong turn, forgot your keys, missed the train). But society labels mistakes in such a negative way that it actually compounds the mistake and does nothing to correct them, therefore we miss great opportunities to learn from them.

If you classify mistakes as bad, kids will tense up as they attempt to avoid mistakes rather than encouraging them to relax and perform. By reacting in a negative fashion to mistakes you’re actually creating layers of self-doubt inside the minds of your athletes, rather than building confidence and increased awareness of the task at hand.

There is no way an athlete at any level can perform well and be totally focused on execution of a skill if they’re trying to avoid mistakes. You will often hear an athlete describe after a great play or game that he felt “in the moment”. That moment is free of thinking or fearing mistakes.

Specific methods to clear an athlete’s mind of mistakes is to ask them to focus only on one element of the execution, for example when fielding a ground ball. For example, when working with infielders to reduce ground ball errors ask each athlete to repeat the phrase “ball, ball, ball, ball” for every hop that it makes as it approaches him, then yell glove as it’s entering the glove. This distract the player’s negative thoughts of making a mistake and focuses the player only on the ball.

If a player makes a mistake, don’t chastise him or show any type of emotion, simply ask him how he felt when he attempted to execute that particular play or exercise. A majority of athletes will provide a fairly detailed account of what they felt while making a mistake. Follow that by asking them how they felt the next time they properly execute, followed by “do you feel the difference?” This type of instruction takes all the negative perceptions out of the prior mistake/error and allows the mind & body to work together to feel, through muscle memory, right from wrong without any mental judgement placed upon the athlete.

September 21st 2010 by admin

How to Conduct the Perfect Practice – PART TWO – A Practice Model for Any Sport

As a volunteer coach you have enough on your mind and things going on in your life (family responsibilities, your job, and your very own social life) that leave limited time to prepare for a well organized practice. Yet practices are the most important part of a young athletes sports experience. As a matter of fact, practices make up a majority of time your team spends together throughout the entire season in comparison to games played.

In order to make the most of this valuable time at practice, there are a simple set of guidelines and a standard template, that if followed can assure you a well organized season that achieves many objectives, and helps save you time. This blog post will focus on Practice Guidelines.

10 Practice Guidelines:

1) Understand that your team will never achieve perfection.
Seems simple enough yet many coaches get frustrated with mistakes and therefore allow the experience to become a negative one at practice rather than positive.

2) Conduct short practices.
Practices that are well organized should not to last longer than 90 minutes. Kids naturally (along with many adults) have limited attention spans. When you conduct a fast paced practice that leaves kids wanting more, you’ve conducted an effective learning experience.

3) Establish a theme for every practice.
Themes are a powerful way to engage a team and remind them what their goals are, it’s an excellent way for coaches to focus on a particular point they observed was lacking in a past game or performance. A theme can be as simple as correctly holding onto the football to limit turnovers, more passing/less dribbling in soccer, limit mental errors in baseball, or more quickly covering your man after losing possession of the ball in basketball, etc. Start practice with the theme, have everyone remind each other throughout practice, and end practice by reviewing the theme. It will keep you and the team on point all practice.

4) Pair them up.
Pair all athletes up with a partner to conduct drills with throughout the entire practice. This saves time and allows for limited standing around and more interaction and learning to take place. Encourage athletes to work with each other to improve each others skills.

5) Choreograph every practice into timed segments.
Prepare and divide every practice into timed segments over a total of 90 minutes. Segments should last no longer than 15 minutes before you move to the next teaching or competition segment. Assign one adult to time each segment and blow a whistle when the segment time is up.

6) Celebrate mistakes.
If you take a positive approach when you witness mistakes, the learning curve improves due to the fact that athletes don’t feel defensive and embarrassed but empowered and focus to correct their mistakes. Attempt to be even tempered never getting too upset after a mistake or too excited when something goes right. Congratulate and recognized accomplishments but quickly move on and continue to teach.

7) Create and conduct competitions.
Every practice should be full of competitions after a skill set is taught or reviewed. Competitions should be conducted on a individual self-measuring, small group, and team scoring basis. Track the scores and compare them throughout the season that allow you and your team to follow the progression of how well they’re learning specific fundamentals.

8) Don’t talk a lot.
Limit the amount that you say, provide concise explanations of what you want performed paired with well executed demonstrations, in order to allow for maximum amounts of repetitions in drills and mini-competitions.

9) Halftime @ Practice.
If you feel the team is losing focus and not executing the theme of the day with the energy that you expect from them, call the team together as a group and conduct a three minute halftime that reinforces the theme, pump them up (keep it positive), and quickly get them back to their practice routine. Pete Carroll, the Head Coach of the Seattle Seahawks used this strategy during his practices as the USC Head Football Coach.

10) Send them home thinking.
Assign a different small group of athletes at the end of every practice (rotate assignments to everyone on the team throughout the entire season) with the challenge of creating one drill that will best help the team execute the practice theme of the day. This allows athletes to become part of the solution, and empowers them to completely analyze the skill execution and strategy to be performed by creating a solution in their own drill. These individuals should be your team captains for that particular week (remember to rotate everyone through this process).

Next blog will detail a practice model that any sport can use as a template.

Do you have practice ideas that work for you? Let us know. Was this information helpful? Leave us your thoughts.

September 20th 2010 by admin

Practice Makes Perfect? Not if you don’t run the Perfect Practice!

7 Signs of Poorly Run Youth Practices

Teams that take laps to warm-up – unless you’re coaching the track or cross-country team there is no need for this in practice. What this demonstrates is a lack of coaching knowledge and preparation. There are so many different fun ways to warm-up a team that actually incorporate and mimic the movements to be used for the remainder of practice. I often have used a form of ultimate frisbee to warm-up teams. It involves everyone moving continuously at the same time while incorporating agility, balance, coordination, speed, & stamina.

Static Stretching – If you’re a 1950’s gym class then you’re spot on with this warm-up technique, but it’s 2010 and static stretching does nothing to warm-up or prepare athletes, as a matter of fact it can possibly injure them. Stretching muscles that are stiff and don’t have adequate blood flow moving to that area of the body run a high risk of injuring those muscle groups. Dynamic stretching that involves full and constant movement work best to warm-up athletes.

Teams that Stand Around – Nothing is more wasteful of everyone’s time than to stand around waiting at practice. Whether it’s in a long line to execute a skill, or to stand and watch teammates execute team strategy, you’re wasting valuable time. Many coaches that are adamant about your son or daughter attending numerous hours of practices every week, have a lot of nerve to expect a good number of kids to stand around and watch. If you’re going to have a practice make sure you engage everyone – 100% of the time.

Coaches Yelling and Chastising Players for Mistakes – Everyone makes mistakes including you, coach. First take a long hard look in the mirror and start analyzing what you might not be doing correctly to get your team and individuals to perform. Oh, and by the way, there is nothing wrong with mistakes. Especially at practice. This is where you should cherish mistakes as a moment to teach and correct in a positive fashion, rather than as a raging lunatic. That type of behavior ruins kid’s self esteem and brings more attention to the fact that you’re not coaching properly.

Teams that Scrimmage – Joe Paterno said it best, “If you can’t teach/coach – you better scrimmage.” Anybody can watch a team play. It’s the good coach who can watch his team compete during organized games, then breakdown that game into smaller teaching parts during practice, in order to correct mistakes and develop fundamentals. A better coaching tool is free-play time where the team plays a series of pick-up games with their own rules, teams, and officiating. A good coach will observe and download that information for future instructional periods.

No Fundamental Skill & Instructional Segments – if your coach fails to incorporate some time for interactive fundamental skill development and instruction every practice, you’re with the wrong coach. Good youth sports programs and coaches should dedicate time every practice to developing fundamental sport specific skills. Better youth sports programs and coaches also develop overall athletic skills.

Teams that Run Wind Sprints for Conditioning – the irony here is that it’s often required by a coach who could not fit a hula hoop around his own waist. If you run a fast paced well prepared practice with little downtime or standing around, with high energy, there is no need for wind sprints.

My next article will illustrate The Perfect Practice Blueprint for any Sport’s Practice.

Any coaching practice tips you use or have witnessed that impressed you? Please lets us know and comment.

September 18th 2010 by admin

How to Make Football Safer: Eliminate the Contact – In Practice

Every day you pick up the newspaper or go on-line to check your favorite sports site, the issue of head injuries in football is a feature story. Do we have more head injuries now than we have had in the past? Possibly, but no one can truly document that fact. But one factor that will greatly reduce head injuries in football starts at practice. Yesterday’s article in the New York Times by Alan Schwartz highlighted exactly several reasons why.

There has been a movement proposed by successful NFL, college, and high school coaches to limit contact in practice. As a matter of fact, many successful programs have eliminate tackling players to the ground during any practice sessions. The reason is that more head injuries occur when a player’s head directly hits the ground causing brain trauma, or the impact of the whiplash effect on the neck jolts the brain.

Many youth coaches argue that without all-out contact and/or replicating the practice of full tackling in practice a player is not fully prepared to execute in a game. However, for several reasons this not true.

1) When youth coaches require full contact in practice they often spend half the time waiting for players to get-off the ground.
2) Coaches attend to more injuries that will inevitably occur.
3) Takes the focus away from actual tackling and blocking techniques.

The most successful programs at all levels of the game incorporate form tackling and tackling circuit drills that take place no more than several feet apart, at controlled speeds, all season-long. This allows the following:

1) Better control over the execution of technique where a coach and player can breakdown each aspect of a very difficult skill, therefore leading to more effective game time tackling.
2) Eliminates the time spent on attending to injuries and provides more time for teaching.
3) Limits impact to the head, due to the fact that body control and proper shoulder positioning can be employed.
4) Raises the level of confidence that each player can execute the technique properly, that ultimately builds their courage. Paul Pasqualoni, former Syracuse University Head Football Coach now Defensive Line Coach with the Dallas Cowboys explains “You’re not born with courage, you must develop courage.”

The time as come for mandated youth football coaching certification and legitimate coaches training, without it your child runs a serious risk of injury.

What do you think of this post? Agree or disagree? Please leave a comment below.

September 17th 2010 by admin

THE ABC’s of SPORTS INSIDER SHOW NOTES for September 16th

Welcome to the ABC’s of Sports Insider Show Notes for September 16th. This new report provides you with additional information and thoughts I have during and after a show.

A big subject this week was a recent research report (Sports Marketing Surveys) that revealed that sports participation has decreased substantially over the past several years. Football has experienced the largest decline, most likely due to the increased number of injuries, the fact the press is now focused on those injuries, and organized youth tackle football lacks any type of legitimate coaches certification and training.

On a related note we covered the concussion issue again this week with Dr. Audrey Halpern from the Manhattan Headache & Neurology Center in New York City. Dr. Halpern stated that she cites the drop in participation as possibly due to the increase in sports injuries. She also went on to describe the details of a concussion:

“A concussion is a brain injury that can result in an altered level of consciousness and memory loss. Some signs of a concussion include confusion, disorientation, headache, drowsiness, unconsciousness, convulsions, vomiting, muscle weakness, imbalance, and problems walking. Concussions commonly occur while playing sports and too often players are sent back out on the playing field before they’re ready, sometimes resulting in more injury and complications including bleeding in the brain, dementia and permanent changes in the player physically, emotionally, and intellectually.”

Dr Halpern went on to explain “Strict neurological evaluations should be conducted bty certified neurologists after concussions occur and before athletes are given the green light to play again.”

_____________________________________________________________

Often we have action sport athletes on the show to provide us their perspective on competing, training, and sharing their overall passion for their sport and active lifestyle.
This week we spoke to Big Wave Surfer, Maya Gabeira. Maya is recognized as the best female big wave surfer in the world, surfing waves as high as 45 feet in height.

How does she escape injury while taking on such dangerous crashing waves. “I totally go into state of relaxation, where everything slows down”. Maya further explained to me that though she does experience fear at times, she uses it to focus and build her confidence to a level that allows her to relax and know things will be OK when something goes wrong on a ride.

Often we as coaches and parents don’t do enough to teach our kids how to relax during competition and enjoy the moment, no matter what those moments may bring. A totally prepared athlete often has the ability to relax and perform under any stressful situation.

Be sure to listen in next week, Thursday, September 23rd, on Sirius 125 and XM 241, from noon to 2 p.m. ET.

If you have a topic you would like us to cover, an issue you would like solved, or a solution that worked in your community, please let us know by leaving a comment on this blog, emailing me directly, or by calling me during the show at 866 – 522 – 2846.

September 17th 2010 by admin

The Three Most Important Links to Read this Week

If you have kids playing or about to participate in sports, you should be aware of several safety facts. Research & medical reports continue to point out that we need to be more aware of head injuries. No matter the sport you need to know what concussion symptoms are and the fact that head injury symptoms don”t always present themselves immediately, but successive injuries to the head could cause long term brain damage or death. The following are 3 links (ALAN SCHWARZ of the NY TImes does a great job covering this on a regular basis) you should read and pass along to other parents.

Eagles’ Handling of Head Injury Draws Spotlight

Basketball-Related Brain Trauma Sees Sharp Rise

Concussions and Head Injuries in Football

Ideas? Suggestions? Love these links? Hate them?
Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

September 14th 2010 by admin

Big Wave Surfer, Maya Gabeira describes the feeling of being in the moment & overcoming fear.

This Thursday I have the great pleasure to interview Big Wave Surfer, Maya Gabeira,
http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Profile/Maya-Gabeira-021242750552994 , the ESPY’s 2009 Best Female Action Sports Athlete & 2010 Teen Choice Award WInner on the ABC’s of Sports, Sirius Channel 125, XM 241, 12 noon – 2 p.m. ET. Maya is one of the very few females in the world that Big Wave Surf.

Big Wave Surfing

At 17 years old, and only three years deep into her sport, Maya Gabeira had
already notched up an impressive list of some of the world’s most enviable
breaks. A happenstance booking brought her to Hawaii, a stopover suggested by
friend on her journey back to Australia. As she stood on the beaches of Oahu’s
famed North Shore, the swells of Waimea, Sunset and Pipeline began a new
chapter in the story of the Brazilian phenom who set out to slay the big waves.

THE JOURNEY BEGINS
“When I first came to Hawaii,” Maya explains, “and I saw Sunset, Pipeline and
Waimea, I just knew that I wanted to put my time into being able to surf those
waves.” As a rebellious teenager living in Brazil, Maya had been a little afraid of
the ocean. Her boyfriend at the time was a surfer, and she was intrigued by his
passion for the sport. So she signed up for a class. In those days, it was tough
for her just to be in the ocean. But the challenge, the sensations and the freedom
drew her in—and she never looked back.

At 15, she went to Australia on an exchange program ostensibly to learn English,
but also to surf. She returned home, graduated and began traveling by herself
with the better part of three years. With a big wave goal and not a whole lot else
to do, Maya’s surfing exploded.

“I was traveling to all the best spots in the world, at the right time and always
in the right season,” she says. “I was always catching good waves. I was so
fascinated that it’s all that I did.”

TO TOW OR NOT TO TOW
Her talent, exploits, and the fact that she was a woman holding her own in waters
many surfers feared to tread, drew attention. And that attention drew sponsors.

Maya paddled in to big waves for four seasons by herself, honing her approach
and technique with the grit, determination, and courage that would come to
define her career. She hooked up with accomplished big wave rider and fellow
Brazilian and Red Bull teammate Carlos Burle, who quickly became her mentor
and friend. He’s taught her tow-in surfing and opened a whole new theater of
waves to the 23-year old.

On November 1, 2007, Maya towed into the snarling beast of a wave at
Teahupoo for the first time during an epic swell that brought out the sport’s most
elite riders. The only girl in the line-up, Maya took some devastating wipeouts
before catching what she calls, “the wave of my life.”

Rides like these have earned her four consecutive Billabong XXL Big Wave
Awards from 2007-2010 (link). In addition, Maya has taken home the Best
Female Action Sport Athlete award at the 2009 ESPYs and the 2010 Teen
Choice Awards.

EXCHANGE RATES
What exactly is that draw, that intangible something that compels men and
women to challenge the raw fury of these liquid walls of energy? Perhaps it’s the
exchange.

To be a big wave surfer you have to be 100 percent in the moment. You have
to be smart and have respect for the water while engaging every sense, muscle
fiber and cell in balancing the power of these waves. In exchange, the riders get
the high of their lives, a rush of endorphins so overpowering that riding a 70-foot
wall of frothing velocity seems totally doable.

For that exchange to occur, the surfer needs to mitigate her fear. For Maya,
perspective is key. “I’m really scared,” she admits. “But to overcome it, I think
about all the things I did to get there. I train really hard. And I believe that if you
have been dedicated to your one goal, when that time comes and everything is
right, you’re going to go for it and give it everything you have. So that’s what I
do; I give it everything I have, everything I’ve ever trained for, and I hope for the
best.”

FROM THE OUTSIDE IN
Maya has overcome many obstacles to create this path she’s on, but the rewards
have been many. Today she’s happy and thankful to be paid for doing what she
loves. She is proud to look back at her years of work and accomplishment in her
quest to be a professional surfer. But she’s not done yet.

“There is still so much I want to do,” she says. “But more than anything, I just
want to be able to keep on with the life I have now, and I appreciate everything
about the life I have now.”

As for the future of women’s tow-in surfing, and big wave surfing in general,
expect Maya to stay out in front. Though she laments the fact that there aren’t
any women’s tow-in competitions just yet, she understands the challenges. “It
hard for the guys,” she explains. “It’s not a sport like the CT or the QS. Sponsors
are hard to find because it’s expensive and dangerous. So imagine what it’s like
for the girls! But it’s coming; I’m positive!”

Even Maya has a hard time believing how far she has come in the past few
years. She credits her success to hard work and being passionate about what
she does. If you have those things, she says, “You can do anything in life!”

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