Posts Tagged ‘Athletic skills’

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.

March 26th 2010 by admin

The Most Overlooked Athletic Skill – BALANCE

BALANCE – THE KEY ELEMENT TO ATHLETIC SUCCESS

Balance is the most essential skill for an athlete to possess, and time needs to be spent on developing it. All sports rely heavily on balance. Think of a soccer player attempting to keep possession of a ball, a pitcher winding up and throwing to home plate, a basketball player taking a jump shot, a football lineman blocking a defender, or a tennis player playing serve and volley. In each case balance plays a key role in achieving the precise set of movements necessary for the skill to be performed correctly.

To develop balance, you need to develop “muscle memory”, an unconscious tensing and releasing of the right muscles in just the right increments that enables them to maintain their equilibrium in motion. It is through this process, for example, that people learn to ride a bike. When learning, the body sends signals to the brain to orient the body to where it should be positioned and maintained, allowing the body’s muscle memory to eventually take over and become what seems to be second nature.

A key element in athletics is the ability to maintain balance while in motion. Whether you are rapidly transferring body weight during a golf swing, swinging or hitting and getting out of the batter’s box (Seattle Mariners, Ichiro Suzuki), in baseball, snowboarding down a mountain (Olympic Half Pipe Gold Medalist, Shaun White), or maneuvering around an opponent in ice hockey (NHL Pittsburgh Penguins, SIDNEY CROSBY), soccer (former US Women’s National Soccer Team Player, Mia Hamm), or lacrosse (Mikey Powell Amazing Jumping Goal on YouTube), Balance allows the body to transfer weight while performing. Athletes need to be able to continue to execute while transitioning from a variety of body positions and movements. They often find themselves off balance before or after executing a play. To be in a position to finish a play, or to prepare for the next play, they must be able to adjust quickly to regain proper balance.

The following provides several drills that develop and improve overall balance for a variety of sports.

DRILL ONE – STEPPING STONES

Equipment: Five balance pods
Set-Up: Arrange the four balance pods in a diamond shape approximately 3 feet apart with one additional pod place three feet in front of the diamond. Think of all five-balance pods as stepping stones.
Description of Drill: Each athlete walks from one balance pod to the next until he has completely stepped and balanced himself on all five pods.

DRILL TWO – BALANCE BEAM


Equipment: Three to four half-foam rolls, two 12 inch hurdles
Set-Up: Arrange all three or four half foam rolls in a straight line touching at each end, place the two hurdles at the end of the first foam roll and the end of the second foam roll.
Description of Drill: Begin with each athlete walking on the half beams and stepping over each of the two hurdles without losing their balance.

DRILL THREE – OFF-BALANCE FOOTBALL CATCHES

Equipment: Three to four half-foam rolls, a football
Set-Up: Arrange all three or four half foam rolls in a straight line touching at each end.
Description of Drill: As each athlete walks the length of the rolls, toss a football where the athlete must reach out and catch the ball without losing balance. Throw balls to the right, left, over the head, below the waist, forcing the athletes to extend and catch while keeping their balance on the half foam rolls.

Please look for our continued series of articles and drills to develop overall and sport specific balance, developed by experts from action sports (snowboarding, surfing, skateboarding, etc.).

The attached video is one segment of several that I’ll post that demonstrates additional, creative methods to engage your team and athletes in the fun process of developing balance.