Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #38: Gill1918 presents Niko Karavolos "Long Term Athlete Development"

Transcript

#38: Gill1918 presents Niko Karavolos "Long Term Athlete Development" · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Welcome to the Gill 1918 Project, a podcast series by
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  coaches, for coaches powered by Gill Athletics.
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  Think of this as the Ted Talks of track and field coaching.
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  Short, insightful, and packed with valuable strategies to help
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  you grow as a coach. We'll bring in the once a year
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  track clinic straight to your ears daily.
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  Interested in creating your own episode?
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  Everyone's welcome to participate.
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  Check out the show notes below For more information.
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  Now let's get into today's topic.
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  Welcome to the Guild 19. 18 Podcast.
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  My name is Nico Caravolos. I'm a strength conditioning
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  coach and track and field coach at York High School and I own a
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  facility called. Ignite Fitness and.
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  Performance in Elmhurst, IL and I'm here to discuss long term
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  athlete development, what it is, why it matters, and how we can
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  collectively do better. If you're a coach, or a parent
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  or anyone involved in shaping young athletes, this
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  conversation is when you all need to have.
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  I want to start with a clear, clear eyed look at the current
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  state of youth sports. Too often we see young athletes
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  pushed into early specialization, exposed to
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  excessive training loads and evaluated by short term outcomes
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  like wins, stats, trophies rather than the long term
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  potential. The result of all this ends up
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  being kids that have overuse injuries, injuries that that are
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  more mature injuries than a than a kid should have.
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  And a lot of times it ends up being where they have burnout by
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  the time they come to the, you know, late adolescence, high
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  school age. And that, you know, it's, it's
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  a, it's a problem in the sense that we want to ensure that kids
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  are enjoying these, the exploration period of sports in
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  that really early stage of learning sports, the structure
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  of it can become highly pressured into being 1 certain
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  way. And we lose that aspect of, of
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  play and exploration. And when we get to high school,
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  we have really rigid athletes that don't necessarily or can't
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  necessarily adapt to new circumstances, new coaches, new
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  training styles and training methods.
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  So as we like move beyond this model, youth sports shouldn't
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  mimic professional systems. They should build foundations
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  for long term performance, health and you know, the
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  emotional and and mental side of, of life in general.
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  This is where if we start to, to focus on the long term
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  development of an athlete, we start to build a framework
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  that's a little bit more progressive, it's a little bit
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  more age appropriate and starts to stimulate the natural
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  creativity that kids want to express and they and they want
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  to find in their sports. So it's not about, to me, this
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  is not about slowing kids down, but it's giving them an
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  opportunity to have the right stimulus at the right time.
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  And there are, you know, a few, a few keys that I like to look
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  at and that's the windows of, of trainability during the
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  developmental periods when the body is especially responsive
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  training speed, coordination, strength, endurance, long term
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  development capitalizes on these windows to build better, more
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  resilient to athletes over time. I mean, essentially it's it's
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  not about when we train, but about what we train and why
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  versus the when. And how?
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  There are three core principles that guide, I, I think that
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  guide a long term, effective long term development program.
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  The 1st is, is movement before loading, making sure that kids
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  are able to handle movements properly.
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  So that isn't just what we think of traditional loading barbells
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  and and you know, medicine balls and whatnot, but it's also speed
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  based loading as well. If we don't have the necessary
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  movement competency in a lot of these patterns, running
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  mechanics, sprinting mechanics, jumping, landing, then we start
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  to add on intensity before kids are able to understand the
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  concepts themselves. And now this is where we could
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  get into the into the kind of the weeds about, Oh well, what
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  is Sprint mechanics and, and what are necessary landing
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  mechanics. And this is where the creativity
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  piece is, is being lost. We're getting stuck thinking
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  that we have to look like elite sprinters when a 10 year old kid
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  is not an elite sprinter and most likely won't be because
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  they're playing soccer, they're playing basketball, they're
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  playing volleyball. The idea is that we want to give
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  them variety, options and choices to be able to explore
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  those movements and push towards a model that allows for more
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  effective movement within their personal experience and and how
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  their body develops over time. The next would be the the
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  diversity of athletic experiences.
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  And this coincides with what what we just talked about the
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  movement capacities is that early specialization in sports
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  limits the athletic potential because we lose the exploration
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  period, we lose the learning of something new and the
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  understanding of how to learn. And then the exposure to
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  multiple sports and, and, and movement disciplines always
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  develop, develops a cross path, you know, the ability to learn
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  different sports, but using the same tools of, of those skills
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  like learning how to hand eye coordination, handful
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  coordination, body awareness, the general coordinate athletic
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  coordination that playing multiple sports allows.
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  When we look at, you know, high level high school performers,
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  college performers and, and at the professional level, all of
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  these people were allowed to play multiple sports and be
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  creative. The outliers are the ones that
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  played that one sport for their entire lives.
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  And it doesn't mean that you didn't play structured.
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  A lot of these a lot of these athletes would go and just play
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  sports. They'd go to the park and they
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  would enjoy playing sports. Simple.
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  The last one is the character that you're developing over the
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  outcome that you're seeking. Our job is not to provide and
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  just produce athletes. It's to mentor kids using sport
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  as a tool or as a vehicle for teaching, discipline and
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  accountability, teamwork, resilience, understanding that
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  the process is the thing that we should be focused on.
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  The outcome always isn't in our control.
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  I coach track and field and it's very difficult to to not focus
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  on, oh, did you win the race or not?
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  In every race, there's only one winner.
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  And usually in every race there's 8:00 to 11:50 to 15
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  people running that race in one heat, one section of a race.
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  But if we focus on the process and how we get there, and then
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  we focus on the execution of that process, then we start to
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  focus on building the understanding of how do I get to
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  my goal? How do I learn to get to that
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  goal? What are the steps I need to
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  take to get there? So this helps to develop
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  athletes for the future. So to the coaches out.
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  There our. Job is to prepare athletes for
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  the next steps, not to always peak them.
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  You have to prioritize development over domination.
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  It's the prioritization of the the future, not the here or now.
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  Your six week camp that's going to get a kid to increase his
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  vertical by 6 to 8 inches is not in the best interest of a kid.
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  There are few opportunities or few instances.
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  Maybe they're training for a combine that would would get
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  them to another level, but that's very rare.
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  That's on the higher level of of the youth development.
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  That's usually not in the, you know, grade school, middle
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  school, high school range. So we should be focused on
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  teaching parents and kids that it's about what's going to
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  happen your senior year of high school, not what's going to
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  happen your freshman year or what's going to happen this
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  summer between your freshman and sophomore year.
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  Long term development. It's a it's a commitment.
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  It's a commitment that you're, you want to help and ensure that
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  the kids reach their maximum potential.
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  Teaching them the tools and giving them the tools necessary
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  that it's a, it's a, it's a essentially a practice in
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  patience. The process is doing the the
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  basics really well. Learning that day in and day
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  out, consistency and having discipline to do those things is
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  what's going to help develop the child mentally and emotionally.
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  And then physically. It's giving them the
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  opportunities to be creative, not just structured into one
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  particular type of training. So I want to close in, in saying
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  that we're we're living in a world where marketing, social
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  media, all of this stuff is getting kids into programs that
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  not necessarily are going to be best for them.
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  To the parents out there, do your research, ask the
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  appropriate questions, Make sure that you're you understand what
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  the purpose of the program that you're putting your child into
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  is. Is it to, is it to drive
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  outcomes? Is it to develop play?
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  Is it to allow kids creativity? Is it to allow or is it a highly
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  competitive thing? Is your is your child ready for
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  that mentally and emotionally, not only physically?
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  So ask the questions to the coaches out there.
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  You should really look at the long term development of the
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  athlete because when you focus on the athletes long term
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  development, then you're looking at the success for yourself in
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  the long term as well. We can get kids to jump higher
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  and run faster in a short period of time, but is that the thing
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  that's going to keep them motivated to continue to do the
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  thing that they want to do? I appreciate you guys taking the
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  time to listen to this. If you guys are interested in
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  being a part of any of the programs that we run here at
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  Ignite Fitness in Elmhurst, feel free to reach out.
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  Again, my name, my contact info is N Caravolos.
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  At gmail.com or you can reach out on any of our social media
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  platforms. Instagram is Ignite double under
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  score performance and on Twitter, just speak what
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  Caravolos or coach Caravolos and reach out to Ms. and I
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  appreciate you guys. Thanks.
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  Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here. Hey, I hope you enjoyed this
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  episode of the Guild 1918 Project series.
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  It's really my mission, my passion to bring you massive
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  amounts of value and I hope this one hit the mark.
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  The Guild 1918 Project is really dependent on you if for you to
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  build your own episode, to hear your voice, to have your voice
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  heard you have something to say and teach other coaches out
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  there. So please get a hold of me,
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  e-mail, text message, Twitter, smoke signals, get a hold of me
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  and let's help create your episode of the Guild 1918
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  Project. Hope you enjoy today, they will
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  see you tomorrow.