Latest / The Strength In Numbers Podcast / EP 42: How Great Coaches Approach Long-Term Athletic Development

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EP 42: How Great Coaches Approach Long-Term Athletic Development · The Strength In Numbers Podcast

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Welcome to the Strength in Numbers podcast.
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I'm your host John Bloom and today's episode is centered all
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around long term athlete development.
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It features six different coaches, viewpoints and how to
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best develop an athlete starting when they are just a young kid
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all the way until they're an adult.
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The coaches featured include Nick Massaoli, Richard Burnett,
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Tanner Kerr, Justin Levorne, Josh Bray, and Colton Rosser.
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If you're getting value from these conversations, give the
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show a follow and leave a review.
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It helps us continue to reach and impact more coaches.
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Let's get into today's episode. Our first coach is Nick
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Massilli, the director of athletic performance at Second
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Baptist School in Houston, TX. When you look at long term
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athletic development, it's going to be very different from a pre
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K3 or a three-year old versus a senior, right?
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And so that is the beauty of like, hey, like there's a shop
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that I have our kids for 15 years.
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We actually do have a lot of lifers, which is pretty cool.
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We do have kids that show up as juniors and you get 2 years.
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And so how do you navigate that? So I'm creating systems in place
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help that. But yeah, I would say most
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importantly, like with that young age especially like the
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threes, the fours and the fives, I would say even in the kinder,
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you know, you're looking at what we would call like the
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fundamentals with a capital FUN, right?
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So like you want to make exercise fun, right?
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And so how are you teaching skipping, hopping, you know,
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different types of pathways, backwards movements, personal
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space, all these different things in a fun way?
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You know, it's going to be a lot of game orientation.
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It's going to be sort of a lot of self discovery and free play.
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You know, in our in our motor school teachers do a really good
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job of being able to create those lab environments where
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they can sort of self discover some of these throwing, catching
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free play movements. But really just giving them a
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base of man, this is fun. You know, I think I've learned
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too, especially like being in high school.
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It's like, you know, sometimes you just like you can't worry
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about them actually getting it. It's just the habit of doing it.
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And then those themselves are are really coaches for kids.
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You know, if you have kids do like an A skip or a high knee.
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Now, mind you, we might not be doing that with three-year olds,
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but like the emphasis of they just continue to do it.
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Their body might self organize and get it done.
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And so just create new spaces for our kids there.
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I would say really when you get into kindergarten into or say
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first, the 4th is really when you're starting to get a little
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bit into like, you know, teaching skill.
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And so I would still say you're probably using games to teach
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skill, right? Like you're always trying to
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camouflage things to keep things engaged and fun.
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And so, but you are able to do a little bit more skill
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acquisition stuff. Now that might not be like, hey,
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you're doing solely basketball skills or solely volleyball
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skills, but you can still teach, I would say maybe like hitting
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and striking or receiving catching units.
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And so those do feed into volleyball, basketball, you
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know, but they might have a little bit more of a different
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possessed, you know, creating a game concept to be able to teach
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those things things. And so I'm, I still, I still
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think you're probably adopting fun fundamentals with those 1st
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through 4th graders, but you're probably able to do a little bit
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more different things because now kids are understanding
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spatial awareness, different types of pathways and being able
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to teach those very rudimentary concepts so that they can do
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those things. And throughout you're always
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teaching like just general motor skills and motor patterns,
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right? Like, can they skip, can they
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hop, you know, different types of crawl patterns, you know,
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frog leaps, all these different things.
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Just be able to give them freedom of movement and self
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discovery of those things. I think sometimes I would say
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really at that age, like you want to guide things, but the
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same time you also want to be able to create some spaces for
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kids to be able to like free play and self discover because I
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think that's so valuable to them.
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A lot of kids nowadays don't really know how to play, which
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is really sad, you know, because a lot of kids have this
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Internet, they have all these different things that are
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keeping them inside or engaged. You know, I remember my mom just
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like threw me outside and was like, Hey, go play.
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And I had to figure out my life for four hours with my, my, my
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neighbors. You know, there's not a lot of
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that anymore. And so in in physical education,
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we sort of have to try to create some of those things.
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And so we actually try to do that on Fridays where it's like,
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hey, we have a bunch of equipment.
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It sort of looks chaotic, but kids are figuring out how to
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play with things in a safe and healthy environment.
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And so then I think when you get into probably like the 5th in
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6th, 5th grade is really where middle school start for us.
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I would argue it really should be 6th grade, but we're not
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going to pick care about that. I would say 5th or 8th grade is
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really where you're teaching kids what I would call the
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concept of like learning to train.
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And so now they have all these skills, but now you're teaching
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like what it really means to train.
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And so that would be like how what does aerobic fitness look
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like? What is general movement?
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You sort of get into this 11, the 14 year old range where
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there's that peak height velocity, right?
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Where so kids just exponentially grow.
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And so if we can teach them proper movement, you're going to
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save a lot of problems for a kid that's had poor movement
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patterns for a long period of time.
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And now they're matured and now you have to break those habits,
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which is way, way harder. And so teaching kids to learn
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how to train, I think that's not only from just like a physical
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perspective, but you're actually teaching kids to learn how to
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train. The sense of, of process over
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outcomes where you're slowly integrating, I would say
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competition, but you're still driving the point with your kids
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of like, hey, like the process in the quality of the process is
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what ultimately drives outcomes. And so that if you're continuing
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to do good processes or processes, you're going to get
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the results that you want. And so you do get kids that are
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young, they're like, it's just like winning and losing and
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losing, right? And so how do you navigate and
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teach those kids that like there's nothing wrong with
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wanting to win or you're always playing to win the game, But
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right now it's like, dude, like we're trying to develop you.
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I would say like really that like 5th through 8th grade is
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like really true development. And so then I think when you get
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into, I would say high school, you sort of find yourself into
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three different stages. I would say like freshman and
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sophomore year, you're looking at what I would say train, train
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to compete. And then you can even get into
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train to win, right? Like now your training is to
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what whatever you're doing now, it has nothing to do with like
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almost the weight room or the training itself.
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It has everything to do with what am I doing so that I can
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perform best on the field, court, track, ice, shrink, you
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name it. And so the things that we do are
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only feeding into those outputs, right?
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And so it gives kids a little bit more of an awareness style.
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Hey, now we've learned how to train our training to compete
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can win. I would say JV probably is still
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a little bit more than that compete.
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We're just trying to compete, learn a little bit.
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And then once you get to the varsity level, that's where it's
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like a train to win. But then also too you sort of
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have to under lap and underlie this, I would say premise of
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active life. And so that's where technically
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you and me are right now, right? Like we, we, we've, our, our
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competition days are over. You know, I was fortunate not to
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play college baseball, but now I'm an active life kind of guy.
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So like, what are my goals? Well, I want to stay healthy for
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my 2 boys and I don't want them to beat me in anything ever.
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So that the way I train is to make sure that like I'm staying
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active and healthy for that, right?
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And so we do have kids that and the majority of our kids are
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going to land in that box and inevitably at some point, shape
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or form, regardless if you're, you know, the elixir of life and
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LeBron James, you will, you will enter into this active life
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stage. And so have we created tools and
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have we created habits so that when they don't play sports,
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they can hop into Texas A&M's rec center and feel confident to
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take care of themselves. And so those are extremely
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important, I think concepts to be able to teach, teach kids
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because, you know, early on when I did this, it was like, OK,
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sports, sports, how do we get win championships, all these
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different things. But then when you sort of take a
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step back, it's like, well, it's got to be more than that.
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And So what you realize is for kids, it ends up being more than
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that. And it's like, wow, like I, I
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took Coach Mass's class or I did, you know, I played football
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for three years and now I don't. But like all the things that
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coach Mass taught me, I can now use and stay healthy lifestyle
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and then even make it generational with their kids,
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you know, And so I tell kids this all the time, like, dude,
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if you called me like on my deathbed and I was like, you
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know, seriously about to die. And they're like, hey, coach
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Mass, like I literally just bench press the other day and
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I'm 55. Like that would be amazing.
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Our next coach is Richard Brunette, the Director of
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Athletic Development at Triple F Elite Sports Training in
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Knoxville, TN. You mentioned long term athletic
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development and I was listening to a podcast with Luca LeBron
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and Steve Nash as they talked about some of the research Luca
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and his foundation are doing into into long term development
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for for basketball athletes around the world.
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And, you know, they talked a lot about how the shifting nature of
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youth sports more to a business where now kids have all types of
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trainers versus just, you know, going to the neighborhood and
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playing, you know, for both of us that we're in the private
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sector right now. How do we not contribute
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negatively to that problem where we're just we're another thing
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adding and overflowing their schedule for these for these
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young kids that are being driven from thing to thing to thing,
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but you know, positively add to their development and enjoyment
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of sports for not just at that time, but.
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For forever. Really, for their their life.
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I was just actually talking about this today with our, our
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media guy, because I was just, we're thinking of ways to share
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with parents through social media all the value that we add
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in our training sessions and stuff.
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And one of the things is like, after two years of training in
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our facility, which we've had several kids that have been with
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us since we open, how many movements has that kid learned,
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You know, and I was thinking for with one kid, our extras library
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is pretty vast. Like it's pretty massive.
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So this one kid, Brody Holloway, has been with this since we
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opened. Like he's probably learned 5 or
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600 movements just with just having trained with us
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consistently because I have so many drills and exercise that we
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do in the weight room. And you know, like his movement
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library has expanded tremendously.
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And then I started thinking about like the elite level
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athletes like Patrick Mahomes or some of these guys that are
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just, they played football, basketball and baseball at such
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high levels. And even even his movement
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library still isn't, isn't enough for like Bobby Stroop,
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who's working with them and trying to get him to twist and
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bend and do all these other things.
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So he, it's almost like the way he's training him as like a
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little kid again, right? Like it's like, how can we kick
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and throw and lunge and twist and bend?
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And and So what I, what I would tell a parent who is in this rat
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race of high school basketball AU and that's all they do is
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basketball or like travel baseball, which is just absurd,
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the amount of baseball that they do and then they come and train
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with us. I don't see it as contributing
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negatively at all because I am choosing to not do baseball
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stuff and I'm choosing to not do basketball stuff with this kid.
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And rather we're going to do things that they otherwise are
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not getting at all. Like it's a different stimulus.
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And so the problem with that is there's a lot of parents who
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don't think that that's good. You have to convince them that
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if it, it's, it's still good for the athlete.
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If it doesn't look like they're throwing a pitch or swinging a
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bat, Like it's actually the best thing for them to be training
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their posterior chain or to be doing a farmer's walk or a
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rotational lunge or, you know, or even just like track based
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drills that like, you know, B skips and bounding and that kind
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of thing. Like we're still improving all
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the metrics that were committed to with speed and acceleration
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and all that stuff. But like, let's not neglect the
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other kind of area of athleticism that is just
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movement library, like just your your fluency in like in in
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movement and all different places.
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And so that's I appreciate organizations like Gray
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Institute where kind of Todd Wright came out, came from his
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train of thinking and Garrett Medenwald at Texas or Tennessee.
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Now, you know, like they do a lot of stuff with the Vipers and
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a lot of different kind of rotational movements and loading
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different complex patterns. And I just and it doesn't look
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anything like basketball. A lot of times it's because like
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their patellar tendons are already hanging on by a thread
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from their anterior changes, being crushed, playing defense
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all day, running up and down the court hard surface.
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So it's actually would make them possibly worse and make some
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overuse issues come to light. And parents just don't get that
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yet. Like they just think that they
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in order to get better at basketball, they need to do more
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basketball stuff like strap them, do a Vertimax and they
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could do close outs, you know, like they think that's great.
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And it's like, man, the whole vertimax marketing like thing
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over the past few years they don't do anymore because I think
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the company got sold back to the original owner.
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It was just like just so cringy and so bad for a profession
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because that's what parents, parents are ingesting, that they
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think that doing a more sport specific task at the age of 13
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while hooked up to a band is actually going to increase your
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sport, your performance in your sport.
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My experience, the athletes that are actually doing more other
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sports tend to actually be better at their sport.
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You know, And that was the case for Ben Shepherd, who I
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mentioned. He's now with the Pacers.
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We would have played this game called Gator Ball just because
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it was different. It was outside the weight room.
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We're just going to go outside and play this game.
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And it it was like handball slash, lacrosse slash.
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It was just crazy. It was just this absolutely
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minimal rules game. There was a little contact
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involved. It was nuts.
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But it was so much fun. The kids got into it and the
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things that he would do to like manipulate his body, make
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decisions, throw, you know, gas on this ball to make into a goal
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and like just have spatial awareness.
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Just all the things that like, again, are underrated qualities
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that don't get measured in sports tech typically.
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Like I just knew that he was special enough to do anything
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you wanted, like really in whatever sport.
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I didn't know that he would get drafted in the first round after
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three years at Belmont, but but I knew he was special just a way
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that he again, handled any sporting task or situation with
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just a fluidity. And that's such an underrated
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thing. And if we can build that more in
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our warmups and what we do, play more games, games with kids.
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Kids don't play games anymore. And like you said, they're not
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crawling, climbing trees or doing other kind of movements
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that are helping them just be limber and be more resilient,
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more robust than then it's up to us to to implement that stuff.
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Like we have to be the ones as as training people in the
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private sector to like make sure that they're getting that.
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Sometimes with the kids, I tell them it's like eating your
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vegetables. Like you guys aren't eating any
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vegetables, not getting any of these other micronutrients.
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Like it's the same thing. Like we're trying to make sure
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you're getting all these other things instead of just your,
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your sporting task over and over and over again.
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Then lifting heavy weights, you know?
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So yeah, that that would be, I guess my approach to it, my
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philosophy. But you still have to can't just
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assume anything. You still have to ask questions
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about what your athletes are doing and you know, are they?
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If they are playing multiple sports, are they even just
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resting enough? Like coming from a high
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performance model, I at least have the wherewithal to triage
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all these other areas of their life to make sure that they are
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getting what they need and not just like, and just what I think
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it's cool and just put them in a box.
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And I think if, if you came from a collegiate setting where you
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are thinking about psychology and nutrition and different
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joints and you're, you're tried the FMS, you tried the SFMA,
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you're just, you're trying to do everything you can to again,
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keep your athlete healthy. You can win.
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That is very healthy as it, as it moves down the chain to high
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school and middle school, because most parents and stuff
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don't think like that. They just, they're not as aware
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of all the other variables with athleticism and they just want
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to like just force. There's one thing that they're
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just sold on this is this is what they need more speed or
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they just need to, they don't come to me and basically tell me
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what they already think that the kid needs.
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And they're like, he just really needs to do this a lot more,
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like a lot more of this. And I'm like, OK, you know, I
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could see why you think that, but I actually think he needs
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this as well. And it's just an opportunity to
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educate. Like parents are the ones that
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are investing in their kid, you know, we're not a free service.
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Like they're the ones choosing to come to us and invest in
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their kids overall development. But those are key opportunities
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to educate them as soon as they walk in our door, like on all
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the things that we consider. So I'm grateful that we have the
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graphics on the walls and the the the handbook that we have,
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it's 35 pages that when they flip through it, like man, they
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actually look at all this stuff. Like we actually have all that
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fleshed out already to where it's just easy for them to
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digest and they're hearing it from different resources and not
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just whoever did their tour that day or like a social media post.
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I've seen some incredible PE teachers.
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We had one at GC, Christy Shelton, she just retired after
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44 years, I think, in the same role.
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And dude, her system was just so phenomenal.
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And her ability to coach and connect to these kids.
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I mean, she's got these third and 4th graders like really
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learning work ethic and really understanding grit and how to
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compete and also understanding seven different sports and the
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rules of those sports. She was the reason why GAC was
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successful. Just to be frank, like some of
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our like Ben Shepherd is with the Pacers right now playing in
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the finals. He was a product of Christy
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Shelton and then middle school and then high school like he was
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that was real LTAD. You know, it wasn't like so
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streamlined perfectly that what appease A textbook, but like
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what he learned early on in elementary school absolutely set
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him up to be successful with with our environment in high
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school. Or we can really, you know, help
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him grow physically. He already had so many of these
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skill sets of athleticism from an early age.
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So my point in saying that is like people just need to be.
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We just need to talk more about what satisfies you as a coach.
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And it shouldn't be like the greatest level of satisfaction
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is the higher level of athlete. You know what I'm saying?
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That's not always indicative of coaching ability.
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You know, it's OK to work with middle school kids.
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A majority of what what I work with now at Triple F and think
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that this is awesome and this is like where I belong and I want
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to pour into these kids, even though they may not ever play on
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varsity, you know what I mean? Like I'm teaching them all these
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great movements. They're learning, you know, for
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life, definitely growing and becoming more athletic and like
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it's actually more strenuous as a coach in some ways with these
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athletes in this population. So like it's it's making me keep
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up on my game because I'm pouring into the character.
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They don't even understand where I have to get some of these
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kids. They don't even know how to
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skip. And they also don't even know
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how process works and reward and like just committing yourself to
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training. They never train for more than
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six weeks straight. It's not at all.
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You know, I'm saying like they don't even understand how the
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adaptation works. So if I could teach them that,
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then that'll prepare them for the rest of high school because
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then they'll understand that there is a process to this that
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I have to commit to. They'll learn consistency and
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that kind of thing. The next clip features Tanner
18:19
Care, the director of performance for the BC Lions and
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Vancouver Bandits. We lean in on just your
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relationship with exercise, period.
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Everything has to be fun. Everything has to be gamified.
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Everything has to be, to a certain extent, education, but I
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think fun has to be the centerpiece of everything you
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do. If you're talking about 10 year
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olds, that's somebody who's not in puberty yet.
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Like we are not playing the hormone game, like we are
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playing the relationship with exercise game.
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And ultimately that's where we as practitioners have to lean in
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really hard from a motor learning standpoint.
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So if I'm dealing with a 10 year old, I would ideally like to see
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that person maybe four times a week, maybe five times a week,
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have as many touch points as you possibly can.
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Because as we know, motor learning and motor control
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development takes a lot of time and a lot of touch points.
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So I don't think necessarily seeing that kid once or twice a
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week is going to cut it. So I think fostering that is
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going to be really important just in terms of like what kind
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of ecosystem you're trying to create for that individual.
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But for me, like I'm throwing the kitchen sink up at that
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person where I'm mostly just focusing on motor control and
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movement literacy. Like I want to think about
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robust from a plyo standpoint, from a mechanic standpoint, from
19:28
a sprinting standpoint, weight room, sure.
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Like I might do a lot of calisthenic stuff.
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I might do a lot of like just body control stuff, like almost
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like polyquin style tempo stuff, like where we're just doubling
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down on skill, movement literacy and robustness.
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So that when we're a little bit further down the road, maybe
19:46
1314, whatever the case may be, and we are playing the hormone
19:50
game, then we can start to see all this beautiful adaptation
19:54
happen. But if you have a three-year
19:56
runway with a kid, to just have them become as as strong a mover
20:01
as possible, that is, that is actually kind of the ideal
20:04
situation. So that when you do cross that
20:07
line and you're playing the hormone game, you're going to
20:09
see a fantastic product on the back end.
20:13
Our next coach is Justin Levorne, the owner of Shooters
20:15
HQ and the head boys basketball coach at Fort Worth Southwest
20:18
Christian School, I think. That's such an interesting
20:20
question because if you said third grade and then you said
20:24
7th grade, I, I look at it completely different.
20:27
And the way that I've changed my mindset on it is at first you
20:32
would think, yes, let's work on the fundamentals.
20:35
Let's build, build, build, build, build, and then let's
20:37
start expanding. But let's focus on, you know,
20:40
what are the things that are important for you?
20:42
And for me, that's, that's completely shifted where if I
20:46
had to draw it out from 4th grade to college, I think I
20:49
would actually throw the book at a player from 4th to 6th, maybe
20:54
7th and really not even worry about, hey, you need to play the
20:58
game the right way. Just get as good at all the
21:01
coolest, craziest stuff you could, all the crossovers, all
21:05
the isolation moves. Expose yourself as much as
21:08
possible to all this stuff and learn how to move, learn how to
21:11
play. And then as you get into middle
21:14
school, how do you play good basketball?
21:16
Because before that age with the reality of what the games look
21:19
like, I, I, I also think it's hilarious when, when parents
21:23
think their kids are amazing in, in fifth grade because you're
21:25
either twice as big as everybody else or you're more athletic and
21:29
nobody else knows what to do to stop you.
21:31
So at that age, it is just like pure skill.
21:33
Get as good as you can at all this different stuff in middle
21:37
school. To me, it's, hey, can we teach
21:39
you how to make the right plays and the right passes all the
21:41
time to take that skill that you have and build on it and master
21:45
certain concepts. And then in high school, I think
21:48
it really comes down to where are you at, right?
21:50
Are you looking to play in college?
21:52
If so, how do we continue to push you into the role that you
21:55
would play at that level? If not, how do we expand you
21:59
into the best player that you can possibly be for a varsity
22:01
level and and widen that impact? If you're a college player
22:05
that's looking at the NBA, that's one thing where, you
22:08
know, for me, I think it's kind of astounding how it's kind of a
22:13
new wave, right, where Biggs get taught guard skills.
22:16
I'm on board with that. But let's say I have a kid,
22:19
right, and he's 68. I think he can play in the NBA.
22:24
Why would I roll the dice on trying to make him a
22:27
generational player when I could almost guarantee that he can get
22:32
paid $30 million by being a three and D guy?
22:34
So to me, like if you're looking at an elite player and you're
22:37
developing that player from the ground up that has great size,
22:40
make them the best shooter you can and make make sure they know
22:43
how to play good basketball. And they're probably going to
22:45
get paid so much money. But what I see more recently
22:48
with the elite side is like everybody's trying to become the
22:52
best well-rounded player they can be that they end up being
22:56
mediocre at everything. And now how are you going to
22:58
stand out if you're not actually turning into that generational
23:02
player, which to me most of the time that's going to happen
23:04
anyway if you're really that good at basketball.
23:07
So let's guarantee that the lowest hanging fruits, you can
23:11
get paid a lot of money. That's how I would look at it
23:13
for the elite side. Yeah, that's really interesting
23:16
with that. Yeah, no, that's cool.
23:18
Thinking about that kind of position, less basketball and
23:21
skills. When you think about shifting
23:23
down to that young age, do you feel like, I guess maybe when's
23:26
the point when there should be more to find positions or people
23:30
fit into more roles? Because obviously there's
23:32
there's you know, the stories of the big kid when he's young,
23:35
like they just get thrown in the post and they don't learn any
23:37
skills versus maybe when they are young going through middle
23:40
school, it's like everybody's going to do everything.
23:42
So you can develop these skills no matter what size you are now.
23:45
Because like you're saying, some kids are going to go faster and
23:47
more developed earlier or later. What's your thought on that?
23:50
As a coach or a development person, I think it goes back to
23:53
a direct conflict between winning and development.
23:56
And for me, like I, I don't think you're, you want to define
23:59
roles until like 10th grade when you're transitioning from that
24:03
JV to varsity level. At that point, yes, OK, we got
24:06
to figure out what is, what is my high school coach want me to
24:09
do? But before that, like I'm
24:11
willing to lose a game and let the tallest kid on my team shoot
24:15
10 threes because in reality, I'm holding them back.
24:19
If I'm saying, hey, you can win a 8th grade championship by
24:22
going down by the rim the whole time, sure, great, good for you.
24:25
But in two years, are we going to hit a wall because of this?
24:28
So I would I would say transitioning into that varsity
24:31
level of basketball is when I would really start considering
24:34
roles. And before that, it really comes
24:36
down to the coach and the ability to go through the
24:38
growing pains with players. Because you can define roles in
24:41
fifth grade and say, hey, go score 30 and you'll stand in the
24:43
corner. But in reality, how?
24:45
How much are we helping everybody?
24:48
Next we have Josh Bray, the head strength coach at Bishops
24:51
College School and Universal Academy.
24:53
From a young child standpoint, like getting those kids in
24:57
gymnastics, anything that's going to kind of generate this
25:00
kinesthetic awareness and have a a strong understanding of how
25:03
their body operates and how they can they get used to falling and
25:07
tumbling. Maybe they're into parkour or
25:09
whatever. Just some sort of body awareness
25:11
based sport. I think that's just going to set
25:13
the foundation for all their long term success from a mental
25:17
standpoint and a physical standpoint.
25:19
Like just being able to have complete control over your body
25:22
is just, I think that's where you see the commonality amongst
25:25
a lot of the elite players. If they're just fluid in their
25:28
movements, they're able to relax and stressful in situations and
25:31
just be able to operate in space, right?
25:33
So like we're talking gymnastics, we're talking, you
25:36
know, parkour, I don't know, just tumbling, going to the
25:40
playground. If I had the influence and it
25:41
was my kid, I'm bringing them to the playground.
25:43
Like hop on there, the slide, tumble, fall, learn what it's
25:46
like to be the human right. And then progressing through
25:49
that, you know, when we probably, I would say that's
25:52
anywhere from like, you know, 6 to about 14 years old, A lot of
25:56
exposure to different sports, you know, things that involve
25:59
implements like a stick or just using your feet and soccer,
26:03
playing a team sport, individual sport, just building this
26:06
problem, say solving capacity from different avenues, right,
26:09
adding tools to our tool belt. And then, you know, as they get
26:12
into their second year, third year high school, I think it's a
26:15
great time to start introducing. They're already going to be
26:17
influenced by all these people online, like you gotta be doing
26:21
this, that and the other, even though there's some 35 year old
26:23
juiced up dude. But they're gonna be, they're
26:25
gonna be seeing it a lot. So it's time to start educating
26:28
them, moving through the fundamentals, starting to slowly
26:30
progress the basics of SNC. Maybe maybe at that age, I'm not
26:36
even going to mention the word specialization, but they do
26:38
start to funnel towards, you know, I do like soccer, I do
26:41
like hockey. I'm going to start doing that
26:43
more. And obviously I'd have, I'd love
26:45
to have the influence of saying, all right, like we're going to
26:48
commit to your hockey season and let's go with a simple league
26:52
3040 games. But on the backside in the front
26:55
side of that, we're going to play different sports.
26:57
All right, we're going to play soccer and then we're going to
26:59
play flag football or Frisbee in the offseason.
27:03
So we're kind of getting these different stimuli and, and then
27:06
operating on different surfaces and just becoming a better
27:08
overall athlete. And in conjunction with that,
27:11
you know, slowly progressing 1415 all the way through 18 into
27:15
high school, start really progressing their SNC and kind
27:20
of educating and showing them that, OK, there's direct
27:22
applicability between the gym and the field based sessions in
27:25
your sport. And then, you know, nowadays
27:28
between 16 and 18, if you're really pursuing higher
27:31
performance or higher level of sporting, that's kind of when
27:35
you know, if you're going, they're not, not always, but for
27:38
a good portion of them, especially looking at
27:40
universities and stuff like that.
27:41
So that's a time that we're going to start maybe associating
27:44
the gym with the direct sporting demands and capacity needed and
27:48
those associated with the level we're trying to get to.
27:51
And then it's kind of an easy flow through there, Always
27:54
continuing to expose to some other variable, some other form
27:58
of, of sport or, or movement patterns, like some form of, of
28:03
human force, but really kind of narrowing down on those sport
28:05
capacities during the season. And then as we transition into
28:09
pro, you know, really sticking to the staples and trying to
28:13
squeeze every, every little percentage out.
28:15
Now it's tough. Like you said, if I have full,
28:17
full influence, I think still even at the pro level like we're
28:21
getting into, I would be able to get in there and still influence
28:26
them to do other things, you know, try new things and then
28:31
just refine all those, those sharp edges.
28:35
Our last clip is with Colson Rasu, the director of strength
28:38
and conditioning at Certian Prepperty School and DFW.
28:41
The foundation is sports specific skill.
28:43
I think if you've got an elementary school kid, they need
28:46
to start off by swinging a baseball bat, hitting a ball in
28:51
the tee, shooting a basketball, shooting a soccer goal.
28:54
They need to catch a football that they need to do sport
28:57
skills. And that could just be in the
28:58
backyard with mom and dad or brother and sister.
29:01
And then alongside that, they need to be a part of a team.
29:04
And so I think youth sports is so important and being involved
29:07
with multiple sports parents, I think you just obviously I'm not
29:10
a parent, so I don't know. I won't speak to black and white
29:13
here because there's a lot of people more knowledgeable than I
29:15
am. But I think you just got to put
29:16
your kid in a couple of things and see if they like it.
29:19
Try to keep them in involved in as many things as long as you
29:22
can. I think sometimes parents try to
29:24
let their, their kids steer that ship a little bit too much of
29:28
like they'll tell me when they're ready to go play
29:30
baseball or they'll tell me when they're ready to go play soccer.
29:34
And I think until you just expose them to that and put them
29:36
in that they, they don't know. So put them in a lot of stuff
29:39
and have them be a part of a team, have them learn what it is
29:43
to compete and develop those sports specific skills along the
29:46
way. That's the foundation.
29:48
And then as soon as they're mature enough to pay attention
29:52
with things that are a little bit less exciting, could be in
29:54
the context of your sport practice.
29:56
I think a little bit of GPP work, 8 years old, nine years
30:00
old is a good place to start. Where they are starting to do
30:03
some planks, they're starting to do some crawl variations,
30:06
They're maybe pushing a light sled or they're doing some
30:09
carries of sandbags or whatever. It may be some calisthenics.
30:13
I think having them start to understand that it's not all,
30:17
not all fun and games, a lot of fun and games, but there is
30:20
value in the training mentally for them.
30:23
And I think there's also value physically and developing that
30:27
kind of general physical prepared, just that base of
30:30
preparedness for them. And then I think what's also
30:33
important is making sure that you don't neglect that that
30:36
window where they can really build a lot of speed.
30:38
So a kid from six years old to 8 years old is going to get a lot
30:42
faster than the kid from 18 to 20.
30:45
So as they're growing and as they're developing, I think
30:48
you've really got to make sure that you integrate some games
30:51
where they have to Sprint and they have to really open it up.
30:54
You're not going to see a lot of muscular gains in those young
30:56
kids, but you can see a lot of neurological improvements and
30:59
skill improvements. So I'd have been playing sports,
31:02
starting some GPP work, and then we'd be doing some introductory
31:07
speed training that looks a lot more like TAG and a lot less
31:10
like they March it and they skips.
31:13
And then a little bit later on, that's probably about 12 or 13
31:17
years old. That's where I would introduce
31:19
the power lifts and the the variations of those power lifts.
31:23
So the squat, the hinge, the press, the pool somewhere around
31:26
that middle school age. And that doesn't mean put a bar
31:29
on their back right away, but it could be a goblet squat, you
31:32
know, it could be a dumbbell bench press.
31:35
Just teaching them some of those foundational power lift type
31:39
patterns so that as they get older they know those and they
31:42
can load those heavier. Once they get up to about 4:15,
31:46
that's when I start getting into more barbell work, more true
31:49
strength training work, bring in more auxiliary movements because
31:53
at that age they can, they can begin putting on a little bit of
31:56
muscle mass. And then, you know, that's,
31:58
that's probably about the age that we'd start doing some sort
32:01
of Olympic weightlifting or some Ballistics as well, integrating
32:05
that power training and with their strength training.
32:08
And then you just keep that you keep it simple until they're
32:11
1819. Understanding of the foundation
32:13
is always going to be their sport specific skill and then
32:16
going from there, and I think from that point you've got a
32:20
pretty solid base for your athlete to have a chance.
32:22
This is our first time doing a mash up episode with multiple
32:25
coaches all talking on one subject.
32:27
If you liked it, let us know in the comments or on social media
32:30
and we'll do more of them. If you enjoyed this conversation
32:34
and want to go deeper, check out my book Strengthen Numbers,
32:37
Insight from top Coaches, and How to Build your career, Handle
32:40
failure, and Achieve long term Coaching success.
32:43
It brings together insights and wisdom from over 100 coaches
32:47
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