What Happened to Youth Sports?

Growing up, youth sports were all about the enjoyment and holistic development of the player. Rec programs boomed, offering sport after sport and program after program for town residents, exposing kids to a wide range of movement stimuli and athletic experiences. This allowed them to passively develop their athleticism, coordination, confidence, and underlying physical literacy. Beyond that, because sports were fun, we developed a love for activity that many of us still have today. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case. Due to societal pressure to win, the landscape of youth sports has changed dramatically.

Today, we as a society put too much pressure on our kids to win. For many, sports are no longer fun, holistic development has made way for results on game day, and early specialization runs rampant. This has led to a generation of kids who are physically illiterate, underdeveloped, and have a negative relationship with activity.

Imagine a world where this is no longer the case. Kids would love sports and activity as much as we did, they’d forego time behind a screen to play outside with their friends, and they’d have the athletic foundation and confidence they need to not only succeed in sports but to do normal kid stuff like ride a bike or go for a swim.

This is the kind of world we want to live in and are doing everything we can to make it happen. We put the fun back in youth sports, helping kids develop this underlying athleticism in a way where they learn to love activity. Our athletes jump, hop, skip, shuffle, laugh, smile, duck, dodge, roll, catch, throw, balance, tag, and play their way to improved athleticism, better health, and a positive relationship with activity.

Check out our current programs and see how we can help your child! We hope to work with you soon!

How to Become a Great Player

Many parents want their kids to succeed in their sporting endeavors, and why wouldn’t they? Success in sports leads to happiness and popularity for their kid, helps them gain confidence, avoid ridicule, and could lead to better opportunities down the road. But have you ever stopped and thought about what actually makes a great player and how to get there? Too often, children blindly chase this idea of “greatness” without a solid plan or understanding of what they should be focusing on, putting in hours upon hours of work with no noticeable improvement in their play. In my experience, it’s because kids are typically trying to improve the wrong skill set.

To succeed in any sport, it requires a combination of three skills:

·       Sport-specific technical skills (hitting, fielding, dribbling, shooting, etc.)

·       Athletic/physical skills (speed, power, strength, conditioning, etc.)

·       Sport IQ/understanding (tactics, positioning, decision making, etc.)

Too often, athletes invest all their time into the first area, while neglecting or investing little effort into the other two, even though technical skills don’t matter without a solid athletic foundation and tactical understanding. How often do we see kids at the field kicking/throwing a ball around? Now compare that to how often you see kids sprinting, jumping, or playing tag-based invasion games all out, not very often, right? This has only been made worse by specializing early in one sport, where they no longer get the athletic development they desperately need from playing multiple sports.

The key to seeing consistent improvement in their play is to develop and master these three skills.

To maximize these skills, all three must be introduced at a young age so that a solid foundation can be built. Athletes get introduced to their sport-specific technical skills very early on, but hardly get introduced to any kind of focused athletic development training or sport IQ training at this same age. Here at Southern Maine Athlete Academy, we focus on helping children build this athletic foundation (just like their sport coach helps them build their technical skill foundation), so that they can maximize their development as a player.

If you want to give your child the athletic foundation they need to succeed in sports, you’re in luck! Simply explore our academy and sign up using the provided registration page to give your child the athletic foundation they need to maximize their development and help them succeed in their sporting endeavors.  

Early Specialization: What it is and how to avoid it

Early specialization is exactly like it sounds: specializing in 1 sport too early. At some point, yes, athletes will likely have to specialize in one sport if they’d like to develop into an elite-level player, however, for most, that shouldn’t occur until they go to college. As youth sports have become more and more competitive, kids have been put under immense pressure to win. This pressure has forced them to forego multiple sports in favor of year-round training. At first glance, this sounds like a great way to master the sport, more practice time should equate to a better player, but in reality, early specialization leads to mental fatigue, burnout, and overuse injuries, not to mention kids failing to develop physically, socially, and mentally as they should.

This mindset of relentless commitment to a sport stems from our societal pressure to win, and is fueled by youth sport coaches who rely on one sport for year-round income. 30 years ago, coaches coached multiple sports and shifted seasons with the players. In the fall they coached soccer, winter basketball, spring baseball, etc., however, as the youth sport coaches have begun to specialize, so too has the pressure they’ve put on players to commit to one sport year-round.

The easiest way to avoid early specialization is to adopt this old-mindset: when the seasons change, so does the sport. When it gets cold, it’s time to shift to a winter sport. When the snow melts, it’s time to get back outside and switch to a spring sport, and so forth and so on. Don’t fall into the trap that youth sport coaches want you to: year-round training is not going to make your child better at their sport. It’s going to leave them mentally exhausted, prone to injury, and physically inept.

If you’d like to join a program that combats early specialization, give our Little Athlete Academy a try. Our holistic approach trains kids like kids and develops the physical literacy and athleticism they may be missing out on by playing one sport year-round. Even if you are a multi-sport athlete, our academy will enhance your athleticism and help you succeed in your sporting endeavors.

3 Ways to Develop Athleticism in Kids

When we talk about athleticism in kids, we are mostly referring to their coordination and physical literacy. Kids need the physical competence to play outside with their friends, ride their bikes, go for a swim, etc., normal kid activity. Every parent wants their kid to have the ability and confidence to do these things. Further, every parent wants their kids to succeed in their sporting endeavors, and these same physical skills are the foundation to success in sports.

With that, here are 3 ways to develop physical literacy and coordination in kids:

1.       Go play outside with them. Catch, hide and go seek, tag, kickball, basketball, soccer, it doesn’t matter. All these activities help to develop athleticism in kids, and you being out there actively engaging with them will make them happy and help them develop a positive relationship with activity.

2.       Try a new sport. Pick any sport your kids haven’t tried yet and sign them up for a league, camp, or clinic. Playing a new sport will expose them to new movement stimuli that their body hasn’t been exposed to yet, and will help them develop new physical skills. If you’ve tried every sport, try an active hobby like ice skating or rock climbing.

3.       Sign them up for one of our programs. We help kids develop these underlying physical skills so that they can live normal kid lives and have success in sports, while developing a positive relationship with activity. Many say it’s the most fun they have all week, and by participating, they are setting themselves up to thrive in every aspect of their lives.  

That’s it, 3 ways to develop physical literacy and coordination in kids so that they can live happy, healthy, and active lives. If you want to leave it us, take a peek at all of our upcoming programs.

Sports Should be Fun for Kids

Life should be fun for kids. In my realm, that means creating positive sporting, movement, and athletic experiences that allow them to develop the physical skills they need to live happy, healthy, and active lives.

In order to accomplish this, kids can’t be trained like mini-adults or elite-level athletes with boring repetitive exercises. Frankly, I don’t even do this type of work with my high-level soccer players because this type of work doesn’t actually translate to success on the field.

Instead, everything should be gamified. This means creating fun and engaging games, challenges, and competitions that allow kids the freedom to explore movement, solve problems, and naturally develop their physical competency and athleticism.

Training in this way will create a generation of kids who are:

1.       Physically competent

2.       Less likely to get injured

3.       Love activity

Do you want these types of sporting and movement experiences for your kids? Check out our current programs and sign them up to watch them play their way to physical literacy, confidence, coordination, and a positive relationship with activity.

Why Good Youth Sport Coaching is Important

Good coaching in youth sports is extremely important, but not necessarily for the reasons you think. Sure, a good coach will teach kids the fundamentals of their sport and put them in the best position to succeed. They may find and maximize their players’ individual strengths while hiding their weaknesses. But in reality, good coaching is important because they create an inclusive and fun environment where kids want to go; an environment where every kid can thrive, succeed, and develop confidence in their abilities.

This type of coaching creates a generation of kids that are active and enjoy youth sports. With the sedentary culture we have adopted, physical education continuing to be cut in schools, and childhood obesity numbers on the rise, this has the potentially to legitimately change lives. Not to mention that active kids feel better, move better, behave better, and perform better in the classroom. Unfortunately, for many, youth sports have become over-competitive, with team outcomes and accomplishments outweighing player development and the experience.

When we work with children, we do our best to create that fun and inclusive environment they want to go to, while developing the underlying physical skills they need to become competent movers. These are the same skills they need to do simple, normal, fun kid activities like playing on the playground or riding a bicycle, and are the same skills that will allow them to succeed in their sporting endeavors.

If you want to work with us to provide your kid with that kind of sporting experience, check out our current services! We hope to work with you soon!

Train Kids Like Kids

Youth athletic development has gotten a bad reputation, and for good reason. Far too often, kids get shuttled into teenage or adult programs they aren’t ready for that ends up setting them back and developing a negative association with training and activity. Kids don’t need traditional programming that train muscle groups or movement patterns, instead, they need games, challenges, and friendly competitions that develop their coordination and physical literacy, while developing a positive relationship with activity.

Youth athletic development should look like the funnest gym class you’ve ever had. They should be laughing, moving, jumping, smiling, crawling, rolling, throwing, catching, balancing, and playing. They shouldn’t look like adults, body builders, or powerlifters, because they are not adults, body builders, or powerlifters-they should look like kids having the time of their lives.

If you want to see how it’s done, check out these highlights from a previous program and contact us when you’re ready to sign up for yourself!

What Happened to Youth Sports?

One of the reasons I enjoy working with kids is much is because of the constant effort and energy they bring to every session. They are eager to do well and teeming with excitement each time they show up to train. A coach has the opportunity to either enhance or crush that excitement during an athlete’s most formative years. If the coach makes training boring or puts too much value on the outcome at too young of an age, then that excitement is quickly replaced with boredom, a lack of engagement, and a negative relationship with that sport and activity is fostered, causing athletes to be excluded or drop out far sooner than they should. Unfortunately, this has become common practice in youth sports, as many coaches now value winning over development and a competitive team over player enjoyment.

Youth sports should be all about creating positive movement and athletic experiences so that children develop their athleticism and a positive relationship with sports and activity; sports should be fun for kids. Youth sports have become more intense and competitive than they were ever intended to be. Coming from someone who hates to lose, I can understand developing a healthy competitive spirit in kids and teaching them the value of competing hard, but it should never come at the cost of kids hating or being excluded from sports. Nobody remembers the results from their 1st grade soccer games and landfills are littered with past Little League Trophies for results long forgotten, yet we have come to treat winning in youth sports as the only reason to play. Instead, we should focus on providing these kids with positive movement experiences and the physical tools they need to live happy, healthy, and active lives.

Why We Need Youth Athletic Development

Up until the last 10 years or so, Youth Athletic Development has not been a concern in this country. Kids actively played outside, played multiple sports, and had physical education/gym at least 1 day/week. Unfortunately, due to a plethora of issues (TV and video game prevalence, early specialization, budget cuts in schools), this is no longer the case. 

For the first time in our history, we actively need to worry about our youth getting enough activity and exposure to a wide variety of movement stimuli. It’s a problem that was only made worse by the pandemic, and will continue to worsen as budgets continue to be cut and kids continue to specialize in one sport earlier and earlier. 

Our Little Athlete Academy solves these problems by exposing kids to a wide variety of movements, safely developing their underlying physical skills, and providing them with positive movement experiences. 

What is Youth Athletic Development?

Youth athletic development is the deliberate and systematic development of physical skills in children, specifically children K-8th.

Youth athletic development serves three main purposes:

1.       Provide children with positive movement experiences so they begin to develop a positive relationship with activity.

2.       Develop physical literacy, coordination, and fundamental movement skills in children so they can have future sporting success and live happy, healthy, and active lives.

3.       Develop their physical skills during critical windows of opportunity when children are highly adaptable and those skills can be maximized.

To develop these skills, children should be trained like children, not mini-adults. Children do not need repetitive training programs targeting specific body parts or muscle groups, they need games, friendly competition, and fun challenges that holistically develop their physical literacy, coordination, and fundamental movement skills.

Thankfully, our Little Athlete Academy is designed with these goals in mind. Our programs are fun, safe, and effective, allowing our athletes to play their way to physical literacy, coordination, and future athletic success.

You can see for yourself at the following link: https://www.instagram.com/p/CoOTQCYui_9/

The Problem with Early Specialization

One of the many problems facing youth sports today is early specialization. Youth sports were originally designed to be fun, expose kids to a variety of athletic/movement stimuli, and give them positive movement experiences so they can develop a positive relationship with activity. Unfortunately, the model has shifted to one of extreme intensity and competitiveness, putting more pressure than was ever intended on young athletes to perform, succeed, and win. This has led to the need for kids to practice, develop, and specialize in one sport way earlier than they were ever intended to.

This is a problem because being exposed to many different sports is one of the best ways to develop the foundational movement skills they need to be successful in sports and life later down the road.

Beyond that, early specialization also leads to:

·       Boredom

·       Increased dropout rates

·       Missed critical windows of opportunities to learn other skills

·       Increased risk of injury (due to the repetitive nature of one sport and the lack of a well-rounded athletic foundation)

Thankfully, our Little Athlete Academy is designed to combat early specialization and put the fun back in youth sports. Our athletes balance, grapple, jump, tumble, throw, kick, react, dodge, climb, and play their way to physical literacy and coordination.

Don’t believe us? Check out this short clip from a previous program and see for yourself: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn8HArCvbNS/ 

Three Tips to Improve Balance in Children

Last week, I explained why balance is so important to youth athletic development. If you missed it, then you can check it out HERE. This week, I want to give you three tips to develop balance with your kids.

1.       Stand on one foot while brushing your teeth (or doing any other mundane/daily habit such as watching tv or doing the dishes). Challenging them to incorporate balance into their daily tasks are simple to implement and will pay huge dividends in the long run.

2.       Try a new sport or hobby. New sports and active hobbies bring new movement challenges and new balance requirements. Trying a novel movement activity will force the body to adapt to these new stressors. Some less-common sports that really challenge and improve balance are:

a.       Hockey/Figure-Skating/Ice-Skating

b.       Dance

c.       Martial Arts

d.       Rock-Climbing

e.       Gymnastics

As a side note, these five sports are some of the best to develop physical literacy, coordination, and athletic development in children as they challenge the body in ways that align with deliberate youth athletic development. In our Little Athlete Academy, we pull the best aspects from all of these sports and combine it with our own movement-principles to provide young athletes with everything they need to develop optimally and live happy, healthy, and active lives.

3.       Get them off the screens and playing outside. All of the games you and I played as kids helped us passively develop our balance, and unfortunately, kids no longer play the same games. Tag, hide and go seek, kickball, pickle, catch, relay races, and simply exploring outside are all activities that passively develop balance.

There you have it, three tips to develop balance in your children to prepare them for future athletic success and set them up to live happy, healthy, and active lives.

If you are interested in a more deliberate approach, check out our Little Athlete Academy, where we provide young athletes with the best-possible training experience. It may be the best decision you ever make for them.

The Importance of Developing Balance in Kids

Balance is probably the most important physical attribute that needs to be developed in kids. Balance is so important because it’s the foundation of future athletic development. Every athletic movement requires balance. Running, skipping, jumping, throwing, cutting, sprinting, shuffling, and all other athletic movements require a tremendous amount of balance. Even exercises that enhance athleticism like split squats and single-leg dead lifts require a tremendous amount of balance. As children get older, faster, and stronger, their balance demands will increase exponentially. Without developing a solid base as a child, athletes will be left behind on the field of play and struggle to reach their athletic potential.

Even if athletics aren’t your thing, balance is a key factor to living an active and healthy life. Deliberate balance training reduces the risk falling and sustaining an injury. One of the first things adults lose as they age is the ability to balance. Years of developing a solid foundation will lead to a slower decline and will set children up to live happy, healthy, and active lives.

The beauty of balance is it can be (and should be) developed both deliberately and passively. Kids can deliberately train their balance through systematically designed programs and exercises. In our Little Athlete Academy, balance is at the forefront of everything we program. We start every training session with deliberate balance development and get kids moving in ways that greatly develops their balance. Kids can also develop their balance passively through play. Trying a new sport, playing games outside, or taking on a new active hobby will all passively develop balance in kids.

If you are interested in setting your child up to develop their balance, maximize their athletic potential, and live a happy, healthy, and active life, explore our Little Athlete Academy. It may be the best decision you ever make for them.

Three New, Fun, and Overlooked Activities Your Kids Will LOVE this Winter (And you will too!)

With the new year behind us and winter in full-swing, if you’re like most parents, you may be struggling to find new, fun, and engaging activities for your kids this winter. Snow brings sledding, snow-angels, forts, snow-men, and skiing/tubing/snowboarding if those are your things. Winter, however, also limits many common outdoor activities that kids enjoy, and not only is snow required to take advantage of those aforementioned activities (and if you live in New England, sadly, we hardly get snow anymore), they also get old and stale fast, with kids foregoing them in favor of more stimulating screen-time. With that in mind, I wanted to share 3 New, Fun, and Overlooked activities that your kids will LOVE, and you will too because it gets them moving, laughing, and having the time of their life. Fun Fact: if you choose to participate, they will love these activities even more because they secretly yearn for you to participate with them.

1.       Laser Tag. Cheap, easy, and unbelievably fun. Laser tag is SO MUCH FUN. I had the chance to play this summer for the first time in my life, and couldn’t believe how much fun I had. I played three fifteen-minute games, and each game felt like it was 90 seconds. Beyond that, it’s also one heck of a workout. Forty-five minutes of constant moving, cutting, crouching, and reacting to other players will leave you sweaty, smiling, and sore. Jump in with your kids for a great workout, a fun time, and a happy child.

2.       Indoor Rock Climbing. Another activity I just recently took up, rock climbing is one of the three best activities (outside of our Little Athlete Academy) that kids can participate in to maximize their underlying physical literacy and coordination. The body movements used while climbing (hanging, pulling, pushing), are some of the fundamental components of our Little Athlete Academy programming. Beyond the physical advantages rock climbing provides, it also builds fearless and resilient kids, teaching them how to persevere through failure and experience genuine gratification when they do succeed.

3.       Ice Skating. Grab the skates, head to the local rink, and go for a twirl on the ice. Not only does ice skating challenge kids’ balance, coordination, and stamina, it also opens the door to winter sports like hockey or figure skating. New to skating? No problem. Most rinks will have tools to make it easier to balance while learning that can slowly be taken away as your/your kid’s balance improves (kind of like training wheels on a bike!).

There you have it, 3 new, fun, and overlooked activities that your kids will LOVE this winter that gets them out of the house, away from the screens, and moving in a way that develops their physical literacy.

Interested in maximizing their athletic development this winter? Check out the following link to learn more about our Little Athlete Academy and set them up for future athletic success: Little Athlete Academy

Your Fall Season’s Over…So Now What?

As the weather gets colder and fall seasons come to a close, I want to take a few minutes to discuss some viable next-steps for the winter depending on your age, goals, and ability level, to improve at your craft and come back next fall ready to take the world by storm.

First, let me make something extremely clear. I am adamantly against early specialization. For those that don’t know, early specialization is exactly what it sounds like, specializing in one sport at an early age/early in athlete’s development. Early specialization has become a huge problem in this country for many reasons, and is far too expansive a topic to dive into in this blog, but be on the lookout for deceptive coaches pushing athletes to specialize early for their own financial gain. Without going too deep, early specialization leads to overuse injuries, a lack of physical literacy, coordination, and movement development in children, and early burnout.

With that in mind, it’s hard to pinpoint an exact age or ability that children should begin to specialize in one sport, because in an ideal world, they never would. Playing multiple sports allows them to develop their athleticism safely, utilize different muscles/movement patterns, and be introduced to a plethora of different stimuli that force them to solve new problems. Not the mention they will develop great social and character skills by playing multiple sports.

With all that being said, in today’s cut-throat sporting landscape, it’s hard to feel like you child isn’t falling behind if they aren’t investing copious amounts of time/energy to their sport, and it sort of makes sense. At the end of the day, consistent effort will most likely breed success, so the more consistently an athlete invests effort into their sport, the more they will develop. While this principle bears out, an athlete must train smartly to ensure that he/she is developing appropriately and avoiding the common errors of early specialization and winter training.

So, with that context established, let me give you some viable options for this winter to continue to develop without worrying about putting your child at risk or in harms way.

1. If your child is younger than 14 years old, get them in some sort of movement-based program, martial arts, or gymnastic-type training to compliment their primary sport. The components of these kinds of activities will build the fundamental movement skills and coordination athletes need to have success in their sporting endeavors, while doing so in a fun, exciting, and safe environment. Putting your child in a program like this is far and away the best thing you can do as a parent for their long-term athletic development.

2. If your child is 14 or older, get them in some sort of formal strength and conditioning/athletic development program. Do NOT allow them to join the gym on their own, where they will develop bad habits, put themselves at risk to be injured, and most likely set back their athletic development, making them worse at their primary sport. At this age, training harder is not always the best option because athletes typically don’t know what they are doing. Training with smart coaches who will keep them safe, teach them lifting principles, and get them comfortable in the weight room, is a much better option.

3. Look for a 1-2 day/week sport-specific program. Here’s where the magic of balance truly happens. Once your child is playing a different sport/enrolled in some sort of movement/athletic development program, find a program where they can work with a coach 1-2 days/week for sport-specific development. I would steer clear of anything more than 2 days/week, and 1 day/week truly is the sweet spot. It’s the spot where athletes can continue to invest effort and improve in their primary sport, without being subjected to the risks of early specialization.

There you have it. Hopefully you now have a clear picture of what to look for this winter, and what to steer clear of, if you hope to continue your child’s development in their primary sport. As a conclusion, I want to give you as a parent a quick checklist to follow to simplify this process:

1. Enroll child in secondary sport.

2. Depending on age, enroll child in some sort of movement development/athletic development program with a coach who will keep them safe and develop them properly.

3. Enroll child in 1-2 day/week sport-specific development program.

If you want to inquire about working with us for any of these services, please do so HERE.

Thanks for reading, we hope to work with you soon to safely develop your child and allow them to reach their athletic potential and dominate their sporting endeavors.

Until next time,

-JL

Playing Tip: Movement off the Ball

Movement off the ball. A skill that is underappreciated, underdeveloped, and incredibly impactful. When we spectate soccer, we tend to follow the ball. We see the magnificent shots, breathtaking passes, and extraordinary dribbles. What we often don’t see is the player’s movement prior to receiving the ball to properly position him or herself in a dangerous spot to make those game-changing plays when they get the ball, nor their teammates’ movement that opens up the space that allows them to get into those dangerous positions.

I think Kevin De Bruyne and Man City do this as well as anyone or any team I’ve ever seen. Sure, De Bruyne is sensational to watch with the ball at his feet, hardly ever making the wrong play and often leaving the audience breathless, but his movement, and his teammates movement without the ball, pretty much never stops. He’s constantly moving to better position himself to make game-changing plays when he does receive the ball, and his teammates are constantly moving to open up that space for him.

With this picture painted, we can begin to understand that smart movement typically precedes breathtaking play, and all players have the potential to dramatically impact the game without ever even touching the ball. With this in mind, I’d love to share a few tips that will improve a player’s movement right away.

1. Move frequently behind defenders. The more you move, the more defenders have to account for you and the higher the likelihood they lose track of you. This becomes infinitely harder if you build the habit of moving behind defenders. Don’t run in their field of vision, run behind them, where they have to physically turn their head to see you, drop to cover you, or let you go free, trusting another teammate to pick you up. The rule I tell my players is this: if you receive the ball and can read the number of the closest defender, you have the freedom to go forward, if you can’t read the number, you are probably going to be under pressure and can’t move forward. Thinking this way forces players to move smartly prior to receiving the ball so that they can attack when they receive it.

2. Don’t suffocate the ball. When a teammate has time and space on the ball, move AWAY from the teammate. Doing this allows you to break a line of defensive pressure, and puts you in a dangerous position when you receive it. On the other hand, if your teammate is under intense pressure, move TOWARDS the ball to become an easy outlet/passing option to relieve the pressure.

3. Run in behind. The more the defense becomes stretched, the more space for your teammates to work. One easy way to stretch the defense is to make frequent runs behind the oppositions’ back line. Like the first tip, it forces the defense to account for you and makes it significantly harder on them to stay organized. It also pushes them backwards, creating more space for your teammates to move into. Lastly, when you do receive the ball, it leads to great goal scoring opportunities. It’s a high effort to low reward ratio, meaning you may have to make 10 hard runs behind the opposition before you even receive the ball, however, when you do receive that ball, you are going to receive it in a position to make a game-changing play.

Hopefully I’ve painted a picture of the importance of movement off the ball, and given the reader a few quick tips to become a better mover.

Want to work with us to improve this skill (and others) to maximize your ability? Contact us to schedule your initial consultation. We hope to hear from you soon!

-JL

What Makes a Good Athletic Development Program?

Like coaching, strength and conditioning is an industry without best practices or professional standards. It’s riddled with different beliefs and opinions on the best ways to get results, and contradicting information runs rampant. Everyone from the 30 year veteran still writing programs like it’s 1980, to the unqualified fitness influencer citing sources from 1912 explaining how water is inherently bad for athletic development (yes, that actually happened), puts out information, muddying the water for those of us trying to simply do what’s best for our athletes. With that in mind, I want to lay out a few components that make a good (and safe) athletic development program, so that the reader can begin to understand what they should look for.

1. The program keeps athletes safe. As crazy as it sounds, this isn’t the first thing many coaches think of when building/designing their programs. Far too often, coaches have other priorities that supersede the athletes’ safety. Look no further than coaches who use fitness as a punishment to see that this mindset still exists. A safe program will be extremely simple and will feel like it’s building you up rather than breaking you down. Beyond that, safe programs won’t ask you to do anything you can’t currently do. They will meet you where you’re at and progress from there, rather than asking you to start from a level you aren’t ready for.

2. Speaking of progression, a good athletic development program will slowly and appropriately progress athletes. The idea behind a great program isn’t to crush athletes, it’s to apply just enough stress to stimulate adaptation so that their bodies can adapt at an appropriate rate. Over time, a good program will slowly apply more stress after the body has adapted to continue this progressive adaptation process, a process aptly named, “progressive overload.”

3. With that in mind, a good athletic development program will always feel manageable/attainable. Sure, it may be challenging, but it will never feel overwhelming. If you feel like it’s asking you to do too much, it probably is.

4. Check your sourcing. Avoid programs or tips that come from people who are not qualified to give them. Instead, look for tips and programs from people who develop athletes similar to you for a living and have a collection of success stories.

5. Lastly, and most importantly, a good program will put the athlete first. It doesn’t necessarily need to be personalized to you, but it needs to fit your needs. Make sure that the program you complete will actually help you reach your goals and improve your performance on the field/court/ice/etc.

Hopefully, sticking to these tips will help you weed out the bad information/programs from the good ones, and will allow you to reach your goals and have success in your sporting endeavors. If you want to avoid wading through the weeds all-together, simply contact us, and let us work with you reach your athletic potential.

Three Easy Recovery Tips That Few Do to Improve Performance

Recovery. Something that everyone knows is beneficial yet most people completely ignore, or at best, have at the bottom of their priority list. I get it. Life is stressful, there’s so much going on. We all have social lives and other responsibilities outside of athletics. With the hectic nature of daily life in mind, I wanted to give you three easy tips to increase your recovery with the end goal of improving your performance.

First, a super brief overview. I look at recovery as the process of maximizing adaptation (physiological development), and returning the body to an appropriate level to perform or train again. Recovery methods, therefore, are any focused, intentional, or deliberate implement we use to increase adaptation or speed up the time it takes to reach that level where we can train/perform optimally again. With this definition in mind, there are a ton of recovery methods we utilize to reach this appropriate level, however, I want to give you three incredibly simple ones that you can do on your own that are habitual in nature and can become a part of your daily routine.

1. Drink more water. Obvious, of course, but something that few do. We all know that hydrating properly will improve performance on the field. What many fail to realize is that proper hydration will also increase recovery post game/workout. Here’s my recommendation to build the habit: track your water intake and shoot for a gallon a day. Simply tracking the amount of water consumed will force you to become aware and deliberately focus on the goal. To make it even easier on yourself, invest in a 1 gallon or 1/2 gallon bottle and set the goal of drinking it (2 in the case of the 1/2 gallon) by the end of the day. Start early and sip frequently. By the end of your first week, it will become habitual and you won’t even be thinking about water intake anymore, simply reaping the recovery/performance benefits.

2. SLEEP. The achilleas heel of most high school or college athletes, sleeping is the almost always the best investment they can make. There is no greater habit change these athletes could make that will reap more benefits than improving the duration and quality of sleep. I get it. I’ve been there. With the obligation of life, sleep is very often pushed to the bottom of the priority list, and we almost celebrate those who function on less sleep. We paint an unrealistic picture that we must sacrifice sleep in order to achieve our goals. This is pretty silly and idiotic since sleep enhances pretty much every physiological and neurological function, allowing us greater opportunity to achieve our goals. Adequate sleep allow us to function optimally and enhance our recovery and performance more than just about anything else. Here’s my tip: PUT THE PHONE AWAY. Set an alarm for 30-45 minutes before you want to go to sleep, and when that timer goes off, put your phone on a charger outside your bedroom and leave it. I promise you, your social life will be fine, and your quality of life, recovery, and performance will increase exponentially. This little strategy will not only force you to close your eyes and go to sleep, it will also start the habit of a nighttime routine, which is a great way to fall asleep faster and increase the quality of sleep.

3. MOVE. At the end of the day, all our deliberate recovery methods come down to one main goal: push blood through the body. Blood is what carries the fresh oxygen and amino acids we need to recover throughout the body, as well as carrying away the waste products that leave us unable to perform. The best way to speed that process up is to move. Cal Dietz, who is known as one of the greatest strength and conditioning coaches of all time uses one method: 2-5 hours post game, go for a 30 minute walk at a brisk pace. That’s it. That’s his main method of recovery for his athletes, and it makes perfect sense. Think about what most of us do post-game. We crash. Completely. We left it all on the field and are totally spent. However, doing this does not push the blood throughout the body and slows down the recovery process. Here’s my tip: build the habit of walking into your post-game routine. The trick with this one is it has to come at least 2 hours after the game so that your body is already in a recovery state and you can just enhance it. Sooner than that, and your body thinks you’re still performing. Bonus tip for this one: build an actual post-game routine. One that truly sets you up to recover. Here’s what I would do if I were in your shoes: I’d drive home, shower, rollout, drink a protein shake, eat a nutritious post-game meal, relax or nap, depending on the time, then go for a brisk 30 minute walk and reflect on the game while I do so (walking is great time for focused thinking, the psychology is over my head but essentially your brain is optimized to think and reflect while you walk).

There you have it. Three simple habits that you can implement right away to increase your recovery and as a result, your performance on the field.

Happy recovering!

-Jer

What Drives Winning (At the NCAA Division III Level)

In my last few blogs, I explored the concept of consistent effort and how our practice design can and should be influenced by it. Continuing to expand on these ideas, I’d like to address what I believe actually drives winning at the NCAA Division III (DIII) level and how we can use this information to consistently invest effort into areas that actually impact the results on the field.

Before I start, I want to clarify that these are just my beliefs and are subject to change as I grow and learn, however, they are grounded in sound logic and experience and I believe are the core components that drive winning at the NCAA DIII level. I also want to clarify why I’m choosing to differentiate DIII soccer from other settings such as club, professional, and even other divisions. There are certainly aspects that translate to these other realms, however, collegiate coaching is extremely niche with each division having very strict rules and regulations that greatly impact what drives winning. For example, at the DIII level coaches only get access to their players 18 weeks/year, can’t mandate off-season activities, and have unlimited substitutions on gameday. Obviously, rules like this greatly influence the processes that drive winning in this setting, and just don’t apply in other settings. Lastly, throughout my writing, I’m sure the reader has come to realize that I’m pretty results-oriented. I’m obsessed with transferability, and making sure to focus effort into the areas that actually lead to results on gameday. I say this to paint a picture for the audience about the amount of time and energy I’ve invested into these areas, even analyzing how I coach to ensure it’s done in a way that translates to better results on the field. Let’s dive in.

Across every sport at every level of NCAA athletics, recruiting is far and away the most important aspect that drives winning. Recruiting is the lifeblood of any strong program. Pretty much every aspect of a program begins with recruiting. The ability/talent level of the team, the team’s culture, player’s character, style of play, even down to academic achievement, it all starts with recruiting. I plan to dedicate an entire blog in the near future to my recruiting approach and philosophy, so keep an eye out for that coming shortly.

Next is player development/team culture. I put these together due to the rules I mentioned earlier at the DIII level. With the inability to mandate off-season activity, a team’s culture must hold the players accountable to working hard in the off-season, which is where development actually occurs. I relay this message to my players constantly, that true development happens BETWEEN seasons, and that the fall is simply the opportunity to showcase the amount of work that was put in since the previous year. In order to drive player development, as well as winning, I develop a competitive and professional culture that fosters growth. I want my players to compete relentlessly in everything they do, while simultaneously exemplifying professionalism, so that I can provide them with the best possible playing experience. Not the belabor my previous point, but to help me set this culture, it’s something I consider/introduce during the recruitment process. I make a point to show up early and watch the warmups so I can see how professionally they take the sport, I watch to see how they react when they (or one of their teammates) makes a mistake or loses the ball, and I really dive into these concepts during the recruitment process while communicating with athletes and their families. I’m brutally honest with who we are, what we stand for, and what we are looking for. Players who resonate with this professional/competitive culture really gravitate towards it and fit in immediately when they arrive.

Next is character development of the players. It’s imperative at this level that players grow and mature. Most players arrive at college in transitional phases of their lives, and it is the coaching staff’s role to help guide them through that transition. I want to develop skills that will help them succeed in every aspect of their lives, not just on the soccer field, however, developing these character skills certainly helps drive winning. The big ones for me are: self-confidence, competitive drive/spirit, internal motivation, selflessness, perseverance, consistency, resiliency, effort, passion, and discipline. I believe that by developing these character skills, I will develop well-rounded student athletes who will succeed in all aspects of their college career, and be set up to excel immediately as they transition into young-adulthood and move on to either the work force or graduate/professional school.

Next is practice design. I really dove into this concept in my previous post, so check that out for more details, however, in short, coaches should consistently invest effort into areas that lead to better results on the field, and do so in a way that actually transfers to game. It is during practice that coaches truly put their players in the best position to succeed and set them up to have success on gameday.

So far, we’ve touched on recruiting, player development/team culture, character development, and practice design. I would say that together, this makes up about 97% of what drives winning at the DIII level. If a coach recruits strong players, creates a culture that fosters growth/development, and puts them in the best position to succeed, they are going to win a lot of games and have a ton of success. To me, the last 3% are the details. Attention to detail is what separates the good coaches from the truly great ones. These are the coaches who have every detail accounted for and every aspect of their program dialed in. These include but are not limited to:

• Coaching Style/Philosophy

• Gameday Management/Tactics

• Player Management

• Off-season Training Programs

• Schedule Building

• Opponent Scouting

• Game Planning

• Film Breakdown

• Relationship Building

• Budget Management

• Networking

As the reader can see, there are so many aspects/facets that go into building a successful program at the DIII level. As a starting point, recruit strong players, create an environment that fosters growth/development, and put them in the best position to succeed. After that, start to chip away at the details and the results will skyrocket.

Thanks for reading,

-JL

Do We Have Practice Design All Wrong?

In a previous post, I wrote about the power of consistent effort and the impact it can have on achieving success in any endeavor. In this post, I’d like to further explore that topic as it relates to practice design and player development.

I’ve had the good fortune of observing and learning from many different coaches with many different philosophies and ways of planning and conducting practices. These experiences have helped to shape my perspective and philosophy on practice design, and have shown me that some ways to design practice are far more effective, and lead to far better outcomes, than others.

Traditionally, I find practice design falls into one of two categories: fully random or systematic. Fully random practice design follows no clear system of design, whereas a systematic practice design follows some sort of pre-set template. For example, in a fully random setting, no two practices will look alike and there will be little to no distinguishable patterns that emerge. In a systematic practice design, each day clearly follows a similar pattern, let’s call it a “template,” with small variances dedicated to specific situations. While coaches have certainly had success with both methods, in my experience, those with pre-conceived templates typically have far more success than those with a fully random design. Let’s dive a little deeper.

I’ve found that coaches who follow a systematic design have a clear vision for their style of play, what it should look like, and know what they need to consistently practice to achieve it. Relating this back to my previous post, it makes a lot of sense. A systematic design simply holds coaches accountable to consistently invest effort into the areas they want to improve. Beyond that, it streamlines and speeds up the practice design process, leaving more time and energy to focus on other areas that lead to success, such as recruiting, scouting, or player management.

Now that’s not to say that a systematic approach will always work, because it won’t. I’ve been around a couple of coaches who follow a systematic approach, but invest their time and energy into the wrong areas; they invest practice time to drills and exercises that don’t actually lead to or translate to success on the field. Beyond that, a systematic approach to practice design doesn’t account for HOW a coach may coach, HOW they treat their players, HOW well they prepare for the upcoming opponent, and many other important aspects that lead to success on game day. All this is to emphasize that while a systematic approach will help streamline the process, it doesn’t guarantee success.

Let’s take a look at a couple of templates from coaches who have had a ton of success at the collegiate level:

Template 1:
Dynamic Warmup
Technical Warmup
Transition Activity
Competition
Finishing

Templates 2:
Dynamic Warmup
Technical Exercise
Positional Work with Positional Coaches
Group/Team Activity
Competition

When we compare these two templates, a few similarities stand out:

1. Both coaches invest in a proper warmup at the start of practice. While this seems strikingly obvious, it’s not something to take for granted. I’ve been around a few coaches, who even at the highest level, don’t believe in the values of properly warming a team up. A proper warmup not only reduces the risk/occurrence of injuries and physically prepares the body to train at it’s highest level, it also mentally prepares the athletes for training and gives them the time they need to mentally transition into the session. Both coaches essentially spend 20 minutes physically, mentally, and technically warming their players up so that they are firing on all cylinders when they get into the meat of their practice. Also, having been around these coaches, I can tell you that the warmup truly sets the tone for practice. The dynamic warmup is taken seriously and the technical warmup is done at game speed.

2. Both coaches emphasize competition. Competition is prevalent and is clearly a priority for both coaches. This competitive mindset is imperative to the culture of their programs and is part of the reason for their overwhelming success.

There is also one major difference to analyze:

1. One coach chooses to invest in the transition phase of the game, the other into positional development. I think this comes down to their philosophies/beliefs as coaches, and it’s seen in their style of play. One program is dynamic in transition and puts their chances away (they invest in finishing at the end of each session), while the other program is extremely organized and positionally strong. The way each team plays really showcases what they invest in at practice. Both are equally effective, but a great example of different styles.

I think what this shows is that there are certain principles that should be included in your practice design, and certain principles that you should include based on your own beliefs and philosophies. It’s also important to note that these coaches don’t follow these templates to the letter each and every day, but they serve as strong guidelines as they design their practices.

For me, my template pulls aspects from both of these, while including categories that are entirely my own. It’s important for me to properly warm my players up, get their hands on one another (to get comfortable with physicality), to compete, and to be dynamic in transition. As such, my practice design reflects that. I also want to bury our chances, so we work on finishing at the end of each session. Lastly, I think it’s important to develop composure on the ball for when we can’t go forward right away, as well as to let the game teach, so my general template looks like this:

Dynamic Warmup with “Hands On” Partner Work
Technical Warmup with Competition
Transition Activity
Functional Work/Tactics/Rondos
Open Play/Large Sided Game
Finishing

Doing the same thing consistently also allows players to develop a rhythm and know what to expect. There are no surprises which really streamlines their development because they aren’t worrying about what’s coming at practice; they know what’s coming and can focus on getting better.

Lastly, practicing this way allows coaches to properly evaluate the effectiveness of their training. Because of the consistent approach, coaches can make small changes, and properly measure their impact. If what they are consistently doing is not leading to success on gameday, then they are able to properly pinpoint exactly what’s not working, whereas with a random approach, there are far too many variables to consider.

I’d like to leave the reader with one last thought. It’s very common in the athletics world to take a “there are many ways to skin a cat” approach to coaching. While I understand the intention behind this belief, I personally think it’s led to catastrophic outcomes for our field at large. When we unpack this catchy little phrase, we realize that the intention behind it is that nobody cares how we get there so long as we get results. However, with this mindset in place, best practices in our field will never form and coaches will always have a built-in excuse for their poor coaching. Other professions have extremely clear guidelines in place that not only keep their people safe, but also help to move the field forward. I strongly believe that eventually, systemized practice design will be the expectation. The benefits are too immense and it’s too common across the top performers in our field, however it won’t take hold until the field “professionalizes,” but that’s a topic for another day.

Thanks for reading,

-JL