Tag Archive for: Athletic Development

GAINcast Episode 261: Building and rebuilding the amateur athlete (with Donie Fox)

We often talk about developing elite athletes, but the amateur sporting world is even bigger and more demanding in many ways. On this week’s GAINcast coach and physiotherapist Donie Fox joins us to discuss how his team have implemented athletic development structure into their local GAA club. In addition we discuss the differences between building and rebuilding athletes, and how the mental side of physiotherapy is the real difference maker.

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Jump training: exploration before measurement

With the spring season nearing an end, many coaches are looking toward summer training. With summer training comes testing as well. Several of the football and rugby players that I coach will be subjected to a battery of fitness tests that include various jumps: depth jump, countermovement jump, squat jump, and single leg jumps.

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Progressing to contact in training

No matter how we train, contact sports such as rugby will always have an inherent amount of injury risk. That’s part of the business when people run into each other at speed. As coaches we might not be able to eliminate that risk, but we can minimize it. This article offers a few ideas of how we can help mitigate many needless head, shoulder, and wrist injuries that occur during tackling practice and games by teaching players how to move better.

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GAINcast Episode 238: Athletic development paradigm

Where do you start when training athletic development for a new sport or athlete? Vern Gambetta’s athletic development paradigm gives coaches a 4-pronged analytic tool to make sure you develop a plan that fits the sport, position, and athlete. On this week’s GAINcast he breaks down all four elements with examples from his experience working in a variety of sports at the highest level.

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GAINcast Episode 232: Science at the track (with Esa Peltola)

The best sports scientists bridge the gap between theory and practice. They bring coaching experience to the table and help help solve the real problems athletes are facing. This describes Esa Peltola. His diverse experiences in coaching, physiology, talent identification, and sports science helped him drive athletes to the next level, including coaching the first Australian to break 10 seconds in the 100 meters. On this week’s GAINcast he shares his journey.

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GAINcast Episode 231: Training talk

As we enter the final month in the year, it’s a good time to look back and share some of our recent thoughts about training and coaching. On this week’s GAINcast we cover a wide variety of topics including coaching and athlete specialization, finding a process, tips on organization, athleticism, sprint technique, and more.

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GAINcast Episode 224: Injury explosion

Coaches now devote more time to recovery and injury prevention than ever before. At the same time, injury rates have climbed to historic levels in many sports. How can it be that we’re working harder to prevent injuries, but athletes continue to get hurt at increasing rates? On this week’s GAINcast we look at how the modern approach to injury prevention might actually be making things worse, and propose some new ideas for reducing injury rates.

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Jack Skille Show Episode 5: Jack Johnson on finding your path

On episode 5 of the Jack Skille Show, we are joined by Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Jack Johnson. He shares his own developmental path, what led him down it, and what lessons he learned at each step including play as 5-year-old in Michigan, attending Shattuck-St. Mary’s, joining the National Team Development Program, University of Michigan, and finally the NHL.
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Mastering bodyweight circuits like a Jedi

Last week I wrote about programming in the time of coronavirus, with a focus on athletes that had access to at least limited equipment. This week on Instagram I have been posting videos of the general strength circuits I have given athletes that have no training equipment. The objective of each circuit is to cover the lower body, upper body, core, as well as all three planes of movement (sagittal, frontal, and transverse). I learned these from my college coach Glenn McAtee and find them just as useful nearly two decades later. Read more

Staying fit in a pandemic: Vol. 14

I still remember the first circuit I ever completed. It was at Baltimore Friends School in what was basically a converted storage closet off the gym that barely fit a universal machine in it. My coach, Gerald Russell, had us either do circuits of 3 sets of 8-12 reps around the universal or a body weight circuit of 3 sets of 8-12 reps. The days we did the body weight circuit were so much tougher. But I still remember the pride I felt when I finally could belt out 3 sets of 12 dips. Read more