I’ve been thinking a lot about progressions lately. This month’s site theme is the young athlete, and that goes hand in hand with progressions. I’ll also be moderating a panel discussion on the topic at GAIN in two weeks. As a result I’ve got a bunch of random ideas floating around in my head on the topic. The following is not a set of answers on how to progress the athlete, but rather a compilation of things I am thinking about. Read more
We can complain about it as much as we want, but the decline of physical education and the rise of early sports specialization are trends that are here to stay. We might not be able to change the system, but we can still actively work to help athletes at an individual level. Jeremy Frisch has taken that challenge upon himself to reinvent training for the kids he is working with by bringing in varied influences from physical education, speed training, motor learning, strength and conditioning, and more. What is even better is that he is sharing his experiments with the world on social media. He joins this week’s episode to discuss where his approach came from and how it has evolved. Read more
Look at the top athletes in the world and you’ll notice they come from a variety of backgrounds. Tiger Woods began specializing at a young age, while Roger Federer only specialized as he started to achieve success later. Why did Federer benefit from a generalist childhood vs. a specialization one? Author David Epstein has focused on the topic for his upcoming book Range
There are dozens of long-term athlete development models out there that try to explain the best way to turn youth athletes into champions. The problem is that they incorporate much more theory than practice. In reality, success cannot be broken down into one pathway or plan. On this episode of the podcast, leading youth coach James Marshall talks about how the systems fail us and what he’s doing to make youth athletics better in his community. Read more
Sometimes changing culture is about taking baby steps; other times it is about creating a counterculture. Throughout his career in elite sport Steve Myrand started to realize his approach just didn’t match with the traditional strength and conditioning culture. So now he is walking the halls of his local high school trying to start his own culture from the ground up. That means getting head coaches on board, redefining how his success is measured, reprioritizing physical education, and addressing the unique physical and cultural problems inherent in coaching teenagers. On this week’s GAINcast we dive into those topics, as well as some thoughts on training youth athletes. Read more
If you want pressure to perform, try working in professional soccer in England. To make matters more complicated, try working with young players and balancing the need for short-term results and setting up long-term potential. That is the challenge Des Ryan confronts every day as Head of Sports Medicine & Athletic Development at the Arsenal Academy. On this episode of the GAINcast he explains the Arsenal approach to athletic development and high performance. Read more
After a decade as a world-class athlete and NCAA track and field coach, Jennifer Joyce switched careers to start coaching athletic developmental for youth athletes as the lead coach at the Canadian Sports School in Victoria. After national team coaches complained athletes lacked the tools to train at a high level, they sought to fix that by building a program to teach the fundamentals to rising stars. On this episode of the podcast Joyce explains her approach to building a foundation and the key elements of athletic development. Read more
Steve Myrland is one of those hard working coaches focuses his energy on getting things done rather than talking about them. You may not have heard of the former University of Wisconsin and San Jose Sharks strength coach since he is not even on social media. But we snagged him for this interview and he walks us through some of his rules for training, the influence of yoga on his methods, and the key lessons he has learned in his career. Read more
In the beginning, there was Glenn McAtee. McAtee’s name is referenced on nearly every episode on the podcast for a good reason: he has been the major influence in Nick’s career and the force that connected Nick and me. The former Clemson and Cal State Northridge coach put together a great system to turn overlooked recruits into all-Americans. We ask him about how he set up that program, how he became on of the first coaches in the west to study Bondarchuk’s methods, and what he has learned working back at the youth level in recent years as head coach at JL Mann High School. Read more
Athletes have limited time and energy, therefore at a certain point coacheshave to prioritize what they want to accomplish in training. This means separating the things that are nice to do with the things that we need to do. In this week’s episode we discuss both categories and how put different elements of training in each category. Read more
