Speed and Agility are very important to the success of any young athlete…

… But most Coaches and Trainers make mistakes when it comes to training for speed.

Here’s what I mean:

It is customary to see young athletes being taught and drilled on how to run as fast as possible in a straight line.

Coaches spend hours teaching the mechanics of ‘linear speed’.  Arm drive, hip drive, ankle push, forward lean – all the usual suspects.  Whether on a high speed treadmill, gymnasium floor or football field, anywhere you go, you’ll likely see Coaches teaching the techniques of running fast in a straight line moving forward.

Now, I don’t really have any fundamental issue with respect to this style of training.  I could (and will) argue that virtually every sport is played in a non-linear format and so spending time on the mechanics of an exercise that a young athlete won’t typically ever need in a sporting situation is paramount to a large waste of time.

But young athletes (as you will read later) need to be exposed to as much training stimulus as possible – in all formats.  In that, no training style should ever be considered ‘not worth the time’ when we’re talking about preadolescent or high school aged athletes.

But the fact that linear speed training is both taught and drilled INSTEAD of more functional and useable styles of speed and agility work is where I draw the concern.

Football, baseball, soccer, basketball, volleyball – you name the sport.  Very seldom does a young athlete need to sprint forward with proper form; and they almost never hit ‘top-end-speed’ for any length of time.  If you look at any of the sports from a positional standpoint, that reality is even less likely.

Sports are multi-directional and varying in speed.  Young athletes must be taught how to move efficiently and quickly at angles (not just forward) and be ingrained with the knowledge and ability of how to decelerate (stop) and shift (change directions) as fast as possible.

Sport speed isn’t about straight lines.  It’s about angular quickness and the ability to re-accelerate.

Come on in and enjoy a complementary ‘2 Weeks Free’ of training at Athletic Revolution in Pembroke and see just how much faster your young athletes are going to become.

Call me directly today – 781.312.7808

~Coach Dave

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The following article is posted here with permission by friend and colleague Lee Taft.  Lee is THE speed expert.  Lee is a coach, runs his own successful athletic development company and travels the world teaching others how to effectively work with young athletes.

Lee’s thoughts further illustrate why we take the approach we do at Athletic Revolution…

Enjoy!

Why AAU is Hurting Youth Sports

By Lee Taft

It isn’t what it was meant to be. Travel sports like AAU, travel soccer, baseball, softball, and volleyball are the perfect example of building specific skill on top of a poor foundation of fundamental skills.

Travel team sports for young, developing players should be about teaching skills, developing game knowledge, and improving function. I see less and less coaching going on with these travel teams and more playing games. Kids are learning to play with poor foundational skill sets.

Granted there are some travel teams that actually spend some quality time on skills development. Good for them! But there are way too many more only focusing on winning the games. They do what they have to by putting kids in positions so the team can win. This doesn’t help the players develop; it just makes the team win.

I have seen top-level junior high and high school basketball players not able to dribble, pass, or shoot a simple layup with their left, or non-dominant, hand. Yet, they are playing 30 to 50 games over the summer with travel sports and never have their limitations addressed.

Travel sports could be a great thing if done in the right context and with intent on improving each athlete’s ability. But, like always, we put playing more games and winning as the top priority.

Here is what I see happening. These kids on travel teams are winning games and developing a false sense of skill level. Then they have to play on a structured school or college program, and their fundamental skills are so limited they fail to meet the success they had on travel teams. This leads to problems, because the player and parents are now wondering why they are not being put in situations to be successful like they did in travel sports.

It all comes back to we want quick fixes, don’t want to work for anything, and expect things to be handed to us when we are unhappy. Sorry! Life doesn’t work that way.

We need to take back our sports and develop our athletes the correct way. I know travel sports are the way to be “seen,” but give me a break. If you can play you will get noticed.

I would much rather take an athlete and limit their off-season game play (still allow them to play, but not as much), and develop their skills to the point they are dangerously serious athletes.

The only way this will ever work is if it is a nationwide effort to change the focus of travel sports to an advanced form of developing athletes.

The response I usually get when I bring this up is, “Kids don’t have to choose to be on a travel team.” That is correct, but the kids that do choose are the ones that we are talking about. These kids lose out on becoming better players, and just because they are on a winning team does not mean they are good.

We are so in love with the flash and the glamour that we have ignored the foundation of improvement and development.

Yours in Speed,

Lee

Is it this picture?

Is it driving young athlete’s into the ground in the name of speed, agility and quickness training?

Is it placing cones, mini hurdles and other training instruments on the ground, showing young athletes how to perform a series of drills followed by them engaging in them until they drop?

If your young athletes are tired, exhausted or barely walking that is success right?

In a word…NO

I have two shining examples of how I define a successful speed and agility camp at Athletic Revolution.

The first is the fact that the young athlete’s at our camp this last Saturday were practically begging me to continue with the camp after two hours of intensive SAQ training.  They were alert, energized and wanting more…just the way I want it. 

Keep in mind the young baseball player who began the mantra for more was describing how he could barely finish the workout at another facility just a few days before.  You know…one of those we can teach the kids baseball and take care of the conditioning aspect of training as well…

You see I explained to them at the beginning of camp that the next two hours were not going to be about kicking their butts or running cone drills until they drop.  They were about to experience a type of training they have never experienced.

Our camps are about skill development.  Our camps are about skills – NOT DRILLS.  The drills we use are specifically chosen to teach each young athlete how moving efficiently and safely feels.

Secondly, each athlete left our camp with the ability to tell me what they learned over the past 2 hours and how what they learned will help them in their respective sport.  Once more (and this one is crucial) they all told me what they can use on a consistent basis on their own during practice and competition. 

Self correction.  Beautiful!

Unlike most SAQ clinics and camps, we focus on breaking down the commodities of proper deceleration, acceleration, hip turns and cutting techniques.  These are all skills which can be broken down and coached.  We spend ample time on posture, thorasic spine mobility, hip mobility, ankle mobility, arm action, foot placement and so much more.

We had fun, we learned and we helped some absolutely great kids teach themselves how to gain game changing speed, agility and quickness.

I thank them for the opportunity to work with them and I can’t wait to run our next one.

Stay tuned!

Til next time,

~Coach Dave