Sometimes I wonder what is worse. Being a coach or being a referee. Then I come to my senses knowing being a referee is way worse because you only tolerate (not like) them when your team has won. And even that can be debatable. In the last couple months though, I’ve really had to reflect [...]
I remember when I first started coaching kids, I thought I would treat them with respect. Treat them how I would want to be treated. Basically, I thought that I tell them something to do and they would just do it because I was the coach and they were the athletes. I quickly learned that [...]
I can’t hold my tongue any longer. I’ve watched too many games this past year from little kids up to pros and I’ve come to the conclusion that we as coaches are ignoring potentially an athlete’s biggest asset – their mind. I see so many athletes doing dumb things during the games. Where did they [...]
I was in Nashville this past weekend attending the National Strength and Conditioning Association’s Coaches Conference. There were a lot of great presenters and a lot of colleges were represented with their strength coaches at this conference. In fact, I flew down with a strength coaching peer, Andy Britton, who is an assistant strength coach [...]
Let me ask you a question. The Columbus Crew play roughly around 37 regular season games from March to October. Ohio State’s soccer team plays about 17 regular season games and then enters the Big Ten tournament. How many games does your young athlete play? If you have an athlete playing “serious” soccer (which means [...]
Several of my coaches were on vacation this week, so I had to be more hands on with the training. It was good to see how our athletes were progressing and let them know I was still alive better than ever. One thing did catch my eye and I wanted to discuss it with you [...]
This is the story of little Jimmy. Jimmy is a 13 year old in the 7th grade. He plays football and baseball and I’m not sure what positions, but he has basically been throwing for 12 months straight between the two sports. He currently participating in a lifting program with his football team. Jimmy also [...]
If you talk with track coaches they say that one of the big muscles groups that needs to be worked on. When Tiger Woods was going through some injury issues awhile back, some analysts said that his glutes weren’t firing right. They need to start activating. Now don’t tell Tiger this, but I know the [...]
If you are an athletic coach, it is most likely that resistance bands are an integral part of your program. If you are handling young athletes, you appreciate the need to mix up your training with these bands. However, not all professionals out there use this tool effectively. Ultimately, the objective of your training program [...]
One of the greatest concerns in health circles today is of course the prevalence of concussions. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, there has been an over 200% increase in concussions reported in youngsters aged between 14 and 19 years. It is no wonder that concussions prevention and management thus remains a great topic [...]