Elite Performance Podcast #10: Jeremy Frisch - Youth Speed Demons

Jeremy Frisch is the owner of Achieve Performance in Clinton, Mass. Achieve Performance caters to athletes ranging from young athletes (6-7 y.o.) to college athletes to adult athletes. Before opening Achieve Performance, Jeremy spent time as a Strength and Conditioning Coach at Holy Cross working primarily with the basketball team. 

Jeremy's youth program - Speed Demons - is a wonderful youth training program and the things he does with his youth athletes are amazing and very important given the nature of our youth/adolscent population. So we talked about his goals when working with youth athletes and where he derives many of his philosophies for working with young athletes. We also discuss some of the fun tools he uses with his young athletes such as mini trampolines, obstacles, gymnastic mats, balance beams, rings, etc.
Since Jeremy is a business owner, we also discuss life of a gym owner and the pros and cons of owning a gym. He talked about some of the hidden things that go into owning a business and some traps young gym owners probably fall trap to.

Finally we talked about a topic close to both of our hearts - Division III athletics and some of the misconceptions about playing sports at the DIII level.


This was one of my favorite talks and Jeremy keeps it real and puts things into perspective during this great episode.


Books

• Smart Moves - Carla Hannaford
• Dinosaur Training - Brooks Kubik
• Supertraining - Mel Siff & Yuri Verkhoshansky
• Easy Strength - Dan John & Pavel Tsatsouline
• Children and Sports Training - Jozef Drabik

Social Media

• Facebook - Jeremy Frisch
• Instagram - @Achieve_Performance
• Twitter - @JeremyFrisch

Training Youth Athletes: The Essentials

I work with a lot of youth athletes throughout my day, and the field of youth training has become a major field and becoming more and more popular.  In fact, over 4 Billion dollars are spent each year on youth training and athletics. That's a lot of money being spent on the development, fitness, and training of youngsters. 

While there are many people, organizations, and groups doing great work in advancing and progressing this field, there still remains a great percentage of youth being poorly trained and coached. 

We can all objectively look at youth athletes and say they are not adults, but we see trainers training them like adults anyway. A youth athlete needs to be trained, progressed, and treated differently from advanced and mature athletes. There are basics and principles that apply to both populations, but the routines, intensities, and methodologies differ.

Let's look at some essential components that need to be in place for the best possible environment for youth development.

photo:elitefts.com

Play

Training sessions with youth athletes is not going to look the same as training for mature competitive athletes. You need to understand that the structure needs to be altered in ways to cater to the uniqueness of youngsters. 

Hard-nosed, tough, intensive training doesn't work well with youngsters, they thrive on variety and fun. Finding ways to make training a by-product of playing and having fun makes the kids feel more involved, motivated, and captivated to your training. 

Kids need to play, it's as easy as that.  David Elkind, the author of The Power of Play says “Children are self-directed learners — they are naturally curious — and how they learn is through play."

“Children learn through playing, through active exploration that feeds their imagination, not by always having others organize the world for them,” says Susan Linn, a psychologist at the Judge Baker Children’s Center and Harvard Medical School and the author of The Case for Make Believe: Saving Play in a Commercialized World

Play is a natural thing for all mammals, and no different for youngsters. During play, kids get the opportunity to use imagination, be creative, explore their physical and environmental boundaries.

Success

To build a positive self-image structure so the kids have a string of success. Nothing builds confidence and deepens intrinsic motivation like small successes over time.

Just as with coaching, you need a training philosophy to guide you on your training path. Working with youth athletes requires having a little bit of a different philosophy than if you were training a high school, college, or professional athlete. You need to understand the different emotional, mental, and physical differences in youngsters. Understand they are at the very beginning of their exercise life, and their needs to be specific goals and guidelines to give them the best experience possible. 

Fun

This goes hand in hand with play, and it's simple, youth athletes need to have fun. 

They are kids, they don't have the attention span, mental or emotional state to be dedicated in serious, focused training. They can handle some sort durations of that, but for the most part you need to find ways to make your training fun. There are so many different ways to “hide” training into fun games and activities. 

The first question you should always ask when programming – Is this fun? The more fun you can make your training the more connected, motivated, and enthusiastic your kids will be to train.

Technique/Form

DO NOT allow for the execution of poor form. If there is one area to be a stickler, this is it. At this young age it is essential to implement correct movement patterns and techniques. This will not only set them up for the long-term, but it will also reduce their risks of injury.

Moving incorrectly increases risk of injury and develops/reinforces faulty mechanics that might not be exposed right away, but during more complex movements and higher intensities it will rear it's ugly head.

The movements and techniques you teach in practice will be the same movements and techniques that athletes will use during competition or in a state of stress. Kelly Starrett likes to say – Practice Make Permanent! Make sure what your cementing and making permanent in your athletes is something you can stand behind and be confident in.

So overall you need to ensure they are in correct positions and performing the exercises to a high standard. Don't worry about adding weight or resistance, worry about the basic techniques and positions and hammer away how important it is.  

Long-Term

Training youth athletes is about the long-term NOT the short-term. 

We need to stop chasing increased vertical jumps or other testing numbers. Youngsters are in such a prime phase of growth and development that biomotor improvements occur naturally. 

Muscle growth is naturally taking place, hormones are often at peaks, youngsters get faster, stronger and more powerful all by themselves. Your goals should be to set-up your athletes for the long run. 

You do this by teaching the fundamentals in a fun and exciting manner. Your program should develop knowledge, motivation, and skills to engage in lifelong physical activities. The goal should be to created life-long athletes; give them the tools to continue with fitness because you showed them how enjoyable it can be. If a kid has a bad experience at the youth level, it will highly discourage them from fitness for the rest of their lives. So don't think you're forming professional athletes; you're forming the basics and fundamentals of exercise in a fun and engaging manner that will encourage the kids to continue to love fitness. 

Communication

Your communication needs to be clear, concise, and easy to understand.  As a performance coach, we all love to use fancy anatomical or biomechanical terms, but when working with youngsters, this often is not the best way.

Remember there are a number of different types of learners, and you're communication needs to address these different types.  You may have a couple of visual learners, some other auditory learners, a few kinesthetic learners, and finally some critical learners.  Know each type of kids thrives with different types of communication, and you need to pick up on that type and adapt it for each individual athlete.

When teaching an exercise use this progression

1. Name the exercise. Use one name and stick with it throughout the lesson.
   
2. Explain the exercise. Use simple terms to describe the exercise and tell the participants how the exercise can benefit them.
   
3. Show the exercise. Demonstrate the exercise several times and from different angles so that all participants can see a full picture of proper execution.
4. Perform the exercise. Ask the participants to perform the exercise and offer positive, constructive feedback on proper body position and technique.
5. Observe the exercise. Walk around the exercise room and watch the kids strength training. Look for specific skills and ask participants to assess themselves and their peers.
6. Discuss. At the end of the session, encourage kids to honestly talk about their perceptions of the day’s activities. This information will help you plan the next session.

This makes sure you hit all the different types of learners, and ensures your communication is effective. 

Secondly, remember youngsters need more positive reinforcement, and need to feel like they are making progress. Now this doesn't mean you have to sugar coat everything. No, you still need to be honest and strive for the behavior and exercise technique you want. Kids can see right through fake complements; give real, honest, positive feedback and they will respond positively.

You should be giving between 6-10 positive comments to every 1 negative comment.  A great tool to use is something called the sandwich technique.  This technique involves surrounding your negative feedback or coaching adjustment between two positive statements. 

For example you have a baseball athlete that is making errant throws because they aren't getting their lead leg pointed at their target.

A poor coach might tell the kid, “Come on, hit your target, stop making that mistake”.

Instead sandwich your desired technique and behavior change between two positive reinforcements. 

So a good coach would say, “Johnny, you're doing a great job getting your body into position to field the ball, but remember to point your lead leg at your target so you can make an accurate throw. I really like your effort and how well you're getting into proper fielding position.” 

 

Note the difference, and how you would feel if you were the kid. You understand the coaching point and you received a specific coaching point instead of something general. The athlete won't feel like everything is negative, they received positive reinforcement and will want to continue to receive that positive feedback. 

Famous UCLA basketball coach, Jon Wooden, used this same sandwich technique in a different form. He called it – Do this, Not That, Do This. He showed or described the desired technique, then a common mistake to be aware of, and finally again showing or describing the desired technique.   

Finally encourage your athletes to make errors and feel free to explore and be creative in the training environment. Make it clear it's ok to make mistakes, just make those mistakes while giving full effort.  Making errors can enhance the learning process and give kids the opportunity to learn and grow from their mistakes. It leads to feelings of progress and self-efficacy, which in turn leads to greater and deeper involvement.  You can control this feeling by how you respond to mistake.  Do you convey the message that it's ok to make mistakes and then make adjustments?  Or do you yell and punish for mistakes?

Closing

I believe that training young, developing athletes is one of the most important jobs there is.  As a coach, you can effect so many different factors of that kids development, from cognitive, emotional, and physical.  Ensuring these essentials can go a long ways in having a posiitive effect on your youth athletes, and giving them the best opportunity for growth.

Go Get 'Em!

Considerations for Training Youth Girls

In 1972, a major landmark legislation was passed that changed the U.S. in ways that are still being seen today. 

That legislation was Title IX

Title IX was a civil right legislation that banned the discrimination against women from competing in athletics among others.  It evened the playing field and forced colleges, high schools, middle schools, and park and rec departments to re-shape the number of opportunities they gave girls to participate in athletics.

The effect of Title IX has been tremendous and the first generations of girls who were introduced to Title IX are now becoming mothers and continuing to pass along and grow the number of girls participating in athletics. 

The benefits of young girls participating in sports is starting to show some impressive results. 

A 2007 study shows that playing high school sports increased a girl's chances of graduating college by 41%!  In addition, some other longitudinal studies have shown that Title IX and it's ability to give girls the opportunity to participate in sports also increases educational attainment by up to 20% and led to a 40% increase in employment. 

This is the power of sports, for both boys and girls. 

Nothing else can compare in terms of teaching and cementing qualities like teamwork, responsibility, commitment, communication, time management, and gives kids a network of social connections.

Don't forget the physical and fitness contributions that pave the way to a more healthy and active future.  Finally add in specifics for young girls such as being part of sports or a fitness program at a young age decreases chances of breast cancer, osteoporosis, and taking up smoking. 

With all those awesome benefits, it's clear that all youngsters, both girls and boys, should get involved in some sort of sport or fitness program. 

BUT there does need to be special considerations to be taken when working with youth girls.  Girls develop, are structured, and have different biomechanics than boys.  These considerations NEED to be taken in order to ensure safety, fun, and reduce risk of injuries.

Injuries

This is a big problem seen in the female athlete population, at all ages.  Girls show higher rates, some as high as 4-6 times more injuries compared to males when compared to same sports - basketball, soccer, track and field, volleyball.  This is especially true in terms of knee injuries and specifically ACL injuries.

       A quick reminder, the ACL prevents hyper-extension of the knee, limits excessive forward movement of the tibia during knee flexion, and controls internal rotation of the tibia.  For more on the knee check out our Anatomy Lesson going into much further detail.

The majority of these injuries are non-contact, meaning they DO NOT occur from some outside mechanism, hit, or force. 

They result from either landing, cutting, and braking, and the forces exceed what the knee can handle.  The problem with non-contact injuries is the SHOULD NOT happen.  They result because of weakness/stability problems, imbalances, fatigue, and/or poor motor control.

Valgus Knee

Valgus knee collapse is when the knees buckle inwards, and females tend to exhibit more knee valgus than their male counterparts. 

This valgus position puts a lot of stress on the ACL as well as the medial aspects of the knee such as the MCL and meniscus.  It is not an optimal nor efficient position, and it's results for a variety of reason.

When the knee joint is in a neutral position, the ACL can withstand specific forces of 5.1 times body weight.  When the knee is in a valgus, the ACL can only withstand forces of 2.2 times body weight.

A valgus knee is over twice as weak and vulnerable than a neutral knee, it's obvious why a valgus knee in un-wanted.

For younger girls, it might just be a motor control problem, meaning they revert to it because it's easier for them. 

Sometimes just cueing and tell these young girls to not let her knees collapse will fix the problem.  Young people don't know the correct position or tracking of the knee so teaching them the correct position can make a big difference.  While this may work on some occasions, unfortunately it doesn't for the majority of the cases.

Hip Strength

We've talked about it before on here, but the knee is a dumb joint.  It tends to just follow the path set by the hips. 

So knee problems such as a valgus position is often the result of poor hip control.  Working to improve strength and control through the hip and pelvis will do wonders to protect the knee and give it a better path and patterning.

Improving strength in the hip and pelvic complex, especially the glute maximus and glute medius can go a long ways in improving the stability and control of the knee.

Going hand in hand with hip strength is overall general strength.  All young girls could use more strength and control through their hips, core, hamstrings (get there in a second), feet, and upper body. 

Getting young girls involved in an exercise program that increases their strength, body awareness, body control, and specific needs does wonders for girls. 

Landing

A great assessment for young girls is to watch them land.  Girls tend to land with reduced knee flexion and increased valgus position.  Just take a look at the picture above - ideally you want to see something like the picture on the left, NOT the right.

You already know the problems increased valgus position can cause, but landing with reduced knee flexion is also a big problem.

Knee flexion in basic terms = knee bend, so girls tend to land with less bend in their knees.  Landing without adequate knee flexion creates an abrupt stop and landing, and this puts greater amounts of stress on the whole body.  Good knee flexion allows the body to better absorb and disperse the forces of landing.

Think of this, the ground forces during a jump can exceed 4-5 times body weight. 

Landing with limited knee flexion increases these loads, while landing with in a more flexed position reduces and disperses these loads. In fact the most stress is put on the ACL when the near is near full extension (straight leg).  So landing with greater knee extension puts greater stress on the ACL and the whole knee.

Check out this article about Landing and Falling and watch this video.  Really important stuff in there.

Posterior Chain Strength

Females naturally tend to have an imbalance of quad-to-hamstring strength.  This imbalance can cause an increase in the amount of anterior pull/stress on the knee, that sounds familiar doesn't it.  Oh yeah, the ACL works to prevent excessive anterior forces and hyper-extension.

It has been shown that female athletes who injured their ACL have weaker hamstring strength when compared to, not only boys, but also other females who have not received an ACL injury. 

In fact the biggest difference between boys and girls is hamstring strength.  Boys and girls have similar quadriceps strength in terms of cross sectional area, but hamstring strength lags behind in girls.

Strengthening a girls hamstrings help to keep the knee pulled posteriorly and in a more neutral position.  Having a strong posterior chain also helps decelerate the body during landing and cutting actions, as we talked about this is key in preventing injury and enhancing sport performance.

As we learned the more neutral we can keep the knee, and any joint in that manner, the better it will function and the safer the athlete will be.  Check out our Top 5 Lower Body Posterior Chain Exercises.  

Structural

Girls develop a greater Q-Angle when compared to boys.  The Q-Angle is the angle of the femur (thigh bone) and the shin. 

Girls structurally develop wider hips, and this creates a greater inward angle of the femur.  As you can see from the picture, this naturally creates a valgus position as well as leading down the chain to excessive foot pronation. 

There is really nothing you can do about the natural structural differences, but as we talked about in previous sections, there are things you can do to decrease the effects of this structural difference.


Get To Work

Studies have shown that following a strength protocol, designed specifically at increasing hip - hamstring - core strength, decreasing valgus collapse, improving landing techniques, and targeting overall body control and balance GREATLY reduces a girls chance of getting and ACL injury, other knee injuries, and basically helps to "bullet-proof" their bodies. 

FIFA has made steps to improve the training of all youth athletes with it's Fifa 11+.  FIFA 11+ is a structured warm-up for youth soccer organizations to follow designed to reduce injuries, increase strength, and increase balance and coordination.

The FIFA 11+ has been shown to improve performance while simultaneously decreasing injuries.  When you take a peek at the specific exercises to increase hamstring strength, perfect landing mechanics, and improve total body strength and control, it's no question it's helping improve youth performance.

Lastly we need to understand girls need more strength and strength training will not morph girls into muscular men.  Adequate strength, body control, and awareness is what youth girls need.  These qualities are EXTREMELY important for performance, safety, and set girls up for success later in life. 

Can't say it enough, but GIRLS NEED STRENGTH!  Adding strength onto proper motor and movement patterns is imperative.  This doesn't mean that you need to put girls under heavy weights, because for most youth girls their body weight will do. 

Push-ups, pull-ups, squats, deadlifts, hip thrusts, bent over rows, glute/ham raises, etc are all great ways to add strength onto proper movement patterns and body positions.  So while aerobic work is OK to perform every once in a while, girls, and everybody for that manner, benefit much more from resistance training.

So to recap, if you're training or coaching youth girls, these qualities NEED to be focused on

   - Landing Mechanics - Exhibit proper body control and balance while not showing a valgus knee
   - Hamstring Strength - Adding in extra or specific exercises that target the hamstrings
   - Hip Strength - The hips control the knees.  Strong hips = strong and safe total body
   - Fun and Positive Environment - The goal is to create passion and love for sports and fitness.  Making sure you create a fun, positive, and encouraging environment will enhance development in the long-run.

Hope everybody has a great weekend, and for the folks in the U.S., have a great Father's Day.  So until next time, Go Get 'Em!

_____
 

Like, Dislike, Agree, Disagree, WORLD CHANGING, or a big turd; whatever you feel, leave a comment below and let me know! 

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