sticktoitveness

Begin early. Get out and play. There is nothing better than chasing friends, climbing stuff and playing as many sports as you desire to get your body in tune when you are growing up.

No, not all sports at once, but choose different sports in different seasons.

You end up stronger and less likely to get injured.

NO, playing one sport all the time is not a good solution for injury prevention. In fact it is quite the opposite. Weaknesses develop compensatory patterns (new, less healthy patterns). Injuries for hockey players, for instance, are very often hip and lower back related. Two guesses why!

Play 3 or 4 sports through out the year through the ages of 6 to 10. Wind that down to a couple through the teens with good solid, fundamental workouts. Not workouts professionals do! They have years of experience and a team of experts to coach them.

The younger you are the more broad and movement based activities will serve best to improve athleticism.

You will see improvements. You will have them much longer.

As Brian Grasso says, it's like school. If you cram for a test you do well for a short period (test time). But the long term effects are minimal because you will forget most of what was crammed.

Take the time to learn proper movement over time and it will stick with you for life!!!

There, that's my two cents. In case your wondering. I've got a whole lot more. Stay tuned.


Todd

Why am I here?

I'm guessing you didn't sign up for something quite so esoteric as the title might suggest but a little background never hurts.

I come from an athletic background. I've experienced good and bad coaching.

Not just bad as in yell-at-em, but also bad through omission. Omitting the coaching (which is not yelling) or positive reinforcement. Assuming that kids "get it".

Kids want to hear good things, just like anyone else.

Young athletes are still developing physically and mentally. Yelling at them or running them "until they puke" is not going to foster an athletic lifestyle.

I'm sure that bad coaching is not what they set out to do. It's possible they think that whatever was done to them will work just fine.

Being negative works for a little while but soon performance becomes something about avoiding mistakes than taking it to the next level.

That's what hurts the most.

I've had good, bad and everything in between. But my first coach (hockey) was not at all helpful.

Here is the sum of my memories from playing hockey when I was 6 years old.

Getting yelled at for icing. I was 6. I do believe I quit hockey shortly thereafter and I haven't played a game since.

Nice.

Fortunately I moved on to basketball a few years later and had a pretty decent coach. Better yet, he was a good person. I learned to respect that and it made me want to play hard. And guess what, it was fun to.

This is a major factor in my involvement in coaching youth athletes now. Because I still see the bad. Believe it or not, some misguided coaches in my daughter's U6 soccer league won't even play our team, or the 2 other teams for that matter, because they are not "ready".

Ready? They are four, five, and six years old. They are ready to play and have fun at the drop of a hat. That's all the "ready" that any coach should be worried about at that age.

So why am I here?

I want to change the way kids are coached for the better. Take into account how mature they are, mentally and physically, and make it positive experience that will influence them and their success in life. 

It's why I joined the IYCA and became a Youth Fitness Specialist.

It's a lot of fun and working with kids who want to be there. I want them to have a good time, and learn to become healthy active successful adults.

Is that too much to ask?

Enough about me. Some more fun stuff is coming your way soon. We'll chat later. 

Have a good one.