I have a couple athletes preparing for a summer meet.

Since I’m competing in the same meet, I agreed to
meet up with them at the track since I had to work
out any way.

Both kids are inexperienced, having never been taught
anything about sprinting before this year.

They’re both at the second level of skill
acquisition - Conscious Incompetence (they understand
what they’re supposed to do, they’re just not very
good at it).

Since my body no longer recovers like it used to,
they finished their entire session in the time
it took me to do my warm up.

As a teaching tool and for my own benefit, I told
them to critique me as I was running a few 40s
out of blocks on the turn.

The first thing they said to me was:

‘You run completely different than we do!’

I smiled and asked them to explain.

‘You do all the things you tell us to do, but that
we can’t actually do. You tell us to explode out of
the blocks, but you cover more ground in 5 steps
than we do in 7 or 8′.

‘You say sprinting is like bounding (not the entire
truth, but in the context of our conversation it
was an accurate statement), but when you
run I can see how you apply force through the ground
and how much faster it is and how much more distance
you cover’.

‘You tell us to ‘crack the egg’ (a cue for faster
heel recovery, reducing backside mechanics and
allowing for greater force application) but you
actually do it and then actually step over, drive
down’.

‘You talk about being patient and shifting gears
as you get to full speed, but I can actually see
you shifting gears instead of just running as
fast as you can from the start’.

There were a few more examples, but it was an
important moment for me as a coach and for them
as athletes.

I was proud I had taught them enough that they
could make such distinctions. A year ago, before
I arrived, when they were at the first level of
skill acquisition - Unconscious Incompetence (you
don’t even know that you don’t know), they wouldn’t
have had anything valuable to say.

But watching me run (relatively) correctly provided
the missing link between conceptually understanding
what they were supposed to do and actually *knowing*
what it looked like so they could make adaptations
to their own running to imitate mine.

Now, before you non-track coaches roll your eyes
and dismiss this as being entirely different than
training for (insert your sport here) and therefore
irrelevant, you’re missing the point.

This experience reinforced just how critical
it is that you SHOW your athletes how to perform
certain skills…not just TELL them what to do,
but now HOW to do it.

You can have a million and one cues for everything
from speed drills to agility to plyos and
weight training. But if you don’t actually SHOW
your athletes how to do it correctly, then they’re
not going to be able to maximize their potential.

You can’t pull one drill from youtube, then grab
another drill or two from a training Newsletter
or regurgitate a workout from some website and
then expect to actually get consistent results
from your athletes.

You need a unified system of movement skill
progressions that are demonstrated and explained
correctly so you can actually TEACH your athletes
how to do them correctly.

–> http://www.CompleteSpeedTraining.com
Otherwise it’s not really coaching, it’s babysitting.

If you’re not currently doing that
I understand why you aren’t. Maybe you don’t want
to buy an expensive program or don’t believe the
information will work. Maybe you used to be a
pretty good athlete and don’t think you need an
entire program.

Believe me I’ve heard all the reasons and I don’t
fault anyone for any of them.

But newsletters, sample workouts and video clips
are best served as a supplement to your base training
program. They just don’t work as the answer to
your current questions.

To get lasting, long term results for your athletes
you need a program that covers it all - all the
drills and exercises your athletes need to do,
specific cues for teaching them and video progressions
of them being done correctly. So you can learn them
yourself or so you can have film sessions showing
your athletes what it *should* look like.

Where do you find such a program?

You know what I’m going to say…

–> http://www.CompleteSpeedTraining.com
To your success,

Latif Thomas

 P.S. Post your comments below.

During my daily trek across the internet I found
a link to the top 10 male athletes in the world.

Since it was from a Wall Street Journal panel, I
figured the list would probably be as ridiculous
as these types of lists usually are.

But the judges are highly qualified and I can’t
really disagree with the list. Maybe it’s because
four out of the ten athletes are track and field
athletes - like it should be since track and field
athletes possess the greatest combination of
speed, strength, flexibility, coordination and
endurance (aka the five biomotor abilities I always
stress the importance of developing!).

But I think the real reason I like the list is
because it doesn’t have any stupid entries - like
calling Tiger Woods one of the best athletes in
the world. I love SportsCenter as much as any red
blooded sports fan, but I can’t take those clowns
saying he’s the best athlete in the world.

Yes, I watched the US Open. No, that didn’t change
my mind.

Tiger is a great athlete. But he plays *golf* so
he’s automatically disqualified from the discussion.

For one, golf isn’t a sport. I’ve been debating this
since high school and I hate to ruin anyone’s day.

If you can be old and/or fat and still be
considered ‘professional’, it’s not a sport. If
you don’t have to elevate your heartrate when
training for your sport then you’re not playing a
sport. You’re playing a game.

Yes, golf takes great skill and hand eye coordination.

But so does darts, bowling and video games. You
ever play a highly ranked game of EA Sports Madden
Football online? I have a friend who is pretty
nasty at that game (incidentally he’s a former
NCAA All American in the shot put) but he wouldn’t
call himself an athlete based on that skill.

But I digress…

Check out the list. The number one athlete is the
only logical choice. We can debate the rest, but
I think they are reasonable.
To your success,

Latif Thomas
P.S. Don’t forget to click on the ‘Performance
Criteria’ tab. I’m trying to think of where your
athletes can go to develop those skills….

Oh yes! Now I remember:
 

I got a lot of responses to my email yesterday.

I want to share a few of them with you, as well
as my response. Because some of the points raised
get to the root of the problem.

I recorded separate audios for each email because
I know how short my attention span is, so yours
might be too (plus I talk a lot).

I hope you’ll take the time to listen, think and
respond below.
******
Latif,
I have an 8 year-old daughter that is playing
soccer almost year-round because she loves the
game. She also plays basketball in the winter and
will play anything else (swimming, tennis,
softball, biking, etc.) she can when the weather
is nice. I agree with your points, but why is it
that more soccer programs are going to year-round
schedules? Even going back 20 years, soccer has
been a 2-season sport (spring & fall). Your
expert opinions came from MLB, NFL & NBA people,
but no MLS (soccer). Has this sport circled the
wagons around the concept of year-round training?
I’d be interested if you can find a credible
source to explain why soccer should be played
year-round.

Thanks,
Mike

You can listen to my response to this email here:

*******

Next email:

This has been a major problem in the UK for
several years with the primary culprits being
soccer and rugby. Children and I use the word
deliberately are being recruited as young as 8-10
years of age by national clubs for their junior
teams and some of them are also playing for
school teams. I have several youngsters come to
do athletics but only for mid May to mid July i.e
the close season for soccer training. Sports are
now competing at junior school level 8-11 years
old and even younger to obtain recruits before
they are snapped up by the other competing sports
and of course they are all targeting the same few
really natural athletes.

The problem is that when recruited the children
are expected to focus exclusively on the one sport.
We are no longer looking at sport as a healthy
pastime it is an almost obscene abuse of the
influence of the major professional games soccer
etc and like you I consider it is tantamount to
child abuse. To this scenario add parental
ambition and we have a major problem.

Regards Keith B. (Sprints coach, Derby, UK) 

You can listen to my response here:

*****

Next email:

Hello Latif,

No, I’m not offended or defensive right now. I am
one of those coaches who “has to” promote a sport
year round. Why??

Reason 1.) Because if I don’t, I will lose a fair
amount of players to other programs and we won’t
have a team. . . believe it! I’ve been coaching
this current team since they were 9 year olds
(core group of perhaps 9 players as some kids
come and go). We are now a U14 team and most kids
will be 8th graders in the fall. I have tried as
best I could to encourage other sports,
and there are kids who take me up on it. . . great.

But just like you say, they are playing multi-sports
to stay in the sport I coach, soccer. Latif,
if it’s anything where you are at aslike here,
soccer has become too big business.  Which leads
to:

Reason 2.) When we register with the league (and
all leagues in northern Illinois are like this)
we must commit the team for playing seasons fall
and spring. So OK, even though I HATE this
over-competitive philosophy (I’ll make more sense
later below I hope) I love coaching and I have to
adapt. Why? Because if I don’t another coach will
within our own local organization. So I feel I’m
best qualified to keep a level head and try to
balance the multiple sports. I, like you, believe
kids come back “hungrier” when they are away. I
see it DURING the season. Upon sensing burnout, I
gave the kids a week off DURING this past spring
season. The assistants, parents and some players
thought I was crazy. We were cruising along in
first place, then lost two games, playing in an
upper level division, and I gave the kids
a week off. WAS I CRAZY?? We needed MORE practice
to get back on track. Right? 

NO! I knew what would happen. That week
re-energized the kids and they came back to win
the last four and take first. Now lest you think
this is all about the W’s and L’s, it’s not. . .
not for me. I look for player development.

But getting to what you stated, I’m partly on
your side, but with a caveat which may be an
answer below.. Also, if you want to make your
point, go to the Leagues not us coaches. We are
stuck. Forget a mutiny, there are too
many coaches to pick up the baton and carry on.

Lastly, to show my predicament, I wanted to give
the kids the past winter off. Go play basketball,
volleyball, ANYTHING, just get away from soccer!!
 
Again resistance. And HERE is where I got an
education -  blind SOB that I am. What did I do.
Well, OK, you want to play winter, fine. So
instead of putting the kids in a league and have
structured practice, I leased our
usual indoor time ha, ha. And what did I do,
walked out there on week one and threw a ball on
the field and said - PLAY. “What?” I was asked.

“Play. You guys pick teams and just have fun. No
score, no coaching, I’ll stand on the side and
watch. . . period.” Parents thought I’d finally
went over the edge. By week four the parents
thought I was a guru! The kids were having
FUN!. It was the best winter we had and reminded
me of when I was a kid. No structure, just pickup
games.

So, getting back to  the “year round” issue.
Perhaps playing a sport year round isn’t the
problem. I grew up playing hockey and I played
year round. But half that time was “pickup” games.

How about we stop worrying about kids
playing a sport year round (some kids just like a
single sport or two) and put the FUN back into it.

I did. It worked. You want to straighten alot of
this out? Get rid of the professional training and
coaches, the big business, on a year round basis
(because man it’s definitely what I see here
in all sports), save it for one season and just
go have FUN!!

Marco M.

PS I use your methodologies for our warm-ups and
speed workouts, there is none better as far as
I’m concerned.

*****

You can listen to my response (and a few tangents) here:

Don’t forget to add your comments below.

 Latif Thomas

I’m starting to see a pattern.

Actually I’ve seen it for a while and it keeps
getting worse.

It’s the problem of young athletes (17 and younger)
specializing in one sport and playing it year round.

What’s worse is many of these athletes play one
sport 12 months per year and then play other sports
at the same time for the school team.

Where I live it’s soccer. Some club teams hustle
you by making you commit to say, winter and spring
soccer when you try out in the fall.

So while I’m trying to get kids in shape for the
sport season they’re currently in, these kids are
off playing soccer games once or twice a week.

Then *some* parents and athletes have the audacity to
get upset when the coach ignores, dismisses or
replaces their uncommitted, over trained, entitled
athlete.

I’ve seen it literally drive coaches into early
retirement.

I try to figure out why parents think it’s a good
idea to play a kid on 4 different soccer teams,
12 months per year.

The way I see it the only arguments are:

1. They think their kid is the 1 out of 100 that
is going to earn an athletic scholarship.

2. The club coach sells them a line of BS that
they believe to be true.

3. Ignorance in the true sense of the word: to be
uninformed or unaware.

It’s probably a combination of all three.

Here’s the deal:

Kids should be encouraged to play a wide variety
of sports, not focus on one.

Training should focus on developing fundamental
movement skills that are universal. The shouldn’t
be repeating the same finite number of movements
over and over. That just leads to overuse injuries.

Because they aren’t going to be the next Tiger
Woods, Michael Jordan or Tom Brady.

Sorry.

In fact, taking a break from their ‘primary’ sport
to play another sport will actually make athletes
better at that ‘primary’ sport.

It’ll make them hungry to play, keep them from
getting stale, reduce injury, improve overall
athleticism, etc.

Now, if you’re one of those coaches or parents who
thinks it’s a good idea to have kids specialize
in one sport at a young age, you’re probably
pretty defensive right now.

You’re thinking ‘Who the hell is this guy to tell
me what to do with my kid/athlete?’

Point taken.

So don’t just take my word for it.

Listen to people who are smarter than me.

Recently I interviewed Duane Carlisle. Duane has
owned several sports training facilities, served
as a speed coach for multiple professional sports
teams and currently serves as the Head Strength
and Conditioning coach of the NFL’s San Francisco
49ers.

So if you don’t believe me, believe Duane:

http://www.audioacrobat.com/play/WWXl1C3s

Ok still not convinced? That’s cool.

I also spoke to Al Vermeil a little while back.

Al Vermeil is the only strength coach to have
World Championship rings from BOTH the NFL and
the NBA. He is also the only strength coach who
has been in the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball.

Al was honored by being one of the initial
inductees to the Strength Coaches Hall of Fame
in June 2003.

So what does Al think about ’sport specialization’?

This audio clip is just over 7 minutes long. The last
3 minutes are absolutely critical to every coach,
parent and athlete. I think it will change the
way you look at things:

http://www.audioacrobat.com/play/WrMBZ0Ds
From a team coaching standpoint, I coach track and
field. At the end of the season, kids ask me what
they should do to stay in shape. My response is
always the same:

Anything that doesn’t have anything to do with track.

I’d love to have kids run Junior Olympics and other
summer meets. But swimming, playing basketball,
football, soccer, etc. is going to make them look
forward to track season and make them better overall
athletes, which can only help them when they come
back to me in the winter.

Because it’s not about what’s best for Latif. It’s about
what’s best for the health and well being of the athlete.

And we all need a reminder of that fact every once in
a while.

To your success,

Latif Thomas

P.S. How do you develop fundamental movements skills
and overall athletic ability that applies to all
athletes in all sports?

–> http://www.CompleteSpeedTraining.com