Back in November of 2010, a good buddy of mine who is a very accomplished college strength coach came up to Boston for a seminar we were holding at Cressey Performance. The seminar was on a Sunday, but he actually flew up Friday night so that he could observe on Saturday while we trained our clients – which was a nice blend of high school, college, and professional athletes, plus our adult clientele. All told, I’d say that high school athletes are 70% of our clientele.

That Tuesday morning, I woke up to this email from him:

“I just wanted to say thanks for everything. I had a great time. Your staff was outstanding and I really enjoyed watching you guys work on Saturday. I realize you are managers, but certainly technicians as well. Perfect form, I told Tony I saw two bad reps all weekend and someone was on the athlete before he had a chance to do another rep!!! Thanks so much and come visit anytime, we would love to have you.”

This isn’t an email to toot our own horn; it’s to make a very valuable point. If this coach had walked into every single private training facility and high school weight room in the country, in what percentage of cases do you think he would have come out with a favorable impression of the technique he witnessed in these strength and conditioning programs? If I had to venture an extremely conservative guess, I’d say less than 10%.

Simply stated, both in the public and private sectors, some coaches are letting kids get away with murder with respect to technique, not warming up, poor load selection in weight training programs, and a host of other factors.

What happens, then, when the s**t hits the fan and a kid gets hurt? I’ll tell you: certain exercises get “condemned” and strength and conditioning programs become more and more foo-foo; external loading is eliminated and kids wind up doing agility ladders and “speed training” for 60-90 minutes at a time in what can only be described as glorified babysitting. Or, worse yet, weight rooms get closed altogether. The door of opportunity gets slammed in the faces of a lot of kids who desperately need to get strong to stay healthy, improve performance, and build confidence.

That’s the reactive model, but what about a proactive model to prevent these issues in the first place? Again, I’ll tell you: assess kids up-front. Find out what is in their health history and evaluate how well they move. Actually learn their names and backgrounds. Then, program individually for them. Coach intensely in their initial sessions and get things right from the start. And, if an exercise doesn’t work for them, give them an alternative. As an example, take the squat. Some kids may not have sufficient ankle or hip mobility to squat deep in an Olympic style squat, so they’ll benefit more (and stay healthier) with box squat variations while you improve their mobility. Others may even be too immobile (or possess structural issues like femoroacetabular impingement) to even box squat safely, so you give them more single-leg work and deadlift variations. Regardless, you “coach ‘em up” well from the get-go – and they learn along the way.

In other words, the exercises aren’t the problem because exercises can be quickly and easily changed on the fly to match the athlete’s level of abilities. It’s the system in which they are placed that can be the stubborn, tough-to-change problem.

This is one reason why I’m super excited to be involved with the International Youth Conditioning Association. In my role on the IYCA’s Advisory Committee, I want to emphasize that you can have all the book smarts and coaching ability in the world, but if you aren’t put in a good system and business model, it simply won’t matter.

If you’re struggling to get results with your youth strength and conditioning programs – or your business itself is struggling – be sure to look at your business model and overall systems before you start tinkering with the individual exercises. Chances are that you need to rededicate yourself to relationship building and individualization more than you need to worry about sets and reps.

Eric Cressey is the president and co-founder of Cressey Performance, based just west of Boston. For more information on his training go to Show and Go Training today.

During the call, I’ll explain, among other things, why I’ve stop using ’speed drills’ in the conventional sense. It’s true.

I used to teach every speed drill in the book. Now, I don’t.

Watch this video to find out more:
As you’ll see, my video has elicited quite a reaction.

(If that surprises you, you probably haven’t been reading my stuff for very long…)

Some of you are really thinking it through and I can tell have a good sense of where I’m going with this.

Some are just intrigued to hear how my perspective has changed and want to learn something new.

Others are afraid that my stance on speed drills means they have to throw every program I’ve ever created in the trash. 

And, as always, a few grouches just hate Christmas, puppies and smiling babies and want everyone to know!

Whether your initial reaction is interest or offense, if you’re fascinated by the idea that there might be a better way to make your athletes faster, get on the call.

Speed and Agility Teleseminar Registration

Agree or disagree, my primary purpose is always to help you become a better coach. But as the saying goes:

“You can lead a horse to water…”
To your success,

Latif Thomas

P.S. The call is at 8pm Eastern on Monday. If you know you can’t make it, sign up anyway. We’ll send out a link to catch the replay.

If you run gym or are even thinking about opening your own place some day, you need to check this out.

My friend Alwyn Cosgrove runs the most profitable gym in the country. What makes this more impressive is that gyms are the second leading business to fail (behind restaurants) and 16 out of 17 go out of business in
the first 8 years.

Alwyn’s gym grows each year.

How does his gym continue to get more profitable while most gyms fail?

Well, Alwyn is putting on a free webinar to share his secrets with you. He is calling it the Death of Personal Training.

Register here:

Death of Personal Training

The fitness industry continues to change at a fast pace. It’s harder to get and keep clients now. Marketing your services has become more difficult and more expensive. Even finding quality staff is extremely difficult.

To find out what’s working at the most profitable gym in the country, you need to get on Alwyn’s webinar. He is going to pull back the curtain of his business and share with you exactly what you need to do to survive
in this atmosphere and dominate your area.

Reserve your spot here:

http://www.repstorevenue.com

The event takes place in Louisville, KY on July 29-30th.

Here is the list of the other great coaches and trainers that will also be presenting:

Pat Rigsby, Carlo Alvarez, Dave Schmitz, David Gleason, Mike Robertson, Eric Cressey, Sue Falsone, David Jack, Pamela MacElree, Dr. Toby Brooks, Ryan Ketchum, Wil Fleming and Nick Berry.

You don’t want to miss this. To check out more details about the IYCA Summit and to register Click Here now >>

It is, without question, the most comprehensive, easy to implement football training program I’ve ever seen.

==> http://www.TotalFootballTraining.com

I won’t try to explain all the details in this email because it would take too much space (just click on the above link for more info). But if you’re looking for a program to develop your football players’ speed, strength and conditioning, then you need to check out Total Football Training.

If you want a program that does most of the heavy lifting for you, so you can focus on coaching and not wasting time trying to decide which workout to do and when, then Total Football Training is just what you, your program and your athletes need to make a run at a Championship this year…and next.

Programs and players who implement Coach Carlisle’s system and technique will get faster, stronger and win more games. Those who don’t, won’t.

So, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you invest in a copy of the best football training program available anywhere. It’s on sale and we both know that the competition is already starting to get ready for the upcoming season. In fact, and you know this already, for Championship caliber programs, the football season never really ends…

==> http://www.TotalFootballTraining.com

Strength & Conditioning

He covers so much good information over the course of this 50 minute video I’d be doing it a disservice to try and cover it all here.

Just go watch it. It’s worth it:

Secrets to Strength & Conditioning for Football

But, if you’re looking for a little more, here are a few of the topics he covers in this free video:

- Why Alactic Power Endurance (APE) is *the* most important quality to train in all of your players
- 7 specific physical effects that occur after any training session
- Simple recovery techniques that improve effort and performance all season
- 4 Facts about muscle repair and rebuilding
- The 6 ‘Intensive Training Activities’ that make up the pieces of the training puzzle

Of course, that’s just a quick overview. But the success of your football players and program as a whole depend on how well you understand and implement these concepts in your training.

That’s why I highly recommend watching Coach Carlisle’s free 50 minute video. He’s not trying to pitch you a product, this is pure content for you to take and use.

Check it out:

Secrets to Strength & Conditioning for Football

There may be rules about when you can start practice, but in the minds of football coaches, the football season never really ends.

I completely understand that mindset. And that’s why I want to share some information with you that I think you’ll find extremely valuable.

It’s a 50 minute video about off-season strength and conditioning from 16 year NFL Strength Coach and current Purdue University Director of Sports Performance, Duane Carlisle.

He’s not trying to sell you anything. The video is taken from a seminar he recently conducted on this very topic:

www.FootballTrainingEducation.com

You know how important it is that your football players show up to practice in shape and ready to get down to business. So your off-season training program lays the foundation for success as you make a run
to the Super Bowl.

As Duane says early in the video:

‘Methods change from time to time. But principles are timeless.’

Over the course of this eye opening video, Duane shows you exactly how he develops strong, fast, injury free athletes using cutting edge training methods that are rooted in timeless training principles.

Here are a few of the topics he covers:

• - How to establish standards of excellence
• - Why training must be specific to the demands of the position
• - How to determine (and address) the individual needs of your athletes
• - ‘Gas Tank Theory’ – Combining strength and movement training
• - 7 Foundational Movements athletes must master before progressing in training
• - Analysis of the specific strength & conditioning routines Duane uses with his athletes

Like I said, this is just an overview. He breaks all of these topics down in a way that is easy to understand and apply, no matter which age and skill level you work with.

If you want your football players and program to make significant improvements over last year’s results, you’ll want to watch this free video immediately:

www.FootballTrainingEducation.com

 How to Build the Perfect  100 Meter Sprinter…From Start to Finish

It is the best program for developing 100 meter runners that I have seen, especially if you work with high school kids.

To your success,

 Latif Thomas

Twitter: @latif_thomas

For many years, I have spoken about how important the hand speed is to an explosive start in base stealing. There are other sports where this concept applies as well, but none, in my opinion, are more important than the action of the hands when jumping.

I mention the hands, but obviously they are attached to your arms- so the arms must move quickly as well. The point is that I want the base runner to put his focus in the hands getting started. In other words, don’t tell him to have the shoulders move first and let the lower arm and hands follow behind. The hands should initiate the action.

Here is an excerpt from my Base Stealing Manual on the importance of the hands:

Arms and Hands
The arms are bent and the hands are relaxed. Once the player decides to take off, the arm action is actually the first movement by milliseconds. The arms cannot be left behind. If they are, the player will be slightly delayed in getting into the acceleration phase of the steal. By focusing on the hands moving first, the legs will drive harder and quicker, and the upper body will turn to face second much quicker. Every little bit helps!

The arms will go from the relaxed position in front of the body immediately into the running action and in opposition of the leg action.

* The right arm gets driven back (as the shoulders turn) while the left arm drives forward in the up position of acceleration.

* The shoulders and upper body rotate with the arms and set the body up for an optimal acceleration position.
If the arms are slow to rotate into the running position, the upper body gets “blocked” and doesn’t rotate as quickly. This hinders the power and effectiveness of the first step of acceleration.

When the arms and hands rotate quickly this action causes a reaction of the left leg to push quickly and aggressively into the ground. This is extremely helpful in gaining a big jump. So get the arms and hands moving quickly!

When coaches teach their players to rotate the arms away from second, or hold the arms long, or whatever other fancy technique they use, the effects are harmful to the first move from a biomechanical and force production standpoint.

* Theses actions can delay the arms from getting into the running position as quickly as possible.

* When the arms must rotate from a farther position than in front of the body, there can be a rotational force of the arms that spins the body away from second base. Don’t allow the arms to get away from the body and create a centrifugal force. Try to keep the arms moving in as straight of a line as possible.

* Finally, when a player is taught to rotate the arms toward the second base to get into the running arm position as soon as possible, the action reaction between the movement of the arms and the reaction of the left leg pushing into the ground is greatly diminished.

Yours in speed,
Lee Taft

P.S. – If you want to discover more base stealing secrets and techniques from Lee Taft Click Here

And, if you’re a coach, parent or athlete involved in the sport of track and field, you’ll want to click here and find out what’s going on. 

To your success,

Latif Thomas

P.S. The Top 3 reasons to follow me on Twitter:

1. Email is getting outdated. Stay current and get exclusive info that I’ll only be announcing via Twitter.

2. I have censors (sort of) who control what I say in the blog and through email. But on Twitter, I release the beast.

3. When I find good info scattered throughout the ‘net, I’ll tell you about it here. It won’t be in emails and it might not always be track related. But it will be interesting.

Check me out:

http://www.twitter.com/latif_thomas