Speed, Strength, and Conditioning -
Answer To Question #4
Question #4:
How do you re-educate athletes that were taught poorly in their youth? Cordination, technique, basic principles, etc. Please help.
Answer by Lee Taft:
As we have learned there are critical and sensitive periods of development during the early years of childhood. These are the most important and valued times for basic physical skills to be development optimally; having said that anyone can improve upon poor movement skills with a repeated efforts of sound repetitions in the desired movement pattern.
For example: a child that learned poor mechanics during skipping can, with proper practice, improve upon that skill. Some research has shown that a skill that needs to be re-learned can take up to 3,000 to 5,000 repetitions to re-learn it correctly. Obviously this may very according to the difficulty of the skill, but at least there is hope.
Start out by assessing the physical skills to be developed and plan an approach to breaking down the skill to the level that will allow re-learning it successfully. I am a firm believer in using guided discovery approach and not over teaching a skill. Over-teaching can actually be less successful than simply allowing the individual to discovery how the movement feels to them; just guide them as needed.
About Lee Taft:
Lee is highly respected as one of the top agility and change of direction specialists in the country and serves as Performance Director and owner of Sports Speed, Etc., Inc.
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Executive Vice President for the International Youth Conditioning Association, the premier international authority with respect to athletic development and young athlete-based conditioning
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Certified by the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) as a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS), a Sports Performance Coach certified by USA Weightlifting (SPC)and he is also a certified Level 1 Track and Field Coach by the USA Track & Field (USATF level I)
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Lee’s innovative techniques to improve multi-directional speed are the teaching method of choice for many professionals
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Lee has written dozens of articles and e-books on the topic of multi-lateral speed and youth development, produced audio CD and DVD programs and is a featured speaker on the Perform Better tour and other sports development clinics and seminars
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