Improving Basic Athletic Skills Question

I used to be big into agility stuff in the winter. Now I just have the kids do the ladder 3x a week as part of the workout. We also do dots, and a few guys skip rope on thier own. Our problem is not that our kids can't get from point A to point B, it is that they are not big and strong enough to do much once they get there. So my philosophy has changed. Also if you think about it if you are doing these "minimal" drills like the dots and 5 minutes worth of ladder drills and getting those legs stronger now you should be faster since you can apply more force when stopping and pushing off to go back the other way. Also most of our kids play basketball so they agility work everyday all winter long!

We also do alot of Ab work. My two favorites are sidebends with DBs and what we call barbell twists. For BTs take a barbell and place one end of it into a corner in the wt room. Put a wt you can handle (25# is good) on the end not in the corner. Standing, hold the bar with both hands away from your body, elbows almost locked. The bar is at about a 45 degree angle from the ground. Now rotate your torso from L to R and back slowly. This is the BEST rotation exercise I have done. I hope my explaination makes sense. It is a great exercise.

I heard a coach talking about how he prefered his skill players to play baseball in the spring instead of track. His reason was in track you are only running straight lines and not running like you would for football. Baseball he argued was based on short sprints, executed AFTER the ball is hit (outfielders). You also have to see and track the ball and catch it so you develop hand eye coordination. Not to mention that hitting a round ball with a round bat square is the toughest thing to do in sports. Most of my football players play baseball, not b/c I neccesarily advocate this, but they prefer baseball. Bottom line playing multiple sports is tbe best cross training method.

Jimbo,

You have hit a key point, imo. When I was coming up, and I went to a big school we (the schools athletes) all played other sports. I was fortunate to be able to play all three major sports (football, basketball, baseball) and was on a state championship swimming team. I also was part of a travelling gymnastic squad where I specialized in the Trampoline. In those days, all we had was sports! In relation to the eye to hand coordination it takes to participate in baseball and basketball(football if your a QB or receiver) I would like to throw another aspect into the mix of the discussion. That is the additional MENTAL aspects that you gain by participating as much as you can! Teams on the college and pro levels rosters are full of kids who played more than one sport, and when they speak they always tell you in addition to having the fun of competeing in the various sports, it prepared them for the MENTAL rigors
of championship games in their chosen sport! By that I mean, that they were used to going through the week before a big game with all of it's physical, as well as, it's mental preparation required. Over the years, they have conditioned themselves mentally how to best prepare for big games. It is a very necessary part of any successful athletes repertoire. My vote is to let them compete as much as they can!

Coach Easton

We only have 396 kids in our high school. If the kids only played 1 sport, we wouldn't be able to field many teams!

It is frustrating at times, though. During basketball season, most of my football/basketball players don't lift because "it messes up their shot". The basketball coach is a good guy and supports the weight room, but he just doesn't push it as much as I would like.

After basketball season is over, the kids go into baseball and track. A lot of them don't lift in the spring because they don't want to have to get up at 6AM twice a week to come in and lift.

By the time the kids get around to lifting, it is June. With football starting early-to mid August, that only gives about 9 or 10 weeks of quality weight room time. It's just not enough to make a substantial difference.

I have kids who have not progressed at all in strength since they were in 8th grade!. The reason? These kids lift all summer, but then don't do any lifting during the school year to maintain and add to their gains.

I told the basketball coach that I would have his basketball/football players come in twice a week during the football season to shoot in the gym if he would send his basketball/football players into the weight room twice a week during basketball season. He hasn't got back to me yet.

The administrators/coaches who are against developing their athletes are simply hurting their kids...maybe even LITERALLY! Strength training during the teen years is extremely important for athletes because of the need to strengthen the tendons, add protective muscle mass and strength. Being weak and not working on these areas can lead to several nagging injuries or possibly severe injuries.

Govertical and Groundchuck...I would do as much research as I could on the benefits of strength training and how it can prevent injuries (just so you will have facts to back yourselves up) and take it to the administration and the coaches who aren't cooperating. I'm talking any statistics you can find on injuries and how they can be prevented, books, periodicals, whatever you can use to your advantage. Get stats for ALL sports so they understand you have the entire athletic dept. in mind. You might want to bring a big steel-toed boot as well (if you know what I mean) in case they don't want to listen. All they are doing is short-changing the athletes in your schools.

The coaches, even though they might be good guys/gals, really need to check themselves (egos especially) if they think strength training will hurt their athletes. Tell them to get off their rear ends and do some RESEARCH as you guys are doing. I saw Coach Dertz' and Buckeye 75's names around on other QUALITY S&C websites, so I know they are doing what it takes to learn. That is what it is all about. I'm sorry, govertical & groundchuck, but it honestly sounds like you are surrounded by lazy coaches. "Lazy Coaching", in my opinion is when you aren't giving your athletes 100%. Telling them that lifting messes up their shot or will make them slower is pure nonsense and is definitely lazy coaching.

I'm all for respecting a coach's wishes as to what things he/she wants his/her athletes doing as long as it's going to relate to the sport they are playing, but I won't compromise my beliefs on the subject of how strength training will help keep an athlete healthy (especially when it's backed by research) and you guys shouldn't either. Although its much easier said than done, I understand. Just keep on keeping on and get in their ears about what needs to be done. I don't care who you offend, its not about them, its about the student athletes!

They don't know what they DON'T know!

Wow, this has turned into one heck of a rant thread.

Jimbo

An athletic director's job is to oversee the athletic department at a school. Usually they have a degree of some sort dealing with athletic management. Often times they are a coach or former coach. Depending on the district the AD can be paid quite well. In our district is a part time position paying 10K. In larger districts it might be a $100,000 a year job. Now some ADs are just bean counters. All they do is oversee budgets. A good AD, like a principal, sets the direction for the school's athletic program. They evaluate coaches and make recommedations. In my experience schools that win consistantly have a good AD (it might be wrong here but in my experience...). By good I mean he supports the coaches, sees that the coaches have the resourses (budget, assistants etc) that he/she needs to win. For example our program never even posted an assistant coach opening that I had this summer. Of all the new teachers they hired they did not hire a single coach (for any sport). His job is to "go to bat" for the coaches on that issue. I realize hiring good teachers is a priority, but you cannot tell me of all the candidates they interviewed they could not a good teacher who was also a good football coach. Any of you guys ADs? Please tell me if I am way off base here, or if I am on target.

Chuck -

I think that you hit the nail on the head about the qualities of a good AD.

Our current AD is a decent guy. He has tremendous organizational skills and takes care of all of the "paperwork" aspect of coaching. When football season starts, I never have to deal with a single insurance form or physical because our AD has all of that stuff taken care of.

Having someone willing to take care of all of the paperwork BS that goes into coaching is really a luxury, so in that regard, our AD is on the ball.

Where our athletic department lacks is what you have discussed - namely, that it does not have any direction. There is no common goals. There is no mission. Essentially, the athletic department at my high school is a very loose confederation of coaches (who, unfortunately, can be quite hostile to one another oif given the right set of circumstances).

As a result, the volleyball coach has her own lifting program. The GBB coach has her own lifting program. The BBB coach and the baseball coach don't have a lifting program. There is no unity at all.

And the programs aren't very good (high reps, low weight, no squats, lots of leg curls/leg extensions/leg presses and biceps and triceps work).

Coaches,
Great posts. But here is a question to ponder. At what expense do you encourage your kids to participate in all sports. Don't get me wrong, I am an advocate of having the kids play multiple sports and I belive that it is the right thing to do. My question is: Do you encourage the kids play a sport especially if the program that they are going to participate in is weak?

For example: The school that I coach at has a very weak basketball program. I'm not trying to slam our b-ball coach but, there is nothing being done within the program as far as fundamentals are concerned, basically the tail wags the dog in this program. I have seen this firsthand, the kids do basically what they want to do, during practice and in the games. There is no structure period. It is actually disheartening. The only advantage is that the team practices later after school so the coach tells them to lift before practice but he is not there to run the lifting session, and if a kid doesn't want to lift he doesn't. I have gone to the kids that play hoops and basketball both and told them that if they are going to lift then it is to their advantage to work out with us so they do at least the commited ones do.

My problem is that I really have to struggle with myself to encourage them to play b-ball, going from a program with structure to no structure at all. I know that they would be better off with us, (no conceit, just honest) . They would get more out of playing street ball. The bad thing is that the coach is actually a good guy and is supportive of our program but he has no clue. I try to be supportive of all programs as I should but sometimes it's difficult. But I remain positive with the kids.

Any thoughts?

I also (as many of you know) coach at a small school. Kids know we do not have too much choice about sitting a kid b/c he did not lift. What these kids need to ask themselves is "do we want to win?" Everytime you skip a workout the TEAM loses. Everytime you give it your all in a workout the team comes a little closer to success. But skipping workouts leads to nothing but losing. That is about turning around a mindset. I played small school football in HS. I was a 3 year varsity starter (big fish, small pond). But here is the thing, I was incredible motivated to "be all that I could be", and help my team. I knew I would start regardless of whether or not I set foot in the wt room. BUT I wanted to win, play college football etc. The question I pose is how do you light a kid's pilot light if he has no furnace to begin with? I have 8 guys who will compete for the 5 slots on the OL next year. Of those 8, 3 are legit starters who started last season. They do the work too. The kids know I have to put 5 guys out there...you do the math.

On the subject of ADs...our is really good on the paper work too. Insurance forms etc. The guy is good with the papers, and the bills. But other than that...I will not go on for fear he frequents the board!

I like you support those kids who are working hard, but continually work on those who have yet to see the light. It gets frustrating, but also rewarding when those kid who are working hard have success. Right now I have one, yes just one young man playing in college. He was one of our hardest workers, and had a great inner drive...self competition to get better than he was yesterday. He did it that way in practice and the wt room. That is one reason why he'll succeed in college.

Those guys are a pleasure to cpach b/c they will do it right. They want to get it right...not just good enough. For them "good enough" means they did it the 100% right way. BTW the kid I was talking about also had a 4.0 GPA and some unbelievable ACTs. He is playing DB at D3 now. He is the only high school kid I have ever coached with PERFECT power clean technique.