Posted by Jason on July 24, 2009. Filed under Blog.

camp is cancelled this  morning in Amesbury and NBPT, make up day will be announced

Posted by Jason on May 13, 2009. Filed under Uncategorized.

“Sport Specific” is the new marketing buzzword when it comes to strength and conditioning programs for youth. Uneducated masses of parents and coaches herd their sports teams at a young age into “athletic performance” programs that supposedly address the strength, movement, and speed demands of one specific sport. The idea looks great on a marketing flyer, particularly in the American youth sports culture of “win right now”. Unfortunately the notion of early specificity ignores well established pedagogies of child development and motor learning, the foundation of youth sport skill acquisition and application. The fact is, most trainers implementing these programs aren’t qualified to implement programs for anyone, more less youth. Most of the time they are ex players in the specific sport who find exercises they think are “cool”, slap the term “functional” on them, tie some colorful equipment in, and bingo! A sport specific program! Their “program design” if any, is based on the cool toys and “secret exercises” they employ, with kids who can’t do a push-up!!! That’s like teaching a child to read by giving them “US” magazine! No valuable content, no skill acquisition, just stuff to get their attention.

Training that is specific to the demands of a particular sport does have merit at the higher levels, assuming the athlete is developmentally sound. The purpose of Part I of this article is to discuss the role of a general strength, conditioning, and movement program in a young athlete’s development, and how attempting to get too specific at a young age can be detrimental to future performance. Part II will discuss how implementing certain “sport specific” protocols at the appropriate phases of competition and development can be beneficial to performance.

A good athlete is a combination of raw athleticism (big, strong, fast, adaptable) and sport specific skill (skill involved with a specific sport like hitting, kicking, dribbling, etc.) When parents and athletes are looking for a coach to help them be better at their sport, they must realize the difference between the two factors involved with being a good athlete. Sport skill coaches (baseball coaches, basketball coaches, etc) are specialists in developing the specific skill sets needed for that game. Athletic performance coaches or “strength and conditioning” coaches are specialists in making an athlete generally faster, stronger, more mobile, more reactive, etc. Unless either of these coaches have extensive, qualified experience in developing both factors of athleticism (raw and specific skill), they cannot create a program that optimizes both. A sport skill coach should teach youth developmentally appropriate levels of sport skills and tactics. An athletic performance coach should help develop youth’s general physical proficiency. The idea of “Sport Specific” training for youth suggests that an athletic performance coach can help develop and improve specific sport skills by simulating them in the weight room. As mountains of research as well as empirical evidence will state, this is a flawed notion when considering the developmental needs of young athletes.

One of the well established laws of motor learning is that the only way to improve a skill is to practice that skill as accurately as possible. For example, if you want to hit a baseball, learn the mechanics of hitting, practice them over and over in as realistic environment as possible. Swing with a bat that you will use in a game, hit off pitching similar to that you will see in a game, etc. This teaches your neuromuscular system “patterns” that get stored in your brain like computer programs. The more you practice a certain way, the more grooved and automatic these patterns become. This is where the idea of sport specific conditioning in the weight room becomes a problem. Coaches will take an athlete and try to replicate the baseball swing with cables, medicine balls, etc. If this move is replicated enough, the neuromuscular system thinks “Is this a baseball swing? It’s slower and more loaded, so maybe we should adjust the “baseball swing” program in the brain to allow for a different pattern”. This confusion causes the actual baseball swing pattern to be comprised. That isn’t my “opinion” or “approach” it’s actually a well established “fact”. That doesn’t say that doing rotational work isn’t good for baseball players. After all, lumbar stability and thoracic mobility is essential for swinging athletes. Weight room drills such as Kaiser chops and medicine ball throws can help create this. Realize that these drills are done to improve mobility and core strength, both attributes that can prevent injury and promote performance. They are not implemented to copy a baseball swing.

Beginner athletes need a program that begins with general physical skill development. Basic aerobic fitness, coordination, and motor skills such as throwing, kicking, catching, climbing, etc. are the foundation of physical development, regardless of what sport an athlete plays. Establishing a level of proficiency in these foundation activities at a young age lays the framework for an improved ability to learn sport skills quicker and more effectively. For example, a 10 year old should learn how to kick a target, even if they are a baseball player. The hip flexion, knee extension, hamstring flexibility, and contra lateral leg balance involved with kicking lays the foundation for coordinated lower body movement and power development. This can help them learn to run faster, jump higher, or be more agile in the years to come. This can help them in any sport they decide to play.

As an athlete gets older, their physiology allows for the development of skills requiring a greater magnitude of mental focus and physical output. This is a period of development in which techniques for effective movement can be introduced and adapted. Proper movement technique for running, jumping, acceleration/deceleration, throwing, and strength activities should be introduced. Again, this is regardless of the sport the young athlete plays. Once techniques of different skills are mastered, maximizing their output is the goal. For example, once sprinting technique is learned, timing a 40 yard dash and aiming to improve that time would be an example of maximizing output. Another example would be in the weight room, getting stronger at certain lifts. Giving the athlete these greater output capabilities with efficient biomechanical movement allows them to adapt these new skills to the needs of their sport.

Athletic development should focus on creating a sound physical specimen with the appropriate mobility, stability, coordination, strength, and movement efficiency in order to promote performance and hinder injury. It is up to that specimen’s ability to apply these attributes towards sports skill. The more thorough and appropriate the developmental program, the better their ability to adapt. It’s a fact, Jack.

Breakfast Ideas

Posted by Jason on March 27, 2009. Filed under Blog.

Breakfast #1 (Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich)
Quick, simple, full of flavor and extremely healthy.
Cut a banana in half (long ways) and spread each side
with a good amount of natural peanut butter.
Place the two halves back together (peanut butter is
GREAT glue) and wrap loosely in a paper towel.
Your kids can eat this little sandwich delight on the walk
or bus to school – it’s completely transportable!!

Breakfast # 2 (Eggo Roll-Up)
Toast a whole wheat Eggo pancake.
Spread generously with natural peanut butter (yep… I
love the stuff) and sugar-free jelly.
Roll up the pancake and wrap loosely in a paper towel.
Instant, transportable breakfast!!

Breakfast # 3 (Cereal Mix)
In the ‘Natural Foods’ section of any grocery store, you
are guaranteed to find a series of healthy, wholesome and
low sugar cereals.
Pick one or two that you know your kids would enjoy.
In a small baggie, add a bit of each cereal and round out
with some dried fruit (I like strawberries and apricots).
Once again, this little baggie makes for a perfect ‘on the go’
breakfast that is both easy to make and very healthy!

Getting your kids off to the right start every morning is both
easy and rewarding.

Practice or Play

Posted by Jason on March 26, 2009. Filed under Uncategorized.

Posted in Random Thoughts, Training, Youth Training on March 12, 2009 by mboyle1959

Posted by Jason on January 27, 2009. Filed under Blog.

Tom Sullivan

The following article is written by Tom Sullivan. Tom runs Sullivan Training Systems in Braintree, Ma, where he specializes in helping young athletes develop speed, strength, and injury proof bodies. He can be reached at tssullivanjr@gmail.com and at www.tsullsworld.blogspot.com.

It is your responsibility as parents to start developing good habits for your children in all aspects of life. Nutrition is no different. We need to start building a solid foundation of habits that lead to higher levels of performance and health. Below I have put together 10 simple tips that you can use immediately to get your kids eating better.

1. Breakfast. A good breakfast includes eggs, cheese, meat, whole wheat toast or English muffin, juice (100% variety) and some water. Note that a good breakfast does NOT include Pop Tarts, Cereal, Toaster Strudels, Donuts, Muffins, or any other processed garbage. This tip is number 1 for a reason. We need to start getting our athletes used to eating a large healthy breakfast.

2. More water, less sugary crap. We need to get them used to drinking water as the main beverage. Read the labels of Gatorade or Powerade. Do you think it is a good idea to have them downing that much sugar? Same goes for soda.

3. Less Drive Thru. This goes for all drive through. If you can get it at a drive thru, you probably don’t want it in your body or your child’s. If you are in a pinch for time, go to a sub shop and order something that looks like grilled chicken, or steak wrap accompanied by a small bag of chips and some water.

4. Fruits and Vegetables. Try to find a couple of each that your kid likes and start putting them in lunches and dinners immediately. Don’t send a granola bar to school, send a baggie of fresh berries or a banana.

5. Home cooked meals. These should make up the majority of the kids’ diet. This is where they will get the most nutrients that will fuel their active lives.

6. Get rid of big pasta dinners before games. The old carbo loading feasts that often accompany a team dinner are a waste of time. Overloading on starchy pasta that isn’t really good for you in the first place is a bad idea. The kids will have better results from a normal healthy meal.

7. Cell Phones. While not really a nutrition tip, I thought this was a good opportunity to sneak this in. Seeing an 11 year old texting on a cell phone makes me want to puke. I have no problem with giving them a phone for emergency purposes or when they are going to need to be picked up, but kids should be interacting with each other, not with a screen and key pad.

8. Candy Bars. Candy bars are filled with crap. If kids really like them, try to trade them for Clif Bars. These things are delicious and are made from mostly organic ingredients and would be a much better snack.

9. Meal Size. Kids are at an important age where portion control is crucial. They shouldn’t be eating until they can’t move; this only cements habits of overeating in the future and keeps our obesity problem in American going. Teach them to eat until satisfied not stuffed. I hate seeing obese kids; it is usually not their fault.

10. Don’t become a food Nazi. Just because I have given you these tips doesn’t mean you need to restrict everything and make their diets strict. Use them as guidelines and remember that they are still kids. What is going overboard? Drive thru more than once every 10 days is no good, but neither is counting their calories or grams of protein consumed. Find a happy medium and start building good habits.

Posted by Jason on . Filed under Blog.

Tim Kontos

Dave Adamson and I were driving to the IPA Nationals this past weekend talking training (yeah we’re pretty passionate about what we do) when the subject of training women with heavy weights came up. I am in my ninth year at VCU as the head strength and conditioning coach and David has been in strength and conditioning for 3 years and this is a subject we deal with every year regardless of how much training information is available to the public.

The best way to get information is to go to the source. So, we asked Sarah Walls. Sarah is another strength and conditioning coach at VCU, a writer for Muscle and Fitness Hers, a former figure competitor, and a Women’s Tri-Fitness competitor…..not to mention she is a strong female athlete that is not bulked up. Therefore, she has a great perspective on the subject. So we, being a good team, put our heads together to find a way to combat this never-ending dilemma.

Our way of combating this is through education. And, only one answer to a question is never enough. If you know your job well, then you know that there is more than one way to skin a cat. So we came up with following list:

1. Women do not have nearly as much testosterone as men. In fact, according to Bill Kreamer, in Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning, women have about 15 to 20 times less testosterone than men. Testosterone is the reason men are men and women are women. After men hit puberty they grow facial hair, their voice deepens, and they develop muscle mass. Because men have more testosterone they are much more equipped to gain muscle. Because women do not have very much testosterone in their bodies they will never be able to get as big as men.

2. The perception that women will bulk up when they begin a strength training program comes from the chemically altered women on the front of bodybuilding magazines. These “grocery stand models” are most likely pumped full of some extra juice. This is why they look like men. If you take the missing link that separates men from women and add it back in, what do you have? A man!

3. For women, toning is what happens when the muscle is developed through training. This is essentially bodybuilding without testosterone. Since the testosterone is not present in sufficient amounts, the muscle will develop, but will not gain a large amount of mass. The “toned” appearance comes from removing the fat that is covering a well-developed muscle.

4. Muscle bulk comes from a high volume of work. The repetition range that most women would prefer to do (8-20) promotes hypertrophy (muscle growth). For example, a bodybuilding program will have 3 exercises per body part — for the chest they will do flat bench for 3 sets of 12, incline for 3 sets of 12, and decline bench for 3 sets of 12. This adds up to 108 total repetitions. A program geared towards strength will have one exercise for the chest, flat bench for 6 sets of 3 with progressively heavier weight. This is 18 total repetitions. A high volume (108 reps) causes considerable muscle damage, which in turn, results in hypertrophy. The considerably lower volume (18 reps) will build more strength and cause minimal bulking.

5. Heavy weights will promote strength not size. This has been proven time and time again. When lifting weights over 85%, the primary stress imposed upon the body is placed on the nervous system, not on the muscles. Therefore, strength will improve by a neurological effect while not increasing the size of the muscles.

And, according to Zatsiorsky and Kreamer, in Science and Practice of Strength Training, women need to train with heavy weights not only to strengthen the muscles, but also to cause positive adaptations in the bones and connective tissues.

6. Bulking up is not an overnight process. Many women think they will start lifting weights and wake up one morning and say “Holy Sh__! I’m huge!” This doesn’t happen. The men that you see who have more muscle than the average person, have worked hard for a long time (years) to get that way. If you bulk up overnight contact us because we want to do what you are doing.

7. What the personal trainer is prescribing is not working. Many female athletes come into a new program and say they want to do bodyweight step-ups, bodyweight lunges, and leg extensions because it is what their personal trainer back home had them do. However, many of these girls need to look in a mirror and have a reality check, because their trainer’s so-called magical toning exercises are not working. Trainers will hand out easy workouts and tell people they work because they know that if they make the program too hard the client will complain. And, if the client is complaining there is a good chance the trainer might lose that client (a client to a trainer is a.k.a. money).

8. Bulking up is calorie dependant. This means if you eat more than you are burning you will gain weight. If you eat less than you are burning you will lose weight. Unfortunately, most female athletes perceive any weight gain as “bulking up,” and do not give attention to the fact that they are simply getting fatter. As Todd Hamer, a strength and conditioning coach at George Mason said: “squats don’t bulk you up it’s the 10 beers a night that bulk you up.” This cannot be emphasized enough.

If you are a female athlete and training with heavy weights (or not) you need to watch what you eat. Let’s be real, the main concern that female athletes have when coming to their coach about gaining weight is not their performance, but aesthetics. If you choose to ignore this fact, as a coach, you will lose your athletes!

9. The freshman 15 is not caused by strength training. It is physiologically impossible to gain 15 lbs of muscle in only a few weeks unless you are on performance enhancing drugs. Yes the freshman 15 can come on in only a few weeks. This becomes more complex when an athlete comes to a new school, starts a new training program, and also has a considerable change in their diet (i.e. only eating one or two times per day in addition to adding 6-8 beers per evening for 2-4 evenings per week). They gain fat weight, get slower and then blame the strength program. Of course, strength training being the underlying cause is the only reasonable answer for weight gain. The fact that two meals per day has slowed the athlete’s metabolism down to almost zero and then the multiple beers added on top of that couldn’t have anything to do with weight gain…..it must be the lifting.

10. Most of the so-called experts are only experts on how to sound like they know what they are talking about. The people who “educate” female athletes on training and nutrition have no idea of what they are talking about. Let’s face it, how many people do you know that claim to “know a thing or two about lifting and nutrition?” Now how many people do you know that actually know what they are talking about, have lived the life, dieted down to make a weight class requirement, or got on stage at single digit body fat? Invariably these so-called experts are also the people that blame their gut on poor genetics.

These so-called experts are the reason you see so many women doing sets of 10 with a weight they could do 20 or 30 times. They are being told by the experts that this is what it takes to “tone” the muscles. Instead, they are only wasting their time doing an exercise with a weight that is making no contribution to the fitness levels or the development of the muscle.

In case you haven’t figured it out by this point in the article, what is currently being done in fitness clubs to help female athletes tone their bodies is not working. It is not helping these women get toned, and it is definitely not helping improve athletic performance. Maybe it’s time for a change. Contrary to the non-effective light weights currently being used, heavy weights offer many benefits for women, including: improved body composition, stronger muscles, decreased injury rate, and stronger bones (which helps prevent osteoporosis). Let’s try lifting some heavy weights and controlling our diet and watch this logical, science-based solution make the difference we’ve been looking for.

Tim Kontos is the Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Performance For Virginia Commonwealth University. He is also a competitive Powerlifter with persona bests of 525 squat, 380 bench and 450 deadlift. He can be reached though his site:

www.kontosstrength.com

David Adamson is an Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach University Texa El Paso He is also a competitive powerlifter with personal bests of 600 squat, 370 Bench Press and 540 Deadlift.

Sarah Walls is an Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach George Mason University. She is also a graduate of Virginia Tech and is a contributing writer for Muscle and Fitness Hers.

Hockey Coach

Posted by Jason on January 4, 2009. Filed under Blog.

Here is a great speech by the University of Minnesota hockey coach for hockey coaches as well as parents.

if you like it please share

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFsF0Z9EKDg

Sports Parenting 101

Posted by Jason on December 30, 2008. Filed under Blog.

Posted by Jason on December 16, 2008. Filed under Blog.

I have a favorite quote that is particularly applicable when it comes to training kids.

“prepare the child for the path, not the path for the child”

The reality is that you will not always be there to pave the way for your child, fix things, argue with coaches etc. etc. Kids will grow into adults and experience grumpy co-workers and mean bosses. Constantly insulating kids from difficult situations and consistently cleaning up the mess they create defeats the purpose of sport.

Sport is about learning to succeed and to fail, not just to succeed. Sports should primarily provide life lessons. If the life lesson learned from sport is that Mom and Dad can and will fix everything, later life will be difficult. If the lesson is that school is something you have to do but sports are what is really important than, be prepared for some really big problems down the road.

Youth sports has become all about success and scholarships instead of about learning and sportsmanship. I have some bad news for all the parents out there. Your child more than likely won’t get a scholarship. If he or she does get a scholarship, they probably won’t make the pros. I’m not trying to rain on anyone’s parade, I’m just a realist.

I have more bad news. Those parents who consistently prepare the path for the child by confronting teachers and coaches, changing teams, changing leagues and changing schools are making life-long losers out of their children.

Remember the purpose of sport is to teach kids about success and about failure. The failure lessons may in fact be more important than the successes. Everyone wants their child to succeed, it’s universal, it’s part of being a parent. However, it is when we attempt to alter the normal path that we screw things up. Protecting your child from difficult situations only delays lessons that are very necessary. Failures experienced at twenty one are far more painful than those experienced at ten or twelve. You don’t do your child a service by protecting them, you do them a disservice.

Remember you are a parent. You are not a friend, a manager, or an agent. Your job is to help create a competent, capable adult, not a dysfunctional child.

My mother had a wonderful saying on our wall when I was a child. It said “Children learn What they Live”. The same one hangs in my kitchen now. If you consistently prepare the path for the child you postpone the inevitable. The key is value education. Teach your children what is really important. Teach hard work, commitment, loyalty and dedication.

The next time you make a decision involving your child’s sport or sports, ask yourself “Am I preparing the child for the path or the path for the child”. This simple step will guide your decision making every time.

Posted by Jason on November 10, 2008. Filed under Blog.

There was a great article in the NY times about Elena Delle Donna,

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/sports/ncaabasketball/19athlete.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

It prompted me to post an old article I wrote. PS- Youth sports

is a mess we may never be able to clean up,

kind of like the economy.

Early Specialization

I’m not sure when the phenomenon of early specialization was born.

At some point a parent decided

“why not just fast-track our kids right past Little League and Pop

Warner and right into the Pros”. Parents in all sports felt

they could follow the lead of Earl Woods ( Tiger’s dad)

or Richard Williams ( Venus and Serena’s dad) and

just concentrate on one sport. I love to tell parent groups

that I speak to that for every Tiger Woods

or Venus Williams there are probably 5000 kids who hate

sports and resent their parents for all the pressure.

As a parent, ask yourself this question. Have you ever told

anyone “ I don’t push _(insert your child’s name)____ he/she

really wants to do this?” The latest one to fuel the early

specialization fire is tennis star Maria Sharapova.

The TV folks couldn’t wait to tell us at Wimbledon that she

had been holed up in Fla since age 7.

Check out this quote from LA Lakers Coach Phil Jackson:

“40 million kids play sports, and most of them are between

7 and 12. By the time they are

13 more than 70 percent of them have stopped playing

because it’s not fun anymore. All of a sudden when

kids get into junior high, we feel this need to have them

become professionals, and the coaches

become professionals… The message I’d like to get

out to them is to honor the game. The goal, or the victory

is important, but team sportsmanship, the

athletic endeavor itself is just as important.”

One of the problems is that most team sports are what

are called late specialization sports. This mean that early

concentration/ specialization has actually been shown to

slow development rather than speed it up.

Historically the great players in team sports seem to hone

their competitive instincts and develop their athleticism

in a number of sports and then begin

to specialize in their teens. In addition early specialization

often leads to dysfunctional parent/ child relationships.

The early search for the Holy Grail places undue pressure

on a young athlete who should be learning that sports are

actually fun, not just about winning. Believe it or not,

kids play for fun and, will actually attempt to make the teams

fair and encourage competition when

left to their own devices. Remember when you were a kid

and the teams were uneven. You made trades to create

a competitive game. The thrill was competition, not winning.

For many youth sport parents the idea

of fair teams is an anomaly. Stack the team. Get the best

players. Annihilate the competition. Get a scholarship.

Make money.Lets look at the following examples

Nomar Garciaparra ( Boston Red Sox)- played football,

soccer and baseball in high school. He actually attempted

to play football as a kicker while on a baseball

scholarship at Georgia Tech

Mia Hamm ( All Time Leading scorer in US soccer history)-

multi-sport star in high school

Kristine Lilly ( Leads the World in International Soccer Appearances)-

captained three sports at Wilton, Conn HS.

Brendan Shanhan ( Detroit Red Wings) outstanding

Box Lacrosse player prior to entering the NHL.

Katie King- ( US Women’s Ice Hockey, two time Olympian,

current Boston College Women’s Hockey head Coach)

played both Ice Hockey and Softball at Brown University in

Providence, R.I..

And the list could go on forever. Early specialization

is a phenomenon created by self-interested and financially

motivated adults. It has little basis in fact and, the data

seem to support the opposite. This is just

some parental food for thought. There is no evidence t

o support the theory that early specialization leads to

long-term success. In fact, there is evidence to the

contrary as stated above. If you want your

child to be a great athlete, don’t focus on one sport,

play a different sport each season. The people who

encourage early specialization are all people with a

financial interest in your child playing

one sport year round. Those encouraging early

specialization usuallyrun the leagues, camps and skill

sessions and they fill the parents full

of ideas that have no basis in fact. None of the

players mentioned above left home at 14 to go to prep

school or, just played one sport from

age 6. The definition of insanity is doing the same

thing over and over and expecting the result to change.

Maybe we should just try the way that

worked in the first place?