Human Motion

Coaches that have a strong understanding of human motion specific to their respective sport(s) have a better understanding on how to bring out favorable adaptations, improve short and long term performance and prevent injury. Coaches without a solid understanding of human motion need to find someone that does and add them to their coaching staff if he/she is unwilling  then his/her athlete's will remain unchallenged with the strong possibility for injury and decreased in performance. Kinesiology is the study of human motion with the purpose to provide the coaches with a professional understanding of  how an athletic body moves, when to apply the appropriate drills and exercises to improve performance and prevent injury. 

Technique

Which technique is correct? Obviously the hockey goalie on the right is out of position but still makes the save, is his technique incorrect should we correct it? If you observe 16 professional baseball players at bat you will see 16 different technique's. Professional athletes have the ability to over come stressors greater than the average person, the great ones let things happen, effortless, egoless, free of blocks {quite mind} free of fears, inhibitions, doubts and self-criticisms. They are focused on the "here and now" allowing for creativity...non-wishing, non-judging, making it look easy. What the casual observer or fan.at.ic does not see is the years of practice repeating skills perfectly as perfect can get over and over on and off the field day in day out. 

Everyone is not a winnner

Everyone should not get a trophy, losing can serve as a greater learning tool than winning we need to take risk to grow, be where we need to be, comfortable being uncomfortable. We all need to struggle, and in those struggles we need a focal point in the moment.

Great athletes know this, great coaches teach it and great teams win with it a blend of skill, intuitive awareness and athleticism that the players have one another's back, pick each other up when one is down, make a great play when one makes a bad mistake. There is no selfishness, self interest, you show up to compete putting the teams interest over your own. Sometimes you win and sometimes you fail miserably.

Athletic Coaching Communication

Mastering communication is a cinch, if the professional athletic coach has the ability to observe, ask, listen, assess and provide feedback with respect and concern.  A great quote to remember is "God gave you two ears and one mouth, so you can listen twice as much" the Athletic Coach can not be an absentee leader. Being involved with informal meetings and mingling with your athlete's, giving your athlete's the ability to speak their minds freely, discuss disagreements and make useful suggestions with an open door policy. Daily basic team warm-up drills can serve a duel purpose while your athlete's are moving, their minds are in the moment. Also a great resource is an assistant coach and team captain(s) someone you can trust, are good listeners, care deeply about the team and someone who wouldn't hesitate to voice any disagreements they have with you as a professional coach. 

Communication = giving and receiving a message 

Communication = availability this is best done in person eye to eye. 

The disadvantages of learning

As coaches we are teachers as  teachers we understand all the benefit's of learning. But what about the disadvantages? The first disadvantage of learning is learning takes time, you don't want to explore all the new possible ways of fire prevention if your house is burning down, or learn all the accumulated cultural wisdom about tigers when one is chasing you. Sometimes it's best we just go on relying on the old routines.  

An important step some athletic coaches miss.  

Professional Coaches that depend on the accumulated knowledge of past generations has to have some time to acquire that knowledge. And the coaches that depend on that imagination has to have some time to exercise it and keep asking the question why?

Win everyday

Good, better, best

Never, never rest

'til the good is better

and the better is best. 

-Matignon High School, Nun

3 years

3 years is the average life span of your youth athletic coach. The most overlooked are sometimes the most important. I always hear about the life span of the referees the umpire's and the athlete but not always the coach, parts to the whole. 

kids vs. parents bring back THE GAME

We had a great weekend in Washington DC presenting on the topic's of coaching parents and kids and why coaches need a well grounded philosophy. Again I shared my coaching philosophy and suggested that anyone is welcome to adopt my model and build on it. 

We were discussing how a small amount of adults ruin it for the kids, when people ask me what I do... "I coach kids and rehabilitate parents" which is true a small amount of parents lack the basic education of the Athletic Development Model. We were tossing around ideas on how to educate the parents and how to get the parents involved in a way that is helpful not hurtful. 

Kids vs. Parents THE GAME

From the age of 6 to the age of 15 growing up in the burbs of Boston every thanksgiving our youth program would have a kids vs parents scrimmage or as the kids billed it THE GAME. Our season  consisted of 20 travel games and 20 practices, but the game always was one of our main focuses. The game was a 60 minute stop time with two refs one score keeper and two coaches for each bench. This was much more than just a game it was a challenge, a quest if you will for  kids to "get back" at our parents for all those times they made us come in from our intense long hours of outdoor sporting activities to eat family dinners and do homework. As well it was a time for the parents to get a sense of what it is like to play a youth game. Building up to the game as kids we rejected the notion of having our parents on the field with us, we laughed and had fun at our parents expense, and as the day approached and we were marching out to the field for battle, seeing our parents dressed up in uniform warming up to play something happened, a feeling of respect and a grin of happiness and joy that our parents were at our level. The games were full of pranks, laughs and a special bond followed up with great conversation over pizza's and Pepsi's. We never had unruly parents, every team that had THE GAME the coaches had zero problems with the parent. The kids played, the parents watched and the coaches well they coached.