Author: adrensf

Nutrition Tips for Athletes

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Recently I gave a talk to a varsity football team. Here are the Big Rocks. They could apply to any athlete, or any person, for that matter.

1. Eat protein every meal.
2. Choose one-ingredient foods as often as possible.
3. Pack your lunch as often as possible.
4. Choose nutrient dense foods over calorie-dense foods; however, enjoy your favorite foods from time to time.
5. Your most important meal of the day is _______________. (Answer: The next one)
6. Never go more than 4 (waking) hours without calories.
7. Food first, supplements second. If you are going to use supplements, do your homework. A solid foundation would include a multivitamin/multimineral, protein powder (if warranted), and creatine (if allowed). Check with your parents and coaches if there are restrictions, limitations or concerns regarding supplement use.
8. Eat as soon as you can in the morning.
9. Carry food with you at school.
10. Be honest with yourself: Are you “big” or are you overweight? Be as lean as needed for your sport/position but no leaner. Be as big as needed for your sport/position but no bigger.
11. Hydrate. Count all sources of liquid to get to your desired hydration status, with the majority from water. If your urine is lemonade-colored or clear, you are hydrated.
12. There are no “off days” from nutrition. Weekends are just as important as weekdays; training days are just as important as non-training days.
13. The Unholy trinity: Fat, Sugar and Salt.
14. Food is what you see, smell and taste; nutrition is what happens next.
15. Think of nutrition like this: If you took a magic pill that would make you a better student, a better athlete and have the physique you desire, would you take it? Nutrition can make you think better, perform better and look better!

Coaching Styles – Creating a Balance

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I am sure that many of you have had coaches that you could never forget and you consider family, and other coaches that you can’t even bear to hear their name.  There are so many different coaching styles and they work for different athletes.  There are the coaches who do not have a lower tone than a yell, and there are coaches who you would never hear them raise their voice.  I am not saying there is one coaching style that will work for everyone.  Every athlete is different and requires different coaching cues to succeed.  I believe that there are certain traits that every coach should have. They need to be able to listen to their athletes, learn from their athletes, share their knowledge, and create a comfortable and fun environment.  I believe that at our facility, all of our coaches have these traits.

At Adrenaline, there is Tony, Brian, and myself.  We each have very different coaching styles, but that is a reason I believe we do so well together.  We each have a common goal of helping our athletes improve while having fun at the same time.  Each athlete that comes to our facility is different and having three different coaching styles and personalities, I believe, will help that athlete succeed.  By having different styles, one of us might be really focused on form, while another one of the coaches really pushes the athlete to work harder.  We each have our personalities but we also have a balance between us.  It is also a great learning tool to watch other coaches and see what works for them and what doesn’t work.  They might notice something with the athlete that you never even thought about.  One’s coaching style will most likely keep changing and growing from experience.  There is not a right or wrong coaching style, but there should be a common goal.  Don’t ever stop learning and getting better each and every day.

Technology Epidemic and Our Youth

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Just take a look at the following facts and statistics taken via www.fitness.gov.

Physical Activity

  • Only one in three children are physically active every day.1
  • Children now spend more than seven and a half hours a day in front of a screen (e.g., TV, video games, computer).7
  • Only about one in five homes have parks within a half-mile, and about the same number have a fitness or recreation center within that distance.5
  • Only 6 states (Illinois, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New York and Vermont) require physical education in every grade, K-12.22
  • Nearly one-third of high school students play video or computer games for 3 or more hours on an average school day.24
  • Resources can be found Here

I remember the days of being a kid, and the typical day was as follows: go to school, get home and finish homework, out the door to go play some pick up games of just about anything. Anything that involved being outside whether it was playing games, riding my bike, messing around in the creek, etc. In short, PHYSICAL ACTIVITY. Fast forward to now, and here is the typical summer day I hear: got up at about 11:00 a.m., played Xbox for about 3 hours, then came here (Adrenaline). I see 10 year old kids who can work an Ipad better than me but have no clue what kick ball or capture the flag is. Technology certainly has improved productivity in modern society, but has also made our youth LAZY AS HELL. It is truly an epidemic and it does not help that schools are beginning to remove their P.E. programs eliminating any chance for physical activity. My job as a strength and conditioning coach certainly is performance enhancement, but it is also to improve overall health via physical activity. Seeing these statistics and hearing most of the conversations from young athlete to athlete talking about video games is alarming to me. With that being said, parents and coaches (myself included) need to step up and make a difference. These statistics are simply unacceptable and simple play needs to be re-established as a major activity in the lives of our youth population. Lets make a change and, of course, STAY ACTIVE!

K.I.S.S

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KISS, or Keep It Simple Stupid, is a common phrase, but relates greatly to coaching in the strength and conditioning world when discussing program design.  Complexity can be our worst enemy when we are designing protocols for our athletes.  Focus needs to be on simplicity and fundamentals to maximize the development of our athletes.  The last thing they want to do is come in and have to think about how to do a drill or skill due to its complexity.  I always encourage my athletes to actively think about how a drill may apply to their given sport, but too much complexity can lead to confusion and diminish the effectiveness of the training.   Vern Gambetta, a true expert in the strength and conditioning world, really hits home on this point with a recent post.  Take a look and STAY ACTIVE!

Coaching Simply to Coach Effectively

Women Who Weight Train Get Bulky….True or False

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I have heard too many times from women that they are scared to weight train because they will look manly or bulky.  This is completely false.  There are so many mistakes that women make in the gym because they don’t know anything other than what female magazines tell them.  Women love to focus on cardio and ab exercises, when in reality this could be ruining the physique they are striving for.  There are so many articles out there that share the mistakes women make in the weight room and give great exercises program ideas.  One article that I love focuses on these mistakes and how to correct them.  Check it out!

http://www.t-nation.com/training/10-mistakes-women-make-in-the-gym

The Optimal Training Session

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While there is likely no such entity as a “perfect session”, we have tweaked and adjusted our athlete sessions over the past nine years to evolve into a system that works for us. So, instead of calling it perfect, we are going to name it Optimal. While this works in our facility and with our situation, it may or may not be conducive to your facility and situation.

“The First 5”

The First five minutes: We spend a couple of minutes hanging out, talking about life, or what they had to eat that day, or how their school day turned out. Some athletes will be performing SMR, while others will be messing around with their buddies. While we started doing the traditional dynamic warm-up protocol early on, we have somewhat changed into more of a game – based warm up. On any given day, we will be playing: Frisbee football, Hawaiian football, basketball, dodgeball, tag, baseball, capture the flag, wall ball, tire ball or cone ball (the last two we made up). While we don’t conform to the industry norm on this one, we have observed the following during our games:

  • Creates a fun and relaxed environment which builds a positive attitude, team building and excitement towards training.
  • Provides a dynamic warm-up; also wakes them up for a morning session!
  • Allows coaches to indirectly evaluate athletic performance of the athletes.
  • Breaks down barriers between coaches and athletes, as well as athletes to athletes.
  • Allows athletes to experience/practice various athletic skills without formal coaching.
  • Allows sport specific athletes to expand their overall athleticism.
  • Stresses fun and enjoyment (process) versus winning and losing (outcomes).
  • Allows “free-range” playing versus structured playing; kids are in control rather than adults 🙂
  • Builds social skills, especially camaraderie, support systems, bonding and emotional coping skills. Games are also a great way to introduce new kids into our program through unstructured play. Who doesn’t need a few new friends in the process?!
  • Teaches problem-solving, strategy and nurturing an athlete’s “Physical IQ”.
  • “Organized chaos” can lead to long-term adaptations in other settings such as school and home life.
  • Kids can make the rules and thus, follow the rules; they start to find out their intrinsic value and leadership skills.
  • Experience the unadulterated joy of human movement.

TIME ALLOTTED: 12-15 minutes

“Skill Success”

Our major goal with the bulk of the training session is a combination of skill introduction, acquisition, development/improvement, and ultimately, mastery. The biological, chronological and training ages are all consideration when we design our skill protocols. For example, if the skill is linear based, we may spend more time on marching, skipping and posture for younger kids; for kids with a higher training age, we may advance to resisted acceleration, heavy sled dragging and/or plyometrics.

The design of this chunk of time is based on choosing a “skill of the day” that we want to perform, attach 2-4 drills to that skill, and then execute those drills, always keeping in mind that we are training a skill, not a drill, per se.

Our typical week is broken down into three skill days:

Day 1 (Mon/Tues) – Linear
Day 2 (Wed/Thur) – Lateral/Angled
Day 3 (Fri/Sat) – Change of Direction
(This template can be changed at any time, and we always have a “plan B” should issues arise. We also integrate an “All Strength Day” at various times throughout the month; it is the kid’s favorite day:)).
TIME ALLOTTED: 20-25 minutes

“Strength & Power”
The final section is strength and power development that utilizing many of the same ideas formulated and coached during the skill session. For example, if performing a linear acceleration skill day, we may include any of the following for our strength and power movements that day:

  • Sled March
  • Step –over Lunge Walk
  • Hip Thrust and/or Bridge Variations
  • Split Squat
  • Step up
  • Deadlift Variations
  • Hip Hinging Variations

There are literally dozens more but you get the idea. We try to pick sagittal plane movement patterns to match our skill movement patterns. We also will have at least one horizontal pattern during this time.

TIME ALLOTTED: 15-20 minutes

“The Last 5”

The Last five minutes: Time permitting, we really want every athlete to leave feeling a sense of accomplishment, confident and full of energy (not exhausted, although it can, and does, happen). We may play another quick round of a game, or just sit and talk. There is so much to glean from a child by simply showing that you care about them. It is probably the highlight of the hour when a kid opens up and tells the coach something they do not share with others. Those last few minutes may be all they remember to tell their parents or to carry them through the rest of their day. It is our duty to make those moments memorable.
To the last point, the below Training Manifesto is visible in our coach’s area:

ASF TRAINING MANIFESTO

  • Help as many people as possible, in as many ways as possible, as often as possible.
  • Our hunger and thirst for improvements in knowledge, skills and abilities will continually be fed.
  • Our number one desire is to be the best we can be, every day to every person.
  • We have a full commitment to enhancing the performance and life skills of all athletes we work with.
  • We are not afraid to push the boundaries of human capabilities when necessary.
  • We are first and foremost, developers.
  • We will view coaching both as an art and a science.
  • Our success as coaches is directly tied to our ability to communicate, inspire and motivate.
  • We embrace our position as role model, mentor and friend.

In closing, there really is no perfect way, system or session. I am sure most coaches have gone through multiple revisions to land where they are now. As soon as you think you know everything, you realize you know nothing! It is a never ending process. This is what works for our coaches and athletes, but will likely always keep evolving and improving.