APZ360

Kids Need More Playtime

anthony — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:28:33 +0000

I just recently read an article entitled, “Playtime for preschoolers essential”. Basically, preschoolers in child care centers are not spending enough time playing outdoors and just being kids. Let’s just take that a step further, most kids, ages 5 to 15 are not spending enough time just playing. There are many studies out there that conclude that daily physical activity is vital for physical and cognitive development. How many adults out there, after a good bout of vigorous activity, feel sharper, more focused and ready to tackle the day ahead. According to the CDC, 17% of children between the ages of 2 to 19 are obese, so play and physical activity at a young age is important. Dr. Kristen from the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Ohio and her team of researchers set out to find out why children were not more active. They talked to the staff at 34 different child care facilities in Cincinnati. What did they discover? They discovered that centers often emphasized classroom learning at the expense of outdoor playtime. I was not surprised to hear that this was not limited to Cincinnati, but in many parts of the country as well.

This is also happening in many of our middle schoold as well. P.E. is low on the totem pole. When budget cuts need to be made, it is usually at the expense of P.E. and the arts. I recently had a consultation with a 11 year old boy and asked him how often do they have P.E., he said, “2 times a week, Monday and Tuesday”. What happens Wed to Friday? The other surprising finding was the teachers said the parents, both upper and lower income seemed to be more concered about what their children were learning than about whether they went outside and learned/mastered fundamental gross motor skills. Again, I’m not surprised in this day in age where schools and getting into colleges are becoming more and more competitive and little Johnny or Suzy should be reading Moby Dick By 1st grade, performing advanced calculus and speaking 3 languages. Here’s the thing, when kids are running, skipping, jumping, climbing, playing games, they are not only exercising their bodies, they are exercising their minds. They are learning how to work with others, sharing, making up rules, not to mention the huge social aspect of play. Being able to explore the outdoors and being a kid is vital to their development. Academics are important, but play and physical literacy should be elevated to the same level for all ages. That’s why the Long Term Athletic Development (LTAD) is so important for our youth.

What are your thoughts as a parent, coach, or youth? This is an important topic to discuss that will shape our youth for years to come, not only nationally but at the local levels.

What I Learned in the Sport Performance World in 2011

matt — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:22:36 +0000

Every year I feel like I gain so much great information from attending live seminars, reading great books, conversing with top notch coaches and practicing my craft. This year I learned something by just being a coach. I think it is something that a lot of coaches struggle with in their pursuit of making the perfect program. If you have not dealt with this yet I assure you, you will at one point in your career.
Let’s see what could lead us down the road of frustration if we expect everything to run perfectly all the time. One, your athletes do not show up on time. So what do you cut out of the program? Two, you have a new athlete show up for a group training session. A quick screen can only tell you so much about the ability this athlete has. Three, an athlete does not understand why they have to do a certain exercise. This will help them develop speed and power, but they do not want to list about why an exercise is good for them. Four, unfortunately some “athletes” do not want to train. It might be because they do not want to do hard work, their parents make them participate even though they have zero desire to do so or a number of other facts. Five, the KISS acronym, keep it simple stupid. It is so much fun making big fancy programs and then staring at them in their glory and that’s about the end of it. Every when dealing with advanced high school, college and even professional athletes stick to the basics. There is no reason to make things so complicated that your athletes are asking questions on every movement.
There it is, five tips for dealing with things never being perfect. Do not get me wrong I am always in a pursuit to make things the best they can be, but I am ok with things not being perfect all the time.

Sport Specific Training

matt — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 17:33:42 +0000

There is always that one question that is going to come from a parent that seems like a broken record. If you are in the sport performance field you certainly know what I am talking about; “do you perform sport specific training?” You can insert whatever sport the athlete plays. There are different approaches on how to tackle this question, but I suppose the easier is to first relate how sports are similar to one another. Do a football player and soccer player both need to be fast? Should a basketball player and volleyball player be able to jump high? Should a hockey player and golf have the ability to externally rotate at their shoulder to shot, throw and pass? The answer to all these questions is YES. A great athlete is a great athlete and a great training program is a great training program. Sure there will be slight differences in programming, which is going to come more from the individual athlete than the sport that is being played. As a sport performance coach I am always trying to get my athletes better by the best methods out there.
So for the next parent that thinks about asking about a sport specific program, instead of asking that question ask the coach how they are going to make your son or daughter a better athlete. You will get a better answer for what you are looking for and a clearer picture of what is going to take place.

Why Do Kids Play Sports?

anthony — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:44:30 +0000

Why do kid’s paly sports? If you are a parent or coach and you haven’t thought about this, ask your kids or the kids you coach as to why they play. If asked most parents would say that youth sports should emphasize values like teamwork, honesty, discipline and fair play, but if asked what values they think youth sports actuallyreainforce most: competitiveness and the importance of winning. Which is intertesting because if you go to any youth sporting event, little league baseball, football, you name it, you might be surprised at what you witness and hear. I’m not talking about the kids, but watch and listen to the parents and coaches. This is not to say that all parents and coaches act inaproppriately, but this is something that is a rising issue accross the U.S..

The comptitiveness of youth sports seems to getting younger and younger with our youth. Identifying who is athletically gifted at 8, 9 10 years old is common place for bys and girls, and focusing on the product over the process is also something that is common place. We have a progressive educational system for our kids, but why not a progressive physical literacy sytem for our kids as well that they have to go through? We do have one, but it will take time and much effort to implement and put into practice, it’s the Long Term Athletic Development (LTAD) model. USA Hockey and the Titelist Performance Institute are two of the current organizations that follow this system for their junior programs.

If you are a coach, it is critical that you know as much as possible about the current literatutre and science behind youth athletic development and what is best for kids, and the why behind the LTAD. The IYCA does a wonderful job as well as the Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) as far as current data, research, and practical training for those involved in youth sports.

The American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness has stated: ” The goal of youth sports should be to promote lifelong physical activity, recreation and skills of healthy competition”.

Why do kids play sports?: A 20 year study was done by the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports, that asked 28,000 boys and girls; “Why do you play sports?”. Top Answer: To have Fun! , followed by, To do something I’m good at and to improve my skills. Winning did not crack the top 10.

Overuse Injuries In Youth Sports

anthony — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:40:55 +0000

The American Academy of Pediatrics Counci on Sports and Fitness has cited; “every year more thasn 3.5 million children under the age of 15 require medical treatment for sport injuries, nearly half of which are the result of overuse“.

They have also stated that; “overuse injuries, overtraining and burnout among children and adolescent athletes are a growing problem in the U.S.”.

It seems that overuse injuries are becoming more common today, but nothing new. In 1988 (The Archives of Disease in Childhood) 2 London based physicians; (N. Maffulli and P. Helmes) concluded; “At least 60% of all injuries sustained were in direct relation to training and training regimens and could be avoided by appropriate changes in training programs”.

I see many of our young athletes (male/female) with overuse injuries. What’s happening here? Well for one, many of these kids do not have an off- season to rest/revover their bodies. They go right into their next sport or they go from travel hockey, to their High School to Spring, etc… This happens in many sports. It’s wonderful that our young athletes have the drive and passion to play, but what about their physical literacy or their physical development? The demands placed by their sports will break their bodies down and also cause possible injuries due to the repetitive nature of each sport, especially if they are focusing on just 1 sport.

That’s why we do not advocate specializing before adolescence. Many kids today are not preparing their bodies for the physical and mental demands of their respective sports. They NEED to get stronger, faster, and master fundamental motor skills first before their sport skills. That’s why the LTAD is so important here in the U.S.

We have a progressive system for our kids in regards to their education. Kids have to learn the basics of reading, writing and arithmatic before they can go onto the next level, the same standards should be held in reagrds to their “physical literacy”. A system where kids perform age appropriate skill aquisition games/drills to maximize their athletic potential. We cannot control all injuries, that’s the nature of playing sports, but we can control how we train and develop our young athletes. Is this going to happen overnight? It’s the responsibility of all of the coaches/trainers and parents who have and work with kids to educate ourselves on the latest data and research on childhood development and the why behind LTAD, so we can keep the kids on the field of play for the long term and create healthy active adults for life!.

Let Your Body Recover

Matt — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:17:59 +0000

With age comes wisdom, right? How many of us still put the peddle to meddle when it comes to our movement/fitness? The more we push ourselves the better, the more reps, the better, more weight, higher intensity, the more we feel like we are going to vomit, the better? When it comes to our health, for those of you who still love pushing the iron or for those of you who are just beginning your journey in strength training; one of the most overlooked and underappreciated varibles is Recovery. At the age of 41, my joints and lower back have paid the price. The more I read and research, the more I listen to my body, I’m finally starting to see the benefits of letting my body rest. When you are young, you do not think about these things. Being in the weightroom was a love I had since 8th grade. The more I did it, the more I loved it! I wanted to push myself harder everytime, make every workout as challenging as possible. At some point if you do not let your body recover, you will have to pay the bill down the road, ie, stiff joints, low back issues, bad knees, the list goes on. It’s human nature. We feel the harder we push ourselves, the more we’ll improve. It goes against our nature to rest, have more active recovery workouts, not go as intense.

That’s part of the issue we have with our physical development from our adults all the way down to our little ones. We do not see the big picture. We tend to see what’s right in front of us, and not see the forest through the trees. Think about anything you want to improve upon or be the best you can be at it. It does not happen over night. Development never happens on a straight linear curve, especially when we look at our physical health. I am guilty of this. I just loved going hard, pushing the iron, never seeing the bigger picture until recently. Here is a perfect case in point. I just finished a 4 week cycle of 5 sets of 5 reps with my Front Squat and Barbell Bench as my main lifts, with bodyweight and corrective movements coupled with them. Mondays and Thursdays I also added in some conditioning with battle ropes. I made some very nice gains in my 5 rep max sets in both my lifts. After this 4 week cycle, I was going to take 5 days off, two of them with active recovery, (corrective exercises). I planned on Monday and Tuesday to do them, with Push up max (1 set on Monday, neutral grip pull up max on Tuesday). After performing my corrective exercises, I did my max’s on both days, and my body did not respond the way I thought. I felt tired, my muscles fatigued much sooner than my expected goals of 50 push-ups and 15/16 neutral chins. I fell 8 reps short on my push ups and 4 reps on my pull ups. I was a bit disappointed, but I chose to put what I preach and learn into practice. This was a great learning moment for me. It wasn’t that I was weaker, my body was telling me it needed more recovery. I am taking the rest of the week off, planning on just doing my correctives, then on MondayI am going to see how my body responds. If I do not feel 100% I will continue to peform my acticve rest for the week.

Anyone out there who has been training for 5, 10, 15 plus years, you are going to find that you will have to have periods of recovery in order to keep making strength improvements. The more experienced you have, the smaller the gains over time. When you first start out, you will make rapid improvements in strength with each workout, but as you move into the realm from beginner to intermediate to advanced, you will have to start looking at your weekly plan, to monthly, to blocks of training with added recovery periods in them. Now, for some, depending on your goals, that might mean deloading the weight for the week, lowering the intensity, or cutting down on the volume. No matter what your age, and here is the challenge, if you have trained hard for 4 to 12 week period, you will need to let your body recover. This doesn’t mean become a couch potato. You just need to do other activities, hiking, biking, swimming, yoga, thai chi, basketball. Just stay active, but stay away from the weights. Let your joints and muscles recover. This might mean you take 1 week to 1 month off. What! How are you going to get stronger? You get stronger from lifting weights by letting your body recover from lifting the weights, not by constanly lifting more. The research is out there, read any strength journal or read/listen to any of the top strength coaches out there. I know it is counter intuitive, especially for us guys, but you women out there as well. How many times do I see women doing hours of cardio each day, and there body looks “skinny fat”. As we get older our bodies will start paying the price. We now see many young kids paying the price for overtraining with sports.

We see 12 year olds with stress fractures in their backs, at 12? I never heard of that when I was growing up. We see girls with multiple ankle sprains in one season, back spasms and they continue to play. What do they do after the season, they start on a travel team. No recovery, and no proper strength training. There bodies are breaking down at such a young age and they continue to push themselves. 12 year old kids plying 80 plus hockey games, more than college students! They travel all over the states in tournaments. If you want to be a top tier program, we got to travel, play more games and then once their season ends in march, get them on the spring team. No break, no time to spend working on their physical development.

In some countries, kids stay on the same team from 6years old until adulthood. Imagine as a coach, being able to say to the kid, “I have you for the next 30 years in your development”. The big picture! We do not need to bang there heads through the wall with each session. Imagine that. It’s not just about this one session, but here is where you are with your development, now as your body grows, we will give you what you need developmentally and not rush the process, and guess what, we don’t need to treat every session like it will be the last session of your life!

Working hard is important, being able to push yourself mentally and physically is important as well, as long as you see the bigger picture. Let your body recover from intense workouts. It’s ok to go with lighter weights for the week, or no weights at all. We can apply this to almost any area in our lives. We need to recharge our batteries form time to time, do other things, or else we get “stale”. More is not always better, be good to your body and let it recover.

All the Best-

Never Too Old To Stop Learning

Matt — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 21:42:49 +0000

I was listening to a pod cast with Dan John. Dan John has been a strength coach for 30 plus years, and he made a statement that really hit home with me. He basically said even after all of these years working with athletes from high school, professionals and adult population, he feels he is really just starting to “hone” his craft. Dan has written many books and traveled all over the world as a speaker and ambassador in the strength and condittioning field. This man has done and seen it all and he is still learning! If you are a trainer, fitness professsional, strength coach or whatever your field of endeavor is, you are never too young or old to stop learning.

There have been days when I felt I wanted to throw in the towel, but after some deep breaths and reflection, I realized that making mistakes along the way is how we all get better. There is no such thing as “linear” development, especially when it comes to our physical development. You have to look at the big picture; be consistant, learn to listen to your body and not go hard every workout. That saying, “with age comes wisdom”, how true. Continue to work at your craft and when it comes to your health, look at the big picture and never stop learning. Thank you Dan John!

All the best-

Nature or Nuture

Matt — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 14:28:26 +0000

There has been quite a bit of research and books written about what determines greatness, whether you are a athlete, business person, entertainer, or any other field of endeavor. We have all seen the videos of Tiger woods as a little boy practicing with his father, how Russian churns out tennis players out of a small run down building, the Seattle Music scene of the 90′s, the list goes on. There seems to be pockets of places around the world that produce an inordinate amount of talent. So, is talent born, or is it developed? It is both. Your environment is important, your home, the people who guide and teach you, the local opportunities around you, your intrinsic desire, and now mix in your genetics. There are some great books out there to read; some quick easy ones; “The Talent Code” and “The Outliers”. I highly recommend them, they will start to open your eyes on how talent is developed. Now how talent is developed goes much deeper, and that has to do with neuroscience and there is quite a bit of literature out there. If you work with kids or are a parent, go to Dr. Kwame Brown’s website/blog. He is in the forefront on this topic, epsecially on the development of our children.

Talent takes years to develop. Many years of dedication and sacrifice. It all starts with free play as kids and guidance from our parents, peers, coaches and teachers. Give kids the space and time to develop. Encourage them to be creative with there movement, all types. There will be plenty of time for competition as they get older. Not all of us will become elite athletes, but will continue our active lifestlye because of the love of movement taught when we were young. Do what you love and love what you do.

All the best-

School Lunch at 9:30am?

Matt — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 13:30:31 +0000

I was just reading an article that one school system down in Florida is serving lunch to their kids at 9:30am. The reason is that they are finding many of the kids are coming in without having breakfast and there concern is that the kids are in a fasting state for half the day. This is a pretty complex issue here and one that is not just cut and dry. Are parents responsible for this? The school system? What are some alternative solutions? Right off the bat, common sense would be if you are going to serve them that early, why not provide some breakfasrt choices? Cereal, (hot/cold) eggs, toast, juice, milk, fruit, etc… There is a huge disconnect here when the video (Ann Curry, The Today Show) shows the kids eating Hamburgers and french fries at 9:30am. Ok, would I rather have a kid eat then go hungry, of course, but where are the school nutritionists? Breakfast is cheap and easy. There are hundreds of other healthier options we could provide the kids. Lack of Food and Sleep profoundly affect kid’s ability to think/reason or more fancy term here, their cognitive functioning, so going to school hungry is not an option, but basic nutrition 101 is needed here. This isn’t rocket science! If you are going to provide food that early, make it simple and healthier. Another question I have that the piece did not talk about was, is there another period later in the day for lunch? What happens from 10am on? I realize that many kids and adults do not like to eat early in the morning.

What are some alternative solutions? This is an important subject to discuss for all parents and school systems nationwide and education for both is key. The information is out there, for parents, administrators, nutritionists, teachers, etc… to access and use it in a practical way for their individual situation, district, or town. We live in in age where we can google anything, most kids have cell phones and computers, but we still have kids going to school hungry or we have schools still providing unhealthy lunches to our kids? Lots of questions here and I’m sure we can come up with some better solutions. We must all work together on this, starting at home and at the local level.

If we are going to provide food for them earlier, let’s at least have some healthier options. The image of kids having hamburgers and fries at 9:30 am is very troubling.

Some Quick Observations in the Gym

Matt — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 14:02:43 +0000

Just a few observations that I see in the gym where we run our off-ice programs. We rent space to run our performance programs, while the other half of the gym looks like any gym you see across america. Lots of machines to sit in, treadmills, elypticals, recumbant bikes, dumbbells, olypmpic bars, plates, etc…

The women spend lots of time on the treadmills, elypticals, maybe do a few of the machines afterwards. Guys, usually come right in, not much of a warm up, go right to benching, smith machine squats, typical compound movements and a few of the machines. Some of the younger guys I see add pull-ups, different types of pushing movements, but these are not the norm.

I see very little “Functional Movement” overall, and lots of seated, isolated movements. I don’t see many people really breaking a sweat, and rarely see anyone cooldown (any type of stretching, mobility, prehab or soft tissue work). It’s safe to say that much of this type of training goes on in gyms all over. I don’t blame the people. Many are mis-informed, or just don’t realize that they can be more efficient and affective with there time. There are many instances where I want to say something to a member, but I bit my tongue. I have offered my advice, or experience in the matter, but have been met with resistance or just plain indifference. It’s tough for me as a movement coach to see so much bad training and movement around me. Is it my job to help everyone there? I am not an employee of the gym. There are liability issues I have to be aware of, which I cannot stand. So what is the solution? I am more than happy to give advice/time to any who asks me. It’s my hope that the more people up there see what I do with the kids, will be interested enough to approach me. The more enthusiastic I am with my kids, the more energy I bring, I believe will in the long term have an affect on the members who watch from accoss the room.

Now, I realize that I will not reach everybody, but if I can change one person’s mind, educate them, then hopefully it will have a domino effect. I remain hopefull. Like anything else in life, it is the process.

“If you add a little to a little, and then do it again, soon that little shall be much”- Hesiod