December 2010 Blog Posts (35)

Things To Do With A Gripper

Negative Only Grip

Grip with two hands

Grip with one hand

Pinch Grip

Grip With Two Fingers At A Time

Train Individual Digits

As an Athletic Development coach everything I do is driven and guided by principles. I thought the end of the first decade of the new millennium

would be a good time to reinforce these concepts. These are the

principles that are the basis of my system. These are not answers, but

concepts.

Start with what we are trying to…

That drill really looks cool. That piece of equipment is really high tech,it has lots of lights, dials and printouts. I saw so and so do an exercise

and they are winning. Yes, that is great, but? Are those good reasons

for using a training tool? There are some questions you need to ask when

considering new training tools or evaluating what you are currently

using:…

We have all heard the aphorism that if the only tool you have is a hammer then everything becomes a nail. Truer words have never been spoken, so why do so many coaches

use a hammer as their primary training tool? As a coach you are a skilled

craftsman. You have an array of training tools at your disposal and you should know

when and how to use tools that are appropriate for the task at hand.…

This time of year is great for parents who have children in college. Their babies come home if they are athletes ,however, this can be a nightmare time for coaches. Athletes in season have to practice and compete so there is the distraction…

The current trend in strength and conditioning is to go "OLD SCHOOL". What exactly is old School Training? Well It's simple really. Using routines from a time when machines were not around. Barbells…

I am a strong believer in utilizing total body movements throughout the training year. Total body movements involve a combination of pushing, pulling movements and squat derivative

movements. The advantages of total body movements are:

All major muscle groups are…

Coach Gayle Hatch is the first weightlifting/ strength coach to be inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.  The hall includes 13 Pro Football Hall of Fame members, 32 College Football Hall of Fame members, 9 members of the Basketball Hall of Fame, 6 Baseball Hall of Fame members, 6 og NBA's 50 greatest players, 18 Olympic Medalists (10 gold medal winners), 6 World Boxing Champions, 3 NBA Finals MVP's and 2 Super Bowl MVP's.

I love to read about winners. I love being around winners. Obviously I love to win. Winners are comfortable with being uncomfortable all the time.  They are always working to find an edge, something they can do to get better. Winners don’t always win, but they learn from their loses, so that  those loses can result in later success. A great example is Lindsey Vonn, she has every reason to be satisfied, yet she continues…

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Coaching and coaches make a difference.  The coach is at the hub the athletic experience. As a coach your primary mission is to provide a positive experience and create an atmosphere where success is possible in both sport and life.

Good coaches…

By Jeff Birchfield

Press Sports Writer

jbirchfield@johnsoncitypress.com

NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Kasey Kahne had to see it for himself.

Kahne made the three-hour drive from Charlotte to the Fifth Annual Coaches and Sports Science Clinic hosted by ETSU at the Millennium Centre on Friday to get a sneak peak at the Dynavision D2 visuomotor training device. The machine, which is used in over 600…

Colgate University Knows How to Train the Head and Neck Musculature of Their Athletes.

Gabe Harrington and I worked together at The United States Military Academy at West Point as assistant strength…

What exactly is professional development? First: I do not count time on the Internet reading trash, time on the Internet on sites like Ted, Seth Godin do count. They challenge you and make you think. Second: Read books and research articles in and out of your field. Read authors that challenges your thinking. I try to read 100 books a year. I spend close to one thousand dollars on subscriptions to periodicals and scientific journals a year. Third: Interact with other professionals, attend…

One of the fundamental principles of training is progression. It is very important but often overlooked in our haste to get the athlete to the final destination. Traditionally we have thought of progression as moving from slow to fast, simple to complex, from easy to hard, and controlled to chaotic. In teaching I have portrayed progression as building blocks, fitting the pieces together until you reach the desired objective. I have also used the metaphor of climbing a staircase, taking…

Ralph Cornwell Files-Women and Neck Training

Ralph Cornwell is a Ph.D. candidate in health promotion/human performance at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Prior to pursuing his Doctoral Degree he was a collegiate strength coach.…

In course of numerous conversations over the past several days at the track coach’s convention the conversation inevitably turned to the problems in the sport of Track & Field and sport in general. Invariably for those of us who have been coaching over thirty-five years it then turned to the “good old days” and what made them special. No question the good old days in Track & Field were special, seeing 75,000…

In this day of political correctness, where one is unsure what to say or how to say it. we often as coaches get lost in what we believe and what we are forced to do. I remember two years ago a coach in New Jersey was criticized and almost made to step down for his practice of saying a prayer…

This is inspired somewhat by Mike Boyle. I will quote the following lines:

If you are writing your first program, you are probably a cook. You should find a recipe and follow it exactly.

If you have been writing programs for few years, perhaps you are a sous-chef.

After five years of successful program design, you might now qualify as a chef.

To read his entire post:…

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It is a given that we need to develop the aerobic component. The fundamental dichotomy is how to develop the aerobic power necessary to recover from the short intense bursts of activity that occur in a game without compromising the explosive power necessary for optimal performance during the…