There have been many articles in the last few years about increasing rates of injury in youth sports. While I know there are ignorant coaches out there who do not properly teach movements and overtrain kids, I think that is not the primary cause of these rates. If anything, there is likely less bad coaching now than in the past when exercise science was in its infancy.
I think the main cause is unfit children entering youth sports. They are less fit than they used to be because they are more sedentary and weigh more. Many also do not play outdoors like they used to. This article highlights that it's been overly worried parents and lawyers who have forced playgrounds to remove things like monkey bars which go a long way to building fitness in kids, along with helping them learn to deal with fear and challenge.
I remember my elementary school digging up our playground and replacing it when I was in the 5th grade (1991-92). We all ran onto it during the dedication ceremony and within 5 minutes the consensus was "this new playground sucks." Gone was the big slide and huge swings, the giant tires and the massive monkey bars. In it's place were lame, low structures that were little fun. I guess we all became "safer" that year.
The picture at the top of this article says it all -- those are little _girls_ hanging upside-down!
The photo at the top of the article says it all
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/19/science/19tierney.html?_r=1&ref=science
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Ideal Club Coach
He is an independently wealthy man who volunteers 60 hours a week for the team. He has a very attractive, fit girlfriend or wife who spends her free time around the swim team, perhaps volunteering to teach yoga classes. Both are triathletes, don’t have children if they are young, or have children if they are 35+. They never miss church. Despite all the time spent coaching, he takes frequent trips around the world involving exercise. He did the Ironman last year, adventure hikes in Papa New Guinea, runs marathons on all continents. Upon returning from these trips, he gives out souvenirs to the kids, shows them photos, and tells grand tales of adventure, tying it all back into swimming and the team values. How does he get the time off for this travel? The rules don’t apply to Ideal Coach. Imagine a cross between James Bond and Superman. He makes it work!
He is a technological wiz, who uses his own expensive cameras to take photos and video of practice and meets. And he puts the photos online (but only the photos which demonstrate great technique or smiling faces, preferably both) and uploads hours of video which he narrates describing what the kids are doing well and what they could be doing better. He drives a fast car which gives him a “cool” factor. No regular club coach could afford all that, of course, but Ideal Coach is independently wealthy, which makes him a better coach than you or I.
He was a former top collegiate and national swimmer, who came out of a high-yardage club but who now forsakes that training in favor of technique, yet is also willing to do that training when necessary, yet when he does it’s with great technique. He is also up on the latest ideas in swimming, yet not minding being old-school, and having a complete detailed, progressive season plan keeping it all together. He also knows how to fix anything and everything very quickly, from a lane line to a pool filter, and buys all necessary parts/materials himself without billing the club. He can be extraordinarily loud but without ever being angry. He has an amazing no-finger whistle that has at least 10 distinct pitches that the kids can recognize while swimming, each pitch communicating a different message. His work with the parents is nothing short of amazing. Those 11pm emails from parents don’t bother him one bit, he responds immediately to all communication – he only needs 4 hours of sleep a night. He has numerous ties with rich people in the community. He can leap tall buildings in a single bound.
Ever see the Michelob Ultra ads? The ones with the young, attractive, fit professionals? A guy and girl finish at the office, go right into a run, and then from the run right into a bar, with other fit, young, attractive professionals. Well, the ideal coach lives this life. Ideal coach doesn’t go to the gym and workout alone, how awful that is, what a sign of anti-social patheticness. He works out with the masters team, the triathlete group, does the spin class, and plays in the local adult basketball league. He has been known to show up to practice and take the kids on a long bike ride instead of swimming. Wait, how did the kids know to bring their bikes that day? If you are asking those questions, you still don’t understand Ideal Coach. When you are as advanced a person as he, these things just work out.
Here is how a typical practice will run for this Ideal Coach. Remember this is what happens every day, not only on special occasions: Ideal Coach arrives on his bike after having done a 2 hour ride, with his attractive, fit wife/girlfriend who happens to have nothing else to do. Upon arriving on deck, with a guitar around his back, a cheer rings out among the swimmers, they scream wildly at the sight of him. He plays a song for the kids he just wrote while riding about swimming, which blends technique instruction with things they know from television. He smiles non-stop, never once not smiling. He has perfect posture and is handsome by everyone’s definition. The women love him, the men want to be him.
After the song, he cracks jokes with the parents and kids, as they surround him like a rock-star. His wife/girlfriend continues to charm the parents as he starts practice. The kids get in and swim warm-up, flawlessly executing a complex series of dives, sculling, kicking, backward swimming, underwater upside-down swimming, over and under lane lines, all while they smile. And out of the water they do flexibility, dynamic, strength building, crawling, hopping, skipping. All of this they have never done before, because if they had it would be “boring” and Ideal Coach is always new and creative. While they are doing that warm-up, he sneaks into the locker room and changes into a clown costume, or better yet, a dolphin costume. Upon arrival on deck the crowd goes wild.
He then takes on a full dolphin persona, while instructing the children in proper butterfly technique. The kids alternate between fits of laughter and careful attention, that most rare combination. They perform drills, yet not well enough, so this coach takes off the clown/dolphin gear, gets in the water with an iphone that works underwater, so he can video them doing drills, which he beams onto a television, from underwater, on a delay, so as the kids arrive at the wall they can see themselves. How was he able to set up this video system ahead of time? Wasn’t he out riding? That’s the magic of the ideal coach.
The children then begin a rigorous kick set, which he does with them, all the while encouraging and instructing. The last 15 minutes of practice involve a water game that is fun, instructive, challenging and reflecting the goals and values of the team, while also improving a swimming skill, in which all kids participate fully, as does the coach. The entire practice is all done in 1 lane if necessary, or 5, the coach is entirely flexible. After that, they get together for a 45 minute group meeting (how long is this practice? who cares when you are having this much fun!) in which the children listen to more empowering music and he reads inspirational quotes. Prizes are awarded daily.
Once practice ends, this hero-coach stays to help out with all other groups in a million ways, until 9pm at night. Never upstaging the other coaches, yet always fully engaged, oh what a balance he strikes! He does this every night, and on the weekends is at every session of a meet videotaping and coaching, but it causes no disruption to his marriage and family because he is Ideal Coach. Did I mention he isn’t paid? Because he is doing what he loves, he needn’t be, the money will work itself out.
What about all the admin work? Emails? Phone calls? Meet entries? Meetings? Oh, what about the meetings?!! How does he have time for all that? Ideal Coach does it all in less than half the time it takes the other under-developed people whom he works with. He can eat while driving and on his blackberry. It’s all for the love the kids and the love of sport!
So to all the young coaches out there, put down the books about swimming and ignore the fact that the head coach doesn’t act like this himself, nor do any of the top coaches in the country. Learn to be ldeal Coach, it’s the only way to get ahead.
He is a technological wiz, who uses his own expensive cameras to take photos and video of practice and meets. And he puts the photos online (but only the photos which demonstrate great technique or smiling faces, preferably both) and uploads hours of video which he narrates describing what the kids are doing well and what they could be doing better. He drives a fast car which gives him a “cool” factor. No regular club coach could afford all that, of course, but Ideal Coach is independently wealthy, which makes him a better coach than you or I.
He was a former top collegiate and national swimmer, who came out of a high-yardage club but who now forsakes that training in favor of technique, yet is also willing to do that training when necessary, yet when he does it’s with great technique. He is also up on the latest ideas in swimming, yet not minding being old-school, and having a complete detailed, progressive season plan keeping it all together. He also knows how to fix anything and everything very quickly, from a lane line to a pool filter, and buys all necessary parts/materials himself without billing the club. He can be extraordinarily loud but without ever being angry. He has an amazing no-finger whistle that has at least 10 distinct pitches that the kids can recognize while swimming, each pitch communicating a different message. His work with the parents is nothing short of amazing. Those 11pm emails from parents don’t bother him one bit, he responds immediately to all communication – he only needs 4 hours of sleep a night. He has numerous ties with rich people in the community. He can leap tall buildings in a single bound.
Ever see the Michelob Ultra ads? The ones with the young, attractive, fit professionals? A guy and girl finish at the office, go right into a run, and then from the run right into a bar, with other fit, young, attractive professionals. Well, the ideal coach lives this life. Ideal coach doesn’t go to the gym and workout alone, how awful that is, what a sign of anti-social patheticness. He works out with the masters team, the triathlete group, does the spin class, and plays in the local adult basketball league. He has been known to show up to practice and take the kids on a long bike ride instead of swimming. Wait, how did the kids know to bring their bikes that day? If you are asking those questions, you still don’t understand Ideal Coach. When you are as advanced a person as he, these things just work out.
Here is how a typical practice will run for this Ideal Coach. Remember this is what happens every day, not only on special occasions: Ideal Coach arrives on his bike after having done a 2 hour ride, with his attractive, fit wife/girlfriend who happens to have nothing else to do. Upon arriving on deck, with a guitar around his back, a cheer rings out among the swimmers, they scream wildly at the sight of him. He plays a song for the kids he just wrote while riding about swimming, which blends technique instruction with things they know from television. He smiles non-stop, never once not smiling. He has perfect posture and is handsome by everyone’s definition. The women love him, the men want to be him.
After the song, he cracks jokes with the parents and kids, as they surround him like a rock-star. His wife/girlfriend continues to charm the parents as he starts practice. The kids get in and swim warm-up, flawlessly executing a complex series of dives, sculling, kicking, backward swimming, underwater upside-down swimming, over and under lane lines, all while they smile. And out of the water they do flexibility, dynamic, strength building, crawling, hopping, skipping. All of this they have never done before, because if they had it would be “boring” and Ideal Coach is always new and creative. While they are doing that warm-up, he sneaks into the locker room and changes into a clown costume, or better yet, a dolphin costume. Upon arrival on deck the crowd goes wild.
He then takes on a full dolphin persona, while instructing the children in proper butterfly technique. The kids alternate between fits of laughter and careful attention, that most rare combination. They perform drills, yet not well enough, so this coach takes off the clown/dolphin gear, gets in the water with an iphone that works underwater, so he can video them doing drills, which he beams onto a television, from underwater, on a delay, so as the kids arrive at the wall they can see themselves. How was he able to set up this video system ahead of time? Wasn’t he out riding? That’s the magic of the ideal coach.
The children then begin a rigorous kick set, which he does with them, all the while encouraging and instructing. The last 15 minutes of practice involve a water game that is fun, instructive, challenging and reflecting the goals and values of the team, while also improving a swimming skill, in which all kids participate fully, as does the coach. The entire practice is all done in 1 lane if necessary, or 5, the coach is entirely flexible. After that, they get together for a 45 minute group meeting (how long is this practice? who cares when you are having this much fun!) in which the children listen to more empowering music and he reads inspirational quotes. Prizes are awarded daily.
Once practice ends, this hero-coach stays to help out with all other groups in a million ways, until 9pm at night. Never upstaging the other coaches, yet always fully engaged, oh what a balance he strikes! He does this every night, and on the weekends is at every session of a meet videotaping and coaching, but it causes no disruption to his marriage and family because he is Ideal Coach. Did I mention he isn’t paid? Because he is doing what he loves, he needn’t be, the money will work itself out.
What about all the admin work? Emails? Phone calls? Meet entries? Meetings? Oh, what about the meetings?!! How does he have time for all that? Ideal Coach does it all in less than half the time it takes the other under-developed people whom he works with. He can eat while driving and on his blackberry. It’s all for the love the kids and the love of sport!
So to all the young coaches out there, put down the books about swimming and ignore the fact that the head coach doesn’t act like this himself, nor do any of the top coaches in the country. Learn to be ldeal Coach, it’s the only way to get ahead.
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