Tag: alan stein

July 15, 2016

WYC 085 – Performance Training – Bryan Schwebke talks Building a Strong Base

Dr. Bryan Schwebke is the founder of Paramount Performance as well as a performance physical therapist, coach and consultant. Bryan has worked with some of the world’s best athletes as well as many college and youth athletes. He is dedicated to providing athletes and their parents with the guidance, education and tools to safely and efficiently reach their goals.

Website: paramountperformancept.com

Facebook: /ParamountPerformancePT

Twitter: @ParamountPfrmPT & @BryanSchwebke

Youtube: Paramount Performance

Listen Now:

Listen on iTunes: iTunes link

Listen on Stitcher: Stitcher link

Listen on Google Play Music: Google Play link

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Quote

‘On the day of victory, no fatigue is felt’

Topics/Questions

  • What is the biggest problem you notice with the athletes you see on a daily basis?
    • Their base isn’t strong enough to support what they are trying to do
  • What do you think is causing this problem?
    • Throwing kids into strenuous environments too early – specifically travel teams
  • What happens if you don’t have a strong base ?
    • Performance is decreased and recovery time from injury is increased
  • How can you fix or build a strong base? How do you know if you don’t have a strong base?
    • You probably don’t. Have them evaluated by a physical therapist and create a gameplay. This could start around 5th grade.
  • What is the Athlete Centered Model and what is your Performance Team?
    • Instead of having 4 or 5 different people coming up with a gameplan for an athlete (physical therapist, nutritionist, skills coach, personal trainer) – have all of them work together to come up with a joint gameplan
  • What are the biggest restrictions to coaches and parents not being able to give their kids a good base.
    • Lack of education and understanding where to invest your time and money as a parent
  • Multi-sport athletes have advantages

Self-confidence & Peak mental performance

  • Visualization can be key to recovering from injury
  • It does NOT mean you are weak if you need to practice and work on the mental side of the game
  • Visualization – free throw shooters who had 60% average
    • Practiced 500 shots per day – improved to 70%
    • Visualized their shot for 20 minutes per day – improved to 83%
    • Practiced 500 shots per day and visualized 20 minutes per day – improved to 85%
  • Website: paramountperformancept.com

Functional warm-ups

  • Make sure it’s applicable to the sport you are playing
  • Needs to activate the muscles
  • A couple good examples:
    • Alan Stein’s basketball warm-up – Link
    • Amanda Kephart’s warm-up description – Link

Outside of practice:

1 – Forget your ego – You probably aren’t an expert in performance training – learn from others

2 – Promote multiple sports

3 – Promote education for parents and athletes on why it’s important

4 – There’s more to being a coach than just practicing – bring in other experts – nutritionists, personal trainers, sports psychologist

Favorite quote

  • Quote: ‘On the day of victory, no fatigue is felt’

Paramount Performance

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July 6, 2016

Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch – Part 3: Which dog are you feeding?

Feeding the Positive Dog
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I recently have started reading Jon Gordon’s The Energy Bus. The entire book is about the power of positive energy, and one of the great analogies he uses is how we have the choice whether to feed the positive dog inside of us or the negative one. The choice is ours. The same is true for the teams we coach. Are we going to create a positive atmosphere where everyone can thrive, or are we going to let energy vampires suck the life out of the program. Here are some great ways to build a positive culture and feed the positive dog:
  • Alan Stein – ‘You get what you bring as a coach’ – If you bring enthusiasm, and model the behavior you are preaching, and expect excellence of yourself – most of the time the players will respond in kind.
  • You have to deep down truly believe in each kid and what they can accomplish – then constantly be pushing them to where you know they can go. ‘When you take the time to teach your boys, there’s an implied confidence, that you believe they can achieve, and that’s praise in itself” – Coach John Wooden
  • Positive Conditioning – The winners get to run?!
    • You have to put all your attention/effort into recognizing the kids who are earning the right to run.
    • For poor effort: ‘You guys just lost your chance to become better. You lost your chance to condition.’
    • Learn more on how to do this from Scott Rosberg at Proactive Coaching on his podcast where he discusses this: Podcast link
  • Have kids play free:
    • Don’t pull them immediately after a mistake, if you do they will start to play tight and in fear.
    • ‘Make the right lacrosse play. Make the right decision and we’ll live with the results.’
    • Growth Mindset – we are a team that will: Teach kids that failing is a highly valuable part of the improvement process.  Eliminate pressure on the kids that makes them afraid to make mistakes.  Kids are often getting pressure from family members, parents, grandparents, uncles – so as a coach you have to be intentional to not negatively.
    • Will Cromack: Set goals to try a new move during a game that you have been working on in practice: ‘Who is going to be brave enough to try this new move during the game this week?’
  • Count high fives in a practice. Then try to beat that number in future practices.
  • Echo the coach’s commands – This echoing becomes fun for the kids and gets them all involved, and increases the energy level in the practice.
  • Say ‘Go make a great catch’ instead of ‘don’t drop this pass.’ When communicating instructions from the sideline – be careful not to go 0 for 2 – meaning your communication had: 1- a negative tone, and 2- no instructional value. Yelling ‘play harder’ or ‘catch the ball’ are examples of 0 for 2 communication.
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January 13, 2016

WYC 067 – Leadership Development – Adam Bradley talks Lead ‘Em Up

 hardwood hustle pic

Adam is an expert in leadership & character development speaking and training coaches all over the country. He is the founder of Leademup – Lead ‘Em Up is a turn-key sports leadership and character program designed to equip coaches with the tools to implement a dynamic leadership program. They provide coaches the season-long curriculum and teaching materials to lead their team every week through a powerful 30-minute session. The Lead ‘Em Up curriculum includes teaching lessons, engaging team assignments, week-long player exercises and fun interactive game dynamics from their friends at Game On Nation.

Adam also currently serves as a Leadership Coach for various sports teams in the Baltimore/Washington area, and is the co-host of the nationally recognized Hardwood Hustle podcast.

Leademup

Website: leademup.com

Facebook: /LeadEmUp

Twitter: @Lead_Em_Up

Hardwood Hustle Podcast

Website: hardwoodhustle.com

Facebook: /HardwoodHustle

Twitter: @Hardwood_Hustle

Listen Now:

Listen in ITunes: Itunes link

Listen in Stitcher: Stitcher link

Quote

‘The drug of choice amongst the youth of today is popularity’ – Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in California

Hardwood Hustle Podcast

  • Website: hardwoodhustle.com
  • Designed for players, coaches, and parents
  • Episodes are either basketball focused or hustle related
  • New episodes every Monday and Thursday

Character development

  • Adam teaches kids that being cool and being a leader don’t have to be either/or, you can do both
  • Many kids would rather be cool than be great, but they don’t realize that it’s when they become great that they become cool
  • Think about the word the kids will call each other: ‘Try-hard.’  Why is that a bad thing?

Lead ‘Em Up

  • Website: leademup.com
  • Adam partnered with Game On to gamify his leadership curriculum so that he can really engage the kids and get them excited to learn how to be leaders. Game On’s created an acronym for gaming, people are drawn to games because of the MILE: Mystery, Incentive, Laughter, Empowerment.  During the games – they often forget to try acting cool.
  • Lead Em Up has developed a plug-and-play curriculum you can use with your teams – It’s a 12 week program with a new theme each week to be done in a 30 minute session with your team.

Parting Advice

  • The first thing you have to evaluate as a coach – is how much you really care

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January 8, 2015

WYC 030 Performance Training – Amanda Kephart from Akron General Sports Performance talks getting faster, stronger, and more powerful

What does it take to be a winning youth coach? Listen in as Amanda Kephart shares stories and discusses her journey to becoming a successful sports coach.

Amanda is the Sports Foreman Supervisor at the Akron General Sports Performance center.  Coach Amanda Kephart, MS, CSCS, USAW, has been training athletes for nearly a decade. She has worked at the Division One level with hundreds of athletes at both the University of Akron and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her energy brings out the best in her athletes and allows them to reach their athletic goals more quickly.  Amanda played basketball in high school, then picked up racquetball in college, where she went on to become a 2-time All-American at Balwin Wallace.

Website: strengthcoachamanda.com

Twitter: @_coachamanda_ ; @akrongeneralsp

Facebook: /akrongeneralsportsperformance

Youtube: /AGSportsPerformance

Listen Now:

Listen in ITunes: Itunes link

Listen in Stitcher: Stitcher link

 

Coaching/Leadership Quote

‘Coaching is a great opportunity to allow the child to practice being what they want to be, not what their classmates think they are’

My ‘Ah-Ha Moment’

  • Sports conditioning is a science – there is a lot to learn about the body

Have Awesome Warm-up Routines

HUGE IDEA #1

  • ‘Why do you do what you do’ – Is this helping your athlete?
  • Your goal isn’t to develop better runners – you want better (fill-in-your-sport) players
  • ‘It’s 2015 – telling the kids to take a lap isn’t going to cut it anymore’
  • 3 core areas – the shoulders, the core, the glutes
  • No static stretching during warm-ups; after practice/after game static stretches make total sense (because the point of static stretching is to move your body into a range it normally doesn’t want to go, so your body is not ready before practice but it is ready after practice)
  • 10 minutes is a good amount of time for warm-ups – use this time to share something inspirational and transition the mind of the athlete from being in their ‘day-job’ or ‘school’ mode into ‘athlete/team’ mode

Teaching Children & Keeping it Fun

  • Know what the child really wants – some want to be a professional athlete, some just want to have fun on the team
  • When teaching any skill – demonstrate it visually AND explain why you’re doing it

What age should my child start working out?

HUGE IDEA #2

  • The biggest factor isn’t what age – the biggest factor is who is coaching your child
  • MetaStudy on strength training safety: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/23015875/. Results:
    • Injuries occur because of:
    • Poor/no supervision
    • Improper technique
    • Improper use of equipment
    • Inappropriate amount of weight
  • There is NO research that shows strength training stunts growth plates.
  • When looking for a good strength coach, look for coaches that focus on the quality and form/ not the total amount of weight or speed of the reps.
  • Core stabilization exercises – Instead of sit-ups there a lot of better options – like planks

Sports Specialization

  • If your athlete absolutely loves playing just one specific sport – make sure they are taking breaks throughout the year to allow their body to recover
  • If you are playing year-round travel teams – when are you learning new skills?

Winning

  • ‘It’s not about winning at any level except varsity.  Your entire job before that level is developing the players’
  • ‘Your win/loss record as a parent coach does not matter.  The only thing that matters is that the kids had a blast, they learned, and they became better.’

Inspiring Story

  • Amanda loves to work with the athletes that come in shy, and she can build confidence in them and bring out their full personality
  • ‘Coaching is a great opportunity to allow the child to practice being what they want to be, not what their classmates think they are’ – Set up your practices and teams to be safe environments that are full of positive encouragement and build up each athlete.

Coaching Resources

Parting Advice

  • Get a system – write it down.  Have a exercise bucket- where you keep a list of drills/exercises to plug in.

Interview Links / Promotional Partners

strengthcoachamanda.com

 

 

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December 12, 2014

WYC 028 Strength & Conditioning – Robert Taylor from SmarterTeamTraining.com talks Doing One Perfect Rep Ten Times

What does it take to be a winning youth coach? Listen in as Coach Robert Taylor shares coaching stories and discusses his journey to becoming a successful coach.

Coach Taylor runs Smarter Team Training, which is involved with equipping and training athletes all over the world – his clients include Super Bowl champions, World Series champions, and players who have been drafted #1 in the NBA draft.  Coach is married and just had his first daughter.

Website: smarterteamtraining.com

STT Podcast: Coach Taylor hosts a radio show on iTunes and iHeart Radio – Half hour released every Sunday – interviewing coaches and athletes around the world – Join the 37,000 subscribers listening to over 280 episodes – STTpodcast.com

Twitter: @SMARTERTeam

Facebook: /smarterteamtraining

Listen Now:

Listen in ITunes: Itunes link

Listen in Stitcher: Stitcher link

 

Coaching/Leadership Quote

  • ‘At the youth level of sports – you don’t want more reps- you want better reps.’

click to tweet!

My ‘Cringe’ Moment

  • One thing they don’t teach you in college is how to value and develop relationships – with the athletes, the parents, your coaches

My ‘Ah-Ha Moment’

  • Stop chasing the word success and start chasing the word impact

Teaching Children & Keeping it Fun

  • Keep it fun!
  • Don’t expect perfection – instead enjoy the process of incremental improvements
  • Have very few rules
  • ‘We don’t do 10 reps.  We do one perfect rep ten times’

HUGE IDEA #1 – ‘At the youth level of sports – you don’t want more reps- you want better reps.’  More leads to drudgery and hating the sport.  Better leads to excitement and loving the sport.

Best Stolen Idea/Advice from another Coach

  • Praise in public.  If needed criticize in private.

Discipline

  • Have the kids take a picture of their bed made in the morning and send it to one of the coaches – ‘You can’t start the day undisciplined then expect to be disciplined the rest of the day’
  • Coach doesn’t like making them run as a punishment – we want them to love exercise and running – so don’t use it as a punishment.  ‘If they miss a layup – don’t have them run – have them practice layups!’

Reward and Recognition

  • Count high-fives during a practice.  Then try to beat that number in a future practice.
  • At the end of practice – have players say something positive about a teammate.
  • Spend one practice evaluating players’ GPA – Good Positive Attitude.  Are they giving a high-five coming off the field; are they picking up a teammate’s water bottle, etc.   If there’s a bunch of 4.0’s – the team spirit is good, if not – think of ways to recognize those who have the best GPA to encourage the whole team to raise the GPA level.

Mental Edge

HUGE IDEA #2 – How do you de-emphasize the importance of the moment?  One method is a trigger mechanism – something you have practiced and evaluated what works with each individual – something to get the player to smile and realize it’s just a game.  Maybe it’s slapping your leg.  Maybe it’s a teammate saying ‘Spongebob is ugly’, etc.  But you have to practice putting kids in those situations during practice!

The One that Got Away

  • Coach Taylor believes in living/playing present – so doesn’t get caught up in reliving wins and losses in the past.

Favorite Quote/Book

SmarterTeamTraining

  • SMART – Speed, Movement, Agility, Reaction, Technology, Education, Resistance
  • Work with teams and individuals – do clinics and can revenue-share
  • Teach coaches
  • Check out the awesome results their clients are seeing: smarterteamtraining.com
  • STT Podcast: Coach Taylor hosts a radio show on iTunes and iHeart Radio – Half hour released every Sunday – interviewing coaches and athletes around the world – Join the 37,000 subscribers listening to over 280 episodes – STTpodcast.com

Parting Advice

  • If you want more, you must become more.
  • If you want your kids to give more, you need to give more to them.  If you are their lacrosse coach, go to one of their football games or band concert.

Interview Links / Promotional Partners

SmarterTeamTraining.com

 

 

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November 19, 2014

WYC 026 Youth Basketball – Rich Czeslawski talks High School Basketball and BetterBasketball.com

What does it take to be a winning youth coach? Listen in as Rich Czeslawksi shares coaching stories and discusses his journey to becoming a successful youth coach.

Rich has been coaching high school basketball for 18 years in Crystal Lake High School in Illinois, the last 8 years as head coach. He also is the CEO of BetterBasketball.com – a resource founded by Rick Torbett – for basketball coaches to get training material and videos to help them move from good to great, and the origin of the Read and React Offense.  Rich is also the communications director for the National High School Basketball Coaches Association.  Rich is married and has a 5 year-old son and a 10 month-old daughter.

Twitter: @coachczes

Website: betterbasketball.com

Listen Now:

Listen in ITunes: Itunes link

Listen in Stitcher: Stitcher link

 

Coaching/Leadership Quote

  • ‘It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts’ – John Wooden

click to tweet!

My ‘Cringe’ Moment

  • ‘Early on I was more interested in telling others what I knew instead of learning from others’
  • ‘I was more intense in a negative way instead of being intense in a positive way’

My ‘Ah-Ha Moment’

  • At a Final Four coaching clinic – an older gentleman in front of Rich was furiously taking notes during a session – he turned around afterwards and it was Don Meyer – one of the winningest coaches in college history!  John Wooden quote: ‘It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.’  Be a life-long learner.

Better Basketball

  • Founded by Rick Torbett – great videos for player development – and it’s cornerstone: the Read and React offense.  If you like watching the San Antonio Spurs play basketball – the Read and React is this type of system that you can put in to teams as young as 3rd grade.
  • Player development – videos from Alan Stein and Drew Hanlen
  • Website: betterbasketball.com

Teaching Children & Keeping it Fun

  • Your #1 objective is to make the kids fall in love with the game
  • Small-sided Games!  Kids younger than 5th grade really gain nothing from 4-on-4 or 5-on-5 activities

HUGE IDEA #1: Don’t put young kids in front of a basket when you first start teaching them to shoot!  They will immediately gauge their shooting form based on whether the ball goes in the basket or not – and if the ball is not going in – they often will start implementing bad form if it increases how often their shot goes in the basket.

Best Stolen Idea/Advice from another Coach

  • Always remember that everything a parent does – is because they love their child.  In return – as a coach you ask the parents to remember that as a coach – you have to worry about all the children in the program (not just their one kid they love.)

Recommended Resources

  • Pure Sweat Basketball – Brand new site/app that has awesome player development drills for any level.  Developed by Drew Hanlen and Alan Stein.  puresweatbasketball.com

Discipline

  • Rules are very individualized by your team.  A mature team that knows what they want – might need very few rules.  A less mature team with lots of troublemakers might need many rules.
  • ‘Equal is not always fair and fair is not always equal’

Reward and Recognition

  • Catch people doing something right on a daily basis

HUGE IDEA #2 – Each week – ‘A me, a we, and a you’: What is something I did well this week, what is something the team did well this week, and what is something another individual did well this week.

Inspiring Story

  • Sometimes it’s tough to immediately realize the impact you are having on the kids – but it comes together when kids connect with you years after you’ve coached them

Winning

  • Below 5th grade – Rich does not think winning should be a goal.  It teaches the wrong messages.  Probably don’t even need to be playing in 5-on-5 leagues.
  • In 5th grade/6th grade – practice to game ratio should be heavily weighed on the practice side
  • ‘Nobody cares what your 6th grade record is’

The One that Got Away

  • Coach Rich went with the percentages instead of going with his gut – the lesson learned is to know your players and know what types of situations they thrive in

Favorite Quote/Book

  • ‘A leader is best when people barely know he exists.  When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say ‘we did it ourselves” – Lao Tzu

Parting Advice

  • You will impact the young people you coach permanently – have the approach of making this a positive impact

Interview Links / Promotional Partners

Krossover

 

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