Be an Elite Coach, Build Elite Athletes

Things to develop your coaching and have a greater impact on your athletes. You define what your “elite” is!

By Isaac Leung, Athletic Skills

Hey reader,

So my week last I had a couple of interesting conversations. One was on a podcast I have just recorded with an early years physical development practitioner who provided some great advice for sports coaches with the main theme being fun!

Another one was with a football coach who I am doing some preseason training with and wanted to do some strength training but they had no equipment and were just using the pitch to train on. So how did I implement some strength training whilst having some fun? See below for some ideas!

Be an Elite Coach:

Fun should be at the centre of the session. If kids aren’t smiling, then they won’t be learning. Key lesson from a talk I did earlier in the week. We want our youth athletes to want to come back next week, put in the extra yards and develop long term. Fitness doesn’t have to be a killer. It can be fun and engaging and us as coaches can create this environment.

Build Elite Athletes:

The group of footballers ranged from 16 up to 35 years old with 14 of them and only some balls, poles and cones to hand. So what strength training did I do? Well, I wanted to have some fun with this group and I know they are willing to try anything. I allocated 10-15 minutes for this with other elements I wanted to include in the session also. So I partnered them up and we did some fun partner based exercises.

• Single Leg Squat with a hand hold - Hold right hand to right hand, left leg in the air and both players bend at the hip and knee at the same time and then rise back up. They use each other for balance. Great for quad and glute strength as well as core and balance.

• Wheelbarrow Squat and Push Up - As in the picture, in the pairs, hold a wheelbarrow position and one does a push up as the other stays still then one does squats as the other one stays still. Then progress to both squatting and push up at the same time. Real killer but fun!

• Plank with Jumps - One holds a plank position on their elbow and the other jumps over the top of them, Change the jump up from forward and sidewards and progress to single leg jumps.

• Sit Up to Head - Simple one. One does a sit up and when they get to the top, they head the ball back to partner. Could change up to a throw and catch.

• Twists with Ball Pass - hold a V position on the floor laid side by side with feet in the air. Throw the ball in a rugby style pass sidewards keeping the body still. Repeat facing other way.

• Partner Hold Hamstring Curl - One person on their knees, other holds their ankles down. Person on the knees falls forward slowly then pushes their body back up. Real hamstring killer. No more than 4 reps at a time!

This was simple and great fun and the players felt this afterwards! No equipment needed!

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Speak soon,

Isaac :)

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