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,

Hows your week going?

One request we’ve had in is how do you make sure the session is fun but ensuring safety and effective training in developing fitness / physical development. So I will cover that 🙂 

In relation to this, I want to touch on multi sports and why exposing your athletes or clients to other methods of training sport cab really benefit them.

But first I want to ask you something….

I want to give some of you readers a voice on this newsletter so I am looking for some Sports Coaches, S&C coaches and Personal Trainers who would like to write about a topic they’re are passionate about and want to share to the world. If you want to be a guest writer then reply GUEST and I will get in touch!

Be an Elite Coach:

One of my core philosophies is to keep sessions fun and engaging, regardless of the objective. But how can you achieve this while ensuring the session is safe and effective, especially when the goal is physical development?

In my experience as a Strength & Conditioning (S&C) coach, whether working with athletes, school students, or the general population, my aim has always been to develop them physically while maintaining a fun atmosphere.

Here are some strategies I’ve used to ensure that sessions are both fun and safe, while still fostering physical development:

• Use games: Incorporate games that challenge athletes to move in various ways and test them physically. This is a great way to inject fun into the session.

• Create competitiveness: Introduce challenges or set targets/goals for them to achieve. This adds a competitive element that can increase engagement.

• You, as the coach, create the energy, but you remain in control: Your energy is contagious. If you look bored, they will be bored. If you’re enthusiastic and enjoying yourself, they’ll feed off that. However, remember that you’re in control; you can rein your athletes in to ensure their safety.

• Give them ownership, but guide them along the way: Sometimes, allowing participants to design their own program or session can make them feel in control of their development. However, it’s crucial to guide them and provide some rules or constraints to ensure the desired outcome is still achieved.

• The “Goldilocks Rule”: Find a balance between boredom (when the task is too easy) and frustration (when the task is too challenging). This keeps the athlete mentally and physically stimulated.

• Educate: When those you’re training understand why they are doing a particular drill, especially when it’s challenging, it can help drive intent and buy-in.

Let me know any other strategies or things that have worked well in your coaching or training to drive fun but get great outcomes!

Build Elite Athletes:

I am a big fan of multi-sport participation and exposing athletes and individuals to different types of training.

This could mean a footballer trying rugby, a tennis player experimenting with netball, or a cricketer exploring gymnastics. It could also involve someone who typically focuses on strength training giving Olympic weightlifting a try.

But what benefits might this have for their development?

• Breaks Up Routine: Introducing new sports or training styles adds variety to the usual routine, keeping things fresh and helping to avoid burnout.

• Fun: Trying something different can inject a sense of fun into training.

• Skill Transfer: Learning movements in one sport can benefit performance in another. For example, learning to roll in gymnastics can help with diving in cricket, and acceleration drills in tennis can improve acceleration in football or rugby.

• Physical Development: Engaging in new games or sports is a fun way to develop physical skills.

• Expanded Opportunities: Exposure to different sports opens up more opportunities for success. Focusing too narrowly on one sport may cause athletes to miss out on activities where they might excel.

• Leadership Opportunities: Those who may not excel in one sport might find they can lead in another.

For example, when I was working in professional cricket, we trained 4-5 times a week. Our preseason lasted from November to April, and as you can imagine, the routine could become repetitive and exhausting over such a long period. We did a lot of running to build endurance, but we also wanted to keep things fun and varied to maintain freshness.

So, every two weeks on a Tuesday afternoon, we took the players to different locations to train in a new environment. This included a boxing session with an expert boxer, Padel tennis and squash, gymnastics sessions to learn how to jump, dive, and roll, and even a trip to Ninja Warrior to swing from obstacles.

We were fortunate to have these opportunities, but even if such activities seem out of reach, you can still make an impact and add variety to your current sessions without incurring additional costs.

Use the warm-up to play a different sport, end the session with a new game, or bring in a parent who may coach or play a new sport. You could also partner with a local leisure center or sports club nearby, collaborate, and swap training sessions or train together for a week. Think outside the box!

Reply with your thoughts and any good examples of your coaching relating to this! Love to hear more of your stories.

Also if anyone wants to be a guest writer one week then reply GUEST!

Speak soon,

Isaac 🙂 

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