Be an Elite Coach, Build Elite Athletes

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By Isaac Leung, Athletic Skills

Hey reader,

I am a big fan of animal movements and have been a big part of my coaching. These can be done with any group. You may think adults may find them boring but they actually find them fun and can be made challenging.

Lots of practical insights in this newsletter.

Click here for my favourite research paper that I base a lot of this from!

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Unleashing Athletic Potential with Animal Movements: Fun and Effective Training for All Levels and Ages.

Struggling to keep young athletes engaged while building essential skills? The answer might be as simple—and fun—as moving like a bear or jumping like a kangaroo. Animal movements offer a creative way to develop coordination, strength, and agility while keeping athletes smiling.

More than just play, these movements build the foundation for athletic success, enhancing motor skill competencies like crawling, jumping, balancing, and pushing. Whether you coach beginners or seasoned players, incorporating these movements into your sessions can make training more engaging and purposeful.

Why Animal Movements Work

1️⃣ Develop Essential Athletic Skills
Animal movements are rooted in fundamental motor patterns that underpin advanced athletic performance. Crawling improves coordination, jumping teaches force production, and balancing enhances stability. These skills transfer directly to sprinting, tackling, cutting, and other sport-specific actions.

2️⃣ Engage and Excite
Pretending to be a bear, crab, or kangaroo transforms training into an adventure. Fun drills foster participation and create a positive environment where athletes want to learn and grow.

3️⃣ Boost Coordination and Injury Prevention
Movements like bear crawls or crab walks challenge multiple muscle groups, improving coordination and teaching athletes to absorb and redirect force—key skills for reducing injury risk.

4️⃣ Adaptable for All Levels
These movements can be scaled for advanced athletes by increasing intensity or adding resistance, making them versatile for any age or skill level.

Integrating Animal Movements into Your Sessions

1. Use Them in Warm-Ups

Warm-ups are the perfect place to introduce animal movements, helping athletes activate key muscle groups and prepare for the session ahead. Examples include:

• Bear Crawls: Engage the core and upper body while improving coordination.

• Crab Walks: Build posterior chain strength and shoulder stability.

• Frog Hops: Develop explosive power and hip mobility.

💡 Coaching Tip: Use simple cues like “crawl quietly like a bear stalking prey” or “walk strong like a crab on the beach” to make the movements fun and relatable.

2. Build Skills with Animal Drills

Incorporate animal movements into specific drills to target athletic skills:

• Kangaroo Jumps: Teach explosive power and soft landings.

• Flamingo Balance: Improve single-leg stability for lateral movements.

• Duck Walks: Reinforce squat mechanics while building leg strength.

💡 Progression Idea: Add resistance bands to bear crawls or weighted vests for crab walks to challenge more advanced athletes.

3. Play Games to Enhance Engagement

Turn animal movements into games to make sessions dynamic and reactive, mimicking game-day scenarios. Try:

• Crab Soccer: Players navigate the field in a crab walk position while kicking the ball, developing lower-body strength and coordination.

• Bear Relay Races: Teams race using bear crawls, incorporating obstacles like cones to develop agility and focus.

💡 Coaching Tip: Use friendly competition to keep athletes motivated and foster teamwork during these activities.

Why Coaches and Athletes Love This Approach

• Coaches: Animal movements are easy to implement, require minimal equipment, and encourage creativity in session planning. They’re also adaptable, allowing coaches to cater to different age groups and skill levels.

• Athletes: These movements make training fun while building strength, agility, and confidence. Young athletes, in particular, thrive in environments where learning feels like play.

Real-World Applications

Animal movements teach movement patterns that translate directly to sport-specific scenarios:

• Bear Crawls: Improve coordination for ground-based plays in rugby or wrestling.

• Flamingo Balance: Develops single-leg stability for cutting and pivoting in football or basketball.

• Kangaroo Jumps: Enhance explosive power for vertical leaps in volleyball or rebounding in basketball.

💡 Advanced Athlete Adaptation: Use weighted sleds with crawling movements or resistance bands for jumping drills to challenge elite players.

Key Takeaways

1️⃣ Match Movements to Goals: Use kangaroo jumps for power, crab walks for strength, and flamingo balance for stability.
2️⃣ Make It Fun: Create engaging drills and games to keep athletes motivated.
3️⃣ Scale for All Levels: Progress movements for advanced athletes with added intensity or resistance.
4️⃣ Focus on Fundamentals: Animal movements build the foundation for skills like sprinting, cutting, and force absorption.

Interested in learning more about animal movements? I have a short online CPD course on this with lifetime access to exercise videos, flashcards and games to add in to your coaching! You can get this for just £19.99 (down from £39.99).

Click here to get access to this great course!

Here are some of the coaches who have already started using the course in their coaching across wide range of environments!

James - Isaac’s animal movement course has been an invaluable resource for my coaching. I’ve integrated the animal movements into the foundation phase of the program for U13 and U14 students to enhance their movement skills. The units on flow, games, and programming have been particularly useful, providing great ideas for integration and progression.

Charlie - Working through the animal movement course has been a fantastic experience. It reminded me how crucial these movements are for improving client mobility while also challenging their cardio and strength. The course is well-organised, easy to follow, and offers valuable insights into how small changes can yield effective results, helping clients achieve their goals.

Rickey - The Animal Flow course was a wonderful opportunity to learn how to make basic movements enjoyable for children. It demonstrated how different movements could lead to various outcomes and included creative ways to incorporate them into races and games. Overall, it’s an excellent course with plenty of practical ideas and useful learning.

Alistair - The animal movements have provided a structured and engaging warm-up for players in the batting academy. They are challenging yet achievable, making them perfect for the kids! The resources have also been a big hit, allowing the children to take charge of their warm-ups by using the cards for guidance.

Need help? Reply to this email and tell me your story...

Speak soon,

Isaac 🙂 

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