Today I have a guest blog from Joe Bonyai. Joe is a great strength coach and the owner of Empower Athletic Development in Scarsdale, NY.
Joe was nice enough to contribute an excellent article offering parents some practical information regarding their young athletes and ways to incorporate after school physical activity into their daily lives. If you are in the Scarsdale area and have young athletes, I highly suggest checking out Joe’s program as he offers a top-notch service and brings a strong science based background to his training philosophy.
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Bring Back the After School Athlete
Joe Bonyai M.Ed., CSCS
Kickballs have gone flat, fence posts are no longer field goals, and mailboxes are home base no more. Instead, kids nowadays are specializing at the expense of free play. As strength and conditioning professionals, we have the opportunity to provide a safe, structured replacement for decreased variety in after school physical activity. Here are some of my ideas on training youth athletes.
Train the Person First
Your coaching style and program design should take into consideration a child’s psychosocial preparedness as much as their physical capacity. Training groups can be difficult, but the ability to react and treat different personalities while implementing a team program is called coaching!
Make it FUNctional
Youth training programs must be enjoyable. However, regardless of your creativity, exercises and games should involve functional, developmental movements. Crawl, squat, lunge, step, catch, dip, dive, and dodge. Training kids should be fun for you as well.
Train their Strengths
No kid wants to feel weak, slow, or uncoordinated, especially in front of their friends. Find ways to target weaknesses without spotlighting them. Train what they CAN do well, as much as what they need to work on.
Think like a Parent
My mom was always correcting my posture, telling me that balance and moderation was the key to success, and mixing my vegetables with mac and cheese. Moms know best. Train posture, use your “tools” in moderation, and find ways to mix challenging and fun exercises.
Make it Sport-focused
Sport-focused training is a rational middle ground between what we do and what parents want. Youth training shouldn’t be sport-specific insomuch that exercises mimic sport movements; however, youth training programs should make kids feel like athletes!
In a Field of Gurus, Find the Expert
Researchers like Dr. Avery Faigenbaum are leading the charge in the field of youth strength training and athletic development. Do your homework! Don’t guess with a child’s physical development.
Bring back the Afterschool Athlete
Empower young athletes to run, jump, climb, roll, swing and do the things “we used to do”. Building faster and stronger bodies is secondary to developing young minds that look forward to training.
Joe Bonyai is co-director of Empower Athletic Development, located in Scarsdale, NY. Please feel free to send questions or comments to jjbonyai@hotmail.com.