Optimizing Performance: Back To School Edition

Your kids have had about two weeks to get acclimated to their school routines. That means increased academic, social and athletic demands and most significantly their cognitive abilites are really being taxed. It's all stress to some degree and it all goes in the same "stress bucket." So we want to make sure our kids are doing a few simple things that when done well will allow them to not only survive but to thrive!

The most important thing in my mind to boost performance in any endeavor is nutrition. Most kids eat at minimum three times a day and if you include snacking it could tally up to 6 feeding opportunities. Each opportunity is a chance to take a step toward improving performance on the field or in the classroom, if the choices they make are good ones. Poor choices however may be neutral at best (as we know kids can be super resilient) and at worst they can lead to foggy thinking, delayed reaction time, and poor recovery from exercise and training.

Nutrition is easily the single fastest and most effective way to improve performance!
In fact poor nutrition during the teen years is crucial to optimizing your brain health!

A close second is quality rest and recovery time.  Below you can learn why...
Sleep is the second fastest way to improve performance!

All that said I wanted to get you a few quick options to get the kids' and your day off to an awesome start. The nutrients in these options will power their brains and their muscles!

No junk in any of the recipes/products! Made with real food!

Also great options for on the go parents or professionals!

Protein Bars- For breakfast on the go or quick after school snack:

http://dalesrawfoods.com#oid=1138_1

They also have a great sale this week, 25% off select varieties. No coupon code necessary.

High Quality Super Pure Beef/Turkey Jerky option:

http://www.nicks-sticks.com/affiliate/forever-fit/

Protein Pudding (gluten/dairy free but your kids won't notice):

Place 2 tablespoons of chia seeds in the bottom of a glass bowl. Mix one serving of vegan protein powder (chocolate works best/vanilla tastes "funky") with just 1 cup of non-dairy milk of choice (almond, hemp, coconut) unsweetened if possible. Stir the blended protein into the chia seeds. Cover the bowl and place in refrigerator overnight. It will be ready to go come morning.

Options- you can add chopped nuts or cacao nibs (together or solo a serving about size of thumb) to provide a little crunch and make the meal more "hearty."

Sprouted rice or buckwheat crisps also are awesome add-ons!

Try it first without added sweetener. If you need it add just a bit of stevia to the protein/milk mixture. The chia pudding also provides a nice snack option or quick take to work/school meal.

This protein powder works best in this recipe.

Power Oatmeal:

A BRAIN BOOSTING BREAKFAST

(Be sure to mix ingredients AFTER cooking).

1 serving cooked rolled oats oatmeal (1/2 cup precooked)

1 to 1½ scoops vanilla or chocolate Grass Fed Whey

Add a few chopped pecans, walnuts, almonds, peanut/almond butter or fresh fruit.

Enjoy, and show the world how smart your kids are!!

Why high-quality grass fed whey is so good for you!

The Truth About Hard Work

Growing up, hard work was a badge of honor.

“That guy is a hard worker.”

If someone was willing to sweat a little more or go a little longer...they were deemed successful.

But I’ll tell you what I figured out about that over the years…it’s a pretty dumb way of looking at things.

I grew up working on my family’s farm, so there was a lot of hard work to be had.

I can’t count how many times I made a big job even bigger, sweating (during the summers it felt like an oven out there) and straining like crazy trying to get chores done so I could play ball.

My dad would always have to correct me and more often than not I had to start from scratch all over again!

It turns out the Mr. Fix–it gene (that my dad, brother and nephew all posses) was never activated during my childhood. When it comes to fixing “stuff” or driving big things (tractors and farm trucks) I was about as awkward as Justin Verlander running the bases or a former President throwing out a first pitch.

 In my efforts to get things done as fast as possible I often made a ton of errors and only after my dad corrected me did I do it the right way.  So I learned the hard way that smart work beats hard work.

 As a young athlete I remember how I spent my time versus how my peers in the same position spent theirs.

 I focused about 90% of my time on preparation. I read books on hitting and the mental side of sports. I dove deeply into sports nutrition and learned how to eat to improve performance and health. I ran sprints outside even in the winter and really learned how to develop my self physically.

And I took batting practice and fielding practice with purpose, not just swinging or throwing as hard as I could.

The things that were within my control nutrition, off-field conditioning and focused skill work allowed me to separate myself from my peers, quite noticeably in fact.

My peers focused about 20% of their time on those things…instead spending more time just hanging out at the field without much of a plan. They would waste time working on things that would not help them improve. As an example I remember a former Detroit Piston player that was supremely talented but during practice he would spend an inordinate amount of time shooting half court shots and shooting from behind the backboard. That situation might come up 1or 2 times during a season! Meanwhile this guy was a very average free-throw shooter. Undoubtedly he could have improved his foul shooting with the unnecessary time spent on his trick shots!

Away from the field my peers often focused their attention on other “fun things” that took precedence over physical and mental preparation.

Now make no mistake… I am not advocating an obsessive-compulsive mind-set where you shut-off all other social outlets but you’re not going to excel with a 4-Hour Workweek mind set.

In fact, while I did work smarter than my peers it wasn’t smart enough. I eventually pushed to hard for to long and lost track of what I was actually preparing for. I lacked guidance once I left the farm I adopted a very isolated mind-set where I pit myself against the world and tried to do everything by myself.

This is why I am so eager to help coach young people. I want to be there to help guide them through the peaks and valleys of physically and mentally preparing for life and sport. The right coach can make a world of difference in the life of a young person.

I am currently working with a young swimmer and this young man is a “hard worker” by anyone’s definition. He would often show up to our workout having already spent 90 minutes in the pool and was due for another 90 minutes after our session. This young man is definitely putting the work in. He just had his end of season finals and he improved significantly across the board (finishing second in the free-style to a boy that is a year-older and winning the breaststroke). I asked him if he expected to perform that well? He said he did expect to perform well and I told him that he should have those kinds of expectations because he puts the work in. He also has expert guidance from swimming coaches that understand athletic development. This “technical” work in accordance with his dry-land training allowed him to perform his best when it mattered the most.

I have come across many young athletes that say they are going to “win championships” or “play Division 1 college sports.” And yet, they spend most of their time hanging out at the mall or playing video games. Those kids are dreaming, which is fine but they should temper their expectations because they aren’t in sync with their work habits.

So how can you start working smart…well, here are a few thoughts to help you:

Decide where you want to go and develop a plan to get there. Then work the plan.

Understand that being busy is not a point of honor. Anyone can be busy…the better question is ‘who gets more of the right stuff done each day?’

Go into your day with Most Important Tasks…2-3 at most. Do those before doing anything else.

When you spend time on something you’re actually saying ‘this is the most valuable thing I could be doing right now.’ Think about your activities that way and look for ways to spend less time doing the things you decide aren’t really that valuable.

I think Abraham Lincoln summed up the way I feel about this very well:

 "Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe."

 He didn’t suggest shying away from the six hours of work…he simply suggested using those six hours more wisely than most would.

 That’s how you get better results than the rest.

And the most important lesson to take from this article... while working hard is a prerequisite to being awesome at anything you must find a mentor, parent or coach, that has your best interest at heart. A trusted mentor will help ensure you are heading down the right path to accomplish your goal.

Why Your Speed and Agility Program Doesn't Work...

The past year my career has taken a bit of a detour and while I fought it like crazy early on it was essential for my long-term growth as a coach and person.

Two recent notes that I received from folks whom I have coached with/for in the past few years really drove home the importance of sticking with your principles and not wavering to outside perception.

How this relates back to my current career path…

Sometimes you have to step away to see what kind of foundation you have left behind. I have received several notes in recent months that really affirmed that the work I was doing in the community was effective, and more importantly it was durable.

While I have always attempted to be a humble person in my professional career I did want to use the message that resonated consistently from these notes to reinforce a coaching philosophy that is in short supply these days.

While I am not currently coaching young athletes in large groups (at least for the moment) I have maintained and continue to develop relationships with young people. I want to know what’s going on in their lives; socially, academically and of course athletically.

For the purpose of this discussion focus on the speed and agility training many young athletes are currently being exposed to.

Many schools and clubs bring in hired “guns” to take their athletes through what amounts to a torture fest!

Most athletes have not been taught the fundamentals of speed, agility and quickness (SAQ) training. Sports such as baseball, soccer, and tennis all require fundamental sport skills that are essential for the long-term mastery of the sport. There are also fundamental athletic skills that must be developed prior to implementing advanced SAQ techniques/drills.

Often kids are exposed to drills that are to advanced for their current athletic “comprehension” and conditioning level. Any “coach” or “trainer” can make a kid tired but the key question that must be asked is can they actually make them better over the long haul?

Throwing down speed ladders, elaborate cone drills, or strapping kids to bungee cords or parachutes looks cool and it will impress parents but these “toys” are nothing more than a Trojan Horse that hides poor coaching and the utter lack of a developmental plan.

If you were to watch one of my SAQ camps/clinics you would notice 4 things:

1.     Kids are having and expressing athletic creativity and freedom

2.     Kids aren’t throwing up and I am not screaming at them

3.     Kids aren’t running more than 40 yards in a straight line

4.     Kids are training fast in short bursts that last only a few seconds at a time

Things that you should not see at Team Sports SAQ training:

1.     Yelling at kids because the coach implemented drills that the athletes aren’t “getting” is not on the kids it’s on the coach for either not coaching the drill well or the drill is to advanced for a majority of the athletes. This type of SAQ training is a great way to teach an athlete how to ride the breaks, it will make them think too much and their movements will be deliberate and robotic! The opposite of speed is actually occurring, but kids are resilient and their innate skills can oftentimes counteract bad training. But imagine the difference that could be had in their performance with better training? That would be awesome to see!

2.     Putting athletes through extreme survival of the fittest workouts.  These programs don’t make kids “tough,” it will only make them tired while they will get better at “cheating” on techniques just to “survive the drill!

3.     Track SAQ, training young athletes to run in straight line for 40 plus yards rarely happens in team sports.  Sports SAQ mainly consists of repeated short burst efforts of maximal acceleration, deceleration and reacceleration from multiple directions and angles. Drills should last only a few seconds, anything longer than that and it becomes a conditioning drill. While conditioning is an important factor and has a time and place in a well-designed performance program it’s not the goal of SAQ training, making athletes faster is THE goal!

Are my methods effective?

Consider this note that I received from a parent of a former athlete whom I last coached over 3 summers ago:

“M still credits your agility training for helping him (at over 6 foot tall as a high school sophomore) best much smaller kinds on the lacrosse field with speed and quick footwork.”

A local varsity basketball coach shared this after winning their second consecutive league title:

“It has been a lot of hard work and dedication and you definitely helped our players achieve this.”

I had not worked with this coaches’ program for a full calendar year when I received that note.

The point of sharing this is not to boost my credibility but rather to show that by mastering the fundamentals and committing to doing things the right way you can have a powerful and long-lasting impact on the performance and lives of young people.

At times I raise my voice to get the attention of the athletes and at times “tough love” is necessary at times but first he coach must earn that right by proving to the kids through is or her actions that they deeply care about them as human beings first and foremost. This “care” often shines through when you take the time to TEACH them the how and why behind skill acquisition. Teaching is a process and it takes time to develop the relationships and trust that are essential to bringing out the best in any young athlete.

Recruiting a hired gun to “beat the kids up” is not only ineffective; it’s a waste of organizational funds.  Save yourself some time and money by first getting to know your team and showing them how much you care and then they will work hard for you! And remember to keep the SAQ training short, fast and fun!

If you want kids to be fast then let them play fast! We are the ones that need to slow down and pay attention...