Parents and Coaches,
I attended a conference last Friday and Saturday in Orlando to earn some continuing education toward my strength and conditioning certification. I’d like to share the highlights of some of what I learned that I think may be interesting to a person not in the industry. Ultimately, TAT is the composite of what I’ve learned over the years and the exercises, drills, sets, and reps your athlete does is reflected in what I’ve learned!
Click Here to Hear What I Shared With Our High School Athletes About the Conference
For the first time I was able to attend a Stuart McGill presentation. He is the world’s foremost expert on the spine and back.
Period.
It’s not a debate like is Curry better than Lebron or Jordan or Bird…no one else is in the same category as McGill.
Key takeaway applicable to us all (even us parents): Flexion (forward bending) of the spine under load (think moving a couch) is the most destructive motion to our vertebral discs. In the weight room lift with a flat back and ask for help with the couch!
I have learned a lot from Mike Boyle and if you’ve been around TAT long enough you may have even heard me quote him before. I didn’t realize how much I have learned until I walked into his “Learn by Doing” presentation and thought I was walking into a TAT workout! All 3 of the featured exercises were things we have done the last month!
Key takeaway applicable to us all: Most of sports and even daily motion is an alternating leg endeavor. We walk from leg to leg, we go up stairs from leg to leg, our athletes run around from leg to leg…the alternative would be us jumping around on two legs to move our bodies everywhere! Get strong and balanced and powerful on one leg!
Bill Parisi is a very successful entrepreneur with his sports performance franchises operating in 85 locations. He coached and led about 40 of us attendees through his speed training protocol. I pulled out when we actually started the high effort sprinting and let the 20 and 30-somethings in the room have at it…I was already sore from participating in Mike Boyle’s session the day before! Bill couples his great business sense with an awesome understanding of the human psyche. Most of the people in that room had never done his protocol before (and were pretty rough), but he made everyone feel like they were just killing it!
Key takeaway applicable to us all: Beginners need A LOT of positive feedback. Bill focused on the one or two things that everyone was doing great instead of the half a dozen errors everyone had with their technique. At the end of the hour everyone had improved, was jazzed up, and most importantly was ready to do it again! If you coach kids in a sport the most important thing is to keep them excited about it! I will be striving to keep doing the same at TAT!
