Saturday three new athletes start training with me…a brother, a sister and a friend. They are between 10 and 12 years of age. My typical starting point with any new young athlete is to find out how their posture is during basic running exercises. To see this I use low cones. (Low cones allow them to run over them-one step between each). With this exercise, I am looking for how the athletes maintain tall posture while lifting their knees and driving their arms. What typically happens in younger kids when executing posture runs is they become short and don’t extend the hips- really easy to fix…

The youngsters ran five reps over six cones. I noticed their flawed patterns (usually not using their arms well and squatting down or leaning back) and made simple one or two word/phrase cues. I didn’t overwhelm them. I know if I can fix one or two flaws it will most likely help others issues fall in line. That is exactly what happened.

If you give youngsters tangible information they can immediately understand and relate to, then they will perform at a higher level much quicker.

The second skill I like to review with new athletes is how well they jump and land. I start them in the landing position first and then move on to showing them how to use their arms and hips in accord. I personally like to start them out by jumping onto a box that is between 12-18 inches. This allows them to jump hard but land soft (because they are only coming down a few inches due to the jump onto the box). The same flaws I saw in the posture running over the cones existed…lack of hip extension and use of the arms. By giving simple cues… they got it. It is a lot of fun to watch them “Get It”.

Today I am going to teach them lateral movement. I can’t wait to see how they perform? I can bet you they will know how to move laterally by the time they leave today. They may not be smooth at it yet, but they will understand what I expect. I’ll keep you post as to how they did.

Have a great week and keep it simple.