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One of the most important athletic skills I need my girls’ basketball team to be able to perform is cutting or simply change of direction. If we can perform this skill well we can move well on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball. So how do I use my practice breakdown to accomplish this? Combine them!When we are working on defensive slides during our shell defense, individual breakdown, or 5-on-5, I put a huge emphasis on body position and intensity of speed. I want them moving as quickly as possible, but maintaining great body control. On the offensive side of the ball any time we cut to the basket, change direction on the dribble, or fill an open spot I want the girls in a great stance and using proper acceleration and deceleration angles.

How do I police their movement when it is easy to get caught up on the offensive or defensive system? For me it is simple. This is what I do for a living. I am a movement specialist so when I see an athlete make a poor cut or defensive slide I immediately look at body position and effort. At this point, I blow my whistle and make a big deal out of it. The rest of the team hears it and sees me address this issue so they are less likely to make the same mistakes.

The way that I make sure we get enough repetitions is to drill the basics of basketball offensive and defensive which leads to great athletic movement. So we may spend 8 to 15 reps for each player on a particular movement (the entire team is doing this at the same time), yet it relates to the offensive and defensive system. Take cutting to the basket for example; we will drill a particular cut from the wing, top, or corner for several minutes. This way I can guarantee the players are getting better at all areas of the game including athletic development.

Choosing your drills wisely to develop certain skills will be important. Don’t just do something, do everything with a purpose.

Yours in Speed,
Lee

P.S. Speed training during a sport can be a challenge if you don’t organize yourself. Having a tool such as www.GroundBreaking2.com will save you so much time, because you will completely understand how to teach all the movements you will need during your practices. Go to www.GroundBreaking2.com to get your home study course now.

Speed and agility done right is about making sure we marry the natural movements athletes have with effective and efficient body control to maximize speed and quickness.

Still to this day, and I am sure for many years to come, coaches still want to argue with me about the repositioning steps athletes take. They refuse to believe, even though all athletes do it naturally in a reactive situation, that the plyo step, the hip turn, the directional step or others are proper. Yet, when I tell them to simply watch a basketball game, football game, baseball game… they will see the greatest athletes in the world use repositioning steps all the time.

When I see coaches try to change athletes natural movement it does nothing but frustrate the athletes and coaches. Imagine trying to run with 30 pounds strapped to each foot. That is what it feels like when in a reactive situation an athlete isn’t allowed to take a repositioning step to get into quicker acceleration angles.

One of the greatest assets an athlete has is his or her ability to react which means a load-to-explode action is needed. When athletes are in a parallel stance (athletic stance) they are waiting to pounce on the play. They are waiting to chase their opponent or the ball. They are dying to load the system so they can explode with power and quickness. You can’t tell me that forcing an athlete to take away their natural quick force producing repositioning steps is a good thing.

Over the past 20 plus years of running clinics, many times I have asked a participant to step on stage and show me acceleration out of an athletic stance. Each time I do this the athlete will take a plyo step or hip turn, depending on the direction I ask them to travel. It is simply natural – especially if I drop a ball 13 feet or so in front of them and tell them not to let it bounce two times. On a rare occasion there will be athletes that will time it correctly and roll forward and take off. The problem with this is it isn’t how an athlete moves in live sport participation. In live sport the athletes doesn’t know which way they will go until the play unfolds. When coaches teach their athletes to lean forward and start rolling it is doing a disservice to the athletes. Let the athletes be active and forceful in repositioning their feet.

As you finish reading this article, start thinking back to all the times your athletes naturally moved their feet during play. It isn’t to defy you; it is because the natural ways of reactive speed and quickness always win out.

Yours in Speed,

Lee

P.S. To see the entire home study course on reactive acceleration and deceleration plus tons more go to www.GroundBreaking2.com!

1. The Ickey Shuffle
2. The Crossover Ickey Shuffle
3. The Backward Crossover Ickey Shuffle

The reason I only use these three exercises is because they directly relate to on-court speed and agility. These three exercises can set the foundation for great quickness, body control, agility, and speed of movement through the hips.

There are four main points I always emphasize with these three speed, agility, and quickness exercises:

1. I want quick hard pressure into the ground on every foot contact.
2. I want the angles of the feet to be outside the width of the body to create deceleration and acceleration angles.
3. I want the head and shoulders to stay within the width of the ladder.
4. I want quick and aggressive hip turning actions on the crossover movements; this creates a disassociation of the upper and lower body.

The ladder is a great training tool that has been abused and overused by coaches and trainers that use the drills philosophy rather than skills philosophy. If a coach seriously looked at the drills they are having their athletes perform on the speed ladder and actually broke down the purpose and carryover, they might rethink doing it.

When I look at the Ickey Shuffle, it is a perfect lead in progression for my athlete to learn cutting skills for quickness. It allows them to feel how to create hard quick pressure into the ground while demonstrating proper angles of force application. I don’t want my athlete high on the balls of their feet with “pitter patter” type steps. I want hard aggressive cutting like steps.

The crossover and backward crossover Ickey shuffle will use the same aggressive footwork patterns as the regular Ickey, but now I want to incorporate how the hips turn action can be ingrained for a crossover type movement. The important factor I want the athletes to feel is the constant repositioning of their feet. The never plant and drive the body over the plant leg. They find a plant angle that quickly pushes the body in the direction they want to travel. This is pure reaction speed, acceleration, deceleration, quickness, and agility.

So the next time you put together a quick foot ladder workout keep it simple and teach what you want to have carried over to the playing field or courts.

Yours in Speed,

P.S. In my best selling DVD home study course Ground Breaking 2 you will learn the importance of repositioning steps to create massive quickness through proper deceleration and acceleration. Body position is everything when it comes to quickness so don’t miss out on a chance to become a master of teaching these skills.

Cutting: the act of changing directions with or without predetermining the angle.

The Cut – A view from an athlete’s perspective

When an athlete encounters a situation where a change of direction or cut is needed, several things go through the athletes mind but they are more of a subconscious thought. This thought process is garnered through past experiences. Here are some of the decisions that an athlete will base the type of cut off.

1. The speed of the situation – how fast the cut will need to be made.
2. The angle of the cut to avoid a defender or obstacles.
3. The level the athlete must adjust his or her body to – go much lower or stay higher to maintain speed.
4. The boundaries or next level defenders/obstacles.
5. The playing surface to determine potential slippage.

The Cut – A view from a coach’s perspective

A coach should be viewing the cut from an efficiency standpoint. How well did the athlete control his or her body to effectively perform the cut?

1. Did the athlete create an effective plant angle to allow the cut to be appropriate for the situation?
2. Was the athlete in complete control of his or her body before, during, and after the cut?
3. How much influence did the shoulders have on the cut- good or bad?
4. Did the athlete use the appropriate height level to control mass and momentum during the cut?
5. Did the cut allow the athlete to quickly accelerate or decelerate to make a play?
6. What could have been done to make the cut more effective?

Athletes make cuts instinctively. It is a way to escape from being chased, but just because it is instinctive doesn’t mean it is efficient and effective. The coach must assess the cut to make that judgment.

The final piece for the coach is to determine how well an athlete cuts using several samples. Never judge an athlete performance of one sample. The athlete could have had a “bad rep”. We, as coaches, should always evaluate and make decisions based off a large enough sample size to see consistencies. If an athlete normally cuts great, but had a bad rep then we should not come to conclusions based off the one bad rep.

Cutting is beautiful to see when it is done by quick, well-balanced, and powerful athletes. When the coach and athlete get together and discover the intricacies of what makes a great cut great things will happen.

When you are teaching cutting to your athletes be sure to know what you are looking for, why you are looking for it, and how you are going to address it when you see it.

Yours in Speed,

P.S. Ground Breaking 2 has a complete cutting progression for you to use as a tool in your tool box. The more you learn about cutting and sport speed in general, the more you can make the right decision when coaching. Go to www.groundbreaking2.com so you can be sharp on your coaching skills.

123RF Stock Photos

Now let’s shift to young kids going through the developmental process, kids that are 9 years old or less. I can think of a lot of exercises that are important for their development and of course, based on their needs, some exercises are better than others. But there is one exercise that can trump them all if used properly…Throwing!

Just think about teaching a child to throw. There are many fundamental movements that are key to athleticism and movement in general. Here is a quick list off the top of my head:

1. Flexion to extension
2. Extension to flexion
3. Weight shift
4. Frontal plane transitioning
5. Sagittal plane deceleration
6. Transverse plane acceleration and deceleration
7. Coordination
8. Summation of parts
9. Balance
10. Power
11. Accuracy…

There was a time when we had to know how to throw rocks and spears to kill food to eat. Throwing was fundamental to our survival.

When a young person learns to throw at a young age they accomplish a lot. They learn to master control of their bodies in all planes of movement in both acceleration and deceleration. They learn to control the speed, distance, height, accuracy, and touch of an object (most likely a ball).

There are many ways to develop the tactical and strategic components of throwing. Teaching young people in stages brings confidence and efficiency.  Possible stages:

1. Teach the technical aspect of throwing in order to be efficient (how to hold the object, how to transfer weight, how to follow throw…).
2. Teach the targeting aspect of throwing (stationary or moving targets, release points…).
3. Teach the difference between the variable of a throw (how far, how much touch, how high, how much lead time…).
4. Teach the manipulation of the ball in time (how to spin the ball or not spin the ball during the release).
5. Teach different release angles with the arm to meet the task (release high, side arm, or underhand).
6. Teach all the above variable from stationary and from running, shuffling, or retreating (throw while chasing or being chased).

Throwing is a great skill that can offer a young person a valuable tool to improve performance of a particular sport or just as an overall athletic movement skill.

And you know what? It is valuable to teach them to throw with the right hand as well as the left hand.

Yours in Speed,

Lee

P.S. If you go to www.SportsSpeedEtc.com you will notice a series of videos that are based on the concept I described above. This concept is teaching. Teach your athletes skills so they can improve performance and stay safe and healthy. One of my favorite teaching tools is Low Box Training for Athletes. The purpose of Low Box Training is to enhance the body control of athletes so they can manipulate their body, through the positioning of their feet, at any time.

Retreating, or going backwards (giving ground), can be a tricky skill if not practiced often. The reasons are the athlete doesn’t have vision of each step, and frankly it is not a common practice. Ever watch a little child when they first learn how to walk backwards? It is like a balancing act. The body is not designed to move backwards naturally. We have to create ways in which backwards movement is strategically natural.

Here are some of the ways athletes move backwards:

1. Tall standing long stride backwards running – often seen when a basketball player is getting back, ready to play defense.
2. Short stance (knee bent) backwards running – this is what most cornerbacks will do during a football game when covering a receiver in the first few steps.
3. Backwards shuffle – often seen in soccer and basketball when trying to keep orientation on the court or field.
4. Backward movement but forward crossover – Seen in basketball defense, soccer defense, softball/baseball infielders, and tennis players when retreating for a ball.
5. Continuous hip turning while moving backwards – this is a defensive tactic to keep nimble in order to go wherever the offensive may explode past you.
6. Skate backwards – obviously in hockey and ice skating

The bottom line is in sports there are many times when an athlete must move backwards to make a play, keep orientation, or to read what the offense is doing.

Teaching young kids how to move backward in as many ways possible is a great way to develop body awareness and skill. When, at a young age, athletes develop the sense of footwork, body control, body positioning, and speed changes they will be able to adapt much easier when they are forced in to game situations that require retreating skills.

Here is an easy progression you can use to introduce moving backwards to young kids but at the same time use as a warm-up for experienced or older athletes.

1. Walk backwards in tall standing – emphasize longer strides with appropriate arm action.
2. Walk backward in short standing – squat down and walk back with shorter steps and the head out over the feet. Lead with the hips.
3. Tall backwards walking in an “S” pattern – this will begin to develop spatial and body awareness plus make the body proprioceptive aware.
4. Short backwards walking in an “S” pattern – same benefits as tall backwards “S” but now the range of motion of the ankles is greater. Plus the athlete must control body better.
5. Follow the first four steps, but now move quicker (walk, jog, run…)
6. Retreating shuffle with head facing forwards – develops spatial awareness and body technique.
7. Retreating crossover with head facing forwards – develops spatial awareness and body technique, plus joint range of motion in hips and ankles.
8. Combination of shuffle to crossover to shuffle and so on. This develops body control, how to reorganize body position, and thought process.
9. Continuous hip turn with shuffle – the athlete will begin to develop lightness of footwork and learn to pick the feet up and reposition around the hips.
10. Continuous hip turn with crossover – develop footwork and repositioning of feet around the hips.

This template will allow you to create any combinations you want. It is a great teaching progression for young kids to learn, but also a great warm-up for advanced athletes to prepare the body for practice or competition.

Yours in Speed,

Lee

P.S. Ground Breaking 2 has a great section on athletes body control and how to retreat with control and acceleration.

Image: chrisroll / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I have always been the type that sees an opportunity and moves more quickly on it than most. It is the part of me that doesn’t like to stand still. The main reason I am able to take risks in business is because I am not afraid to fail. This is a critical mindset of many successful people. You can’t be afraid to fail. You certainly don’t want to like failing or plan to fail, but don’t let failure be the reason you never get out of your comfort zone. You must calculate risk and determine if the risk is greater than the reward. If it isn’t then don’t take the risk unless you have a lot of room for error.

The one area I am not a high-risk person is when it comes to strength and conditioning. I am a low-risk trainer that puts the safety of my athletes first. On the other hand, when I coach my teams (sports), I am much more willing to take risks in order to put my players in a position to succeed. Again, I always evaluate the situation and make a decision based on what is best for everyone involved.

Now, on to another risk that I can only see an upside to: the business of ASEA. ASEA is a bio tech company that has created a category which is unmatched in supplementation and health. ASEA is based on the technology of Redox Signaling. Redox Signaling is a cellular process that until now has only taking place in the cells. ASEA has found a way to create Redox Signaling Molecules outside the cell, something never thought possible by some of the top molecular scientist. In a nutshell, Redox Signaling creates communication without the cells and between cells to clean up damaged cells. Redox Signaling Molecules also allow antioxidants to clean up oxidative stress floating around in the body causing damage. To learn more go to www.leetaft.teamasea.com and look over the science. The purpose of this article is not to go into great depth on ASEA science but to share with you a company that is changing lives and creating opportunities for highly motivated and detailed oriented people.

ASEA is a multilevel marketing company (MLM) that has 30 patents on the process of Redox Signaling. ASEA is a category creator and that is extremely rare in business. In other words, there are not going to be copy cat companies. What does this mean? ASEA is a strong powerful sustainable business that is set for many, many years to come. It is projected to be a multi-billion dollar company and it has basically started its foundational stages.

Now, if you are looking for an opportunity to get into a strong business with cutting edge technology and top of the line research, ASEA is it. ASEA is setting standards for growth of a MLM company. The reason is because it is built of sold science, a product that works, and an incredible executive committee with years of experience in growing MLM companies.

The first thing you thought of was probably “not another MLM company”. The reason you thought this is because of the poor strategies many MLM companies have used and how they took advantage of people rather than supported and partnered with people. Not to mention most MLMs have so many products and don’t have a clear vision or strategy to get their message to the people. Finally, most MLMs do not have undeniable science backing their product. ASEA does!

I joined ASEA after doing many months of research and using the product. The results I gained from using ASEA were enough to get me to support and promote ASEA. After learning how the business was set up and the fact it has tremendous scientific backing, it is in a category of its own (can’t be challenged), and has a product that is helping the body do its job better I wanted in.

The risk was so low and the opportunity so high there was no way I couldn’t join the ASEA team and help as many people as I can as I build a business that can allow my family to have security.

If you are interesting in partnering with me and growing a strong ASEA business please go to www.leetaft.teamasea.com so you can learn more.

To Your Success!

Lee

P.S. What can be better than making your cells healthy so your body can run efficiently and effectively. Redox Signaling is real and what makes the cells clean and powerful. ASEA is cutting edge and ready for you. Go to www.leetaft.teamasea.com so you can join the team.

Here is my challenge to you. Take time to share with young coaches important elements that will allow them to improve their coaching each year. Here are some tips you should share:

1. Practice Time Management – This is a problem most coaches have. If you set times for practice try to stick with it. I have made the mistake of going over the time and it only frustrates athletes and parents.
2. Be on Time – I believe the biggest cardinal sin of a coach is to be late or barely on time. You should be there before the athletes so you can prepare for practice, greet the kids, and get your mind ready for a great practice.
3. Assess your Team – Assessing the strength and limitations of your team so a proper and productive practice can be prepared (wow that’s a lot of Ps!).
4. Gather your Team – Always gather your team together at the beginning so clear and concise directions can be shared. This is a great time to allow for questions and get other organizational info out of the way.
5. Value Skill Work – If you are not spending time everyday on improving skills you are hurting the future of your program. Even though we say off-season is the time to improve, in-season is your most focused time of the year. When you coach young kids it is all about skills. Game planning doesn’t mean a lot if you can’t demonstrate proper skills.
6. Keep Athlete Active – During practice, when I coach basketball I try to have a ball in every player’s hands as much as possible. Try to keep lines small or if you must have single lines keep them moving fast.
7. Minimize the Drama – Always address team issues or distraction immediately. If the team is being pulled apart by a few players you must address it the best you can.
8. Set Clear Expectations – You need to communicate clearly what your expectations are for practice and the season; and encourage the players to do the same.
9. Pay Attention – Do a lot of listening and watching so you can learn your team.
10. Have Fun – Your athletes will respond for you if they are having fun.
11. Always let them know you care about them and are totally invested in them and their improvement as a player and a person.

There are many other elements that are important to coaching, but if you can get young coaches to learn to focus on these 11 items they will have a great headstart.

Yours in Speed,

Lee

P.S. An important foundation for all coaches to create is to teach athletic movement. Teach kids how to move correctly. One of the best resources for this is www.GroundBreaking2.com. It will give you the confidence to know how to evaluate your athletes’ speed and quickness plus develop a sound program.

Gain even more strategies for coaching multi-directional speed.
Go to www.groundbreaking2.com to find out more.

Yours in Speed,