The sudden deceleration, shifting in the knee, popping sound and screaming from the intense pain that immediately follows is becoming increasingly common among our young athletes. Those who have witnessed or suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) are familiar with the pain, surgery and intense 6 to 8 month rehabilitation that accompanies the injury, not to mention the disappointment of ending a season. Nationwide, this will occur more than 500,000 times this year, and female athletes...
Here is a resource for Author Fred Bowden, whose books on sports are great for young athletes. The books are inspiring as well as informative. They should serve to help your son or daughter, or the players you coach in such a way as to teach them the importance of teamwork, competition and dedication. Enjoy.
In youth sports, I believe that giving young players examples to follow can really make a huge a difference. In school I played Defensive End and a guy I really looked up to then for his tenacity and tough ball playing was USC Defensive End Frostee Rucker, who could really get after the passer and make things happen. Living in Los Angeles, every kid knew who he was because he was the master of the sack in his time at USC. I wanted to pose the question though, What role does a players work ethic...
It seems that the days of the great motivators are behind us. In the wake of Phil Jackson's 11th championship victory, I wanted to pose the question. Are there any coaches in today's professional or college era that truly represent greatness and set the example for other coaches to follow? In my coaching days, I really tried to be as tough as I could while also showing the kids that I really cared for them. My example then was former Rams coach Dick Vermeil, who was a passionate fiery coach...
A while back I was coaching a team that had a lot of talent but almost no heart. No matter how many times I had these kids hit each other, they would not get mad. I could not get the effort we needed out of them week in and week out, so we suffered a disappointing 500 season. Do any of you coaches have any techniques on getting these kids to WANT to win. I know running them for losing is always a good plan, but instead of winning because of fear, how do we get these kids to really feel the...
For the youth Football Coaches. Here are some videos about current NFL coaches and their philosophies. For any coach, this is a great way to learn a little bit from professionals who really understand the philosophy. If your team has been down in recent years, take a look at someone who coaches a team that has not been winning in recent years to get some insight into the way they are trying to change the culture. Find a coach whose professional situation relates to your youth teams situation. I...
There is a wonderful site that just launched with the youth sports community in mind. The site is http://YouthSportTravel.com , a collaboration of youth sports coaches and a major online travel brand. They offer arguably the best prices on hotel and motel rooms anywhere. For proof, I tested a number of locations with www.hotel.com, Expedia and Travelocity in comparison with YouthSportTravel and in each case; YouthSportTravel was equal to or cheaper than the competition. But this is not all they...
I'm seeing a flood of posts on youth football forums and even getting a few e-mails from youth football coaches complaining about "player agents" also known as parents. Most of these unhappy coaches are dealing with parents that have non-issues, have an agenda, are misinformed, don't know much about the game of youth football or are just people that gain great pleasure from complaining. The 80/20 rule is more like 95/5 in youth football, 95 percent of the problems are caused by 5 percent of...
Noted high school baseball coach and parent of a college All American player, Brent McGuire discusses sound strategies for parents and players communicate with their coaches.
