How To Build A Summer Training Program for Fit Teens and Athletic Kids
Last month, my daughter was asked:
Do you have a Dad?
In Boulder, that's a loaded question.
She smiled and said, "Yes, I have a Dad."
The question has come up before.
I stay invisible around my kids' sports.
I do this with intention.
I want them...
to be INTERNALLY motivated
to keep our RELATIONSHIP separate from their athletic success, or otherwise
to INTERACT with them - I'm a player, not a spectator
Living in a town that places excessive glory on sport, my actions:
Support Internal Motivation
Lower Athletic Stakes
Focus on Shared Experiences
My daughter put me in a bind when she asked me to coach her.
Remember my advice to place the RELATIONSHIP ahead of performance
In January, we started a simple program - 20 minutes, done every Sunday, I'm not in the room
For the summer, I asked myself...
What do we want to achieve?
For next season => get off the wall FAST
Over the next 1,000 days => set up capacity to go heavy at 16 yo
I came up with three 20-minute sessions per week:
Continue the dryland program
Street sprints
Gym skill development & personal limiter mobility work
Let's look at each
DRYLAND => keep what's working, an all-around program she enjoys => good enough
SPRINTS => to get her off the wall FAST => choose an activity with close to max lower body recruitment
Uphill, street sprints - with casual walk downs
This tweet from Gerry explains more - it was a reminder of techniques we used in New Zealand.
Review & consider Gerry's graphics - Hierarchy of Sports Performance and Motor Unit Recruitment
To set up the street sprints, she's doing intramural track right now.
SKILLS => with ~8 swims a week, street sprints and dryland... plenty of load.
A 1:1 session gives me a chance to assess her fatigue while teaching:
Squat Variations
Cleans (I have a 20# "kid" bar)
Sandbag Variations (I have a 15# "kid" bag)
Hip flexor openings
Eccentric rehab techniques
Let's pull together the key points:
KEEP what works
maintain the sport-specific schedule from last summer
her load is increasing naturally by getting faster
she's enjoying the 20-minute dryland from YouTube
Train general SKILLS - often missed at the sport-specific level
PICK ONE thing that would make a difference
RAMP LOAD GRADUALLY
Be patient - three summers until she's 16.
As AC/DC remind us, it is a long way to the top (if you wanna to rock 'n' roll).
🤟