More and more parents are paying anywhere from $100.00 dollars or more per hour to hire trainers to improve the athletic performance of their youngsters. They are paying considerable sums to help their children become great athletes. In some cases they spend more in a few years than what a typical college scholarship would cost.
But are they getting their monies worth? The experts being hired include personal trainers in the gyms and former athletes (usually professional) who go into the business of training athletes. But are these people experts, qualified to improve athletic performance?
Personal trainers for the most part do a good job in making the athletes stronger but they know little to nothing about sports skills. Former athletes may know a little more about sports skills and what it takes to be an athlete but once again, their knowledge of the fine points or even the basic elements of what it takes to be a good runner, thrower, jumper etc. is still lacking greatly.
Just having the athlete run more, or throw more, or jump more or play more (as is commonly done on sports teams) is a poor way –really the slowest way – to improve performance. It is necessary to understand that these and other basic sports skills are very complex.
Everyone may be born with the rudiments of such basic skills, but not to perform on high levels. For this a strong background in the science of skill analysis is needed by the coach. In fact skills or more specifically the technique involved in skill execution, must be worked on throughout the athlete’s career.
For some reason we continue to take it for granted that someone working in the gym knows everything there is to know about improving athletic but they are not trained or educated in the area of player performance. Making a teenager stronger will of course improve athletic performance.
But this is only a small part of what it takes to be a good athlete. Much attention must be focused on technique of skill execution and the development physical qualities that are specifically related to the technique. In essence, strength must be coupled with specific skill execution.
In addition, other qualities such as agility, explosive power, speed and flexibility must be taken into consideration. Each of these qualities must be worked on separately not only regard to the technique involved but also the physical training. Each requires the creation and use of specialized strength exercises that duplicate what the athlete must do in his execution.
Until there is a national effort on the part of universities to turn out physical education teachers who have a good command of the basic skills or until the national sports governing bodies truly take an interest in developing our youth to man future teams, parents will continue to spend money to improve their youngsters performance but usually, with little return on the dollar.
Those who do improve can be considered fortunate but most will not – at least not to the point where they can get scholarships or make the pros. The latter two are attainable goals for most athletes if they are trained in the most effective manner. The knowledge and know-how is available. It only needs implementation.
Parents, sportswriters, sports commentators and so-called sports experts continue to perpetuate the belief that all it takes to be an expert is to have played the sport. Thus former athletes are considered experts but it can easily be proven that they know little about the execution of sports skills.
If you look closely at their teachings, you’ll see that they most often demonstrate what tell the athlete what to do. But they are most often unable to explain how to make needed corrections corrections in technique or even in the strength exercises that should be done. This may be fine for 5-8 year old children, but not teenagers.
Only in sports do people take it for granted that you are an expert once you have played the sport. It’s analogous to having someone have an operation and then be able to perform the operation on someone else. But yet this is what we seem to perpetuate and accept. You may laugh at this analogy but it is exactly what takes place in sports. Is it any wonder that collegiate and professional teams travel the world over looking for talent?
Simply talk to a sportswriter or parent who has played a particular sport. He will be very definite in what you do in execution of a sports skill but in very general terms. You will not be able to give you the specifics of what each body part should do, the sequence in which you should do it, the forces produced by each body part, and so on.
For more information on this topic read Build a Better Athlete and Secrets of Russian Sports Fitness and Training.