Maximizing Your Youth Athlete: Slow It Down
Slow It Down For Youth Athletes
With our youth athlete's training, we make it a priority to develop the different types of muscle action within a movement. As a refresher, there are three different actions a muscle can perform! Eccentric, Isometric, and Concentric. Eccentric is the lowering or lengthening portion of a movement, Isometric is when you match the exact effort to the load and [hold] a position of tension, and Concentric is raising or shortening of the muscle or the "lifting" action.
Oftentimes we find that athletes and coaches spend too much time focusing solely on the concentric portion of training which leaves gaps in the potential of the athlete and disregards the strength needed to best avoid injury. Again and again, we find that implementing Isometric and Eccentric work with novice athletes and lifters stimulates accelerated adaptation within multiple aspects of development.
First and foremost neuromuscular efficiency! Think the brain learning to coordinate with the body through ranges of motion under load. It's fairly easy for a trained eye to see which athletes are naturally ahead when it comes to their mind-muscle connection, but an easy way to test at home is to have your athlete lay on their back with their legs straight up from their hips and arms directly up from their shoulders. Ask them to lower their limbs slowly first on opposite sides and then the same sides. If there is a delay or they struggle with this movement odds are they struggle with running and jumping efficiently.
Secondly, the improvement of the amortization phase or ability to transfer from an eccentric to a concentric [think lowering action of a muscle and then the firing or extension] with a specific example being the lowering into a squat and then how efficiently and quickly the athlete can reverse the load and stand it back up! The quicker they can do this under larger loads will directly lead to the ability to run faster and jump higher!
Parents, coaches, and athletes can start using these principles to improve their performance in sport and life! If you would like one of our coaches to walk you or your athlete through different ways to test and implement reach out via the information below!
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Darren was born and raised in Pocatello and graduated from Highland High School in 2010. While attending Utah State he was the facilitator/founder of the USU Strength and Conditioning program that served over 150 students and athletes each semester. During this time he also competed nationally in Olympic Weightlifting and has since been named a National Coach for the United States Of America Weightlifting Association.
After receiving his degree in Exercise Science he spent a year in Salt Lake City learning from the S&C coaches at the University of Utah while growing his online coaching platform that currently houses athletes from all over the world.
Darren took his first opportunity to move back to Pocatello to open up a physical location for HansenAthletics with a focus on providing an individualized coaching experience that takes a performance-based approach to develop proper movement patterns, strength, and pain-free movement that has a direct carry over to life and sport. Through nearly a decade of coaching, he has worked with a wide array of clients and has experience with all ages and ability levels.
BS Exercise Science, CSCS, USAW National Coach, CrossFit L1, FreeMotion, Power Athlete Methodology, Power Athlete Block 1
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