I'm a huge fan of "building the base." Meaning, a female athlete must nail down balance and proprioception first before being able to undergo load with various weighted exercises like Pistol Squats, Split Squats, Single Leg RDLs and Rear Foot Elevated Split Squats. It bodes well to...
ACL injury prevention is more than doing balance exercises with your female athletes. Meticulous attention to detail in terms of joint angles of the ankle, knee and hip are critical to ensure they can change direction rapidly and safely. The majority of non-contact ACL injuries in...
Before I dive into today's post, I want to define change of direction and agility. The two are vastly different, as the first is a skill that involves learning proper stance, joint angles in deceleration and re-acceleration, as well as shoulder position. The other, applies these...
Everyone wants to be fast. While sports are enriched with dazzling skills, powerful shots, and sharp passes, they're also filled with dynamic movements off the ball. And speed is one of them. Just as much as sport specific skills, there needs plenty of repetitions in order to...
Early in my career, I was all about coaching performance on the pitch. Getting more skilled. Getting stronger. Getting faster. Getting more conditioned. While these are all still staples of my speed and conditioning programs in Baltimore, Maryland as well as remotely with my athletes, teaching life lessons is just...
What if told you it's more than balance exercises? What if I told you it's more than wide hips? What if I told you I wrote a 2,000 word article published on Stack.com on the other pieces of ACL injury reduction - the pieces that aren't discussed...
One thing my mom taught me was to follow my heart. While she supported me throughout my entire career, she never coerced me to do anything. Every decision I made in my youth soccer journey was my own, and I'm glad she gave me the freedom to...
One thing I pride myself in is content creation. With over 700 blogs, 800 YouTube videos and 20,000 Tweets on youth female athlete performance training, there's not shortage of workouts and routines for girls to do. But how do you piece this all together? How do...
Talk about big changes during the growth spurt and beyond. Disrupted coordination. Longer torso. Wider hips. Hormonal changes. And so much more. Since this is such a dynamic time physiologically, coaches need to tweak training for young girls so they are safe and develop quality movement. I wrote an article for Stack.com...
This much I know: plyometrics can make or break a female athlete. You will either wear them down, or build them up. You see, plyometrics can be central nervous system heavy, and they take a lot of exertion. The tendons, muscles and bones take immense amounts of...