SECRET 6 -CHOOSING THE CORRECT SPEED COACH IS VITAL

TAKE THE TIME TO GET THE RIGHT SPEED COACH ADVICE

It is VITAL in developing a young athlete’s speed that parents ensure they get the correct advice from a qualified speed coach who has experience working with young players. Parents should take the time to research the coach, what qualifications they have and what ages they have already coached. Many well meaning specific sport coaches think they can coach speed and fitness as part of their specific sport and yet they have little or no training in this area –the results can be disastrous in terms of potential injuries but the insidious damage due to the athlete learning incorrect technique which will take TEN times to relearn.

Equally well meaning family friends etc who did a bit of sprinting in their day are to be avoided as they will use the techniques that were current in their day, for them at an adult age not a young growing developing athlete.

I heard of a recent case where a parent who had been a sprinter in his day but had no qualifications was asked into coach a group leading to one of the group becoming injured and missing one of the most important games of the season. Don’t let this happen to you!

Common advice like “get your knees up” and “try harder “when you are sprinting can be detrimental to running form and trying to get players to relax when running. Yet you will hear coaches and parents shouting them to their athletes in an attempt to encourage them

TAKE YOUR TIME

Look for

1. A qualified coach (–suggest IYCA/ISSA /NASM accredited)

2. Who has experience of coaching young players?

3. Who is already coaching young players -don’t let him try out his techniques on your child first- the time to develop speed is too short to allow trail and error!

4. If the speed you are looking for is game speed as a pose to linear speed then be careful choosing track and field athletics coaches as they don’t have experience teaching multidirectional speed and deceleration which are asimportant as linear speed in many field sports.

5. Go to one of his sessions are the athletes having fun? What do the other parents feel about the coaching? Is it well organised?

LINK TO SPEED SECRET SEVEN