I am very particular when choosing my alliances with others in the performance industry. I am going to watch and evaluate how others in the organization interact, how members interact, and more importantly the feedback I hear when at an event, in the hallways. As I became to know more about the IYCA and some of individuals who are associated with it, I became very intrigued.
The first time I really heard of the IYCA was in a facebook discussion with Pat Rigsby. Pat had just taken the IYCA Youth Fitness Specialist certification and like I usually am in cases like this [a skeptic] I asked him why. He gave me a very qualified answer and I left it at that.
My next experience was at Carlo Alvarez's annual St Xavier Strength and Conditioning clinic in Cincinnati, Ohio. I met Pat for the first time face to face and I would later meet the founder of the IYCA, Brian Grasso, as he and I were speaking later in the day.
I was certainly intrigued and impressed with Brian's presentation on youth training as he was with my presentation on teaching the power clean with the demonstrations being performed by my oldest son. We spoke briefly afterwards and went on our way.
The following February when I was still a resident of Louisville, the IYCA held its annual symposium downtown and I was invited as a guest. I was very impressed with the turn out and the enthusiasm of the clinicians. My relationship grew with Brian and we began doing mini phone interviews during the summer for his site.
As many of you may know, the Block Zero program we implement with our newcomers is our foundation program. As I have found out, it has a lot of similarities with the IYCA's youth developmental planning for fitness. I wanted to learn more about their long term planning so I reached out to Brian for information on his Level One certification. I recently passed the exam and I wanted to share some of the highlights and comments I have.
Before I go any further, I highly recommend you acquire the Level One material, even if you choose not to take the exam, the information shared by Dr. Kwame Brown and Brian is very valuable to say the least. I learned a lot and was reinforced a number of times as far as my Block Zero direction.
The number one thing I really like is how they utilize a 4 Part System of coaching based on temperament [motivation and skill].
When Coaching various types of athletes they have it brocken down into these distinct categories:
1 Delegate - High Motivation/High Skill [HH/HS]
2 Inspire - Low Motivation/High Skill [LM/HS]
3 Guide - High Motivation/Low Skill [HM/LS]
4 Direct - Low Motivation/Low Skill [LM/LS]
I really like this approach and it has already helped me in my coaching athletes younger than I am used to working with.
I would love to discuss with Brian a class of individuals you see in athletics that he did not bring up, Moderate Motivation/High Skill [MM/HS] and High Motivation/Moderate Skill [HM/MS]. This is a little selfish because I believe this describes both my sons. I would love for Brian to give me the BUZZ words to use when working with them. To me, my youngest son, HM/MS, is what I would deem anyone in this category, the classic over achiever, like his dad was in sports. These are the kids that give everything they have all day, yet are still behind the gifted athletes going half speed. The MM/HS athlete may be an under achiever, but that is usually the LM/HS individual. My oldest is sometimes motivated sometimes not, I believe these athletes get bored. They will usually respond to challenges but, become stagnant with daily similarities in programming. He has improved though I will give him that.
The second thing I like is the MOLD theory.
M - Movement must dominate
O - Open to Communication Variances
L - Learning Style Variances
D - Don't Train... Teach
I love D - anyone can train someone else, not all can teach. I have been known to say, a coach who rely's on bells, whistles, gimmicks is usually not a teacher. This falls into another great IYCA mantra "COOL versus CONCEPT"
The third and maybe the most important is the stages of learning and how it relates to age groups.
6-9 years = "Guided Discovery"
10-13 years = "Learning Exploration"
14+ years = "Train with Application"
As I realize that the IYCA is geared toward these age levels, I want to make a note to Brian and all IYCA members as well as other individuals who work in the athlete development field. These same stages are needed with individuals at higher chronological ages because they may have not been exposed to these teaching strategies at an earlier age.
There is some distinct similarities to how we develop our teaching progressions in BLOCK Zero as the IYCA does with youth. I truly believe that the lack of free play, deemphasis of physical education at the elementary levels, and the overuse of sport specific skill training at earlier ages has lead to more athletes having very little general physical fitness capabilities. I was very refreshed and reassured that BLOCK Zero has a tremendous amount of merit with High School and College aged athletes. I thank the IYCA for giving me more ammunition going forward with BLOCK Zero development.
That's my take and I am very serious about recommending this program to all individuals working with non athletes and athletes to improve their health and physical fitness.
WORDS WIN
Coach Kenn at BIG HOUSE POWER
Very good stuff Coach!
ReplyDeleteScott Wilkinson