Are you putting handcuffs on your athlete's performance?

Discipline is often associated with a negative physical outcome or doing something that no one wants to. Ask just about any young athlete what discipline means to them and you will immediately get a response that is something to the effect of 'not fun'!

Creating a culture of fear can put handcuffs on an athlete's ability to play their best. Instead, empower your athletes by teaching them an alternative perspective of how discipline can impact their lives.

Old Definition- doing what we have to do versus doing what we want to do

New Definition- doing what we need to do so we can do what we want to do

Viewing discipline in this way can actually create a new found freedom for your athletes. Below are a few helpful tips for coaches when it comes creating the best environment for your athletes so they can perform their best:

• Establish discipline, not dominance- few athletes respond to an dictatorship style of coaching
• Daily discipline does not require a good attitude. You can still get up at 5am to workout and not be happy about it! Although if after a short period of time attitude does not change, consider changing the training time.
• When introducing this new definition of discipline apply the principle that 'sometimes athletes must act their way into a feeling'. Once a few repetitions of something have started then an excitment feeling will follow.

Build a Superhighway of Athletic Movement

One of the hottest topics in sports science over the last few years is the importance of training the body’s nervous system. No longer do we train individual muscles (like a body builder), but instead we train movements to maximize the relationship between the brain and the neuromuscular system.

Thanks to the research findings of Dr. Jay Geid, National Institute of Mental Health, we now know the optimal age range of building a super highway of athletic movement. Summary of Dr. Geid’s Research*:

• Between the ages of 6-12 the neurons in the brain grow and create numerous new pathways and connections for nerve signals.
• In late childhood, a second wave of neural pruning occurs around the ages of 11-12
• This neural waxing affects the number of neural connections and synapses and not the actual number of neurons
• It is during the adoloscent period that these connections become fewer but faster. In other words, it is during this stage of development that mastery of movement skills should occur
• The cerebellum is most responsive to experience.
  

Practical Application

It was not too long ago that sports performance coaches thought that fundamental movement skills and speed training needed to be taught at the high school level. We know now that this is not early enough in order to maximize athletic skills.

The optimum age to begin training is between the ages of 6-12. This is the ideal time to introduce fundamental movement skills as the brain and neuromuscular system is most sensitive to learning.
Athletes are highly visual and kinesthetic learners. Improve the effectiveness of your coaching by creating positive 'experiences' for your athletes.

*Adapted from 'What Makes Teens Tick?', TIME Magazine- Claudia Wallis