When you push a swimmer who is tight in their upper body to perform an Elbow Behind Ears streamline you will see excessive lumbar flexion. Streamlines are very important to swimming, as every swimmer needs to be proficient at it. This is because streamlines are universal and are required in all races — no matter the distances the […]

Competition is a great way to increase the energy of a practice. It is a great tool to inject some passion and get players to increase their effort level, but it must be used wisely. Football practice is tough. The focus on necessary skills and the endless repetitions of these drills can cause players to […]

They inspire love of swimming through their actions and interactions. They look for teachable moments. These are just coaches you want to know whether they are in summer league or the NCAA. Thousands of articles have been written about the qualities of the best swim coaches and the shortcomings of the worst. If you’ve been […]

Kids are a good judge of where they stand amongst their peers in terms of ability and hard work. When they improve and get faster, chances are they will want to keep coming back. What are the motivating factors that keep our children interested in swimming? Why do they want to stick with a sport […]

I’d heard an NFL running back talk about run the ladder; getting down the sidelines for a touchdown, so I came up with this drill to teach my backs to break to the sidelines and score. Today’s youth football drill is running the Ladder Drill for Running Backs. If you are like me, I’ve got a […]

While that may be easy to say it can be tougher to execute. You want to hit the ball with the bat, and the bat is held in the hands, so for many hitters (especially young ones) it makes more sense to lead with the bat. OK, before anyone gets their undies in a grundy, […]

Defense is hugely influenced by your ability to respond to the offensive player. Your goal is to keep your offensive player in front of you, as far away from the goal as possible. How is your defensive game? Do attackers with quick feet blow by you? Are you losing time on the field because you […]

Back in January, I emailed and called a bunch of the coaches I knew in men’s soccer to see if one of them would give me a shot. Not only did all of them turn me down, but most of them also told me that there was no way I was ever going to play […]

The key to shorter meetings with better results is taking the time to think through the purpose, activities and people related to the meeting before the meeting so that it is set up for success. Coaches know that one of the keys to a good game is in the preparation of players and their ability […]

It’s important that your linebacker coaches really focus on stance, pursuit angle, shock and shed and a solid form tackle. Here are the linebacker progression drills we did at our international youth football camp in Vienna, Austria. These drills focus entirely on the fundamentals of linebacker play. All of these drills are easy to install, […]