Part 2 of 2: The Importance of Upper and Lower Dissociation

Enjoy....

Here's the Medball series from Jeremy Frisch. Check out his blog here.



The Other Side:
Some recommended books is on par for this week. Many people think genetics often determines how far you can go in your life. Here are four books that might make you think otherwise. These books pretty much explain and prove why the word talent is a myth.

"Talent if Overrated" by Geoff Colvin



"The Talent Code" by Daniel Coyle


"Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell


"Bounce" by Matthew Syed

If you have an open mind and aren't in denial (sorry parents) check these books out they may change the way you think!

Part 1 of 2: The Importance of Upper and Lower Dissociation

Dissociation is a topic that often gets overlooked with performance training. Dissociation is different joints or body segments moving separate of each other in a sequential fashion. It is best developed through fundamental movement skills and fundamental sport skills during one's youth. However injuries, early specialization, over zealous coaching, etc. can all lead to improper development of dissociation. Here is part 1 that is focused on dissociation of the hips and lower body.

Questions or comments leave below or email me @ caseywheel@gmail.com

The Other Side:
I am so excited to share this next video. The song below, California Sunrise by Dirty Gold, is performed by 3 of my athletes at Pacific Ridge School. They invited the faculty of our school to come witness their first performance in San Diego and I was absolutely in awe of how good their music was. They have finished the first EP, and below is a link where you can buy their single (it should be on iTunes shortly). They have signed to a small label and are looking to get much bigger. I love getting to know what the kids do outside of their sport. It allows for better communication, trust, and its just fun to see how talented these kids really are.


Picture at their first show!



Link for their single: http://dirtygold.bandcamp.com/

Picking Brian McCormick's Brain

This weekend I had the opportunity to meet and talk with Brian McCormick, who is coach, writer, researcher, etc in the field of basketball/athletic performance. It was a lot of fun to pick his brain about how to improve athletes especially basketball players. Brian has great prospective on how to develop players the right way from a young age through college and professional ranks using a long-term athletic development program.

Here are some highlights from our conversation that I wanted to share:

“Fast movements are hard to teach slowly”
Examples- Defensive shuffle, sprinting, olympic lifts. You can break these down as much as you want but in the end you really can’t demonstrate fast movements slowly. There can be good drills to emphasize certain parts but in the end it must come together as one fluent motion. That is why speed is a skill that takes a lot of time. Coaches who try to over-coach these movements can often end up giving incorrect cues (i.e.:step slide) or make the athletes think too much. Give a short explanation, a good demonstration and then let them player figure it out. The body is an amazing machine that will get it right over time with proper coaching and demonstration.


“Kids will often move the right way, it’s bad coaching that gives them bad habits.”
Coaching the youth is not easy. You must know when to back off and let them figure it out by themselves, and you also must know when a short cue or instruction will help them learn faster. A problem is that most youth coaches are parents who think they are the next Bobby Knight, who end up giving 15 commands for something as simple as a layup. The old cliché… I hear-I forget, I see- I remember, I do- I understand. Short instruction, a good example, and let them figure it out!

(Psycho.....)

“Coaches are stubborn!”
There are a lot of coaches out there who still refuse to learn or improve their program. We talked about this with regards to the step slide vs the shuffle. You are a dinosaur if you still teach step slide. It makes NO sense. Even if you teach step slide your players will still naturally shuffle in games because it’s FASTER! Brian told me about numerous emails and convo’s of coaches taking it personally because “our program has been winning for years and we teach step slide.” Instead of “wow I can still improve my program even after all our success.” It’s not personal, just bizzzznesssss.

Check out Brian’s products and info at these site’s.
http://thecrossovermovement.wordpress.com/ - Articles and Blogs
http://www.trainforhoops.com/- More articles
http://www.180shooter.com/ebook.php - His products (all reasonably priced with GREAT info!)
To subscribe to his newsletter email hard2guard@yahoo.com with the title of Subscription.


The Other Side:
I'm also going to start another section of my blog called "The Other Side," to share something outside of athletic performance. It could be a music group, movie review, book review, story, article, etc. I always preach to kids to be well rounded and try new things other than their sports. So I will share things outside of my career that interest me as well.

The first thing I wanted to share is a video that gives you goosebumps, and some of you may even shed a couple tears. This guy makes me want to be a father sooner than later. A young man and his daughter sing a duet to "Home" by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetics. Incredible.

Inception: Applying it to Athletics

You’re probably wondering why the Leo blockbuster has anything to do with youth training or exercise in general. Mostly it just drove people nuts trying to understand the plot and whose dream they were in. I saw this movie in theaters over the summer and then had to watch it again when it came out on DVD to see if I could pick up on anything else I may have missed. What I realized the second time is that I could apply many of this to training and developing youth athletics. Maybe it’s because I apply everything to training youth athletics.

Before I breakdown some of my favorite quotes from the movie, I want to discuss the idea of “pruning” or use it or lose it theory. Around adolescent the process of pruning occurs where the mind will break off connections it doesn’t use and reinforce the connections used regularly (1).

I am bringing up pruning because as the support system, (coaches, parents, mentors and/or role models) to young athletes, especially before puberty, we are HIGHLY influential as to how kids develop. They copy our words, actions, behaviors, etc. This can be both positive and negative, that will often set their habits and behaviors for life.

Back to Inception though….

“What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient...highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it's almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed - fully understood - that sticks; right in there somewhere.”
Holy smokes Leo, You’ve come along way since the Titanic. As coaches if we put the right ideas in kids head with regards to work ethic, reacting to positive and negative situations, sportsmanship, and overall attitude, which will stick with them forever!! They will understand and appreciate it more over time, but if we set the example and help teach it to young athletes, we set them up for success in anything they do.


“The seed that we planted in this man's mind may change everything.”
Every great sports story, especially the rags to riches, has an important figure in a child’s life that helped plant a seed that would change them forever. There’s often a star athlete’s saying if a certain person didn’t set them straight and show them right way, who knows where they would’ve ended up.

“You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.”
Like my man Will Smith said, "Being realistic is the most common path to mediocrity." Now I think in the short term being realistic is essential for achieving goals, but why not dream HUUUUGE for the long term? Many kids give up on their dreams way to earlier because their support system doubts and even discourages their dreams. Let the youth do what you couldn’t and even better, help them get there!


“I think positive emotion trumps negative emotion every time.”
Will there be negative emotions and people in every child’s life? Of course, and there probably will be more than positive people, but if the kid gets positive reinforcement and behavior around them from their coaches, parents, mentors I believe that will overcome negative emotions and people 100% of the time.


1. ( Wallis C., et al. (2004) What makes teens tick? TIME 163(19): 56-65.)

Favorite Books of 2010

I hope everyone is having fun over the holidays. I was at home in Stowe, Vermont enjoying the snow and winter wonderland and getting in some good snowboarding.

(Ahhh home sweet home..... but freakin cold)


I am very excited for 2011 and have started to list out some goals that I will finish in the next couple of days, and I hope you do the same. Remember to make them specific and to track them throughout the year to see if you are actually progressing. Most new years resolutions are forgotten after 6 weeks but it's up to you to make it go longer.

Last year I made a goal of reading/listening to 50 books in 2010. If you knew me when I was in high school or college you will know this is a huge accomplishment for me as I was the kid who found a way not to read the whole book. By my third year in college I would only buy 1 book a semester, I was good at saving money.

(My college thought process ^)

Now I have realized the important of self improvement and constant learning by reading. Below is a list of my favorite books in 2010 that I read.

1. Goals! by Brian Tracy- I read it, gave it to a friend to read, and then found the audio version in the library and listened to it! It brings up questions that you must ask yourself and gives you a great plan to get thing in action.

2. The Alchemist- Such a great story. It's a contemporary classic that is short and a great read. Helped put in my mind that you can do whatever you desire.

3. Talent is Overrated/Outliers- Geoff Colvin and Malcolm Gladwell each wrote a book that shows how people develop skill and why the best are the best. Over the past year I've realized it's less about genetics and more about how you developed as a child and how hard you work over time.

4. Who moved my cheese? by Dr. Spencer Johnson- A great short story that helps you deal with change. Do you respond or react?

5. The E-myth- If you have, want to, or are starting a business this is the first book you should read.

6.Never Let Go by Dan John- Shares his principles that every trainer/coach should follow.

I am going to continue this goal this year to 50 books again. If you drive more than 20 minutes a day you should listen to audiobooks (go to your library to rent for free, and bring a book with you at all times because all of those 5-10 minutes during the day that you are waiting for something can equal a book read every month!

Core Exercise Progression- Rollouts

Trainers and strength coaches always get asked what should they do for their abs or core. One of my favorites is a rollout. A rollout works the anterior core, AKA the abs you see (or want to see) in the mirror. It also targets them without flexing at your spine, which can lead to low back pain and dysfunction.

I want to give you a proper progression to work from. If you haven't done these before, PLEASE don't jump to the hardest variation. Just because you can rep out 60 sit ups in a minute doesn't mean you will be good at these. This challenges your body to resist extension and maintain body control which is a completely different movement than traditional core work.

Progression #1- Rollouts with a physioball


This step is critical! Most people jump to the ab wheel and just aren't strong enough yet. Try a big physioball then work your way down to the smaller one. Sets of 8-12 should be fine.

Progression #2- Ab dolly roll outs


Try your elbows first because the level arm is much shorter making an easier transition to the ab wheel.

Progression #3- The Ab wheel (got a bad rep because people didn't do progressions 1 and 2)


Make sure you are not letting your low back or hips sag! Keep your stomach and glutes tight. Try and get up to sets of 12 touching your nose to the ground

FOR THE ADVANCED ONLY......

Progression #4- Unilateral Rollouts with ab wheel or valslides(furniture movers)
The first video is a guy I trade ideas with in Boston, Ben Bruno, doing them with Valslides on turf with 80lbs weight vest (he's freakin' strong!) You also get a one arm push up and some anti-rotation work.


Here is another great version from a couple guys with a hand wheel.

(just don't do this in a spandex suit please)

Last one is one I was messing with with medicine balls. Its very challenging and demands a lot of your core and arms.


Remember start with the beginning and don't jump progressions until you have earned the right to. If not it can lead to injury but give them a try and let me know how it goes!!!!

The Youth Battle of FMS.... Fundamental Movement Skills Vs Fine Motor Skills

In today’s VERY competitive world of sports, kids are being pressured at a very young age to be highly skilled. Coaches are pressured to develop athletes at a much faster rate, which can often be detrimental to long-term athletic development.

Either that was a personal record or someone soiled themselves

Istvan Balyi coined the term “Peak by Friday,” meaning that parents and coaches try to prepare young athletes for the upcoming game, rather than teaching them the fundamentals of movement and athletics to succeed long term.

For some reason, a lot of parents these days feel their kid is the next child prodigy ready for an “elite” program that will ensure their kid will play collegiate or professional sports. I do have that program it’s called “Denial for Parents.”

Lets say I am a volleyball coach. You bring me your 7 year old and want to me to teach her to perform a jump serve (probably in under an hour). I then have the young grasshopper perform a regular warm up and see that they have problems skipping, hopping, and throwing, which we would agree are fundamental movements. Now the parents wants me to teach a fine motor skill that involves coordination of multiple limbs, timing power, etc. Meanwhile little Timmy can’t coordinate his legs and arms together to skip correctly.

Kids need to learn these fundamental movement skills like skipping, hopping, throwing, striking, sprinting before we introduce a skill that requires a lot of coordination and focus.

Remember it's harder to do this as we get older

How can you do that? I know what you’re thinking; an intense program ran by a ex world champion. Actually playing on the playground, gymnastics, martial arts, movement games (red light green light), ball games, etc are fine. I know this seems like a far-fetched idea to let kids just play instead of intense training at a young age. But ask yourself if you pressured a kid to solve an algebra equation and they weren’t very good at basic arithmetic, do you think they would enjoy math and want to get better?

Step back and look at the big picture with youth athletics. Make athletics fun for kids by giving them the ability to perform basic coordinated movements, and I promise you they will be better at the fine motor skills in the long run.