Welcome to the www.PssAthletics.com FIRST official newsletter!!!

As I originally promised, I have included a killer article packed full of information

that you can start using immediately in your training. I have also included an

interview with Brian Grasso, a man who needs no introduction. There is

much much more, so please read on...

Featured Article

Understanding SAQ Drills

Tony Reynolds, MS, CSCS, YCS Level II

Speed, agility, and quickness (SAQ) training is something that tends to

become a topic of heated discussion. Many coaches feel that the effort put

forth while practicing the sport is sufficient to improve these motor skills.

Their theory is that you cannot get any more sport specific than performing

the sport itself. Therefore, by training that sport, you are developing the

set of athletic skills specifically related to that sport and not wasting time

on unnecessary activities.

By participating in your sport at game intensity, you will learn and develop

Jumping and landing mechanics, acceleration, deceleration, and cutting

mechanics, increase foot speed, and develop everything else that goes

into well rounded athleticism.

The other school of coaching tends to believe that component training, or

breaking complex skills down into trainable pieces, is the best way to go about

athletic enhancement. They think that working on each motor skill

independently of the sport and than introducing the corrected skill back

into the sport is much more efficient.

Without question, dynamic human movement is extremely complex. The

simple act of walking involves very in-depth motor programming that

functions on a subconscious reflexive level.

By subconscious reflexive I mean that you do not have to think to execute

complex motor skills. If you had to think about every muscles action

while you walked it would take you days to get from the couch to the

refrigerator and your movements would look very robotic.

This reflexive motor programming starts to develop as an infant. You learn

to do very basic skills, and as you mature, the programming becomes more

complicated as does the movement. As the programming becomes more

complicated, it becomes increasing more resilient to change.

The problem is that a child is typically never truly guided through the

earlier stages of development. As infants they learn to move by trail

and error. Walking, standing, sitting, reaching, rolling over, and all

the other things that are being learned and developed are all self taught.

In North America, as children age and enter preadolescents, they

are typically steered away from programs that focus on physical

development. These children now start to build more complex

programming on top of already faulty self instructed programming.

Event Notice

The International Youth Conditioning Association Official Release

On October 26, 2005 something occurred that is going to change this industry

forever. The International Youth Conditioning Association officially released

its Level I Youth Conditioning Specialist certification. We officially kicked off

the release with a tele-conference by Brian Grasso, who is the founder and

President of the IYCA. Brian discussed many great tips for training young

athletes and gave more information on the new certification. You can go to

www.pssathletics.com/IYCA/GrassoInterviewI.htm to listen to the interview.

If you are a parent or a coach of a young athlete, and you want to know the

truth about developmental conditioning, check out the IYCA’s level one text

book Developmental Essentials. It is the most comprehensive book every

written on the subject. Do not forget to check out our level one certification

while you are at it. When it comes to working with children, you can never

know too much!!! You can go to www.IYCA.org to learn more.

Featured Exercises

Courtesy of www.TrainerClipart.com

Optimizing the transfer of strength from the weight room to the playing

environment involves using exercises that develop “athletic” strength. Since

many of the forces encountered in the realm of athletics require us to produce

and apply horizontal (not vertical), rotational (not linear), and proprioceptively

demanding types of strength, loading these kinds of movements in the weight

room carry over very well to sport. You can implement the following exercise

as on upper body pressing exercise.

Lunge and Press

Adjust the pulley so it is located at shoulder height when you assume the lunge position. Grab the D-handle with your right hand and lunge out with your left foot while facing away from the pulley. When you step into the lunge your front foot should remain flat on the floor and pointed forward. Your front knee should be bent to 90 degrees and the shin should be perpendicular to the floor. Your back knee should be directly under your hips and should hover approximately 1-2 inches off of the ground. Your back foot should be toe down. Your shoulders should reside directly over your hips. Do not let your hips push out to the side. Hold the D-handle tight to the side of your chest. Your elbow should stay in contact with the cable. Keep your right arm in front of your body and at shoulder height While keeping your hips and feet forward, rotate your shoulders toward the right. Once you have fully rotated to the right, rotate back and press the D-handle forward until you reach full arm extension. At this point your shoulders be slightly rotated to the left. return to the start position.

Reverse Cable Chops

Attach a triceps extension rope to an adjustable pulley. Pull the rope through so the attachment is at one end. Adjust the pulley so it is located as low as possible. Face to the side so the pulley is to your left. Reach across your body with your right arm and grab the end furthest from the attachment with a palm down grip. Grab next to the attachment on the rope with the left hand using a palm down grip. You should have approximately a shoulder width distance between hands. Walk laterally away from the pulley until the weights are no longer touching. Assume a slightly wider than athletic stance with your knees slightly bent and your hips pushed back. Your feet should be just behind the pulley. Start by rotating at the hips and waist toward the pulley keeping your feet facing forward. Keeping your arms slightly bent rotate up to the right at a 45 degree angle. The right foot should stay planted and the left foot should pivot toward the right foot. Perform most of the rotation through the core not by moving the arms at the shoulders. Slowly return to the starting position.

Medball Lunge Catch and Toss

Step forward into a lunge with your right foot. Keep your front foot flat on the floor and pointed forward. Your front knee should be bent to 90 degrees and the shin should be perpendicular to the floor. Your back knee should be under your hips and approximately 12 inches off of the ground. Your back foot should be toe down. Your shoulders should reside directly over your hips. Do not let your hips push out to the side. Have your partner stand approximately 10 feet away to your left side. They should toss the medball (1-3 kg) directly over your front knee at chest height. You should catch the ball with your right hand over your left and your pinky fingers touching. Rotate to your right keeping your spine tall and the ball at chest height. Decelerate into the end range of motion and explosively return the ball back to your partner. Repeat the prescribed number of reps on this side before repeating on the other.

Reverse Russians

Position your body face down on the apparatus placing hip bones slightly in front of the hip pad and ankles under their respective pads. Extend your arms out to your sides so as to form a "T" with your body. While you stay in a hyper extended/extended position, slowly rotate through mid-section in each direction stopping when your arms are as close to is perpendicular to the floor as you can get them. 1 rotation in each direction counts as 1 repetition. Continue for the rest of the repetitions.