Great Trip Out West

What a busy time it has been. I just returned back from the NSCA Sport Specific seminar in California. I spoke for the baseball specific on baseball speed and in particular base stealing technique. It was a lot of fun sharing with so many wonderful people. There are always people that don't agree with my philosophy but that is ok. It makes for good discussion and I always welcome that.

I had to the chance to meet with some of the NSCA board officials and other professionals that have great insight into our profession of strength and conditioning. In the near future you will be hearing about some of the people I met with- I was so impressed and real lucky to have met them.

A different point of view

Not only did I enjoy presenting I really enjoyed attending the other presentations. In each presentation that I attended I would hear speed techniques that I totally agreed with, some I wasn't totally on the same page with, and others that I disagree with. But they all make me think and re-think my concepts, and approach.

The one topic that comes up often now is deceleration and in particular, lateral deceleration. The discussion always comes down to if the inside leg or outside leg is a decelerator. THEY BOTH ARE. What most coaches mis-understand from me is that I don't dispel that the inside leg aids in deceleration, in some cases more than other times, but the inside leg is not something that generally needs to be taught. It is usually a result of a stride pattern. So when turning to change direction the inside leg will plant to decelerate because it is the next stride. The outside leg on the other hand needs to be position to not only stop the body but also accelerate the body. If there is a mistake with the outside leg the change of direction will be hindered.

When most people show the inside leg as the decelerator it is usually with a drill that is pre-determined or rehearsed. So they will have them do a 5 yard run/shuttle and change direction. The athlete can set their steps up and lean into the turn. We all know this is not the case in most situations in live sport. When I watched one of the presenters speak on the deceleration techniques of the inside leg, most of the drills were similar to a shuttle- easy for an athlete to lean in and get into a patterns, but these presenters showed live random reaction drills they athletes almost always relied on the outside leg to quickly stop them and to restart them. The inside leg in most cases didn't touch down until the outside leg did its job.

In any case- it is all a matter of point of view. You can emphasis what ever leg you want but the athlete must be able to be corrected when they make a mistake in movement. Great discussion on this topic though.

Getting ready to travel

Well, I am getting ready to travel home tomorrow to Indiana for a long stay. I can't wait to spend some quality time with my girls, wife and soon to be little boy. I will be coaching my girls teams when I get back and I can't wait! I also look forward to working hard with my wife and my staff to keep building our new systems in all our businesses. It will be a challenge but it will be worth it in the end.

My staff at the LTSA is ready to take on the challenge of handling business while I am gone. Both Kyle and Jon are great workers and love working with the athletes (and the athletes love working with them).

At the Speed academy we have started some new classes and will be looking forward to getting the athletes involved. I will look forward to coming back to the speed academy and doing some speed camps for the athletes. should be a blast!

A little concerned

There are so many new "Athletic Development" facilities opening up it is hard to tell which ones are for real or just trying to jump on the band wagon of the youth explosion.

Recently in this area a new facility is offering youth development. I am all for helping the kids but I take youth development seriously and I have a feeling it is a case of another person trying to jump into the youth market. Working with kids is a special thing. It takes an understanding of their needs and how to progress kids along. Many trainers will do what they have read or what they personally do. I want better for the kids and hope that cautions is used when parents search out a program for the kids. I spent 20 years working with kids in this field- even before it was popular to have youth development centers. I had many changes to work with the professional athlete and could have made a big living off them- my heart has been with kids and I take that seriously. Please make good decisions when searching out a program for you kids.

I am actually speaking tonight to a group of parents on just this topic. They want to know more about what to look for in a program. obviously I want them to know about the Lee Taft Speed Academy, but many of these parents do live a long ways from us and it would be easier if they had a program near them. I will offer what I think to be key things to look for when searching for a qualified trainer. I hope many of them will be able to travel to us, but I will help them make the best decision for them.

Time to get heading

Well, I need to be going to talk to some parents and get ready to travel to IN. See you soon!

Yours In Speed

Lee