I’ve been buried at work this week trying to work on a few different projects, so I haven’t had much time to write. Fortunately, I’ve come across a few great articles/videos that I think you’ll enjoy. Check them out at the link below:
Does your player have the passion necessary to become elite? from Josh Levine
This is another piece from Josh Levine discussing long-term athletic development concepts that I really enjoyed. In my mind, athletic success almost always stems from this key component, which seems to paradoxically be what most youth sports systems kill/challenge first. If I were a youth sport parent, coach or administrator (in any sport), I would print this article out and read it everyday before I went to work. It’s easy to get caught up in performance and lose sight of the most important part of sports participation, especially at younger ages. Remember, EARLY development and ELITE development are not the same thing.
Vitamin D Deficiencies in Soccer Athletes (Premier League) from Matt Siniscalchi
Matt, who is celebrating a birthday today (Wish him happy birthday here: Matt Siniscalchi), recently wrote a succinct, but very clear summary of Vitamin D deficiencies in elite athletes and why Vitamin D is so powerful. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I tend to think of supplements as falling within one of two buckets: Performance or Health. The reality is that you can’t REALLY separate health from performance, but the distinction helps illustrate why everyone may want to look into certain “health” supplements (e.g. Vitamin D), whereas a “performance” supplement like Beta Alanine may be reserved for competitive athletes in specific sports. More great stuff from Matt.
How to make stress your friend from Kelly McGonigal
This is a TED Talk video that I came across last week and really enjoyed. In the video, Dr. McGonigal discusses how our interpretation of stress influences how we react to it. This, as a stand alone statement, is fairly intuitive, but the repercussions of this simple idea are significant. At the end of the video, she says “Chasing meaning is better for your health than trying to avoid discomfort.” This statement can be interpreted in a variety of ways, but within the athletic realms it seems to highlight how hard work (in the sport or in training settings) could be interpreted differently physiologically depending on whether or not the athlete is passionate about the sport, which again highlights why you should read the first article every day! Check out the video below:
Kevin Neeld
OptimizingMovement.com
UltimateHockeyTraining.com
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