🥇 The Athlete Development Journal

Simple solutions for complex athletic problems.

For the full story, listen to this episode on your way to practice. ⬇️

You can also listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

If you just want the quick-hitters, you can read the summaries below. ⬇️

What’s going on at GT?

Frankie Colosimo hit her first chin-up! She also double PRd in her pro-agility that day.
Sophia Dorazio smoked her Pro-Agility PR, going from 5.83 sec to 5.21 sec.
Max Siemon has been killing it recently: Pro-Agility PR, 1-Foot Approach Vert PR, 2-Foot Approach Vert PR, and a Standing Vert PR.

Training deep dive: Speed standards for ages 3 through 18

Over the coming months, I’m going to be publicly building V1 of our physical literacy curriculum for the ages of 3 through 18, starting today with speed.

What’s going on through my sports parenting lens?

We started Evie in gymnastics. She absolutely loved it.
Grace had the most unorganized soccer practice ever last week. Regular coach was out. Substitute coach really catered to the trouble makers. Squeaky wheel really does get the grease sometimes, tough to watch.
Took Grace roller skating, loved the balance and coordination challenge it provided. But, she had visions of floating around elegantly and that was not the case, so she was grumpy. Happiness = Reality – Expectations.
Five beautiful things that you’re neglecting in your community right now
1. Local coffee shops
2. High schools and colleges that have public fields and tracks. My meditative place
3. Public libraries.
4. Small town diners.
5. Public parks. They even have splash pads at these things now.

Mental deep dive: “Do you want to be right or do you want to be effective?”

If you’re not getting the playing time you think you deserve, you have two options in your actions: be right or be effective.

If you want to be right, you can complain about how unfair or dumb your coach is. You can have a conversation where you tell him all the reasons you’re right and he’s wrong. And you’ll keep your butt on the bench.

Or, you can use some basic principles to be effective. I recommend initiating a conversation that goes something like this:

“I understand exactly where I’m at on the depth chart right now, and I’m definitely not asking for more playing time. I don’t want you to misinterpret this conversation right now, I’m not asking for more playing time. But all I want to know is what do you need to see from me in order for me to take that next step and get that more opportunity?

What exactly am I missing right now that you need to see from me that will allow me to get the opportunity to compete and perform on game day?”

Now you might not agree with what the coach says. It might be objectively wrong, but that’s not the important part here. The only thing that matters is that you make sure before and after every practice he sees you for thirty minutes working on that thing explicitly.

That’s your best shot at being effective.

Let’s wrap it up with a couple of important things…

This newsletter and podcast are completely free. I spend many hours each week researching, writing, illustrating, recording, editing, and uploading. The best way you can support it and allow it to continue is to share it with people you know. You can just send them to gtperformance.co/newsletter and they can subscribe there!
Everything in these newsletters, podcasts, social media, and on our website is for educational purposes only and should not be taken as medical advice for you or your athlete. Consult directly with a healthcare professional.

Thanks so much for your help in spreading the word about athlete development!

Go be great out there,

Zach

Dr. Zach Guiser, PT, DPT, CSCS