I am starting this blog to allow readers access to my day to day thought process regarding the coaching and training of athletes…. and sometimes other random musings…. but mostly sport training. I tend to be somewhat slow in producing articles these days, partly because I am turning more into a perfectionist with each coming year, and partly because during the school year I am pretty tied down with classes, workouts, being the college’s strength coach, and of course, a social life! I am hoping that this blog will let me share some of my thoughts on coaching, as well as updates on my website without taking up too much time and allow you as a reader to get an insight as to what goes on in my coaching brain on a more regular basis.
I would like to offer at least one small piece of advice that has seemed to really help some of the teams who I serve as performance director for, one of those teams being basketball. Basketball players are notoriously bad squatters. Some players that I have worked with this year could not even perform a bodyweight squat more than halfway down without having problems when we first started. I started implementing 3 exercises into their performance program this year that I feel have really worked wonders in their squat form, and a lot of them are really improving in their depth and technique! (For those of you who might not be familiar with squatting and performance, the ability to perform a squat to parallel or below is a cornerstone of a healthy and functional athlete. From my own personal experience, athletes who can hit deep positions on squatting movements tend to run faster, jump higher, and stay healthier than athletes who cannot). Anyways, here are some videos of the three corrective exercises I have implemented in their program. I will typically use these exercises in “superset” fashion with their regular worksets.
Corrective Exercise #1. Wall Squat
Corrective Exercise #2. PVC Squat
Corrective Exercise #3. Goblet Squat
If you have been struggling with you or your athletes ability to hit parallel or below depth in their squatting, give these corrective exercises a shot. They are also great exercises to feature for a few weeks before actually getting into squatting with the barbell, especially with athletes who are not used to this great exercise. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for my weekly thoughts on training athletes and improving performance.
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