The latest in a string of problems that I and most other coaches, is the partially educated parent.
As a parent myself I fully understand the need to be part of the solution with any problem that my child has, and on occasion (more often then not) find myself cruising the Internet trying to find a solution to a problem, be it a illness symptom, or what ever.
The problem with this type of learning is you search for bullet points in steady of the theory behind the teaching. Because of that you can only implement the shallow perimeters that are given in the article or book.
Conditioning solutions are a lot like that, in that there are many parts to the solution, and usually the parent is only aware of a few of them.
When a parent looks to me to improve just their child's first step speed, or something similar, I can almost guarantee that there are many more glaring problems with the overall athlete, and one of the symptoms of those collective problems is a lack of first step speed.
I am in firm agreement with people like Vern Gambetta, who has steadfast contended that we no longer teach or coach, the athlete, we teach too specific too fast looking for the quick fix.
Athletes taking $300 worth of supplements a month, but eat fast food all day are prime examples of trying to put a band-aid on a glaring chest wound.
Teach the child to run, jump, throw, catch and balance, and they will improve as an athlete regardless of their sport.
