Less is More

Less Is More

Brett Klika

Getting athletes and athlete wanna-bees stronger and more resilient to injury is a simplicity proposition.  Pick a few proven effective drills, then get really good at teaching and doing them.  Too many coaches make the mistake of employing hundreds of drills they don’t really know how to teach, so their athletes never actually learn the involved skill.

Variety is good, but not at the cost of proficiency.  Imagine learning to read with the same methodology employed by many coaches that work with youth today.  Today C-A-T spells cat.  Tomorrow try to read War and Peace.  Next day, Clifford the Big Red Dog, and to finish the week, a book in another language.

If you don’t learn to read in this situation, coaches would say you must not have enough “mental toughness”.  At least pretend like you’re reading. Meanwhile, you still can’t spell cat.

You can create an amazing level of athleticism by getting really good at teaching a handful of relevant drills. It’s surprising how basic some of the world’s most successful coaches’ programs are.

Here are a few basic drills I use with athletes from youth to professional to teach and practice proper athletic movement.

1.  Box hip drives are great for teaching and developing strength for proper hip drive during sprinting.

2.  Drop lunges teach deceleration. Quick note- athletes need to be able to lunge well before doing the drop lunge.

3.  The S-Drill culminates acceleration, deceleration, and direction change into a realistic athletic movement pattern.

I use all the above with kids, adults, weekend warriors and professional athletes. If you’re a coach that thinks you’re going to find the “secret” of developing performance in some machine or gimmick, you are sadly mistaken.  Get good at the basics and progress from there!

For more information and video on exercises, programs, and any other information on losing fat and creating the body you have always wanted, check out The Underground Workout Manual – Exercise and Fat Loss in the Real World at www.undergroundworkoutmanual.com.