This is just a quick note from me that may not make sense to you until many years down the road. The word “Coach” is synonymous with responsibility. It is a privilege to Coach: to help shape lives, breed character, and expose an “inner potential” that may otherwise lie dormant in the shadows of self-doubt. Beyond the grind, sweat, iron, chalk, and calluses, I hope you found time to embrace the journey. For it is the quality of the effort that true success is found. I hope that you enjoyed the experience and not only became stronger, but learned to seek improvement each and every day of your life: to live with a “One Day Better” mentality. To embrace the grind!
DSC Blog
Youth Strength & Conditioning
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It’s amazing how much math I’ve forgotten over the years. Basic algebra, pre-calculus, calculus, geometry and advanced statistics has left my mind faster than when it entered. It seems the quantitative information that I don’t weave into practical application on a daily basis gets weeded out and forgotten. The beautiful part of being a Strength and Conditioning Coach is that our math is easy! Easy and practical: two qualities that lie at the foundation of our practice. Below is the basic arithmetic (addition, subtraction, and multiplication) of strength and conditioning.
...I officially played my last game of competitive hockey in March of 2003. I miss the game everyday, but I won’t go out and play recreational hockey to fill the void. It’s not that fact that I work early mornings and late nights and have a business to operate, or the fact that my skill set has vanished faster than my receding hairline. I don’t play because too many players on the ice have an identity crisis! I don’t want “couch potato” Tom, who never played the game in his life, but watches NHL hockey every night on TSN and loves the “rough stuff”, to try to re-live the glory days he never had on me. I just don’t want to be put into a situation where egos and attitudes are involved. No one in recreational hockey is getting paid and no one is making a living on the ice. Bottom line: no one is playing at an elite level! What does this possibly have to do with Strength and Conditioning?
...I have had the privileged of training a youth hockey organization here in Columbus, Ohio for the last five years. To say the experience has been rewarding would be an understatement. I truly believe one of the best ways in which I’ve evolved, as a strength coach is my experience training the youth population. Young hyper mobile Tommy who’s only experience in the weight room was lifting in Dad’s basement doing a heavy dose of arm curls and triceps extensions posses a completely different set of issues than training a college/professional athlete. The former is a novice lifter needing a solid foundation of stability, strength and neuromuscular efficiency, where the latter may be an advanced lifter recovering from a grueling season, hypo-mobile, needing fluctuating stress levels to adapt. I enjoy training both populations. I love my job.
...Over the years I have had the privilege of working with a diverse population of athletes. Although the niche of Donskov Strength and Conditioning is hockey, we have had the opportunity of coaching athletes at each stage of the development process. I can tell you that regardless of age, our goals are similar: stay healthy, get strong, get fast, and get powerful. In addition, our recipe is very similar: “Think small. Work hard. Get good!” (Wooden) Our goal is to master the fundamentals. Basic addition is one of the biggest problems with youth training AND youth sports. By constantly adding drills on the ice/field, youth athletes fail to master the fundamentals of their respective sport. The same holds true in the weight room. Addition by subtraction is the key to development! Below are three principals of the Addition by Subtraction philosophy that we utilize at DSC.
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