06.07.2017 - By Craig Haworth: Youth Sports Coaching Strategist and Podcaster
Wil Fleming is a sports performance coach and expert on being a more explosive athlete. His expertise comes from years of training and coaching athletes in multiple sports. His athletes are routinely the most explosive, fastest, and strongest on the field. He is also one of the strongest medium sized guys you will ever run into boasting some pretty decent numbers on the platform and in the weight room.
Wil is the co-owner of Force Fitness and Performance and Athletic Revolution Bloomington, in Bloomington, IN. Force Fitness just turned 4 years old and is already one of the most successful training facilities in the Midwest with nearly 300 clients, 60 athletes earning Division I scholarships and nearly 125 athletes moving on to compete at the NCAA level in Division I, II, III.
Websites: wilfleming.com; forcebloomington.com
Twitter: @wilfleming; @forcefitness
Facebook: /coachwilfleming/; /BloomingtonFitness/
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Quote
'Pressure is what you feel when you don't know what the hell you're doing' - Peyton Manning
Being coached by your dad
Wil's dad coached his brother and it led to some tension in their relationship, so he decided to not coach Wil and did a great job of just listening and not trying to coach Wil.
Cringe moments
Early in his career - Wil made a workout for a tough kid that made him throw up, but he realized that was not his role, true coaching is to make a tough workout that allows them to come back the next day and get stronger long-term.
Strength and conditioning in practice
Level 1 - Movement
Level 2 - Strength & Conditioning
Level 3 - High-level skills
Biggest mistake for untrained coaches: Weighted conditioning(weighted baseballs, resistant bands, weighted sleds.) Do high reps of body weight exercises.
Sensitive periods: 8-12 years old for girls, 9-13 for boys- Speed sensitivity period. Games with lots of running (tag, etc.). Strength periods happen after that - 13 to 15 years old.
Teaching Skills - Fun games
Let the kids help make up the rules - they will get much buy in
Trash ball - Trash can at each end, ultimate frisbee type rules
Zombie dodge ball - If you get hit, you join the zombies
Mental toughness
Take visualization very seriously
Have your practice sessions be as similar to game situations as possible
Have a mantra - 'I am strong.' 'I am a weightlifting superhero'
Before competition - tap into parasympathetic nervous system - which is rest and digest. Sympathetic nervous system is fight or flight - nerves, etc. Great way to do this is teach them how to diaphragmatically breathe. Breathe through your belly, not your shoulders and neck.
'Pressure is what you feel when you don't know what the hell you're doing' - Peyton Manning
Accelerate deep practice
Eating, sleeping, resting are how to take things to the next level
Become a student of the game - watch film, watch the best, create a mental image of themselves doing what the best are doing
Visualization - great example of olympic weightlifter breaking into a sweat just through visualizing his routine
Connecting with and impacting kids
FORD - Get to know about kid's:
Family
Occupation(school)
Recreation(outside of sports)
Dreams
The one that got away
Big Ten championships his senior year of college,