4 Dimensions of Athlete Development, Part 1: Mental/Cultural

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4 Dimensions of Athlete Development, Part 1: Mental/Cultural

“By putting the student-athletes in positions to lead and receive constructive feedback, we saw immediate results.” Clemson strength coach Kaitlyn Cunningham knows that well-rounded athlete development starts with the mental and cultural component. In this first article in a 4-part series, Coach Cunningham shares some DI wisdom on how to cultivate accountability, foster responsibility, and empower her athletes to depend on one another.

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See Jane Jump: Teaching Fundamental Movement Skills

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See Jane Jump: Teaching Fundamental Movement Skills

Watch any sport and you’ll see a variety of non-sport-specific movement skills at play: running, jumping, skipping, shuffling, decelerating, cutting, and more. And like technique-based sport-specific skills—swinging a bat, shooting a free-throw, and so on—these fundamental movements should be taught, coached, and trained. In Part 3 of his series of long-term athlete development (LTAD), Volt’s Head of Sport Science, Joe Eisenmann, PhD, provides practical coaching cues and sequences to help coaches teach athletes how to excel at these fundamental movements: athletic stance, bodyweight squat, hip hinge, jumping, and landing.

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Cortex: The World’s First Performance Training AI

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Cortex: The World’s First Performance Training AI

We founded Volt Athletics to put elite-level training in the hands of athletes everywhere. Each day, our team at Volt HQ works tirelessly to build technology that democratizes access to purposeful, intelligent workouts. We envision a world where everyone, regardless of wealth or talent, has access to incredible training. Today, I’m thrilled to announce a major leap forward towards realizing that vision: the introduction of Cortex™, our revolutionary new performance training AI.

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Coaches, Pay Yourselves First

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Coaches, Pay Yourselves First

The boundaries of a coach extend beyond just the field and the season. As a coach, you give of yourself year-round to your players, staff, parents, and the entire program. Then, after a long day at the office, you give of yourself to your children, spouse, and the program at home. So how can you guarantee that, after giving so much of yourself to others, you have something left for yourself? Cletus Coffey, a former professional football player and World Champion athlete, shares some strategies he’s learned to help coaches learn to pay themselves first, in order to stay healthy, balanced, and successful.

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Saving Our National Pastime

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Saving Our National Pastime

Somewhere across America, an early-maturing 12U All-Star is pitching in his third game in two days for his second team. Elsewhere, in an operating room, an orthopedic surgeon performs Tommy John surgery on a 16-year-old. Our national pastime is facing some challenges — but luckily, USA Baseball is implementing a Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD) plan to combat them. Volt’s Head of Sport Science, Joe Eisenmann, PhD, takes us through USA Baseball’s model for developing athletes and discusses potential solutions to the challenges facing America’s game.

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How to End a Training Session

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How to End a Training Session

If you’re a coach, you’ve probably led training sessions where athletes start off energetic and focused…but end the session sluggish and distracted. We’ve been there — and it’s frustrating! Luckily, Volt guest author Josh Heidegger, CSCS, is a strength and conditioning coach at the University of Southern California, and has some D1 strategies that coaches at any level can implement to help end your next session on a high note!

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Life in the NBA: Damaged Goods and Youth Training Habits

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Life in the NBA: Damaged Goods and Youth Training Habits

Life in the NBA is a grind. And with athletes playing for 9 to 10 months straight—or even longer, if they make the Playoffs—it’s not surprising that the NBA is plagued by an injury epidemic. A $350-million-per-year epidemic. Volt’s Head of Sports Science, Joe Eisenmann, PhD, addresses the underlying causes behind this influx of injuries and asks: What if it’s related to how youth basketball is structured in the U.S.? Read on to learn more about the state of youth basketball in America, and how several organizations are working diligently to turn it around.

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3 Reasons Baseball Players Should Strength Train

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3 Reasons Baseball Players Should Strength Train

Despite a well-recognized need for strength and power development (and injury prevention) in baseball, some coaches are still hesitant when it comes to the weight room—never allowing players to bench press, for example, or only utilizing bands as resistance. That’s what makes properly designed baseball strength and conditioning plan so important. Here are our top 3 reasons why baseball athletes need to strength train, and what a good baseball-specific program should look like.

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The NBA Combine, Correlation, and Tryouts: Individuality Matters!

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The NBA Combine, Correlation, and Tryouts: Individuality Matters!

Each May, the NBA invites top college basketball players to participate in their annual Combine, a series of physical measurements and athletic tests that can help determine a player’s fate in the NBA Draft in June. But combine performance doesn’t necessarily correlate to performance in the NBA (just look at Kevin Durant’s failed combine bench press attempt!). Breaking down the research on the validity of the NBA Combine, Joe Eisenmann, PhD, examines the statistical concept of correlation and how it relates to combine testing, and shares some valuable lessons for coaches about tryouts at the youth and high school levels.

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LTAD Part 2: Is Early Specialization Good or Bad for Athletes?

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LTAD Part 2: Is Early Specialization Good or Bad for Athletes?

We live in an age of youth sports where our kids' schedules are jam-packed with practices, camps, private coaching sessions, and pay-to-play leagues—all specific to a single sport. But we also live an age of research, and studies are now showing that athletes who participate in a variety of sports have fewer injuries and play sports longer than those who specialize before puberty. Volt's Head of Sport Science, Joe Eisenmann, tackles this issue as part of his series on long-term athlete development (LTAD) and unpacks the research about early specialization, and what parents and coaches should do.

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