The biggest risk is not taking one. When you are coaching high school, some push kids with motivation. Some push college kids with education. So when they are professional it becomes keep them healthy and don’t mess them up. It’s not working, and looking at every league we are more injured now than 10 years ago. Sure some programs are faster, bigger, and more athletic, but most have become glorified spa training with adult babysitting. Instead of talking about how to strengthen the legs of players in soccer, we talk about omegawave testing. Instead of making sure linemen are fitter, we talk about movement quality. Instead of ensuring pitchers are in shape, strength coaches are talking about breathing patterns. Yes, this rant is old news and repeated in the past, but the underlying problem is dealing with the issue of being bad cop or having rules.
I think it’s easy to talk about things on twitter because the tried and true become tired and old. What we need to do is make the old new again by adding a special dash of coaching and sharper science. An example is how to make a warm-up fun again while still keeping the stuff that works in. Another is what to do with core training in year 6? What about tempo training to kids who live in a rapid changing world? How dow we make morning oatmeal far from bland? When all of the foundation is done, time to build to the sky.
For me taking risk is timing, not about hurdle hops with 50 inch hurdles or similar. The key is progressive fast enough to stimulate ultimate performance or drive deeper with volume. I certainly don’t know what works, but for sprinters it’s about pulls and tears. Avoiding it isn’t easy as not sprinting is’t always possible with the less talented athletes, but racing to get in shape is not safe either. When I review programs from more successful coaches they always say timing is vital. When do you spike up, when you start plyos, when to race again after injury. When to take the risk is something I need to learn.