453: Jeremy Frisch on Foundations of Athletic Speed and Movement Ability

Today's podcast features Jeremy Frisch. Jeremy is the Director of Athletic Performance at Teamworks Sports Center in Acton, Massachusetts, specializing in youth athletic development. The former owner of Achieve Performance Training, Jeremy is a field leader in youth movement, physical literacy, and long-term athletic development. Jeremy has been a frequent podcast guest and is a source of constant inspiration for training not only younger athletes but those of all ages. We live within a broken modern sports system (in most countries). Much of sports performance, and athletic development follows suit. Formalized speed training designed for older athletes tends to get pushed down on children far too early. Athletes are continually denied the chance to be athletes, to be autonomous movers, decision makers, and experience the full joy of sport. Not only this, but in that deprivation, we cut ourselves off from the fullness of what we could consider speed training, for any athlete. On today’s episode, Jeremy speaks on key principles to driving intent and multi-lateral ability in speed training for young athletes, and as they progress through their careers along with the pitfalls of early intensification and “speed training” kids like adults. He also covers many elements of athletic development, such as rhythm, crawling, rolling, strength training, and the development of aerial ability. All this, along with a discussion on the motivation factors of 80’s training movies, was an enjoyable conversation with Jeremy Frisch that is fundamental to the long-term development of athletes. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio. For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 1:59- Enhancing Athletic Performance with Powerball Game 7:01- Engaging Youth in Interactive Speed Training Exercises 9:33- Developmental Progression Through Play and Training 14:53- Innovative Solutions Through 80s Constraints 17:00- Fundamental Elements for Speed in Children 28:46- Fundamental Movement Activities for Youth Athletes 39:29- Joyful Motivation: Igniting Passion in Youth Sports 46:59- Engaging Athletic Training with Interactive Games 49:32- Engaging Activities Enhance Training Intent 54:04- Adapting Techniques in Enhanced Relay Races 56:58- Foundation Building Through Early Clean Technique Practice 1:05:24- Foundational Movements for Effective Athlete Development 1:10:20- Enhancing Athletic Skills Through Varied Drills 1:21:12- Intrinsic Satisfaction in Physical Training Journeys 1:25:10- Enhancing Athletic Performance Through Rhythmic Coordination 1:31:27- Interactive Body-Scanning Dance Game for Xbox Quotes (12:37) "Expand their movement bandwidth. And the only way you can expand their movement bandwidth is by immersing them in as much movements as possible in as many ways as possible." (29:00) "If you look in like the Russia, like everyone thinks like the Russians had this like big secret, but if you look at like, you know those eastern block training, you see all the videos of black and white, like those guys are doing gymnastics and wrestling and climbing on things and doing pull ups and like just all like out in the, out in the mountains running over like jumping over rocks and stuff. It's like that's just GPP." (29:55) "If you really want to develop an athlete, it's gotta be age-appropriate and you gotta get them excited for what they're doing." (49:50) "Like everyone's, everyone's involved (in speed development) Everyone. It's just not one kid alone running on a treadmill, right? Everyone's activated, everyone's excited, everyone's laughing, goofing around. So it's, that's another part of it." (53:20) "We'll do a hill sprint. So we put, like, we put the athletes, one athlete up on the hill about halfway up, but he's like laying down or sitting or facing the person at the bottom, and he'll say, go. And they chase each other up and they try to run each other down." (1:17:00) "I would literally, like, take two kids and we would hold hands, and I would start sprinting with them. And I would run a little bit faster than their capacity, right. And they're like legs are flying." (1:28:24) "Because we practice rolling so much, she was playing field hockey and she got tripped, and instead of, like, she was about to fall on her face, and then she realized, like, she tucked her head and shoulder and rolled out of it and got back up and continued to sprint. So she went from, like, running, tripping, rolling back to sprinting seamlessly." About Jeremy Frisch Jeremy Frisch is the Director of Athletic Performance at Teamworks Sports Center in Acton, Massachusetts. He specializes in youth athletic development, focusing on improving physical literacy and movement skills. Jeremy is the former owner of Achieve Performance Training, which he sold after years of successfully training athletes of all ages. His background includes roles as a speed and strength coach at Athletes Edge Sports Training and a strength and conditioning intern at Stanford University. Jeremy holds a bachelor's degree in health science and physical education from Worcester State College, where he competed in football and track. He is also a respected writer, speaker and consultant on youth athletic development and physical education.