Youth Training

One of the most common questions coaches hear is: “Coach, what weight should I use?” Percentage-based training is a great tool, especially when we have a reliable 1RM to base those percentages off of. If we know an athlete’s 1RM, we can use percentages to prescribe training loads and create a clear target for the session. But even with a known 1RM, I still like to use RIR (Reps In Reserve) in combination with percentage-based training. Why? Because an athlete’s 1RM doesn’t ac

If you ask most people what it means to be healthy, they'll usually mention: Exercise. Go to the gym. Lift weights. Go for a run. While exercise is incredibly important, it's only one piece of the puzzle. Health, and long-term performance, is built on four pillars: Sleep Nutrition Mental Health Physical Exercise Whether you're an athlete chasing peak performance, a parent trying to keep up with your kids, or someone who simply wants to feel better each day, these four areas w

The Problem: Too Much Output One thing I see with female athletes is they are incredibly driven. They’re practicing, lifting, doing extra conditioning, playing their sport, and trying to improve every single day. More ≠ Better The issue isn’t that you aren’t working hard enough. The issue is that your training stress may be exceeding your ability to recover. The Empty Tank Training Side: Recovery Side: Lifting 1. Sleep Practice/Games

More Isn't Better One of the biggest mistakes I see athletes and coaches make during speed training comes down to two things: Doing too much volume. Not taking enough rest between sprints. If every sprint leaves you exhausted, you're probably not training speed anymore. Many athletes wear fatigue as a badge of honor, believing that if they're breathing hard or drenched in sweat, they had a productive speed session. But speed training isn't about how tired you get, it's about

How One Molecule Supports Muscle, Bone, Brain, and Healthy Aging When most people hear the word creatine, they picture athletes, jacked men, or someone just trying to build muscle in the gym. But here's the thing... Creatine isn't just a sports supplement. It's an energy supplement. Every cell in your body relies on energy to function, whether you're lifting weights, chasing your kids around the house, going for a walk, concentrating at work, or simply getting through your da

The hardest part about being a strength coach isn’t designing a program. It’s creating a plan that is engaging, purposeful, and effective over time. That’s where the art of coaching comes in. Because the truth is, great training can be mundane sometimes. The fundamentals aren’t always flashy. They aren’t always exciting. But mastering the basics, and doing them consistently, is what creates results. Now, does that mean training has to be boring? Absolutely not. Good coaching

One of our core principles at Cadet Athletic Performance is Leadership. While we want to build better athletes, we believe building leadership Is key to that process. This is especially important in youth athlete development, where habits, behaviors, and identity are still being formed. The goal isn’t just to improve performance today, but to help athletes develop traits that carry over into sport, and life. And importantly, this is developed in the training environment, not

Recovery is where we actually gain the benefits of the hard work we put into training. Recovery isn't just cold plunges, saunas, cupping, massages, or fancy recovery gadgets. Those things are nice perks to have access to, and if they work for you, then great. But the best modality to improve recovery and performance in and outside of your sport is FREE. It's sleep.

Why You Should Still Lift During the Season We put in so much work in the off season, then lose a lot of those adaptations when we stop training during the season. And with youth sports, kids are playing ALL the time. Is there truly ever an off season for them? Everything has its own context but in general let’s look at the following 3 graphs to help explain what your training should look like in season versus off season and why I still strongly encourage you to lift during s

“Sport-specific training” gets overused. You’ll hear things like: “If it doesn’t look like the sport, it’s not useful.” “My kid plays soccer, they should train like soccer players.” “We need to make the gym more game-like.” But trying to mimic your sport in the weight room is not the goal. The most sport-specific thing you can do is play your sport. What actually builds performance The weight room exists to build the foundation that allows you to express skill better, strengt

One of the biggest mistakes athletes make during the return-to-sport process is thinking they need to immediately “grind” their way back into shape. More conditioning. More intensity. More soreness. More exhaustion. But getting tired and getting better are not the same thing. Working Out vs. Training “Working out gets you tired. Smart training gets you better.” There’s a difference between exercising and actually training with purpose. Training with purpose takes more discipl

ACL injuries are often discussed as if they’re random or unavoidable. But when you look at the research, patterns emerge. Female athletes experience ACL injuries at significantly higher rates than males. Depending on the study, this difference is commonly reported as approximately 2–8 times higher risk (Arendt & Dick, 1995; Agel et al., 2005). The important question is not if the risk exists, but why. The answer is not one factor. It is a combination of anatomy, hormonal infl

The benefits and common misconceptions about youth strength training