Core value: stacking blocks for six Weeks

"Really, what we're doing here is helping these kids stack blocks," Big Fish coach Weston Lombard said this last week.

"Stacking blocks? What?" I asked. "Sounds cool but tell me what that means." This was one of these stages of life situations. For Weston, a younger guy, on the cutting edge of athlete development, a phrase like that is just about athletic development. For me, turning 43 in a month, it brought me right back about 7-8 years ago, to my kids stacking Duplos as tall as they could reach.

Here's my paraphrase, but I wasn't actually too far off. Think about building a tower, he said.

Each week the kids come in for their Big Fish session is a block. What each of those kids gets as their specific block, each week, is going to be a little different. Our coaches are hands on - this athlete needs this adjustment, this athlete needs that adjustment - rather than just supervisors of drills. For our drill work, one athlete will really remember and connect with one drill and skill, another athlete remembers that other drill and skill.

I walked away from our quick conversation thinking about what a great analogy that is, stacking blocks. If you think of training for athletes as different blocks, you can really see training for youth athletes as different intersecting towers too. The blocks our kids are stacking at hockey, basketball, volleyball, or wrestling practice this winter too... those are going to help them next summer in baseball and softball. Strength blocks, agility blocks, competition blocks.

We can't promise that all our athletes will jump 5 miles an hour in exit velocity or throwing velocity in a single two month span. Some mechanical adjustments make a big difference, so yes, some of them will. (Anyone out there promising this... make sure you ask them some good questions!) But gains in consistency and understanding, and especially for kids coming in with some solid mechanics, that won't always show up on a radar gun.

What we can promise for all of our athletes is that our focus is on long-lasting routines and understanding. As we help them build their towers, the job of coaches is to give them the individual feedback - that's like the cement mortar - to keep those blocks together.

It turns out that people who are 25 and 43 - they aren't that far apart!

​-Josh

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