I’ve been doing what I do for more than a decade and the large majority of that has been independent. With that, I’ve seen my fair share of athletes, either those that walk in looking for help or those from my high school team putting in the work to get the edge on the pitch. In my experience, there are three things that can make you a better athlete going from 0 (doing nothing or minimal) to 1 and get on the path to improving as a competitor.
 
1 Explosiveness (sprints, plyos, power)- Whatever term you wish to put to this, you need it to be more athletic. Getting from A to B quickly has a ton to do with this. Good athletes can get from A to B quickly, or at least quicker than they used to be able to. Being able to do the A to B thing quickly, means you need to get to your fastest, as quickly as you can. So, you need to have good accelerators. The basics for this start with;
 
Jumps (2 legged)
Medball work
Hops (1 Legged)
Sprints
 
2 Train legs (single legs especially)- The shift away from mirror muscles in youth athlete training has come a long way, BUT there’s still plenty of way to go. Of course, you need a strong upper body to be a good athlete. Any coach out there will still tell you if you had to pick which half makes the bigger difference, it's your legs. I've lost count of the number of times I've seen folks assume someone won't be a good player because they 'appear' nonathletic (looking skinny, maybe has a gut) then they torch everyone out there. Folks didn't bother to take a gander at the tree trunks these people were sporting on the bottom half.

Get your squats and deadlifts in kids and you need, yes NEED, to do single leg variations of these too. Whether that’s a pistol squat or a simple split squat, a BB 1-leg RDL or a 1-leg bridge, it needs to be trained (and progressed) properly. Oh, and train that power stuff I mentioned above on one leg too.
 
The most common single leg variations that are trained with athletes for me are;
Bulgarian (RFE) Split Squats
Landmine 1-Leg RDL or BB 1-Leg RDL.
 
3 Train Lateral (Transverse) Plane-
 
It’s a plane not addressed enough (even with the wealth of knowledge and evidence out there), especially for athletes. Lateral strength will translate to better change of direction and less injuries, show me where the downside is on that one. Being able to brake from top speed and turn quickly? Yeah, never going to need that ever in sports…wait.

Oh yes, power should be trained in the plane too.
 
No need to complicate it either;
Lateral Lunges
Curtsy Lunges
Lateral Sled drags
Lateral Hops
 
Of course, all of the movements I named are baseline (with some exceptions) and should be progressed or/and tweaked as the situation evolves. These three things will make you a better athlete or more athletic if that's all you're looking for as well.

That is what I have for you all today fam. Appreciate the time and thanks for reading. Feel free to reach out with questions or further discussion.

A button up or polo and dress pants doesn’t automatically make you a good coach. A sleeveless t-shirt, basketball shorts and a tattoo sleeve doesn’t make you a bad coach either.
 
Today I want to clear something up when it comes to judging coaches by their cover, as it were. There are some of the big names and ‘industry leaders’ in the strength and conditioning realm, that very much judge a book by its cover.  Won’t name names, but one of them, their last name might also be a certain trade profession of the Mario Brothers sort.
 
In any case, for those that don’t know, here’s what you must look like or else be considered unprofessional in this group of unmentionables eyes’;
 
-Polo or button up (no t-shirts or hoodies)
-Pants always (dress pants preferred)
-No showing tattoos
-No piercings
-Dress shoes or very new looking sneakers
-Never have drink or food in hand
-LOOK like you work out (*eye roll*)
 
If you’re reading this, you know none of the above is 100% on the nose for myself or many of the coaches I would recommend someone see. Can tell you for a fact that a polo does not make you professional or a good coach, my old commercial gym made us all wear a polo, didn’t prevent some of those trainers from being unprofessional or total cowboys.
 
On the other side of it, I know 3-4 coaches personally that are top notch that rock full sleeves of tattoos and have no issue showing them off. Has yet to stop them from delivering top notch coaching. A also know a few others personally that would live in a hoodie if they could, still bang out quality coaching and programming.
 
The point is this, coaches are all going to present differently. There isn’t anything wrong if a coach wants to dress well and look buttoned up. If that makes them feel confident and deliver as a coach, hell yeah do it. Quality coaches look different, are different shapes, sizes and personality. As long as they meet a certain standard in terms of proper clothing and not looking totally un-put-together, then the biggest thing is are they delivering good coaching and serving their clients well. So in the end, no don't judge someone if they don't dress a certain way, from one professional to another, it does more harm than good.

Thanks for reading fam, back next week with more fun! Happy Weekend!