giving athletes
The tools to succeed
What’s the story?
Charlie Tod MSc - Founder & Head Coach
My Athlete Toolkit was created to provide the highest quality athletic development coaching for both the aspiring and every day performer. The platform aims to apply research driven practices appropriate for each individual and their stage of development, supporting long-term athletic development and positive relationships with training. As a first class graduate in strength and conditioning I’ve since specialised, obtaining my Master of Science degree in Youth Athletic Development from Cardiff Metropolitan University. I am also striving to contribute to the athletic development research field, helping to drive forward our knowledge of growth, maturation, physical development and strategies to reduce injuries in children and adolescents.
This website also aims to become a hub for coaches and practitioners to share knowledge and experiences that can drive meaningful, positive change in the field of athletic development coaching for both athletes and key stakeholders to digest and share. As well, as a hub to find out information on our in person training sessions help at the Merchant Taylors’ Athletic Development Centre.
LONG TERM
ATHLETIC DEVELOPMENT
The long-term development of athletes is at the centre of everything we do at My Athlete Toolkit. The expectations for an aspiring performer may have them feeling like every game they play is the world cup final, however, we need to look longer term and bigger picture as coaches and parents.
Research tells us that children will put enough pressure upon themselves to perform, with outcome driving many of their decisions and reactions. They may sometimes struggle to see the processes required beyond next week or an upcoming season. Athletic Development support spans beyond the sport(s) the individual plays, aiming to create better foundations of movement, develop athletic qualities such as strength, power, speed and agility, all whilst actively reducing the risk of sport or growth-related injuries.
movement skills
Without great foundations comes an unstable house. The three fundamental movement skills of Locomotion, Manipulation, and Stabilisation provide a perfect introduction to new training concepts and environments.
Locomotion is about developing the ability to move the body from one place to another using coordinated movement patterns, such as walking, running, changing direction, jumping, hopping, skipping, and crawling.
Manipulation is about developing the ability to control and move objects with precision using the hands, feet, or other body parts. This includes skills such as throwing, catching, kicking, striking, dribbling, and rolling.
Stabilisation is about developing the ability to control and maintain body position during static postures or dynamic movements, particularly when under load, changing direction, or reacting to external forces. It includes skills such as balancing, bracing, twisting, and holding posture through the trunk and joints.
Athletic skills
This stage of athletic development is focussed on elevating athletic qualities across the board. The Athletic Motor Skill Competencies (AMSC) provide a more structured path to developing each quality. Paired with progressive overload (gradual increases in intensity over time), this creates positive adaptations that progress the abilities of the performer above and beyond the natural development seen from growth and maturation.
Every sport will benefit from the all-round development of each of these systems. This isn’t the stage that athletes need to worry about sport specificity, as this can distract from the continual development of simple strength, coordination and control. We can however include specific training interventions to protect against growth-related injuries such as Osgood-Schlatter, Severs and Bone stresses.
Consistent application of these systems within a resistance training environment over time will yield the best outcomes for young athletes. This should be delivered year-round, regardless of being in or out of the sporting season.
PHYSICAL PREPARATION
Athletes strive to get to this phase of training, often fast tracking through crucial general athletic development periods to make things feel more ‘sports specific’. Many of the elements of physical preparation coaching is centred around the specific needs of the sport being played, which means developing certain athletic qualities more than others to gain the edge. If individuals don’t have strong enough general athletic foundations, this may cause increased risk of injury and mean that more time needs to be spent on reverse engineering the repetitive actions of the sport being pursued.
At this stage, athletes would follow a periodised programme that starts to prepare for key competition periods, maximising performance at these times. They would enter different phases of training and preparation depending on where they were in the season, making sure that when the competition comes round, they have every physical quality they need to succeed at maximum quality.
This preparation and training timeline changes depending on whether the athlete is competing in seasonal sports where competition is required every week (football, netball, rugby, hockey etc…) and is followed by an off season and pre season period. Or, they may be on an Olympic cycle where the athlete competes in 3-4 competitions per year where they may qualify for larger and larger events with the hops of making national squads in international competitions.
