Youth-Athlete's Sport Blog

On any given day, any team or anyone can win the game.  This is what makes competitive sports so much fun.  You never know when a player or team outmatched in every aspect of the game pulls off the victory by stunning their opponent.  Take a lesson from Michael Jordan. More...

This is the fourth and final post on the SPARQ rating and training system.  The previous post answer the questions: what is SPARQ training, why an athlete should care about the rating system , and what it tests?  In this post, I will insights into the commitment required for the training to be successful and a few results of athletes that have gone through the program. More...

SPARQ (an acronym for Speed, Power, Agility, Reaction and Quickness) tests an athlete's overall athleticism.   The follow up training is to help athletes improve in all of those areas through dynamic training. More...

In modern day sports, we keep track of every stat, no matter how small.  But until the SPARQ training and rating system was created in 2004, there was never a way to measure a main component in a competitive athlete's success ... their pure athletic ability.  The goal of the SPARQ system is to boil down a player's athleticism into one number that represents the player’s overall athletic skill—pinpointing what areas he or she is good at, and which areas they need to improve. More...

Nike is making a push in the athletic training equipment business with the 2008 winter launch of their SPARQ training equipment line.  The initial product launch featured San Diego Charger running back Ladainian Tomlinson hosting a press conference about "his better."  If you watched any sporting event during the March to June 2008 timeframe, you will recognize the commercial.  But all this hype begs the questions: what is SPARQ training, why should you care, and what does it test?  Let's dig in and see if we can find some answers.  More...

A 2008 high school graduate and his high school baseball coach set up a charitable foundation (Courage for Life) to provide life encouraging sporting experiences for high school athletes.  Why?  This is the story of John Challis.  More...

Any driven young athlete has a powerful purpose to be an outstanding player whether it is for peer recognition or for personal satisfaction.  They set goals and dedicate themselves to working hard to attain those goals.  They drive forward and take responsibility for developing their skills and attitudes.  Behind that drive lays the most influential attitude for their success: confidence.  More...

Each person is unique based on our inherited biology and acquired experiences.  They give each player different perceptions from others involved with the same game in the same situation.  Although the players share a common purpose to win, the intensity with which it is felt varies between the individuals.  Different genes and different experiences yield different player attitudes in the same situation.  Our attitude is our state of mind as we approach and experience our lives.  More...

The post on dedication described the disciplining of muscle memory but there is another organ that needs to be disciplined, your brain.  Mental messages dictate the physical action and are key ingredient in determining your performance level.  A player cannot underestimate the impact of positive and negative thoughts because your physical performance is the outcome of your thought.    More...

When I was getting my MBA, I had a normative microeconomics professor spend a lecture on the individual self evaluation decision making process. The key take-away from that lecture was:  determine what you want, count the cost, and then pay those costs.  Determining what you want and counting the cost is about goal setting.  Paying the cost to achieve success is about long-term dedication to developing the knowledge and skills to be a high performer.   More...