Today’s episode features Andy Ryland senior manager of education and training at USA Football since 2010. Andy was a former Penn State linebacker and a member of the U.S. Men’s Rugby team and is widely recognized as a foremost expert on developing the fundamentals for successful shoulder tackling.

In youth sports and beyond, cultivating skill acquisition, reactive ability and creativity are foundational in allowing athlete’s success. In a current landscape where literally no certification or formal education is required to be a sport coach, there is a gap to be bridged in creating systems that help athletes along a great path of long-term development.

Victory-centric team models shortchange multi-lateral development by specializing an athlete in a position early. Coaches use drills and robotic systems more than they foster situational adaptivity and creative solutions. If you listened to podcast #136 with James Smith of the “U of Strength” then you likely remember James talking about how robotic he sees sport coaching, and this being a reason why he incorporates perception and reaction work in his own training.

In today’s podcast, Andy digs into a variety of topics on sport skill acquisition and long term development, including the difference between “free flow” and structured sports (and how playing one can enhance the other), bandwidth on cueing and instruction, speed training in context of USA Football, barbell training, selecting a secondary or off-season sport, and more.

View more show notes at just-fly-sports.com/podcast-170-andy-ryland