Deadlift Tips for Youth Athletes- New Albany, OH Strength Coach
Article
October 16, 2020
Deadlift Tips for Youth Athletes- New Albany, OH Strength Coach
Deadlift tips for Youth Athlete
Parents you need to be careful with ‘weight room' workouts for your young athletes, it usually is not a certififed strength coach. There is a difference between a professional who works with athletes and on themselves, vs. a personal trainer, a teacher who lifts, a sport coach, etc….. Every athlete is different. If they are squatting or deadlift or lifting heavy you have to makje sure they are doing it correctly. It may injure them as a teen, or later in life when they are 40-60.
This video will go over deadlift technique, so it will also apply for adults.
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In the video I go over proper standing technique and posture that you take into a proper deadlift.
Also go over the butt squeeze test.
A lot of kids will have their feet turned out due to sitting all day in crappy posture and wearing crappy shoes. Nike Adidas, Reebok are not good shoes for athletes. The feet have more nerves then anywhere and the muscles in the feet affect everything upstream. Get a barefoot type of shoe like ballops, viffur, 5 fingers, minimus, beach shoe (not FLIP FLOPS-should never be worn-horrible for feet). Or best is to go barefoot- but have to work up barefoot full time–go shoe, barefoot, shoe, barefoot throughout the workout.
“Take off your shoes they will make you sick.” -Native American Proverb
The video above comes from a high school weight room attendant for the Hilliard high school track and field team had my athlete doing deadlifts lifting the bar from behind. He called this a ‘deficit deadlift', which is not what it's called. Jackson, my athlete, said that the coach injured a kid doing it in front.
Watch the video and make sure your child is performing the deadlift properly. Ask them how they are performing it in the weight room, then correct any form errors.
Most common form flaws for the deadlift:
feet turned out (on sumo deadlift this is ok. Video is going over traditional deadlift)
Lifting with rounded back
Shoulders move before hips
Shoulders start too far in front of bar. Should be lined up with bar.
Yanking the bar rather then having smooth start
Not hip hinging to get down into position
Heels come up off the floor
Starting too far back on the heels, all the weight is on heels. Weight should be balanced. Toes should be driving into the floor. Main weight should be between ball of foot and heel.
Wrong type of footwear
Bar not close enough to the body. It should be as close to body as possible. Many will actually scrap the bar up the shins
Not setting the body TIGHT (upper and lower body)
Sucking in the abs and stomach. We want to expand the belly as much as possible for more support especially on more than 85% of a max personal record weight (PR).
Breathing wrong. Exhale on way up. Many will hold breath through hardest part then exhale.
Knees shooting forward over the bar at set up. This is indication of not getting tight in hips and hamstrings. Remember set up from top down. Some people will not be able to properly hip hinge at start.
So if any of those are coming true for you or your child they must be fixed.
Also know that some people, especially kids SHOULD NOT be deadlifting. Or squatting, or olympic lifting, or using a barbell. If someone cannot squat or do a proper pushup then they should not be using a barbell. Stay with bodyweight, bands, suspension trainers, med balls, lighter kettlebells/dumbbells until a base of strength is built up.
The goal of any person walking into a strength & conditioning program or any gym or any workout program should be INJURY PREVENTION. Regardless if the coach or program's focus is on that. You are in charge of you. You do not want to hurt yourself permanetly or set up a injury later in life. Ego lifting must not be a thing for you if you are going to be in this for a long time—-meaning lifetime. I have been training for 30.5 years now. Looking forward to the next 30 years and then next 30 after that.
Strength is life. Once you lose it, you're dead.
Below is some compilations of crappy form. Warning langauge. It should never look like this.
Written by Jason Yun certified strength and conditioning coach, personal trainer, youth fitness specialist and Youth speed and agility specialist (CSCS, NSCA-CPT, YFS (1), YSAS)
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