I had the opportunity to talk to Will Haskell several times over the last couple of weeks. What stood out to me was how passionate he was about training young children. You could definitely hear his strong commitment to making young children, not just athletes, better. While he primarily works with young children, this doesn’t just mean children with athletic aspirations. He works with a wide variety, including special needs children.
After moving from the East Coast, Will currently works at the Sports Academy Northwest in South Barrington, Illinois. He is fortunate to work with a great team, including Brian Grasso.
EFS: What do you do at the Sports Academy Northwest?
Will Haskell: The Sports Academy Northwest focuses on athletic development, volleyball, and baseball travel teams. Athletic development consists of youth development, speed, strength, agility, etc. This would cover just about every attribute that an athlete would possess. We also have a clinical therapist that works with the athletes. We try to cover a lot of areas and give the most to our athletes.
We don’t train “regular” people, just athletes. We do coach a lot of young athletes. With our volleyball and baseball teams we do not allow any parents of team members to coach. This allows for a fair playing field; no politics and no preferential treatment.
EFS: What 5 tips would you give a parent in helping their children reach their potential?
Haskell:
EFS: What strength coach has influenced you?
Haskell: I've been fortunate to have had two major influences. Lee Taft, my mentor, probably the best person and strength coach I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. His movement techniques transformed my own athletic career and I've been fortunate to be able to pass that knowledge onto others. Brian Grasso, my co-worker is a huge influence on me as well. His knowledge is astounding but more over his humble attitude that as talented as he is he still doesn't feel that he knows everything. A brilliant mind and excellent speaker, I learn something new from him every day about life as well as strength and conditioning.
EFS: You mentioned that you entered this field as a result of an injury from a poor strength and conditioning at the division one level. Leaving out any names, what was the injury and what do you think caused it?
Haskell: I was a division one pitcher and was trained and coached in such a way that the weight room performance was more important than sport performance. I did a lot of exercises that limited my throwing motion, which in time led to a lot of shoulder problems and biceps tendonitis. I still have it today, but it is getting better.
This was a result of a poor strength and conditioning program, poor sports medicine and my lack of understanding. As an athlete, you have to be smart enough to ask questions.
EFS: You are in a crowded and competitive field. Looking around you, what problems do you see?
Haskell: Where do I begin? Every trainer thinks they are the best-they even market themselves as the best and I don't understand how that's possible when the strength and conditioning industry as a whole is very poor in the U.S. Another mistake I continually see is the lack of teaching involved when training young athletes. Many trainers I've seen just jump right into workout programs without proper instruction. Athletes are begging for an injury when this happens. The final one is the concept of selling packages in 10 and 20 sessions. Trainers feel that every workout has to be hard in order to be effective, so the volume they throw on athletes is some times enormous. The problem is that this philosophy isn't always in the best interest of the athlete which can again set an athlete up for a wide array of problems down the road. Athletes are developed over a long period of time--it takes way more than a couple weeks to develop an athlete.
EFS: Do you allow parents to participate in the training of their children?
Haskell: Yes and no. We want parents to take interest in their children and take interest in what we are trying to accomplish. But I do not tolerate parents trying to coach their kids in our facility. They are already getting coached and yelled at by other coaches. This is not the place for that. But we do want parents to be involved. It is important that their kids realize that their parents care.
The funny thing is that one of the biggest problems that I see is that the parents just drop their kids off late and pick them up even later. This shows a tremendous amount of disrespect for us and their kids.
EFS: What is a great lesson you can teach other people in your field?
Haskell: If you don't know something--admit it. I've been fortunate to work here with Brian Grasso and Sara Nylander--a world-class strength coach and a young woman that is one of the brightest clinical therapists I've ever seen. Too many times have I seen coaches and trainers fill athletes and parents heads with poor information because they were too selfish to do what is best for an athlete. From a strength and conditioning standpoint, don't try and deter natural reactions. Obviously there are techniques that have to be reinforced. A great example is the plyo-step (false step)--it is a natural reaction and too many times do coaches try to change that which only leads to a confused and much slower athlete.
EFS: What do you think the biggest weaknesses are with athletes?
Haskell: It's difficult to narrow this down because each athlete is different. Quite honestly, the biggest weakness effecting young athletes today is poor parenting and poor coaching. Good athletic development specialists can help develop better movement economy, strength, coordination, etc. In many cases, parents and coaches have such a negative impact in the mental and physical states of athletes that it is difficult to make progress.
EFS: How do you deal with parents and/or coaches?
Haskell: I educate them. I give them information in a way that can open their eyes to the fact they don't know as much as they think they do. The biggest frustration I have in particular is high school coaches that have their kids performing Olympic lifts. Every single high school kid that has come under my guidance for the first time with pre-existing coaching for oly lifts has performed them so poorly it makes me want to have an anger stroke. Football coaches should coach football. A physical therapist would go nuts if I was treating injuries. If a kid has a serious knee injury you wouldn't take them to a dentist. Not all trainers are the same and not all coaches are the same. If you want to create better athletes then find a specialist that works with athletes and athletes ONLY.
EFS: What advice would you give someone that is just starting out in this field?
Haskell: Education is great but it's not everything. I was a student at U Mass in an awesome exercise phys program. However, the department head believes that machine training is ideal for developing athletes because of the decreased risk that athletes will suffer needless injury in the weight room. I think we all know that this is wrong---I hope.
The opportunity I've had in learning from guys like Lee Taft and Brian Grasso, while also reading work by Paul Chek, Gary Gray and Bill Hartman have been more beneficial than a college curriculum. I can learn from many different angles and figure out what is clinically correct but what actually makes sense. Paul Chek is a great example--brilliant guy with great ideas but his level one CHEK certification calls for a 2 and a half hour spinal assessment which isn't very practical. I don't think he has a lot of experience actually training athletes but there is still great information to be learned from guys like him. Alywn Cosgrove made the point that there is a lot of good stuff out there and equally as much garbage. It's up to an intelligent person to figure out what is best for their athletes and not just follow what one program or person says.
If you are in the Chicago area and would like to contact Will and The Sports Academy Northwest, please call 847-849-9607. You can contact Will via e-mail: will@tsanorthwest.com
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