Lifting weights can change a young person's life. Whether they're an athlete, or someone who is struggling with self image and confidence, exercising and lifting weights can transform their body and their mind. 

My name is Jeremy Gritton. And for the last 13 years, I've been helping young people get off the bench and into the game, whether it's an athlete reaching for their goals, or a young person who is struggling with confidence, regain that momentum, in the belief that they're capable of more

Recently, I had a parent say to me, I need help with my young person, they're struggling and  their confidence has gone down and I think they may even be depressed. They're playing too much too many video games, they're not exercising, they've lost all interest.

I respond by saying, let me put them in our system. Give us the chance to help them. After our 9-week program ended she shared with me. “It's like an entirely new person. And I said to her, so we just changed the...

The power of a coach, the wrong coach can be totally destructive, taking away an athletes joy, and maybe even causing them to quit their sport. The right coach can have a life altering effect, they can even change their trajectory of their entire life. 

In one of our early morning workout sessions, I was having this conversation with some of the kids and they were sharing with me, some of the things former and even current coaches have said to them, things like, 

1. ”you're the slowest person on this team” 
2. ”you know what, you should consider playing another sport” 
3. “you're never going to beat out these other athletes so be happy that you're even on the team” 

Things like that make my skin crawl. 

As a parent, sometimes we don't get to choose who their head coach is going to be. But we can choose who their support team will be. 

I believe that we want to take a three step approach 

#1 - Earn trust of...

If you have an athlete that you would like to see become more mentally resilient, where

they're able to snap out of slumps quicker, and compete against the highest levels of competition,  what I'm going to share with you today is going to be a game changer. 

It's something that we have shared with our GTS athletes for over 13 years, helping hundreds of them go from the bench, to starting line up from starting lineup to scholarships, and carry them far beyond into their life endeavors. 

It's called our strong acronym. 

S = show up. 

Nothing good happens. If an athlete doesn't go to practice or workouts and improve their skills? We always teach them that this is simple in principle, but it's not always simple to do. So show up. 

T = Be Tenacious. Don’t be easily pulled apart from your goals. 

We're talking about this in class the other day when one of the kids knew the answer but said  I don't really know what tenacious...

The top three ways to invest your money to give your athlete a competitive advantage. 

As a parent, it's hard to figure out where you need to invest your money to give your athlete a competitive advantage. 

You're spending money everywhere, the gear that they need for their sport. Getting them on the right travel team, those travel fees and entry fees, you're spending money everywhere. That’s why I want to share with you what I believe to be the top three areas in which you need to invest money to give them that advantage. 

#1 - What is the skill they need to develop for their sport.

If they need to work on their outside shooting, you need to get them with a basketball shot doctor who can help them improve range. If they are a baseball player and they do need to improve their swing get on with the right hitting coach. 

#2 - Invest in their strength program.

No longer today, is it good enough to just work on your sport. In today's crazy...

These three tips will ensure that the strength training program for a young athlete is safe. 

#1 - Make sure whoever is training them is experienced with working with young athletes, because it’s very different than training adults. 

We don't ever want to send a young athlete who's not done much strength training in the past to some random gym workout or somebody who doesn't specialize in training youth. 

#2 - Make sure that they have a proper warm up.

We want to always ensure that they get the blood flowing, but we also want them to work on mobility, especially their hips. They do so much with their legs, so much lateral, then forward and back, stopping and plyometric movements where they're jumping, it’s crucial that their hips are always good and warm. 

#3 - Whoever  trains your athlete needs to be flexible and knowledgeable regarding in-season and out of season needs.

You want to ensure that the person working with them is...

Parents often come to me and say, I feel like my athletes getting overlooked by their coach. Well, I'm here to tell you, the reason they're not only more playing time, has nothing to do with them getting overlooked.

My name is Jeremy Gritton and for the last 13 years, I've had the privilege of helping hundreds of athletes get off the bench and into the game, where they earn more playing time, they have more fun then and they start to have more confidence and victories in their sport. 

Today, what I want to do is give you an insider tip, as a former college basketball coach and the son of a Hall of Fame Coach I'm going to give you three insider secrets that help your athlete get on the coaches radar and start to earn more playing time. 

My dad was always saying to me, “I'm looking for the next guy” I'm looking for the next person to contribute to the team could be the end of this year or maybe it's next year. His perhipheral vision (those on the outskirts of...