With all the cooking I have done on the Big Green Egg, believe me, I thought I could get a trailer for the Egg, hit the road—especially for tailgating or any other social gathering—and cook the sauce out of that bad boy and cater something.
Cooler heads have prevailed, and I have elected to cook on my 2 BGEs at home and serve family and friends. Quite satisfying, catering could be way too much work.
Another catering event is training athletes in a very mixed group when it comes to talent and ability levels.
Do you just line everybody up and yell "go," or send the weaker ones home to grow and magically get stronger?
None of that—you divide and conquer.
Let's look at speed training as example.
There are two methods to divide and conquer.
Method 1: Back of the Line
My preferred method is to have all new, young, or beginner athletes in the back of the line, following the veterands lead and pace.
We do separate youth athletes, but if an 8th grader is in the group, they are close enough and can learn from watching.
The line can get long, so if you break up the group, it's just a distribution of numbers, not by age.
The most critical piece is having a good "line leader" on something like the agility ladder.
This person needs to know the drills as if they were a coach so that the workout moves fast.
It's a fun game to boot the line-leader if they don't know the drill It's a mini game of king of the hill and keeps the group engaged.
The novice athletes are not allowed to lead the line, but they can work their way up over time.
Method 2: Separate Groups
I eluded to this above, but I don't feel it is as effective.
You can have separate groups based on level, but you lose some of the group dynamics that come with athletic hierarchy.
Not to mention coaching distribution. With levels separated, it's natural to have assistants go with the group that needs more teaching.
I prefer to have a mixed group where the head coach is interacting with the most novice athlete and the most junior coach is able to interact with the top athletes.
Next is to have your script ready on the fly to change their drills mid-stream if needed.
It's more important to keep moving and get the reps than it is to waste a workout forcing a drill.
For example, if an athlete can't figure out a ladder drill then audible to something similar and get the work in.
You can teach the new pattern later.
In our context, we have a bunch of skipping drills, and if they are struggling with the rythem or pattern, they should do the basic skip or jog.
We even have air-rope for those who just can't solve a physical jump rope. They bounce on their toes and circle their arms and wrists as if they are actually using a jump rope.
If your top athlete is doing the ladder drills with a medicine ball, the lower level athletes can do the same drills without medicine balls.
Speed and intensity is what separates the levels.
Summary
We don't coach to the middle of the room.
The top athletes set the tone and the developing athletes follow a long. You can add supplementmental teaching for the athletes that are not able to keep up.
It is my opinion that developing athletes are better served by being a part of the group and advanced athletes learn to lead.
