This last weekend we hosted the Rivals Northeast Five Star Showdown Combine at our facility. It was a great event showcasing the best football talent in the Northeast. We were extremely happy to be a part of it. There were great scores in the combine metrics, and some amazing performances in the positional drills.

One thing that struck me while spectating was the strength of performance I saw from athletes who were products of Athletic Republic programs, ours, and Blue Streak’s (Stamford, Conn facility). I got to hear the back story from trainers who had worked with them and hear about how their training had progressed. Even athletes who had come to the programs with a lot of natural strength or coordination made noteworthy gains.

What I was thinking through position drills and viewing of 40 yard dash attempts was that “we can help a lot of these athletes”. Our training could take these guys a lot further. I don’t say this in any way that takes away from strong athletes and strong performances. But I was struck by the fact that we could make significant impacts on these guys with our training, from running mechanics and form, to strength during multi-directional movement. The guys who had been through Athletic Republic programs showed appreciable advantage. I can say that without any “sell” intention as I myself asked numerous times “who is that guy?” only to be answered by “Oh, we trained him” uttered by a Blue Streak trainer.

We are committed to helping our athletes and making available the best training there is so we can send more athletes to these combines and into the upper ranks of athletics. Our program can do it. This weekend was real proof of that. These athletes were being looked over by the best coaches and scouts in the country. It was pretty exciting to see what can happen as a result of the work these athletes put in to the programs and the combined result.

Many times when speaking to our athletes and parents the question of sport specific training comes up. “Is this sport specific?“I often answer with a yes and no answer. At the core of our training is the principle of Athletic Performance. When distilled the concept of athletic performance versus sport specific performance is a very different one. Game specific skills and knowledge are the result of training, experience, and practice within that discipline. Athletic performance is the ability to perform within competitive situations with power, agility, balance, and body awareness, that can be applied to all sports. This is the result of a balanced body with good range of motion, strength, and flexibility. This is an important distinction to make because it makes what we do more clear.

Our treadmill training, plyometric training, strength training, and conditioning, all provide the foundation for athletic performance. As a result of our training programs our athletes have a comprehensive strength that will allow for performance in many disciplines.

During the course of training with us though, there are sport specific elements of training introduced and utilized. For example, our hockey treadmill provides stride refinement while also conditioning. We use slide boards and hockey specific strength exercises to build athletic performance specific to hockey. We also use throwing and hitting cords for baseball players, and soccer players.

The reason we think it important to make these distinctions is to provide the understanding that there is training that provides a foundation for athletic movement and performance, as well as training that reinforces or improves game/sport-specific skills and actions. We provide both, building a foundation of athletic performance so that sport specific training can have maximum impact. Our athletic abilities, once formed and reinforced, allow us to perform our sport specific skills at maximum potential. We cannot achieve sport specific strength until we achieve athletic strength.

One thing I see as a trainer and feel very strongly about communicating to my athletes, is the type of work they are doing in a given exercise. This entry will have some ties to my Form writing, so bear with me.

As I had said that correct form and execution of an exercise are critical, so to is the type of work, or the way we do it. For example, if we are jump pressing on one of our presses, an extremely explosive action, the work is short and very intense. We are engaging a short acting high output energy delivery system and working to create explosive response in the athlete. This exercise is meant to be done with appropriate rest in between sets to allow for an all out maximal effort. Often times my athletes rush through these sets with the intention of working hard and quickly. Doing these quickly does require work.

Could we have jumped harder and with more explosion if we had some quality rest in between? Yes.
Is rest time going to vary with load and workout? Yes.

So talk to your trainer and gauge your own ability to recover so you know when to work and how to work EFFECTIVELY.

But I want QUALITY, not QUANTITY or QUICKNESS. There is a difference between producing enough force to jump the weight, and producing as much force as we are capable of, the latter being the goal of this exercise. Think about what you are doing, the proper technique, and mode of execution (explosive jump vs. press). And then execute accordingly. We get out, what we put in. Want to perform at 50%, train at 50%. Want to get explosive, then be explosive.

The above described concept applies to all exercise and scale of exercise. Just as we need to be aware of our quality of work within an exercise, we need to be aware of our quality of work within a workout, and in a week, and so forth….

Let’s address a problem that can arise. I often have my athletes ask to continue doing exercises post workout, and I applaud their drive and ambition. But let’s step back and examine this situation. One of a few things is happening. Perhaps the athlete did not communicate with me effectively so that protocol and workout structure accurately pushed their limits. Perhaps that athlete didn’t execute with the right effort during prescribed exercises and “has something left in the tank”. And lastly, perhaps they simply desire to do more. In all of these situations we may not be training efficiently. When it’s time to work, work. When it’s time to rest, rest. Do both totally and completely. Athletes often push for too much and too long and we quickly slide into over training.

When we think about how much more work to do, or what other work to do on a given workout day, think about how it will impact each workout. If you lift heavy before a hard run, you may be limiting your ability to perform during that run. And vice-versa, your lift will suffer after a hard run and a jump press workout. In either case the take away is this, more work is NOT always BETTER work. When training to achieve a desired outcome (explosive strength or movement) we need to train that motion or function right? (everyone is nodding yes if they’ve been following…). If we are incapable of that training because we did too much other work, or if we just don’t perform the training in the correct way, we don’t achieve the outcome.

What do I want my athletes to do or learn? Work Hard AND Smart. Work right.

Effective training delivers the outcome as efficiently as possible, meaning shortest path to the desired result or maximum gains per work done. What athlete wouldn’t want to train that way….?

I wanted to take a minute and talk about our running treadmills. At first glance they may appear as industrial versions of their more familiar health club brethren, not so….And the “they’re really fast, and really high” description bestowed upon them by first time viewers is far too narrow.

Their specifications allow for higher speeds, and higher inclines than anything else out there, true.

Still this is not the source of their importance to us. They are for us an invaluable training tool for athletes. They bring to us a controlled teaching environment for a dynamic, whole body, motion. We are able to teach, correct, coach, and cue, right next to an athlete as they work. Feedback is the name of the game and the real power here is that it is instant. Visual feedback happens both during the run, and after via a delayed capture on film. Audible feedback occurs as we coach the athletes and speak to them. Tactile feedback occurs as we can help to correct form and position directly through manipulation. And lastly the athlete-instructor feedback that occurs as an athlete responds to any and all cues from the coach. Again the power is on the fly feedback to the athlete.

Why do we use the treadmills? Glad you asked…We use the treadmills to train from “the center out”. One of the most unifying weaknesses across athletes is hip girdle strength. Be it a young athlete who hasn’t developed the strength yet, or a seasoned athlete who has developed an imbalance, a lack of flexibility, or compensation patterns, the treadmill is the most effective way for us to train the hip girdle. Coming back to “train like we play” the treadmill trains us through running, and we have evolved to be runners, so we train the motion. By training the motion in this controlled environment we achieve increased flexibility and dynamic strength by incrementally increasing required output from the athlete through ranges of motion and power produced. The result is the ability to put power into the ground in a game speed situation; translation….on field/in game performance.

Keep checking back as we write about more specific workouts and mechanics of running on the treadmill.

Stretching is one of the most often neglected and misunderstood components of athletic well-being and training. When? How much? How long? What kind? These are all questions about it that need to be asked by the athlete and then thought through with their trainer or coach. The short answer is there’s no “right” answer for everyone. At a base level a dynamic warm up that prepares your body for movement is a must. Anywhere from 5-10 minutes of continuous activity involving all the major muscle groups and moving through their relevant ranges of motion is suggested. Good rules of thumb are breaking a sweat, elevating heart rate, and a moderate workload. This allows our muscles and body to physiologically prepare for the load of training by pushing blood to our muscles and beginning the engagement of our energy delivery systems. Secondly, it serves as a great diagnostic tool for us pre-workout. We can watch for areas of tightness, joint pain or tenderness, or delayed response from a prior workout (I’m still recovering from the last workout). Body awareness is the goal and a hallmark of every athlete dedicated to moving their potential forward.

The goals of stretching are to increase, and maintain, ranges of motion for the muscles and joints. Flexibility is KEY. If our muscle can deliver a certain force through a range of motion the result is an amount of work done. Increasing that range of motion and keeping force constant increases the amount of work done. Flexibility contributes to performance!!! Being loose is enormously important as one of our biggest inhibitors can be our own muscles. Example, I can’t raise my knee higher during a sprint because I have extremely tight hips or hamstrings. In this example the knee can’t rise to full height and therefore the muscle has to contract through a decreased range of motion in the extension motion which results in a slower overall speed or decreased ability to deliver force into the ground. Maximum potential can’t be achieved if your own muscles are fighting against each other before dealing with the stresses of the motion being performed.

The body is a fluid and constantly adjusting system affected by health, mood, hydration, and many other factors. Our lifestyles of recent which involve sitting, and driving, and working in a chair, predispose us to limited ranges of motion because……..WE DON’T MOVE!! Flexibility has to be worked on and achieved so that the body can perform in the multi-plane requirement of motion that is athletics.

So the take away is remember to stretch!! Do not ignore it and at the very least stretch post workout. Always stretch when you’re warm. Get moving and limber, and then perform your stretching routine. Also remember that resistance training and watching your FORM is an excellent way to promote functional flexibility (attained when you ask the body to perform a task under load through incrementally increased ranges of motion ex. dead-lift from floor, squat with weight.

TO BE CONTINUED….

“Form gets many definitions in the dictionary. One which I liked for this entry is “the essence of something“. When we coach form or speak of it in regards to an exercise our desire is to impress upon the athlete a fundamental understanding of the exercise or movement occurring.  We coach to form in order to safely and efficiently achieve the desired training goal.

Too often people and athletes at gyms “go through the motions”. The questions “why am I doing this exercise?” and “what cues am I looking for?” should always be going through your head while performing an exercise. If I am working to improve explosive strength should I do slow moving exercises or weights that I can barely move? Am I heading toward a different goal than intended?….If I am working to strengthen a particular muscle group or motion I need to be sure that I am effectively isolating or targeting, and then safely stressing the fundamental motion.

How often have we heard “train like you play”? This old adage is quite accurate. Train the motion you are trying to play with, or speed, or strength, and so on.

The goal is to think about everything you’re doing. Don’t just look at a sheet and do some approximation of the next exercise. Think about how it applies to your sport and how that should affect your performance of the exercise. USE FEEDBACK. Mirrors are excellent aids for form as we learn kinesthetic awareness (feel or awareness of our body moving through space–coordination). Listen to your trainers and make adjustments accordingly. If they don’t provide feedback, ask for it. How about now? How about now? Is this right?

Use each rep or set as a chance to improve and be constantly evaluating yourself as the set is being completed. The take away is that form leads to maximum performance. Form cues are to help protect the body, and align it for maximal work output in the given exercise. Learn form, and you will be able to progress toward your potential. Pick up bad habits and leave them uncorrected, and you may progress, but at some point you will take several steps back to correct the form, and also address the possible imbalances or compensations developed as a result of “cheating”.

Learning to identify the “essence” of the exercise or motion will help you to better execute it and exert your strength most effectively. Remember, form counts for more than weight or reps. The body will naturally cheat to use other muscle groups when it can find a bio-mechanical advantage presented as a result of imbalances within us (this is why so many people look different when doing similar exercises–push ups, pull-ups, bench press). We all have slightly different strengths and weaknesses and correct form helps us to strengthen our body or muscle groups in accordance with the way they have evolved to function, which results in efficiently achieving maximum performance.

So….How’s your form?”