Safety
Why is safety #4 and not #1 when many places and organizations make safety their first priority? That is a great question. Are we trying to get people hurt to drum up business for the rehab side? No, not at all. The reason it is #4 and not #1, is that to me Safety is impled in everything we do.
As we train kids, safety is emplied in everything that we do. From the first test to the 25th visit, whether we are teaching an athlete a basic drill or loading an advanced drill, we do it safely. Safety is intertwined in everyting we do, and if we are doing our jobs correctly we can limit any unsafe situations. Effort, Consistency, and Focus on the other hand, are characteristics that we have little to no control over. This is the main reason why they rank higher.
Another reason, is that we limit our numbers at any given time so that we maintain a 3:1 athlete to coach ratio. We can't do 1-on-1 training, but this is as close as you can get. This helps ensure safety, and gives us more control to manipulate each workout on a daily basis so that we get the best results possible.
From a programming standpoint, again safety is implied. On our initial evaluaation, every athlete goes through the FMS. The FMS is a very valuable tool that tells us what movements each athlete can do safely and which movements have a likely hood of causing harm. This information is then used to help safely select appropriate exercises for each athlete. Alot of our athletes -and truthfully, mostly parents- want to do things that they consider "harder" in their workout. Every athlete has to earn the right to do a challenging exercise. Harder does not equal better - look at the staggering injury rates of some training facilities that hang their hats on being hard on their clients. More is only better when more is done correctly, otherwise injury risk rises.
So, while safety may be #4 on my list of rules it is the #1 thing we as a staff work on everyday without anyone really noticing it. But then again, who notices an athlete that doesn't get hurt while training or while taking part in their chosen activity?
Monday, October 24, 2011
Monday, October 17, 2011
Brandon's Rules of Training: Rule #3
FOCUS
"Concentration is the secret of strength" - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Random acts will lead to random results. I have talked about being consistent and about bringing a high level of effort, but both will be greatly enhanced by focusing on the task at hand. Just randomly going thru the motions of a training session will get some results, however by focusing on the task being performed those results will be improved.
Often times you will hear people refer to the "mind-muscle" connection, but isn't everything in the human body connected already? In martial arts, and in the kettlebell world, there is a focus on internalizing training. What this is is a deep rooted focus on the movement or the lift being performed, which ultimately leads to a higher quality of movement.
In our world,we get kids that come in to train with us after spending 8 hours at school, or from practice, or from something else that todays kids do. They are tired and mentally drained. On top of that, they are adolescents with an attention span that is alreay short on a good day - let alone when they are tired from other activities. This is reason #1 why we start every session with crocodile breathing. This is a moment to relax, and prepare for what they are about to begin - to "Re-focus" on the task at hand.
Focus gets better results than training volume. Actively being engaged in an activity is significantly different than mindlessly going thru the motions. This is a big reason why our programs tend to be shorter than expected - once the kids lose focus, the quality of movement begins to deteriorate and they are then just going thru the motions of the training session. Quality trumps quantity 100% of the time, and as soon as quality is gone it is better to move on to different things in the training program. This is one reason why we have a low athlete to trainer ratio - this gives us more contact with each kid so that we can modify programs as needed each day for each kid. Another reason why the workout of the day approach is flawed.
"Concentration is the secret of strength" - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Random acts will lead to random results. I have talked about being consistent and about bringing a high level of effort, but both will be greatly enhanced by focusing on the task at hand. Just randomly going thru the motions of a training session will get some results, however by focusing on the task being performed those results will be improved.
Often times you will hear people refer to the "mind-muscle" connection, but isn't everything in the human body connected already? In martial arts, and in the kettlebell world, there is a focus on internalizing training. What this is is a deep rooted focus on the movement or the lift being performed, which ultimately leads to a higher quality of movement.
In our world,we get kids that come in to train with us after spending 8 hours at school, or from practice, or from something else that todays kids do. They are tired and mentally drained. On top of that, they are adolescents with an attention span that is alreay short on a good day - let alone when they are tired from other activities. This is reason #1 why we start every session with crocodile breathing. This is a moment to relax, and prepare for what they are about to begin - to "Re-focus" on the task at hand.
Focus gets better results than training volume. Actively being engaged in an activity is significantly different than mindlessly going thru the motions. This is a big reason why our programs tend to be shorter than expected - once the kids lose focus, the quality of movement begins to deteriorate and they are then just going thru the motions of the training session. Quality trumps quantity 100% of the time, and as soon as quality is gone it is better to move on to different things in the training program. This is one reason why we have a low athlete to trainer ratio - this gives us more contact with each kid so that we can modify programs as needed each day for each kid. Another reason why the workout of the day approach is flawed.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Brandon's Rules of Training: Rule #2.
CONSISTENCY
"You are what you consistently do" is one of my favorite quotes. For good or for bad, whatever you do on a regular basis will have dramatic influence on the quality of your life.
From a training standpoint consistency is HUGE. If you do the greatest workout in the world once every month, then you are wasting your time. The human body needs a stimulus to adapt to in order to reach your desired performance goals. Whether you want to run faster, jump higher, lift more weight, or gain quickness you have to provide an appropriate training stimulus on a very regular basis. We ask all of our athletes to train with us at a minimum of twice a week. Is three times a week better? It depends on what the individuals goals are and the age of the athlete. Our young athletes (10-12 years old) can get away with training twice a week and seeing significant gains. Our older athletes (13+ years old) really need at least 2 training sessions a week to see any gains, and 3 a week to see greater gains.
If you combine Rule #2 with Rule #1 and are consistently training with a high level of effort, results are guaranteed - as long as you are following a sound training program (which, coincidently, is what we provide).
So, train hard on a regular basis and you will reach your goals. If you do that with us, your results will be amazing!
"You are what you consistently do" is one of my favorite quotes. For good or for bad, whatever you do on a regular basis will have dramatic influence on the quality of your life.
From a training standpoint consistency is HUGE. If you do the greatest workout in the world once every month, then you are wasting your time. The human body needs a stimulus to adapt to in order to reach your desired performance goals. Whether you want to run faster, jump higher, lift more weight, or gain quickness you have to provide an appropriate training stimulus on a very regular basis. We ask all of our athletes to train with us at a minimum of twice a week. Is three times a week better? It depends on what the individuals goals are and the age of the athlete. Our young athletes (10-12 years old) can get away with training twice a week and seeing significant gains. Our older athletes (13+ years old) really need at least 2 training sessions a week to see any gains, and 3 a week to see greater gains.
If you combine Rule #2 with Rule #1 and are consistently training with a high level of effort, results are guaranteed - as long as you are following a sound training program (which, coincidently, is what we provide).
So, train hard on a regular basis and you will reach your goals. If you do that with us, your results will be amazing!
Monday, October 3, 2011
Brandon's Rules of Training: Rule #1
EFFORT
Effort is the most important characteristic when it comes to getting better at any thing. Just walking thru the HealthTracks doors will not make you a better athlete. Walking thru the doors and giving your training program the same effort level that you practice your sport at will lead to the improvements you want to see. If you walk out the doors and you notice that you didn't sweat, that is probably an indicator that your effort level was a little too low for the day.
Each workout program is put together in a manner to address multiple goals each day. There is a layering of skills and a layering of athletic movement within each program specific to each athlete. We are 100% confident that the workouts written for each of our athletes are better than any other workout programs they can be doing. ANY! Whether their workout is at their high school, at home, from a magazine or the worst thing possible - The Workout of the Day (WOD). Are our workouts harder than any other workouts? No, but harder doesn't necessarily equal better. In fact, for middle school and early high school students harder workouts typically lead to more problems than better results. HARDER IS NOT BETTER! Regardless of the type of workouts being done though, if no effort is applied then no results will be seen.
Those athletes that train with us, train hard and leave some sweat on our floor -which we clean on a regular basis- get what they paid for: Results. They leave with results that are BETTER than our facility average.
We write the best possible program for each athlete - all we ask is that you come in and give us the best effort you can for the 60 minutes you are with us. Do that, and you will get the results you are looking for.
Effort is the most important characteristic when it comes to getting better at any thing. Just walking thru the HealthTracks doors will not make you a better athlete. Walking thru the doors and giving your training program the same effort level that you practice your sport at will lead to the improvements you want to see. If you walk out the doors and you notice that you didn't sweat, that is probably an indicator that your effort level was a little too low for the day.
Each workout program is put together in a manner to address multiple goals each day. There is a layering of skills and a layering of athletic movement within each program specific to each athlete. We are 100% confident that the workouts written for each of our athletes are better than any other workout programs they can be doing. ANY! Whether their workout is at their high school, at home, from a magazine or the worst thing possible - The Workout of the Day (WOD). Are our workouts harder than any other workouts? No, but harder doesn't necessarily equal better. In fact, for middle school and early high school students harder workouts typically lead to more problems than better results. HARDER IS NOT BETTER! Regardless of the type of workouts being done though, if no effort is applied then no results will be seen.
Those athletes that train with us, train hard and leave some sweat on our floor -which we clean on a regular basis- get what they paid for: Results. They leave with results that are BETTER than our facility average.
We write the best possible program for each athlete - all we ask is that you come in and give us the best effort you can for the 60 minutes you are with us. Do that, and you will get the results you are looking for.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Why Train with us?
This is the ultimate question - why should you spend your money to come train at HealthTracks when you can go to one of several other training facilities in Springfield or when you can train at school?
There are many people and facilities that claim to train youth, but do that as a sidebar to everything else they do - training adults, running group classes, or coaching a team. Most of these people mean well, but do not know how to train youth - and to be clear it is NOT the same as training adults. Unfortunately these well intentioned people have little to no knowledge in teaching basic movement skills, strength skills, and/or athletic development skills. This is reality - most youth are being trained by people not skilled in training youth.
We only train youth athletes. It is what we have done for the past 10 years and what we will continue to do. We have the experience and the expertise in training youth from all backgrounds, skill levels, and sports. We continue to advance and improve everything we do on a daily basis to better meet the goals of our athletes. We don't limit ourselves to one style of training but instead are very dynamic in our approach - which allows us to constantly grow and evolve in our techniques.
Additionally, our staff is largely made up of certified and licensed athletic trainers (ATC's). So while other places claim to do injury prevention by having their athletes stretch and do random corrective work - we don't. Our programs are individualized to each athlete based on what they want (their goals) and what they need (what we find in our initial evaluation). We develop a specific injury reduction -because this is the best you can hope for- plan based on on of our assessment tools.
Finally, we don't look to make every youth we train a great "Weight-room" athlete - that kid that sets records in the weight room but sits on the bench. Don't misunderstand that -being strong is very important. All things being equal, the stronger athlete will always win. However, in sports rarely are things equal - in fact most times winning comes down to exploiting weaknesses. How many times when watching football have you seen the bigger, stronger offensive linemen get dominated by a defensive end that is quicker, more agile, and has a better reation time? Our goal is to improve each youths athletic ability. That might mean we work on their strength, or we might work on fixing their true weaknesses - what we work on is specific to each kid. Our ultimate goal is to improve their athletic performance through our supplemental training program.
So if you want to train with a staff that specializes in training youth athletes, is constantly improving, and has proven results then HealthTracks Training Center is the place for you. The only question then is are you ready?
There are many people and facilities that claim to train youth, but do that as a sidebar to everything else they do - training adults, running group classes, or coaching a team. Most of these people mean well, but do not know how to train youth - and to be clear it is NOT the same as training adults. Unfortunately these well intentioned people have little to no knowledge in teaching basic movement skills, strength skills, and/or athletic development skills. This is reality - most youth are being trained by people not skilled in training youth.
We only train youth athletes. It is what we have done for the past 10 years and what we will continue to do. We have the experience and the expertise in training youth from all backgrounds, skill levels, and sports. We continue to advance and improve everything we do on a daily basis to better meet the goals of our athletes. We don't limit ourselves to one style of training but instead are very dynamic in our approach - which allows us to constantly grow and evolve in our techniques.
Additionally, our staff is largely made up of certified and licensed athletic trainers (ATC's). So while other places claim to do injury prevention by having their athletes stretch and do random corrective work - we don't. Our programs are individualized to each athlete based on what they want (their goals) and what they need (what we find in our initial evaluation). We develop a specific injury reduction -because this is the best you can hope for- plan based on on of our assessment tools.
Finally, we don't look to make every youth we train a great "Weight-room" athlete - that kid that sets records in the weight room but sits on the bench. Don't misunderstand that -being strong is very important. All things being equal, the stronger athlete will always win. However, in sports rarely are things equal - in fact most times winning comes down to exploiting weaknesses. How many times when watching football have you seen the bigger, stronger offensive linemen get dominated by a defensive end that is quicker, more agile, and has a better reation time? Our goal is to improve each youths athletic ability. That might mean we work on their strength, or we might work on fixing their true weaknesses - what we work on is specific to each kid. Our ultimate goal is to improve their athletic performance through our supplemental training program.
So if you want to train with a staff that specializes in training youth athletes, is constantly improving, and has proven results then HealthTracks Training Center is the place for you. The only question then is are you ready?
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