The 3-hour window for MUSCLE gain...

Willis is talkin' bout eating... A LOT!

Hormones are what dictate what our body does. Hormones regulate our body temperature, our metabolism, our balding patterns, and our sleep/wake cycles. Hormones do everything in our body. They are basically the central control system. Whenever we do something, hormones are released. 

From a fitness standpoint, this has HUGE implications! When we workout and lift heavy, our body releases growth hormone (GH), testosterone, insulin-like growth factors (IGF's), cortisol and catecholamines. These are all necessary for increasing muscle mass, especially in high school aged athletes. These hormones serve to prime the muscle for growth and repair to allow the muscle to perform beyond what it was previously capable of.

But in order for the body to build muscle, there has to be material to build it with. Also because this is a prime time to build we really want to cram the muscle cells with plenty of fuel. 

The "gate keeper" that regulates fuel delivery to the cells is insulin. Without insulin, there won't be much fuel deliver to the muscles. So after each workout, all athletes need to eat food that A)stimulates insulin release and B) gives us material to build with.

The foods that satisfy requirement A are simple carbohydrates. Now normally I recommend that athletes stay away from simple carbohydrates outside of a post-workout period. But since we are talking post-workout, i'll allow some simple carbs. Foods that are simple carbs are breads, cereals, bagels, fruit juices, jelly. 

So the carbs give us an insulin release and some fuel to get into the muscle. But we also need protein. The best protein post workout is whey (pronounced WAY) protein. Whey is a fast digesting protein that also has a substantial insulin release with it. But if whey protein just isn't practical, then milk is a good back up plan.

But here is where things get really important for muscle building. During exercise, muscle breakdown occurs. The longer you wait after exercise to get some carbs/protein into the body, the more breakdown occurs. Also, the longer you wait the lower the level of muscle building, or anabolic, hormones decreases. The body needs to be fed when these hormones are at high tide!

So there is 3-hour window that carbs/protein must be eaten. After this 3 hour window, the levels of anabolic hormones have decreased to a point that eating a large meal of simple carbs will be stored as fat rather than used to rebuild muscle. 

Good post-workout meals are:

• 1 cup of non-fat yogurt + 1 cup of granola
• 1 cup of chocolate milk
• banana/strawberry/ yogurt smoothie
• 1 cup of cereal + 1 cup of milk
• peanut butter + jelly sandwich
• peanut butter + banana sandwich

These are just a few meals that would help to build muscle post-workout. 

In summary, workout with high effort, eat well following workouts and outside of that 3 hour window stick to protein and fruit/veggie combinations. This way your athletes will build muscle without burning fat .

First thing in the off-season...

Poor nutrition will minimize off-season gains

High school and junior league football seasons are either over or coming to a close. So now its time to start thinking about what to do in the off-season. Most people immediately think weight lifting. But there is something else that if not taken care of, will quickly reduce off-season performance:The first thing that needs to be done is to evaluate what your kids are eating.

Sure everybody wants to talk about sports training and weight lifting to get ready for the next sports season. But in honesty now is the time to look at the nutrition habits of your athletes, and even your family.

Here are some simple rules to follow when putting together a weekly menu for you and your young athletes.

4 days of lunch done.

1. Make sure your kids eat a breakfast of grains and protein. A quick and easy breakfast for them is to have some Wheaties, Cheerios or All-Bran with a sliced up banana or some berries tossed in for some sweetness.
2. Have them take their lunch to school. One thing you can do to spice up their lunches is to grill 4-5 pieces of chicken on Sunday afternoon and then they have a great source of muscle building, fat burning protein to take to school. Chicken is so universal you can do make a laundry list of great lunches using grilled chicken. 
3. Have a bowl of fruit sitting out around the house and challenge your family to eat it all before the week is up. Fruit is not meant to last weeks on end. So you should be shopping for fruit on a weekly basis.
4. Have mixed nuts in a small bag that your kids can take to school and munch on. Kids should be eating every 3-4 hours. If they have a healthy snack on hand they are much more likely to eat a healthy snack rather than the junk that's floating around their school.
5. Buy your kids an BPA free water bottle to take to school. Water is essential for the body to function. And most kids aren't getting NEAR enough. Again, if they have a resource on hand, they are much more likely to use it.

These tips will help ensure your young athletes stay well nourished during the day and are also fueled up when game time arrives. 

Check the link to the right for the "Athlete Nutrition BluePrint" from physical therapist and strength coach Jeff Cavaliere. He's put together an awesome program that will put your athletes on the path to success.

The forest and the trees...how to treat an overuse injury

Many athletes who play a single sport will begin to develop an injury. I use the term "WILL" because it is almost a certainty that if an athlete performs the same motions over and over, certain "links in the chain" will begin to breakdown due to being used too much. 

Delivery car? You mean delivery "trike."

Think of a delivery car that drives in stop-go traffic every day for 8-10 hours per day, for the life of it. Now compare that to a car that is used to drive to work, sits in the parking lot and then is driven home at the end of the day. In addition this car is used on longer trips up and down the interstate highway on an every other month basis.

Young athletes who play the same sport year round are basically driven like that delivery car. Eventually the hardware is going to break down from being overused. 

Usually at that point parents become very concerned with their child's injury and are scavenging the internet looking for solutions. 

Here's a quick tip: look at the injury. Its called an "overuse" injury for a reason. Assuming that no structural damage has been done, the primary way to let an overuse injury heal is to stop doing whatever they were doing. 

Lets say we've got a baseball pitcher experiencing shoulder pain. The young athlete will most likely want to know how he can rehab but still pitch. Or sometimes the parent wants a second look at their child's mechanics because "they have to be doing SOMETHING  wrong, right?"

The truth is even major league pitchers get 4-5 days between starts. Yet many young kids will have a busy summer tournament schedule and pitch every other day.

How many pitches am I at coach?

Some will counter that with, "well they aren't throwing as hard or as many pitches as major league pitchers!" I will respond with the obvious statement that these are not 25 year-old men who are pitching every other day, nor do they have the bone density, muscular density or muscular endurance to tolerate that throwing schedule. In addition to that, many coaches and parents don't even know how many pitches their kids throw in a game. Do they count warm-up pitches before each inning? These things need to be considered.

The first response by ANY parent, coach or doctor to an overuse injury is to stop doing what you were doing. Don't get so overwhelmed by the injury, its possible treatments and the "threat" it poses to a 10- year old's "college potential" and let your kids heal. Stop looking for the forest past the trees. It's right in front of you.

Let your child play multiple sports throughout the year. This will prevent many overuse injuries on its own. A child who is playing baseball in the spring, football in the fall and basketball in the winter will RARELY have any overuse injuries.

I hate seeing kids not being able to play the game they love. But us as parents need to know that overuse injuries are almost certain if we don't give our kids a significant time off during the year to heal, recover and develop other motor skills Your kids will thank you as will their long term health and enjoyment of a sport..

How to WRECK your swing in the on-deck circle...

Every player wants to have every swing be their best. Every batter should be standing in the on-deck circle preparing for the next at-bat to be their best.

But many hitters in both softball and baseball are wrecking their swing in the on-deck circle. How?

Two ways. The first is by taking half-hearted swings. From a motor learning standpoint, any movement has what is called a General Motor Program, or GMP. That GMP has what are called parameters that are constantly refined to execute the skill. Think of parameters like lane markers on a highway. They tell you where to drive.

But if you change the parameters, such as changing the weight of a bat, or the center of mass of the bat, then you will change how the program is executed. When a player simply goes through a half-hearted swing in the on-deck circle, they are training their muscles to move at that speed. So when they get up to bat, their first swings are going to be slower because they have just changed the speed at which the GMP is executed.

As a result of using a batting donut, a player gets up to bat and now their swing mechanics are altered and the first couple of swings are not as efficient as they could be. In addition, adding a batting donut distributes that extra weight unevenly through the bat. 

The concept behind using a heavier bat is called "post-potentiation activiation." In layman's terms it says that you'll use more fibers faster after performing a few repetitions when weighted. However, as I just stated above, using a donut adds too much weight and as a result changes the mechanics of the swing. 

So how can you use the on-deck circle to its maximal potential? Here are 3 suggestions.

1. Use the on-deck circle to actually warm up. You can do some light stretches to loosen up and then 5-8 quick "squat jacks" to prep your body for quick lightning fast muscle recruitment. Also work on hip rotations to groove the movement pattern of that "perfect swing."
2. Get rid of the batting donuts and simply have multiple bats with a range of 4-5 oz. Using a bat that is slightly heavier (2-3 oz) will give you the post-potentiation effect without altering the motor program.
3. Swing the bat as hard as you can with each swing. Each time you take a swing, you are refining the motor program of the swing - you either improve your swing, or degrade your swing. Make every swing the "perfect" swing.

The magic bullet for speed and agility is....

I recently read an article by one of my favorite strength coaches, Mike Boyle. I have a handful of his instructional DVD's as well as his most recent book "Advances in Functional Training." 

In his article he stated that so many people are looking for the "magic bullet" to speed and agility. Some people think it's the speed ladder. I mean, it isn't called a speed ladder for nothing right?

While the speed ladder does improve coordination and rhythm, it isn't the magic bullet.

Still other coaches thought that the key to speed and agility was the resistance parachute. So these became all the rage. And for good reason. They provide resistance, but not so much resistance that it changes an athletes running mechanics. But alas, the speed chute was used, but players did not become more agile.

So what is the "magic bullet"? The magic bullet is a quality training program that addresses:

• Ankle, hip and thoracic spine mobility
• Knee, low back and shoulder stability
• teaches basic movement patterns such as a lunge, squat, push, pull, and hip rotation
• Corrects muscle tightness and poor posture
• Teaches the body to move quickly with minimal self-imposed resistance

Basically training athletes is like working on a car - adding a new engine won't give the car top performance if the suspension is horrible. Likewise a new suspension won't do as much as if the tires were improved. And last but not least, if the driver is not competent, then the car won't drive well no matter what you do.

Developing a quality athlete requires development of all skills, not JUST those used in a specific sport. Think about the last post I wrote about the multi-sport athlete. The multi-sport athlete is a rare specimen these days. Yet, they are often the most coveted athletes by scouts, coaches, colleges and pro teams.

The magic bullet is activity. Let your kids play and play a lot. Oh yeah, and let them play with minimal interference from coaches, parents and a ton of rules. Let them make their own rules and settle their own conflicts on the field. They need it to grow not only physically, but also emotionally and psychologically.

The magic bullet is really a toolbox filled with tools that is used to tune the car. When you add tools to the box, you become much more valuable and usable. 

In addition, when a player has a toolbox full of tools, they can attack any problem and be successful. Isn't that what you want for your kids?

Don't hijack your player

Remember growing up and being the athlete who played a sport in the fall, another in the winter and another in the spring?

What happened to that athlete?

When did an athlete become a baseball player? And why do we encourage athletes as young as 8 to be single sport all-star's? 

The other day I was talking with an athlete who usually plays baseball, but wanted to play football and is now prepping for soccer. He said he really enjoys playing all of those sports but because there are so many factors involved, he was going to stick with one sport. 

What are some of these factors?

• Coaching pressure
• Peer pressure
• Parental pressure
• Niavity

Face it, coaches can be a bit demanding. Others still are very demanding and have the potential to place an unusual amount of pressure on players. They sometimes say silly things like, "If you don't play for our team this fall, you won't be able to play on our team in the spring." I've heard it from some of our athletes. 

Now sometimes things like this are said because coaches don't want to lose the player. But sometimes the coach says this to manipulate the player into staying. Essentially saying, the only way the player's position is secure is if you don't leave. So what is a 14-year old to do?

They stay. They give up the fun the used to have playing multiple sports because they have just been "caged in" by the coach.

Other ways that players are manipulated is by peer pressure. They want to stay on the club team because their friends are all on the club team. If this is the case, then it should be the coaches responsibility to give the team some time off - a minimum of two months spread out through the year (weekends don't count!).

Parents sometimes add to the pressure by constantly talking about scholarships and college and the "pride they feel" that their child is playing on an "elite" team. Sometimes the kids don't even have to be near. But if a mom tells her friend that her 11 year-old son is planning on playing baseball in college and that comes back around to the child, there is pressure now that the child does not want to disappoint the parent. 

If you are one of these parents, make sure you let your child know that your pride in them and love for them is not based on how well they do in sports or whether or not they go to college on a scholarship. You may think your kid knows that you love them regardless of sport. But I've never seen a kid struggle with a sport because their parents say "I love you" too much. And don't just say it after a game. That's bad timing. Tell them you love them in their worst moments and in their best. Tell them always.

Kids need security. A secure child will develop an internal love for the sport if they are secure in their standing with their parents. Emotional need have to be met. Otherwise a child will play a sport simply as a means to get some attention from the parent. 

Coaches should do the same. Make sure your players know that you care about them, their future and their well being. They will be much more likely to respect you and play hard for you. One way to show them you care about their well being is to mandate some time away from the sport. 

A club coach came to me one afternoon and told me he mandated that his team take 1-month off after a heavy summer tournament season. He said the players actually didn't want the break. But he made it a requirement. A month later he said his team came back hitting better than ever. 

Why? 

They were able to decompress and unload all the pressure that had been building on them over the summer. When his team resumes practice, you can bet his team will come back hitting better than ever. 

Give them time off. Time time away and time to do something different. They will return with the vigor you saw when they first started.

Get big or die tryin'....

This is the weight room motto that so many high school coaches live by. They think if their players aren't getting huge, then obviously the kids are failing, not putting in enough effort and will never end up as quality athletes.

But what is this telling the kids who enjoy working out, who enjoy seeing themselves get stronger (but maybe not bigger) and who really like playing sports but happen to be a "late bloomer"? It is at this point where I think many high school coaches who supervise a weight lifting program, tend to lose their focus.

The first goal of any strength and conditioning program should be keeping their players safe and in full function. Yet so many lose focus on the fact that squatting is not JUST about lifting as much weight as possible, but is instead about TEACHING a solid movement pattern, and then slowly and progressively loading it to stimulate muscle growth.

Far too often coaches are saying, I don't care how you do it, just squat it! I have a freshmen baseball player who is working out in the mornings with his coaches and I can't believe the exercises that I am hearing they do and also the loads/weight they are using.

At such a young age, players need to develop quality movement skills instead of focusing on "getting huge." Yet coaches everywhere are concerned with their players not being big enough. Hypertrophy (increase in muscle size) is difficult to come by for even grown men. So to put that much emphasis and pressure on younger athletes is something that should not be done. 

Body builders usually have poor flexibility, chronic injuries of the shoulders and knees and are not very well equipped for sports other than posing on stage.

Encourage young athletes to get stronger, but don't be surprised if they don't get a whole lot bigger. Strength comes from the muscle(s) functioning better as a unit. Hypertrophy may be a side effect, but it should not be the outright goal. Training for muscle size has its own sport: body building.

6 Steps to a Better Athlete - Part 2: Agility

What is agility? If you had to explain it to a parent, could you? Sure most coaches have heard of an agility ladder, but what is it exactly that you are attempting to teach with an agility ladder?

Agility is simply the ability to accelerate for a given distance, decelerate, change direction and re-accelerate.

Teaching agility doesn't require any fancy tools or devices, just a sound understanding of what it is and what physiological principle it relies on. Once that is understood, the practical application of that principle is a piece of cake.

Agility relies on the same principle as plyometric exercise does: the stretch shortening cycle (SSC). The SSC is a series of actions that occur within a muscle. When a quick stretch is placed on a muscle it will contract quicker than if the muscle were held in a stretch and then shortened. 

This is not to say that you train agility in the same way that you train for jump height, just that the principle is the same. Basically, the muscle can contract quicker when it is quickly stretched and then released with a muscle contraction. 

Here is a way i explain it to our young athletes. I got this from Mark Verstegen and it is a terrific way to explain it to kids and parents alike. 

Place your hand flat on your chest with your palm against your chest. Now lift your middle finger down and slam it against your chest as hard and as fast as you can. Pretty quick. But now what I want you to do is take the thumb from your other hand and lift the middle finger of the hand that is on your chest to a quick stretch and then move your thumb. That middle finger comes down a lot quicker. 

The thing is, you didn't have to think about it. Instead the mechanics of the muscle caused it to contract quicker. So in a practical sense, you have to teach the muscle to move faster. 

However, there is one thing that must be considered when training for agility: deceleration. Being able to hit full speed and then decelerate is a very complex skill, one that most kids do incorrectly in a sport setting. 

Now most deceleration takes place by loading only a single leg as that leg is planted and then pushed off of in another direction. One exercise you can do to improve deceleration and strength is a single leg hop to squat. 

Have your players balance on a single leg then jump up. As they come back down have them sink into a single leg squat and tough their shoe laces. This should really open your eyes as to which kids are going to be the most agile. 

Athletes basically have to slow themselves down like a car going from 60-0 mph. This means not only controlling their own body weight, but also controlling the inertia created by their body weight. 

Another exercise that you can use is a lateral bound to squat. This is a similar exercise but focuses more on lateral deceleration. I hope your catching the major concept of agility here. 

To perform the lateral bound, have the athlete balance on a single leg and then jump laterally to the other leg, where upon landing they will squat and touch their shoe lace. Now remember that a squat must come from the hips. If the athlete simply bends at the waist, then this is not going to be very effective and will actually encourage a bad, BAD habit.

Continue to enforce control upon landing, making sure that the foot is perpendicular to the direction of travel. This will make sure the glutes are used in both deceleration and reacceleration.

Stay tuned for the next post as we talk about rhythm and how to incorporate it into your practices for improved movement, speed and agility!

Is a pitcher REALLY an athlete?

A lot of people have a difficult time justifying the use of the word "athlete" when it comes to pitchers. There logic states that if a guy can be 40 lbs overweight and be a "professional" is it really an "athletic" position? Or is it simply an athletic skill? 

In other words, what does it really take to be a pitcher?

If we watch pitchers, most of the time they simply chuck and duck. But then consider what they need to be able to do after they duck: they may have to field the ball, sprint to first, sprint to back-up home or even dive to get out of the way of a ball.

That's quite a lot! 

So we've identified what a pitcher has to be able to do in addition to throwing. And there are many great pitching coaches who can teach a player how to pitch. But do coaches ever work on actually playing the position?

That is something that may require a bit more skill. When you have to react that quick, that infrequently, there may be some additional training that is necessary. First off, simply reaction time is start. But don't go trying to hit line drives right at your athletes for the sake of reaction time training. There are safer ways to go about it

The second part of this should be footwork and foot speed. Improving a pitchers foot speed is paramount in allowing them to react quickly to the ball as well as find the bag when covering first or field a ball that comes to them. 


These are very underrated qualities in a pitcher. Many people tend to forget that as soon as the ball leaves his hand, he is a position player. As such, his training should reflect that. Foot speed can be developed by using low boxes, agility drills, ladder drills, partner mirror drills and rapid response-to-sprint drills.


At Pair & Marotta Peak Performance this is what we do. We train players to be athletes, not just pitchers. We currently have our Off-Season Baseball/Softball Training Camp that meets on Monday, Wednesday and Friday's from 3:30-5pm. If you've got the desire to improve your foot speed, reaction time and agility, then we've got the program that will do it.


For more information, contact me at aaron@pairmarotta.com or call 661-912-9991.

6 steps to a better athlete: Part 1 - how do they learn?

There are multiple parts to agility: rhythm, coordination, balance, flexibility, body awareness, reaction time. All of these can be trained to improve ANY athletes performance. But how?

For the next 2-weeks I am going to take you through the importance of each of these components so that you can take these concepts and use them in your practices.

But to start we need to learn how an athlete learns a skill. 


First off, there are different types of learning styles. Some people are visual learners that learn by watching, others learn by listening or reading. And still others learn by doing. However, most people and especially kids, are a good combination of the 3. 


My experience has shown me that as kids get older they tolerate, appreciate, and pay more attention to audible teaching. However, younger kids (under12) tend to be more visual and kinesthetic learners (do-ers). 


For younger athletes they are at such a prime age that their brain is ripe for basically writing codes for how to perform a movement. So expecting perfection within the first few attempts is not realistic. They know what it should look like (visual learning) and they then try to mimic that movement. 


However, since there is no prior motor program for this movement skill, it's bound to look a little sloppy. But give them time. This is the one thing I see so many coaches focus on: immediate success. With the pressure to be perfect you can almost assuredly push a youth athlete away from a sport. Let them learn from movement. 


When they appear to be struggling, help them move through the motion. Put their body in the correct position. As I stated in the previous post, you have to groove a quality movement before you can expect perfection. With that being said, learning is not immediate. Heck , it may take 2-4 weeks or longer before a movement is learned. 


But stay away from simply rehearsing the one skill. Research shows that kids learn better in short bursts of information rather than one massive "info-bomb." Spend 5-10 minutes on a skill, then move to another. Then come back to it. You'll keep attention much better and as a result improve retention of the skill.

Groovin' the movement

This is a quick post about learning. Many, many parents of athletes, particularly baseball and softball, choose to use weighted balls and bats in order to "make their kids stronger." 


On the surface, this makes sense. But if you look a little deeper into what there body is learning to do, you'll see that often that the intricate  motion of throwing is changed when a heavier ball is used. 

Nobody follows through like that at the plate!

Watch a player swing a bat with a donut on it, does that swing look like the swing they are going to take when they walk to the plate?  From watching youth baseball, I would hope that player doesn't take his "on-deck weighted" swing with him to the plate!

The same principle needs to be used when teaching movement to younger athletes. They are at such a prime learning age, it makes no sense to refine mechanics and then all of a sudden switch to a heavier or lighter weight that might disrupt that pattern.

What we do in our sports training is similar in concept. For kids up to age 12-13, we do minimal weight lifting. instead we focus on developing body control and awareness through body weight exercises. Then we simply try to groove the correct movements into a motor skill that can be executed without thought, essentially making the movement a "sure thing."

In summary, if you've got a younger athlete who appears to be excelling in a given sport or movement, don't confuse them by throwing another variable at them. Instead, groove that quality pattern, keep refining it over and over. Then when they get to 14-15 years old, then we can start adding some external resistance.

I don't teach athletes how to jump...

It never fails that people want to know how much their athletes vertical leap will improve IF they enroll our training programs. If they don't like the answer they get they usually brush me off and head off looking for somebody that will give them the answer they are looking for.


So in reality many parents are simply asking a question of my ability. But a parent or coaches concerns about my ability should not lie in whether I can improve their vertical jump, but whether I can keep them injury proof. Here is why.


I WON'T TEACH YOUR ATHLETE TO JUMP, UNTIL THEY KNOW HOW TO LAND.


If a skydiver can't land, should he really be jumping out of a plane?


The majority of non-contact knee and ankle injuries come from improper foot placement during deceleration/landing or from inadequate joint stabilization during landing. Either way, the problem is during the landing.


I have been researching hamstring strains in sprinters and even in those cases, the hamstring is never injured on the pull through, but rather is injured immediately after the heel strike following the flight phase.

Soccer Player Cutting

So if you want to keep your players safe, teach them how to land. Teach them how to decelerate and teach them that having a high vertical leap, possessing a fast shuttle run and having a lightning quick T-test is only a result of proper deceleration training - the same type of quality training that we focus on in our "Bullet Proof Your Knees" Soccer Camp.


We are starting tomorrow and still have a handful of spaces available. The camp meets on Tues/Thurs from 4-5pm for 6 weeks. For only a $120 investment, your athlete will come away more agile, quicker, and most importantly, with a much lower risk of non-contact injury!


For more information send me an email at aaron@pairmarotta.com.

What your squat says about your injury potential

A squat is the most simple of movements. But at the same time it is the most complex. And because it is the most complex, how you squat tells a lot about how your body is working. 

http://www.elon.edu/images/e-web/athletics/strengthconditioning/sc9.jpg

Each joint has to control force from a handful of different muscles pulling on it in different directions. A simple way to envision this is a telephone pole being held up by stabilizing lines to keep it straight up. If one of those lines were to be released, what would happen to the pole? It would lean into the direction that still has the lines attached.

The same thing goes on in the joints of the body. However, because the knee is the joint of two long bones (femur, tibia) it is particularly important that this joint has muscles pulling with equal force in each direction. The squat tells us all we need to know about how a player controls the motion at the knee and the hips.

However, for many youth soccer players, equivalent strength isn't the case. Often times the quadriceps are the strongest muscle acting on the knee while the hamstrings and gluteal muscles of the hip have the greatest input into controlling the lateral motion and rotation at the knee. 

ACL tears are most common in female soccer

The knee is meant to flex and extend forward and backward. However, there is very little room for movement from side to side or for the tibia to rotate under the femur. The gluteal muscles and hamstrings help control these motions. However, so many soccer players are not strong enough in the gluteal or hamstring muscles to prevent excessive movement in these planes of motion.

This is how the dreaded ACL sprain/tear occurs. A combination of the femur shifting forward on the tibia, the tibia rotating outward under the femur and the knee caving inward towards the other knee. It's what I call the Perfect Storm. The reason this is the perfect storm is that it is the most vulnerable position for a player to be in. At that point, the player has the least amount of muscle recruitment and control over what happens next. And inevitably, knee injuries will occur.

So how can you prevent this? Well the first step is to TRAIN your players on what the position of vulnerability looks like. After that you need to develop strength in the muscles that prevent these three motions from occurring. The final step is to train them how to change direction and decelerate effectively to keep themselves out of this position. Click on the picture to the right to read about how a promising soccer player's season and possibly career was cut short due to this nasty, but PREVENTABLE injury.

Knowing the types of exercises and skill sets to train to prevent ACL injuries are what we do here at Pair & Marotta Peak Performance. "Bullet Proof Your Knees" is a 6-week soccer pre-season program that focuses on developing hamstring and gluteal strength properly align the knee in a high speed movement. The "Bullet Proof Your Knees" camp starts Tuesday, August 30th and will run every Tuesday and Thursday from 4-5pm. For more information, email aaron@pairmarotta.com or visit www.pairmarotta.com/fitness.

Are we even doing this correctly?

How many youth coaches are training their players to be slower? 

How many want their kids to move like a sloth and then get absolutely juked out of their shoes as the opposing player runs right by them?

How many infielders want to have the range of a step and a fall? 

Certainly there are not any coaches who want their players to be SLOW. But many are unintentionally making their players slower!


You see the nervous system is a very plastic thing. Plastic is a fancy word. it's true. When something is plastic, it changes to take on the characteristics of its mold and then holds onto those traits.


So when the human neuromuscular system is considered plastic, it will take on the traits of whatever stress is placed on it. Most of us want our players to be fast. In order to do this we need to make sure that their movements are fast each and every time. Otherwise the neuromuscular system will begin to operate in the speed range of whatever speed is most often used.


Right now many of you are envisioning telling your players to constantly move fast. You're envisioning them moving faster than lightning and envisioning them doing it for the entire 90 minutes of your practice.


But there is a problem.


The human body cannot move as fast as possible for very long. And by very long I mean any longer than about :10. After that fatigue begins to set in. How do we combat that? By giving more than enough rest. So many coaches are of the mindset that kids are not making progress unless they are about ready to fall over from exhaustion.


If you want them to be great at running slowly for 90 minutes straight, then sure. keep them going. But you aren't going to get very good work out of them. Think about it. The team is running for "conditioning." They aren't moving very fast and they are doing hundreds, if not thousands of repetitions at less than maximal contraction speed. 


What exactly is this TRAINING them to do? Because that is what is being done. Just like we train horses how to run, jump and canter, we train kids bodies to move at a certain speed. Whether we intend to or not, it happens. So with every step, they are getting slower and slower.


To make athletes faster, you MUST present a stimulus that requires them to move as fast as possible (while still in control). Then give them plenty of rest so they can come back and give you another rep with 110%. 


This is something that we have developed over the past 5 years through research and through practical experience. We practice this in our FAST Forward and Movement First Programs. Don't believe me? Come try either class out for a week on me.


We start next week, August 30! Do not wait to sign up, we will only be taking 8 athletes for each of these groups. For more information, visit our website www.pairmarotta.com/fitness.

Send me an email at Aaron@pairmarotta.com and we will be sure to get you setup for a free week of workouts!

Do you have rhythm?

Many coaches, parents and players tend to go straight to the fancy plyometric training when they think sports training. But as we discussed in the last blog, that is a crucial mistake that can lead to injury at worst, poor performance at best. But if you really want to get faster, you must simply coordinate the body and muscles to move faster and more efficiently while minimizing wasted movement.

The best way to go about this is to develop rhythm. Rhythm is one of the foundations of agility.

Skipping is a quality power/rhythm exercise

One of the best way to teach rhythm is by doing a very basic motion, that surprisingly many kids and adults struggle with:

Skipping.

Skipping requires rhythm, coordination, power, timing, balance and strength. It's no wonder that quick skips are favorite of youth agility coaches everywhere. 

How can you plug this great exercise into your warm-up? It's pretty simple. Towards the end of your warm-up have your group skip 20-30 yards. But remember that skipping has to have a purpose. And remember there are many different ways to skip, each emphasizing movement patterns that are very useful in sport.

Start with short quick skips with the athletes pushing hard through the ankles only. 

Next have them do form skips, focusing on driving the knee up.

Next have them skip for height and distance. This one is a true power exercise. This is a good warm-up for a day emphasizing linear power development. But other ways to skip are backwards, sideways, sideways with a cross over, straight leg skips, single side high knee skips. Then if you've got a hill you can have them skip uphill. DO NOT SKIP DOWNHILL. The force placed on joints is simply too much and there isn't much technique or strength benefit from it.

Implement this drill with your athletes and you'll be amazed at how much it improves their speed, power as well as power!

PS/ Don't forget that our FAST Forward and Movement First programs are starting on August 30!! To sign up and improve the speed, agility, core strength and rhythm of your team or athlete, send me an email at aaron@pairmarotta.com. You can also visit www.pairmarotta.com/fitness for more information on our programs.

Progression: Getting the most from your athletes

Most athletes are go-getters. They'll do anything you ask them to do. And often times will do things you don't ask them to. When training them for fitness and performance though, a good coach will be careful not to do too much, too fast, too soon.

And this is where most athletes have a hard time keeping things at the right level. Far too often players want to literally jump right into whatever it is they are doing. They want to start with plyometrics and ladder drills and skip right over everything that lays the foundation for those fun exercises.

So here is a basic progression that you can use with your teams, your kids and your athletes.

Squat/Jump Progression

• Weeks 1-2 : perform basic body weight squats 3 sets of 20 reps (3 x 20) and hold each squat at the bottom for :03 seconds. Do this during each practice or 3 times per week.
• Weeks 3-4: perform a jump and hold the athletic position for :03 seconds upon landing. Perform 3 x5 - 3 days per week.
• Weeks 5-6: perform squat jumps and upon landing have the athlete take a small bounce before performing the next repetition. There will be no holding or pausing on the landing. Perform 3 x 8, 2 times per week.
• Weeks 7-8: perform repetitive squat jumps with no holding on the landing going right into the next jump 3 x 5 twice per week. Also have the athlete perform single leg squats with a toe touch, 2 x 12 each leg. Perform each of these exercises 2 times per week.

Remember, you have to have a plan in order to get the most out of your athletes as well as to prevent injuries. An excellent resource for this is David Sadler's DVD Plyometrics Training.  It's a terrific resource that shows you how to progress plyometrics for your young athletes.

We at Peak Performance take our athletes through a similar plyometric progression over a period of 12-16 weeks. This is how plyometrics should be taught. 

We want your young athletes to benefit from our years of experience and education. To sign up for our FAST Forward Program for high school age athletes or our Movement First Program for younger athletes, email me at aaron@pairmarotta.com.

A picture is worth a thousand words

Whenever we have new athletes come into our facilities, we do an assessment. This may not be an incredibly formal assessment, but nonetheless, we do one. 

One of the most beneficial assessments is to watch a person perform a basic movement pattern such as a squat, a pull up or a pushup. The reason these are so beneficial is because they are so difficult to do correctly if joints, muscles or body systems are out of order.

Lets take a look at a pushup. Most people think a pushup is an upper body exercise. But if you take a broader look, you see that a pushup requires an enormous amount of core strength and stability. Watch someone do a pushup. Does their lower back sag, hanging down close to the ground? Do they shrug their shoulders on the way down during a pushup, thus preventing their chest muscles from actually contributing much to the exercise?

What does a pull up say about an athlete?

These two things can tell you SO MUCH about your young athlete!! It tells us first off where we need to start with their exercise program, and second off it tells us if they are going to be more prone to injury! Now, who WOULDN'T want to know if their child was at an increased RISK OF INJURY??! 

But many youth sports trainers simply run kids through drills without considering how the child moves as a unit! 

In summary, your child's movement tells us so much about their ability level that it truly is worth a thousand words. Do you want to make sure your child gets every advantage they can when it comes to sports? Do you want to make sure they don't suffer ANY injuries during their competitive years? 

Then get them enrolled in our FAST Forward or Movement First training programs here at Peak Performance! We have programs starting on August 30th for both age groups at different times! I've seen it happen too many times, where parents put their kids into so many sports but don't give any thought to their fitness. Fitness is the foundation of sports! 

Sign up for FAST Forward or Movement First and give them every advantage possible!!

I don't know why I love you, but I do...

A few weeks ago I let the cat out of the bag and told you that although exercise is great for increasing strength, flexibility, cardiovascular health, ability to focus, energy production and heart health, it isn't your best bet for fat loss. What is? Lets say it together:

CHANGE MY EATING HABITS.

Great. Now that we are all on the same page lets look at what your priorities should be for fat loss

1. Nutrition
2. Interval training
3. Strength training
4. Traditional cardiovascular training

However, the something that should be included in the nutrition component is psychological training. Many people have psychological issues surrounding food and eating. Often they are emotional eaters who eat to feel better, or eat when they are anxious or perhaps even eat when they are bored. This doesn't even begin to mention how culturally we are conditioned to celebrate anything and everything by EATING.

I miss the days when people would have a dance party, or a slumber party or some other get together that didn't revolve around food. But now we celebrate Columbus Day by eating (okay, so maybe that's a bit far fetched, but not too far!) But I digress.

Take this next week to evaluate your eating habits. JOURNAL YOUR FOOD INTAKE THIS WEEK! See what times of day you eat, what types of foods you eat during the day and if there is any dramatic event that is associated with poorer choices in food.

Just make yourself a spreadsheet with the following labels across the top: "Time, Food, Quantity, Event?"

Then every time you eat something, put the time, the food, the quantity and list if there was any type of event or occurrence that may have led to the eating. If there was no event, then simply put which meal during the day it was for. If it was breakfast, type/write "breakfast". If it was snack, type/write "snack" in that column.

If you know why you are eating, you can get a better idea of how to control it and be the type of person who eats to live rather than lives to eat.

Have a great week off. The "Recovery Week Challenge" will be up Tuesday morning when I return from my motorcycle racing weekend!

Why am I doing this?

I've said it many times before. And I am going to keep saying it no matter how much parents don't want to hear it:

Developing movement skills, and thus athletic ability, is like developing any other skill - It takes time and there is a process. Just like there is a process to learning the rules of language.

So here at Peak Performance, we emphasize teaching skills through drills. Far too many sport coaches, whether they be volunteer or "professionals" are busy simply running kids through drills without teaching them the one thing that matters, WHY AM I DOING THIS DRILL?

You really have to make a conscious effort to teach kids how to move. So if you simply ask them to do a ladder drill. Yeah they will probably be able to do it, but if you can't teach them how it carries over to their sport, then you're simply making a "ladder" athlete (a kid who's great at ladder drills). And last time I checked, there wasn't a trophy or scholarships given out for being good at ladder drills.

At Peak Performance, we emphasize the big WHY. We want our athletes to know why they are doing a drill and what skill it is they are developing.

We want you as parents to know as well. So if there is ever a point that your young athlete comes to you and says, "we did such and such drill today...but I don't know why," PLEASE send me an email. I want you and your athletes to know what it is your kids are doing and why it is your kids are doing it.

Our Movement First Program will be starting on August 30th. This is for athletes ages 8-12 and the time is from 6-6:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Sign them up today!! The cost is $48. And trust me, this will be one of the best things you could do to develop their movement skills and thus, athletic ability!

Youth Sports Development

When people think of youth sports development, they often think of sports skill development such as improving their golf swing, curveball or jump serve.

But if you want to actually develop a young athlete, improving their movement is a MUST.

How can anybody possible think that a 14 year old who has minimal hip mobility, a tight upper back and a weak core can possibly hit a curveball by "working" on his swing? Take a step back and see what the is the basis of the swing?

Movement.

Teach kids to move more efficiently, with fewer biomechanical restrictions and you'll clean up the swing in a hurry without even working on the swing!

Our Summer Speed, Strength & Power Camp just passed the half-way point. Within the 2 different groups, there are 2 different groups split on ability level/age. Each group gets a slightly different workout. The youngest group is focused on exploring movement, learning what their bodies are capable of. The oldest group is refining movement and learning HOW to workout on their own. The other two groups are essentially one step ahead of the younger group.

This is the spectrum that needs to be followed. This is DEVELOPMENT. The younger athletes we are working with will one day be at the level of the older kids. But there is no way in heck that the 8 year-old's in our groups will be doing the same workouts as the 18 year old. The 8 year old is different than the 12 year-old, who is different than the 15 year-old who is different than the 18 year-old.

Train smart, train hard, train MOVEMENT FIRST.

Another success story of a Peak Performance athlete...

Over the course of the year I get quite a few updates about the players that we have trained. This year has been exceptionally well as we have had 4 of our seniors accept offers to play their respective sport in college.

However, today's update is about a high school softball player who will be playing for the Central Cal Intensity club softball team this summer. Cheyenne Rodriguez has been coming to us for a year and a half now. I first met Cheyenne at a New Year's Baseball/Softball Camp that we co-hosted at the end of 2008.

She signed up for our In-Season Baseball/Softball Program in January of 2009. She continued into the fall of 2009 and trained all the up to the start of softball season. Cheyenne has been one of the hardest working PLAYERS in our program! She has become one of the more explosive hitters on her team, consistently hitting the ball hard in every time she is up to bat.

We have worked to develop the connection between the amazing rotational power of Cheyenne's hips and the limitless potential of a strong core, to develop an amazing swing. This has been a work in progress. It wasn't a weekend camp, it wasn't hitting balls in practice over and over. It was teaching Cheyenne how to develop power and transfer through her core to her arms using medicine ball rotational hip throws, cable chops and single leg pushup's. Then those movement skills were carried into her sport skills.

So how well is she doing?

Cheyenne LAUNCHED a massive HOME RUN this weekend in an NSA tournament up in Madera, which saw CCI take the 18u championship!

Cheyenne and the rest of the CCI 18u team will be training at Pair & Marotta Peak Performance this summer to continue to develop every part of their athleticism. Most of the team was able to make it in for the past 3 months of our In-Season Baseball/Softball training program and we saw an amazing change in their leg strength, core strength and foot speed. But it must be learned over period of time.

Our Speed, Strength & Power (SSP) Camp can do just that for your players this summer. Speed and power training is a must in the competitive sports of today. Great players will only get by on talent for so long. But a combination of talent and movement skill training at our SSP camp will ensure a better athlete that has fewer injuries and better outcomes in competition.

This years SSP Camp starts NEXT MONDAY, June 7th. It's not too late to register! Sign up today and make sure you are one of the 20 athletes that invests 48 hours this summer training to be a Peak Performer!

Endurance Training: Do we really even need it?

Many people are unclear on the benefits of endurance training. And that can be partly attributed to the fact that most people automatically think 10k run or running a marathon. That's just the notion that endurance training brings up.

But in the past few years to many coaches have gotten away from anything associated with endurance because the thought is that it isn't "fast-twitch" enough for sports. But endurance training takes on many forms.

There is cardiovascular endurance, which is what most people think of. This is the ability to produce a high rate of energy through aerobic metabolism for a prolonged period of time.

The next is muscular endurance. This is where the concept of endurance gets tricky because most kids DO actually need endurance. Actually we all do. Endurance of postural muscles to maintain spinal stability can greatly reduce back injuries and chronic pain. Also, low weight, high rep muscular endurance training is often necessary for teaching proper movement patterns such as squats, pushups, lunges, etc.

The third is psychological endurance which is essentially what we call mental toughness. But this cannot be pounded into kids. It needs to be cultivated and trained just like other parts of performance.

Cardiovascular endurance is the one type of endurance that although great for the heart, lungs and circulatory system, can have negative muscular effects if done incorrectly. Running is the basic cardiovascular endurance exercise. But it certainly isn't the only.

Instead we can do a body weight circuit of pushups, squats, bear crawls, lateral lunges, sprint and repeat, for a period of 5-6 minutes. This would train muscular endurance as well as cardiovascular endurance without overtraining the way jogging does.

It is this type of training for youth athletes that we do at our Summer Speed, Strength & Power Camp. This performance camp has a junior group and a high school group. Both groups get endurance training but only in the appropriate methods, and durations to improve performance. In addition, a stronger core with more muscular endurance WILL improve sprinting, agility and quickness.

Sign your young athletes up by filling out this form and dropping it off at Pair & Marotta Physical Therapy at 5337 Truxtun Ext before next Friday! Let your youth athletes open next sport season with a refined set of athletic skills that will truly set them apart from the competition!

Conditioning: What exactly is it?

Conditioning is often thought of as simply post-training misery, often in the form of running and running...and running.

But when I give you this new definition of conditioning, it may very well change the way you coach or train.

Conditioning is simply the body's direct response to stimulus. The body will respond by adapting to the stimulus presented.So if you run and run and run with minimal rest or at a given speed, you or your athletes will get very good at running and running and running at that speed.

This might not be bad for endurance athletes. But think about the effects on athletes that need to sprint or sports that have specific work:rest intervals. What will this do to them?

If you're a baseball or softball player and your coach has you running laps around the diamond for 12-15 minutes, this is going to actually DECONDITION you. Yes, that is right. This will take you out of condition for your sport.

Baseball and softball requires bursts of sprinting followed by often long rest periods. So a better alternative would be to have athletes run a single, or a double followed by up to 8 times the duration of getting to the base.

So for example, if it took a player 8 seconds to run a double, their rest period should be upwards of 1:00. This may seem too long to some of you coaches. You're might calling me a liar, or some other adjective.

But slow down and think about it. If we want our players to get good at running fast, then we need to make sure they run their fastest. Will a player be able to run faster if they know they are going to have to run a 1/4 mile or if they only are running 60 yards?

You don't have to run once and then done, but have them run their double, rest for 1:00 and then repeat up to 10 times. This really won't be that tough because having 10 players running from home to 2nd will allow that first runner to rest almost a minute before the last runner pulls up. Then send them from 2nd to home. Repeat 5 times and you've got 10 sprints in 10 minutes.

So just think about the effects your training will have on the "conditioning" of your athletes. They will get better at whatever it is they do. If you want them to be weak, keep them from lifting. Want them to be slow? Make them run long periods of time with minimal rest.

Want them to be fast, agile and powerful? Send them to our Summer Speed, Strength & Power Camp. This camp will make ANYBODY faster, agile like a cat and lead them in the right direction for optimal sports performance. Don't wait, spots are filling up quickly!