Day 1
Medium Intensity

Day 2
High Intensity

Day 3
Low Intensity

Day 4
Medium Intensity

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If you want to be great, you will adopt this same attitude in sports/school/work/life.  If you’re an athlete shoot those extra 50 free throws everyday, do an additional 10 sprints every other day, get that extra weight training session in, hit in the cage every day, do whatever it takes….

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Train Hard – Train Smart

Check it out.

Train Hard-Train Smart

Hip mobility is extrememly important to help protect the lower back and knees. There is a limited amount of motion that takes place at the lower back, so the hips actually need to be the area where the greatest range of motion comes from in the core.

Shown below are a few simple stretches that will definitely help improve flexibility of the muscles of the hip and enhance mobility of the entire joint.

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In that post, I noted that certain physical characteristics such as muscle fiber composition (type I and type II muscle fibers) is predetermined or genetic.  I made that statement to inform you that you cannot convert all your slow twitch muscle fibers into fast twitch muscle fibers and start winning gold medals.  However, there is actually more to the story.  Type I and type II muscle fibers have different capabilities (type I fibers has a greater aerobic capacity and able to produce less force at slower velocities, while type II fibers have a great anaerobic capacity and are able to produce more force at faster velocities).  Now the theory that many of us have heard is that you are predetermined with the number type II fibers at birth (the fibers all athletes want so they can be fast and explosive during sport).  However, there are hybrid fiber types that have the capacity to change based on the stimulus provided to your muscle.  A well-designed training program (weight, speed, agility, and power training) actually has the ability to change muscle fiber composition in hybrid fibers!  Training can actually alter the ratio and percentage of type II to type I fibers that leads to increased strength and power-generating capacity.  This really strengthens the argument that great athletes become “great” because of hard work, dedication, and a well-structured training program throughout their entire life.

Every athlete has the capacity to improve based on the stimuli provided to the body.

Source:
Bompa, Tudor and Haff, Gregory. Periodization – Theory and Methodology of Training. Illinois: Human Kinetics, 2009

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Train Hard- Train Smart
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Player of the Year
Katie Hank – VHS

First Team
Breena Beckett – HHS
Nicole Delange – VHS
Allison Tolido – HHS

Second Team
Brianna Earley – VHS
Carly Carapella – VHS
Casey David – HHS
Hannah Orlandi – WRHS (new ASAP athlete)

Honorable Mention
Bree Braucher – WRHS (new ASAP athlete)
Jennie Long – HHS
Heidi Brown – VHS

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Being heavily involved in the athletic community you hear comments all the time like “This kid was born to play baseball.  Her jump shot is smooth and natural.  This guy was born to a professional quarterback.”

First off, I do understand that genetics play a role in athletics (especially at the professional level – you can’t be 5’6 and be an NFL lineman or a 7’2 middle infielder).  Your height, fast twitch muscle fiber composition, limb length (including hand/foot size), some other physical characteristics (tendon attachment, bone articulations, etc.) are genetically predetermined.  However, when it comes to athletic skill it is hard to argue that individuals are born with greater genetic abilities to swing a bat, hit a volleyball, or kick a soccer ball.  When you start to understand that genes give way to certain characteristics and human physical traits, it is also important to understand that does not directly equate to athletic skill.  Humans do not come out of the womb with pre-wired neuromuscular pathways to hit home runs or run the 100-meter dash under 10 seconds.

Athletes become great because of the stimulus provided to them over the course of their life.

Many times what happens is, a child (or usually parent) realizes that they enjoy a sport and are pretty good at it.  Now this child starts to enjoy practice and has the motivation/internal drive to improve their skills even more (improve their neuromuscular pathways).  Now they live and breathe the sport so much that they spend all their free time watching it on TV (obtaining that visual stimulus to the brain).  Maybe the child doesn’t obsess over the sport, but they are given positive verbal stimulus from coaches and parents letting them know how good they are at the sport.  All these stimuli strengthen the child’s athletic skill set.

What about the kids that are “genetically” coordinated and fast/quick.  (Again fast twitch muscle fiber composition aside for this argument)  If you really start to analyze it from an early age, you begin to see that many of those fast kids play multiple sports.  They also spend all their free time outside playing with their friends – even if it’s just hide and seek, riding bikes, kicking the soccer ball around, playing hopscotch, or playing on the playground.  All these events provide a stimulus to the body and this child becomes more coordinated at controlling their body and improves their spatial awareness.

Was Tiger Woods born, I mean actually genetically predetermined to be the best golfer in the world?  My thought is no way!  How about the fact that he started hitting a golf ball when he was 2 years old, or that fact that his dad was an avid golfer (that’s a whole lot of stimulus provided to young Tiger Woods).  He took golf lessons and played in golf tournaments his entire life – he was preparing his body (the neuromuscular pathways) for greatness.

Let’s begin to look at athletic talent as something more than “genetic ability/potential”.  Understand that your body has the ability to adapt and change based on the stimulus you provide it whether it is physical, visual, emotional, or mental.  Hard work and deep/deliberate practice make an athlete great, not their chromosomes.

Train Hard-Train Smart
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Train Hard-Train Smart
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