Well Done, Walsh Jesuit's Women's Basketball!

Hello Everyone!

A big WELL DONE to the hard working women of Walsh Jesuit's Women's Basketball Team!

Your perseverance through adversity this season was incredible!

Check out the Plain Dealer's Article:
Walsh Jesuit's effort in loss is out of this world

Strong both physically and mentally, ladies be proud! Rest up and AGSP looks forward to seeing you again soon this off-season.

Keep Training!
Coach Amanda Kephart

An Athlete's Summer

Hello Everyone!

I'd like to highlight a great article from World Renown Strength and Conditioning Coach Mike Boyle. The article, "The Road to College" highlights some important truths that parents and athletes need to know.

The Road to College

by: Mike Boyle

Parents are being misled. Yes, all the tournament and camp organizers are deliberately misleading you. Parents shell out thousands of dollars for exposure camps and exposure tournaments for their son’s or daughter’s. The organizers tell you that attending a certain camp or playing in a certain tournament will improve your chances of getting a scholarship.

The bottom line is it’s not true. If your child is a football or hockey player four days of camp will not change him or her. Neither will a weekend tournament. Unfortunately, parents make a critical error at the wrong time. The most critical time in a young athletes career is the summer prior to their senior season. This is when a young player needs to train to prepare to have a great senior year. However, instead of preparation, parents choose exposure. The result is usually the same. The athlete goes to 5-6 “exposure” camps to be “seen” by college coaches. Instead of training and preparation the summer is about travel and “exposure”. The final result is that the athlete is not physically prepared for the senior year and ends up either getting injured or having a sub-par year. Coaches that might have had interest suddenly disappear. Sure things turn into maybes. Suddenly all the time spent on exposure seems wasted as there is no “product” to expose.

The road to college sports should go right through a weightroom. I know this sounds old fashioned but, it’s true. If your goal is to play college sports, then, get ready to play. Don’t spend all summer trying to convince coaches how good you are. Spend the summer trying to get better so coaches will notice you. You can’t network your way into college sports and even if you can, in these days of email etc., send a letter and a video.

Last summer I discouraged the coaches and parents of some of the best prep school football players in Eastern Mass to forgo the five camp plan and train. We instead chose to focus on the 1 or 2 camps the coach and parents thought would have the most value and, focus on training. The results were outstanding. The team had a great season, losing only two games, the players who trained were clearly improved and the players who were seniors are all going to the college of their choice.

It worked out exactly as I said it would because our plan makes sense. The ideas of athlete development and athlete exposure are almost polar opposites. The key is to balance the need to be seen by and meet college coaches with the need to train to be able to impress coaches during the critical senior year.

Coach Boyle's point is clear: choose to work on becoming a better athlete instead of trying to show everyone how good you are. Similar to Coach Boyle's facility in Boston, MA, Akron General Sports Performance is designed to make athletes better. Through hard work and commitment we see athletes take their games and skills to the next level.

Keep Training!
Coach Amanda Kephart

Tip #7: You Gotta Eat...MORE

Hello Everyone!

Need to put on pounds? Then don't fall into this failed equation...

Swear you're eating a lot + not gaining weight = YOU'RE NOT EATING ENOUGH

I'll never forget the time I saw Division One Coaches yelling at one of their athletes for not putting on the weight he needed.

I'll repeat... YELLING.

These coaches would not except the athlete's excuse of "but coach I eat A LOT". If you are not putting weight on, then you are NOT eating enough. These coaches, like myself, pay little attention to the fact that you eat twice as much as your friends... the results speak for themselves.

No matter how much you're currently eating and/or drinking, if you are not reaching your body weight goals then you need to consume MORE.

Meeting your body weight goals should be just as important as reaching your squat goals, 40 yard goals, team goals, etc.

Add calorie packed beverages.
Pack twice as much food for lunch.
Eat until you're stuffed, not just full.

Whatever it takes, take your body weight seriously.

Keep Training! (and eating!)
Coach Amanda Kephart

Tip #6: Practice More, Play Less

Hello Everyone!

Today's athletes are playing year-round and are NOT developing into better athletes.

WHY?

Because playing more games with the same skills you have always had does not develop you into better athlete.

Look at some of today's athletic super stars such as Tiger Woods and Venus & Serena Williams who are famous for practicing for hours and hours. Especially when they were younger, they would spend long tedious hours honing their skills. Check out Secrets of Greatness and learn more about some of today's "greats" practice habits.

At AGSP we see a lot of athletes that play a lot more than they practice and are frustrated at their lack of skill development.

You CAN'T develop skills if you DON'T practice.

You CAN'T become faster if your DON'T practice proper running mechanics.

You CAN'T become more agile if you DON'T practice proper agility mechanics.

You CAN'T play your way into becoming a better athlete if you DON'T take time to develop better skills.

Now I know a lot of athletes and parents reading this are going to be thinking, "but everybody plays in leagues year-round...I need to stay in the loop." If you have the courage and patience to break the trend and practice better skills instead of playing with the same skills you have, soon enough everybody will be wanting to do what your doing.

Keep Training!
Coach Amanda Kephart

Tip #5: Stabilize Your Core

Hello Everyone!

Core is all the craze right now, but in all honestly, core stability is the real deal.

Read that again, core stability is the real deal.

I didn't say six-pack abs are the real deal.
I didn't say 1,000 crunches are the real deal.
I didn't say ab machines are the real deal.

Core stability is the real deal.

Athlete's Transverse Abdominis (TA) need to be strong and stable. If you can't stabilize your core you CAN'T get the most out of your movement. Whether that is running, jumping, or playing your sport (just to name a few).

How do you develop a healthy stable TA? You have to do the "non-sexy" core exercises such as core bridges, hip pops, glute bridges, side core bridges, etc.

Focus your core training on stabilization to hit the hidden TA, stop wasting your time doing crunches.

Keep Training!
Coach Amanda Kephart

ACL Prevention

Hello Everyone!

Recently I spoke at the Stow Booster Club about ACL Prevention and how anyone can identify high risk characteristics for ACL injury (in themselves and others), along with a few simple ways to help decrease these risk factors.

For a complimentary copy of this presentation, click HERE.

Learn:

• What an ACL injury is
• What an ACL injury means to you
• Risk Factors you can NOT control
• Risk Factors you CAN control (including the #1 risk factor in both men and women)
  
• Sample of exercises that help with ACL prevention

Keep Training!
Coach Amanda Kephart

Another Adult Performance Time!

Hello Everyone!

Do to popular demand, AGMC Sports Performance is adding an evening adult performance class to Tuesday and Thursday nights at 7:30 PM!

Effective immediately.

Workout hard. Workout smart. Workout better.

Keep Training!
Coach Amanda Kephart