Take a Tenth of a second off your 40 time!

It has been a while since my last post, as summer schedule has started up here at my place of employment: Velocity Sports Performance. Things are really booming here and athletes all over the Low Country are becoming better athletes exercise by exercise here at Velocity. Becoming faster, stronger, more agile, less injury prone, and most importantly becoming more explosive athletes.

I'd like to bring an article to your attention on sleep habits and athletic performance. I know what you're thinking, I always cover the aspects that are least likely covered in mainstream sports. I like to stay off the beaten path at times.

Sleeping. So overlooked but yet SO important. This study (the link is below) showed that by only sleeping 10 hours a night, Stanford football players were able to reduce their 40 yard dash times from 4.99 to 4.89, a reduction by a tenth of a second by simply getting more sleep per night. That is a simplistic way in becoming a better athlete, especially in the sport of football.

I've never met a football player than wouldn't want to reduce their 40 yard dash time by .1 second. So do yourself a favor and get some more sleep tonight. In the meantime, read the article below because it has some awesome ways to accomplish 10 hours a night if you think you don't have time for it.

CLICK HERE for the article on sleep improving 40 yard dash times and improving your health overall.

Off-Season Basketball Training

Found an amazing article that covers a couple of MUST-HAVES for your off-season basketball program. All of the concepts listed can be accomplished here at Velocity Sports Performance all year long!!

Click Here for the Article

Recovery, Recovery, Recovery...

If you haven't read my article on Recovery, you need to Start Here. Recovery is one of the most overlooked training concepts in all of sports performance. For more on this subject, click below!


CLICK HERE to read yet another great written article on Recovery

You don't need Gatorade...

Unless you are an athlete with extreme circumstances. If you are "working out" or training 6-7 days/week then you may need a little external help from a product like Gatorade. Gatorade, for the most part, is nothing more than flavored sugar water...what Gatorade likes to label as "electrolytes." Gatorade is a lot better at marketing their product than improving it, no question about it! Contained in a standard 20 oz bottle of Gatorade is the following,

- 34 g of SUGAR - That's close to 8 teaspoons of pure sugar poured into that "performance enhancer."

- High Fructose Corn-Syrup - Don't believe those pro-HFCS commercials you're seeing on TV, this stuff is like drinking lard mixed with a little vegetable oil.

- NO Fruit Juice! - Conclude your own thoughts on this one

Do yourself and me a favor and drink the best performance enhancer of all-time: WATER!!!!!!

CLICK HERE for a list of why WATER is so amazing!

MARCH MADNESS IS IMPROVING?

COLLEGE BASKETBALL IS GETTING BETTER? Everyone has it right now...March Madness fever. If you are a male, you are in a pool with friends or maybe even co-workers. If you are a female, you are probobly doing the same. Not to knock females right now but a good majority of the time, females pick the winner by playing eeny, meeny, miny, mo or which jersey has prettier colors in it. For males, the sad thing is that it is the females that win most of the time.

All over the radio, I hear that college basketball as a whole is diminishing. "There is no front runner this year and everybody is just average" is all I'm hearing. To me, it's not that college basketball is getting worse. It is purely a matter of more elite level athletes coming out of high school than ever before. There are unbelievably gifted (athletically) players playing at smaller schools that have the potential to take down a college basketball powerhouse of past years. Georgetown lost to Ohio, a team that made the tournament by the skin of their teeth. Murray State took down Vanderbilt. Temple was beat by Cornell. It was Cornell's first victory ever in the tournament. Ever. These smaller programs are not beating the bigger foes because they're just getting lucky. They simply have athletes and good basketball players at that.

The level of basketball skill in this country goes up everyday. Kids have more opportunities to get better than ever before. Kids used to get better by putting in hours on their hoop in the backyard. No there is are countless camps, academies, special shooting coaches, sports performance enhancement facilities (I know of a good one, Velocity Sports Performance), and every kind of shooting and dribbling aid you can imagine. As you watch more games in the tournament, as I will be this weekend, appreciate the athleticism that is displayed on each and every court! Have any questions or comments, list them BELOW!!!

When Should My Son and/or Daughter Start Training w/ You?!?!?!?!?

Our normal youth program here starts at age 8. You may be thinking that is too young. Is it too young to have fun? Is it too young to start working on simple loco motor skills? Is it too young to work on gross motor skills? Athletes used to get these things listed above in their Physical Education, gym for you "old schoolers,"but that is no longer the case. We don't make our youth program like that of the Russians, turning our athletes into finely tuned athletic machines. We may be hoping for the finely tuned part but the aspect that should jump out at you is the machine part. Our number one goal for our youth program is to HAVE FUN!!

We have began to take over the P.E. program of many kids. I have high school age athletes that can not functionally skip in a straight line. Yes, i am completely serious. I have high school athletes that can't balance on one foot for more than 15 sec without falling onto the opposite foot. These movement qualities should have been taught more that 10 YEARS AGO!! This is Velocity Sports Performance comes in.

If you live in the greater Charleston area, be on the lookout for our "Future All-Stars" program that we will be starting for our younger athletes, ages 5-7. If you'd like more information regarding this program, leave me a comment below. In the meantime, read the article I've posted about common youth sports performance questions. Have an excellent weekend and enjoy life!!!!!


Click here for the article by Brett Klika

Athletic Position?

Being able to get into an athletic position is one of the best predictors of overall athleticism? My answer to that question last week from an athlete is most definitely YES!

It's hard to believe but there is a huge correlation between the two; A proper athletic position and overall athleticism. By simply putting an athlete that I train in an athletic position I will be able to asses their:

- Hip abductor and adductor mobility
- Core strength/Core stabilization
- Quadricep and Hamstring Flexibility
- Quadricep and Hamstring strength
- Rhomboid and Latissimus Dorsi Strength - Mid and Upper Back Strength
- Body Control
- Balance in static hold position

From the article below (Be sure to read it, it's excellent!) you may be able to use this, putting an athlete in an athletic position, as a precursor to determining athleticism without ever making them move. Give it a try yourself next to a mirror and asses your strength and/or weaknesses today!


To read one of the most efficiently and well-written articles on "The Athletic Position" CLICK HERE