Sports for many young athletes have changed from a casual seasonal activity to year round training, significant travel, and a focus on performance. This level of training and competition has improved the quality of play in many sports, but has also increased the physical and psychological demands on these young people.

Our experiences at CPTE and the feedback from physicians has raised concerns that young athletes may not be prepared for the rigors of high level, year round sports training. Some of the concerns raised by physicians, physical therapists, and conditioning coaches include:

1. Injury rates have increased because young athletes do not have the physical foundation and tools to adequately handle the demands of their sport.
2. Most athletes lack the basic physical foundation with hip strength, core conditioning (body awareness and control), abdominal and back strength, and flexibility. This lack of physical abilities hinder the athlete's ability to improve and reduce the risk of injury.
3. Athlete's tend to focus on only one sport, which reduces their ability to improve athletically through cross training, but also psychologically burns them out faster.
4. Most professional and world class athletes take breaks from training for their sport. These breaks involve cross training, conditioning, and rest. Many young athletes play their sport year round without much of a break. These breaks are important for the body and the mind.

The conditioning staff at CPTE created the Performance Advantage conditioning program to help make better athletes and to reduce the risk of injury. Our goal is to help young athletes improve in skills important to athletic performance. Better athletes make better performers. In addition to improving athletic abilities, this program will also build a physical base that reduces the risk of athletic injuries.

WHAT SKILLS WILL THE PERFORMANCE ADVANTAGE PROGRAM TEACH THESE ATHLETES?

• Body awareness and control
• Core conditioning
• Speed including acceleration and deceleration
• Agility
• Power and explosiveness
• Muscle strength and endurance
• Joint stability
• Flexibility

WHY ARE WE FOCUSING ON THESE SKILLS?
Because these skills are not the focus of other forms of sports training and conditioning. It is true the when an athlete practices his or her sport these skills are employed. In fact, most coaches will say that these skills are critical for success. However, the focus of sports practicing is on technique, fundamentals, and game play. Speed, agility, power, and coordination are built into the practice of the sport, but are not maximized. When you assess the skills of the best players in each sport, experts will focus on the athletes' superior speed, power, or athletic ability (coordination). The best athletes have maximized these athletic skills, which helps them develop superior sports techniques.

Many athletes add general fitness training to their conditioning. Going to the gym will help to build strength and endurance, which are important. But these skills are only part of the overall athletic abilities needed to become a better athlete and to master one's sport.

We focus on the above advanced conditioning skills because they are important and are not maximized with other sports practice and conditioning. Another reason we are focusing on these skills is the injury protection that they may provide. Sports medicine physicians are concerned by the alarming number of sports related injuries in young athletes. They partially attribute the rise in injuries to poor conditioning, especially in the areas of agility and power. Advanced conditioning can improve these skills and potentially reduce the risk of injury.

WHAT DO THESE SKILLS SPECIFICALLY PROVIDE THE ATHLETE?

• BODY AWARENESS AND CONTROL - When we see an athlete perform an "impossible" move, we are amazed that his or her body could do that. One of the reasons the athlete's body can respond this way is because of the control of his or her upper body, lower body, and torso (mid body) and the control of these body sections. Most young athletes have little understanding of how to control their upper, lower, and mid body sections. Improving this skill will facilitate all other skill areas including overall sport performance. We will begin the program by helping the athletes learn body awareness and then control these body parts as they practice the other skills.
  
  Equipment to be used: Body control training will occur with most exercises and drills. There is no specific equipment to be used because body awareness is applied to all exercises.
  
  
• CORE CONDITIONING - Like body awareness and control, core conditioning is a fundamental ability that facilitates the development of the primary skills in this program. The core includes the muscles in the abdominal, low back, mid back and hip. These muscles help coordinate the upper and lower bodies. Strengthening these muscles will help improve body control. Most young athletes do not have a strong core, so it is important that this ability is developed early in the program, so the other skills can develop more rapidly.
  
  Equipment to be used:
  
  
  • Stability balls
  • Medicine balls
  • Balance devices
  • Body weight exercises on the floor
    
    
• SPEED - Getting to the ball faster, speeding past a defender, or stealing that base are goals that all athletes desire. Speed is important and speed can be improved. The goal is to maximize the recruitment of the fast twitch muscle fibers to improve speed. In addition, we will work on acceleration and deceleration techniques, so the athlete can change directions faster and with better balance.
  
  Equipment to be used:
  
  
  • Timed dashes
  • Sport cord
  • Parachutes
  • Sled/Pipe
  • Hurdles
    
    
• AGILITY - Sports are rarely performed straight ahead, but require changes in direction constantly. Agility is the ability to accelerate, decelerate, and change directions quickly while maintaining body control. Agility is especially good when these skills can be applied without slowing down. As the athlete develops body control, agility will improve at a faster rate. This skill will be a focus of The Performance Advantage program. We will use a variety of techniques to improve agility.
  
  Equipment to be used:
  • Ladder
  • Rings
  • Dot pad
  • Agility ball
  • Cones
  • Hurdles
    
    
• POWER AND EXPLOSIVENESS - Power is force x velocity. Power is the ability to run fast, jump high, throw far, and push faster and harder. Power involves explosiveness, which involves quickness, which involves reaction. How quickly can you start a movement and how strong are you in that quickness. In football, this could mean the ability to react to the snap and to apply a significant force against an opponent. In soccer, this could mean the ability to accelerate to the ball while defending against an opponent or the ability to create a quick, hard shot. In basketball, this could mean the ability to jump for a rebound against an opponent.
  
  Equipment to be used:
  
  
  • Medicine ball
  • Sled/Pipe
  • Parachute
  • Sport cord
  • Vertical jump devices
  • Plyometric boxes
  • Hurdles
    
    
• MUSCLE STRENGTH AND ENDURANCE - many of the exercises plus the 90 minutes of continuous activity will develop strength and endurance. We will facilitate this with additional exercises focusing on strength, especially in areas where we see weaknesses in each athlete.
  
  Equipment used:
  
  
  • Medicine ball
  • Exercise bands
  • Sled/Pipe
  • Body weight exercises
    
    
• FLEXIBILITY - Flexibility training will occur throughout the session starting with the dynamic warm-up. Athletes with very tight muscles will receive additional training in this area. Each session ends with a stretching program.

Summer 2008
Program Information
Now
available
here!

Testimonials

"...the Performance Advantage has helped me bring my ice hockey and lacrosse games to a new competitive level...",

Adult Rec. Athlete, 45

"...Fred and his staff know how to motivate me to give my best possible effort...",

High School Field Hockey Player, 17