Congrats again Max Plunkett and the Alter Knights for their State Championship win.

This is a picture of Max Plunkett, Senior Offensive lineman at Alter High School.  Max barely played last year.  He came to see us at the end of last summer, looking for the extra push to jump start his football aspirations.  This year, with lots of work at Power Athlete, and lots of constructive encouragement from his coaching staff, Max had a starting position on the offensive line of a State Championship Winning Football team.

This is a story of perseverance, fantastic coaches, and a true team of brothers.

If you have these kinds of aspirations, come see us at Power Athlete, you won't be disappointed.

Kettering Alter Wins State Championship

Congrats to Alter football with their win tonight.  Great athletic leadership with the athletic director Chris Hart, all the Coaching Staff, and of course parents.

Congrats to everyone.

Alter Knights Football Goes to war!

The Archbishop Alter Football team goes to war in the Division 4 state finals against Stubenville this Friday.

The boys have played some very impressive football this year, but what is most impressive to me is their mental poise.

After having to forfeit 2 games due to a rules oversight, they could have fallen apart mentally, and cried foul.  Instead this outstanding group of young men, and their coaches rallied their resolve and went after the stars.

I work with a number of players from  this years team, and I am very proud of them, but I am also very proud to be in anyway associated with a program that teaches kids to succeed through hard times.

Coach Ed Domsitz and his staff should be applauded for their life changing skills with these young men.

Visitor From Crossfit Verve

We had our first traveling crossfitter this week, Amy from Crossfit Verve in Colorado.  We exposed her to our version of crossfit, she took what we showed her and posted it to her coaches at home.  It was a great experience meeting Amy, an obviously well coached athlete.

This is what I love about Crossfit, it is all about the open source method of performance improvement, thousands of minds and ideas coming together to improve the system using the basic laws of exercise physiology set forth in the crossfit method.

We endeavor to become fitter in all the 10 elements of fitness, what ever way works, not just which ever ways are popular.

Wiener Deadlifts

I have had this since halloween, but have just got off my lazy butt to get it off the camcorder.  This is Ty B. who in passing told me he had a hotdog costume for halloween, we couldn't pass that up.

Post workout Recovery

I have told my athletes for along time that the commercial protein powders are second rate compared to the source of nutrition found in whole milk. 

British researchers recently found that "The protein and carbohydrates in milk appear to inhibit muscle-protein breakdown, and may also reduce inflammation.  This leads to quicker recovery.

A focused mom.

this video I found very interesting.  The kid is obviously phenomenal, but the most amazing thing about it is that mom is much more focused on his education.   Very refreshing

Which movement is more useful for athletic endeavors?

Not everyone that reads this blog is a coach or exercise Nazi,  but it doesn't take a genius to see how misguided our athletes have been when selecting exercises to improve athletic performance.  For example, pick which one looks the most athletic:

or this one, my favorite exercise to blame for athletic injury.

we ask our athletes to perform explosively on the field with their whole bodies, and then train them with exercises that support most of their bodies while they perform them. 

I guarantee you that an athlete that can perform a 210# thruster, as is shown in the first video, can do a 210# bench press, but not necessarily the other way around.

Congrats Kelly W. and the Alter Vasity Volleyball

Nice Job Girls with your win over Tippecanoe, keep it up!

the video to go along with swimmer gymnastics

It is a mobile phone video, but you get the idea of the movement and how powerful such movements can be to the sport of swimming

I have now seen it all

this is from a Hawaiian website, they are crispy creme bacon cheese burgers.

Action Shot, Sandy P

Paleo Diet Redux

this is the simplest explanation of the paleo diet I have ever found.

http://www.tbkfitness.org/TBKdiet.html

Crossfit Trains the complete athlete

I have preached in blog posts earlier that crossfit trains all athletes to be better athletes, not just better basketball players, soccer players, SWAT team or special ops team members, but better athletes.  This video is a prime example of that

Click Picture to see video of this amazing feat of varied athletic ability.

Swimmer Gymnastics

We are using some gymnastic movements to improve the water awareness/balance/position of our swimmers.  Here is Aaron B, working on an inverted position on the rings

Technorati Tags: swimming,conditioning,gymnastics rings,raiders

 

Athletes at work

The mental benefits of non specialization

I just read the summary of the interview Crossfit radio had with Strength Coach Mike Boyle, who up to this point I have had great respect for.

Mike Boyle's work, along with other prominent strength coaches, I was taught in college, is the only way to produce increased performance in athletes.

As I own a crossfit affiliate, it should be obvious that I have gone in a different direction.  The one factor that was consistently missing with the athletes that I trained in this manner, was a total lack of perseverance, and mental toughness. 

When one walks into a conditioning facility, regardless of the level of athletics, and you already know each set will be fully rested, perfectly timed and laid out, it doesn't take much mental fortitude to persevere.  

On the other hand, if you are a little scared at the prospect of what is coming from a workout, you have to "man-up" to walk in the room.

Now other strength coaches, Mr. Boyle included will probably read this and cry foul.  What about periodization, what about tapering of endurance athletes/swimmers?

I would say to that, to all but the absolute cream of the crop athletes will any of those things matter.  I have had the honor of working with a number of very good athletes, maybe not the cream of the crop, but some very good athletes at the college and Olympic levels.  For them, I would say a little more mental toughness was and is, the limiting factor to their continued success.

We have gone from irresponsibly over training our athletes, to severely under-training them, especially concerning the mental aspects of athletics.

I believe the multi faceted variance of Crossfit allows for this mental training, as well as kick ass total athletic development regardless of sport, in a responsible manner.

Why Grains, Potatoes and Beans are Poison

Great post that answers all the questions I get about food choices and the modern diet.  If you are sick a lot, you may look to your diet as a cause.

 

Grains, Beans and Potatoes, more trouble then they are worth.

very interesting reading on good health and nutrition

Human Mistakes

 

bodies built on hunting and gathering

-courtesy of crossfit balboa

Amazing article on Human Potential

An interesting look at what makes us push our boundaries

http://barefootfts.com/blog/Human+Potential/