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The Milwaukie Bucks just won the NBA championship because Giannis Antetokounmpo is committed to training with weights consistently. He is the most physically dominant player in the world because he has added 50lbs of muscle since being drafted into the NBA by the Bucks 8 years ago. This should serve as notice to all young athletes – TRAINING WILL HELP YOU REACH YOUR POTENTIAL.
There are many examples of athletes taking their skills to the next level after working with a professional strength coach or getting onto a team that prioritizes strength and conditioning. The biggest benefit to enhancing overall explosive strength, speed, conditioning and mobility is that it speeds up the athletic development process and limits chance at serious injury, regardless of age. The younger an athlete develops physically, the more chance they have to dominate their sport from then on. Logically this makes sense. Practically it is difficult for most athletes to focus on weight training during the early years. Why is this?
Most young athletes play multiple sports throughout a year. This is what most refer to as sufficient ‘cross training’ and majority of coaches and parents believe this to be a sufficient way to stay ‘injury free.’ Reality is that athletes who do not spend enough time recovering and training in the weight room will be more prone to injury regardless of how busy they are playing different sports. The body is weak when the body is weak, no matter how busy it is.
Young athletes, parents and coaches need to spend less time and money on travel teams, tournaments and gear and more time and money on TRAINING. Plain and simple, it is the most beneficial allotment of resources athletes between ages 12-18 years old can make. This is an investment which will pay back dividends in college scholarships and possibly even the athlete making it professionally. But most importantly, athletes learning to eat right and train consistently are assets to them for the rest of their lives.
Sure AAU basketball is fun, 7 on 7 football gets you exposure and club team travel tournaments for softball, baseball, soccer, volleyball, etc are a great way to get your name out there. It is certainly important to compete in sports and skills practice sessions. But what matters most is how athletes’ bodies perform and hold up in the long run. Regardless of where an athlete goes to high school, if they are strong and dominant they will be noticed and on the radar of college scouts.
College scouts and coaches are paid a nice salary to find athletes with elite potential no matter how small their school or town, state or country. Some of the best athletes in the world come from the smallest towns in the United States and Overseas and they all have one thing in common, they all TRAIN EXPLOSIVE CONSISTENTLY AND NEVER GIVE UP because they understand it will be worth it when they win.
Here is a simple full body routine straight from our training app that can be done by any athlete any day anywhere at anytime:
4 Rounds
(10-20% body weight each hand)
20 Squat Jumps
*2-3 minute active rest after each round (roll out)
Date: 07.24.2021
There are many misconceptions in youth sports and society when it comes to training. One of the most detrimental is that “female athletes shouldn’t lift heavy weights because it will make them ‘bulky’”. This is far from the truth. Female athletes need to lift light, moderate and heavy weights. They should begin as early as 12 years old to help speed up athletic performance development. This will also keep them from experiencing a career-altering injury. According to studies, between 2010 and 2020 ACL tears were at an all-time high for ages 12-15, especially amongst female athletes. Most of these ACL tears happen during non-contact, athletic movement. This means a lack of stability and strength in the ankles, knees, hips, trunk and shoulders are to blame.
We have a solution for this – by improving stability through training the bio-mechanical efficiency needed for slow and explosive movement. The SFX Athletes training philosophy is: as soon as athletes are able to play sports, they need to start performance training. Effective performance training begins with developing a foundation of ankle, knee, hip, trunk and shoulder stability. We teach athletes how to crawl, walk and run efficiently and in a safe manner. We love to do this from day one.
The first step in development is incorporating stability in the warm ups and cool downs every single day. Step two, build strength from the ground up and the inside out. This means we add in weight training that compliments the stability work. Step three is adding in plyometric exercises to compliment the strength development. This means we begin speeding things up and increase the ability of producing and absorbing force – the main factors in keeping the athlete healthy and strong while competing.
Female athletes at the professional and collegiate level have access to elite strength and conditioning coaching. At the high school level and below, this kind of training is rare. High school athletes need strength and conditioning more than college-age athletes, because they spend the majority of these years growing and developing. Injuries can impact their growth and development. There is a possibility that it can even be stunted. This may prevent them from reaching that next level. SFX Athletes is designed to provide younger athletes a training system comparable to what college and professional athletes receive. We hope that athletes, especially female athletes, will train explosive with us using the SFX Athletes mobile app. Together we can help reduce incidences of injury nationwide!
Date: 02.03.2021
