Fit to Print Volume 23 Issue 3 September 2014 | Page 12

SpeedSchool By Jourdan Brown Wicked Fast Young Athletes Make Fast Strides in FI Speed School Pulling the Chute: Carlie Mullin T his past spring, Chelsea Reimer and I began our FI Speed School venture. We met at Fitness Incentive last winter and instantly bonded over our shared passion for sports, exercise and teaching. After hearing Chelsea talk about her desire to work with kids and young adults to train them in speed and agility, we decided to put our heads together and make this shared desire a reality. After months of planning and certifications, FI Speed School was born. When it came time to put Speed School into action, we felt confident in our program yet were nervous to see how our students would actually respond. Our first group consisted of three 14 year old girls: Nicole, Tara and Shannon. Once their lacrosse season had ended, we met them at the Babylon High School track, which is where Speed School training takes place. Our initial session with them, as it is with every group, consisted of teaching them our dynamic warm up, which is a series of exercises that warms the muscles while simultaneously stretching them, and an evaluation of speed and agility. The evaluation consists of a 40-yard dash to determine initial speed, a 5-10-5 sprinting test, to determine quickness and agility and an evaluation of general running form. During the eight week program, we watched Tara, Shannon and Nicole make 12 Running the Ladder: John Franchina dramatic improvements in their coordination, speed, and agility. One of the most impressive improvements for all three of them was the speed ladder, which is an excellent measure of agility. In the beginning, they were struggling to get their footing right, often tripping over the ladder and messing up their foot sequencing. By the end, these three girls were flying through the ladder (and the most advanced ladder moves at that) with a swiftness that was simply amazing. In our last session with Tara, Nicole and Shannon, it was time to re-test them to get quantitative proof of the improvements we had been witnessing week after week. We were ecstatic to find that each girl took at least two seconds off their 40 yard dash time, which is nothing short of amazing. They also made similarly dramatic improvements in agility and running form. But their improvements went beyond what we could measure with numbers. What was even more important Chelsea and me was observing how dramatically their confidence grew with each improvement they made. We also formed a relationship with each of the girls that made us sad to see their session come to an end. Hopefully we'll get to work with them again in the future. Autumn 2014 FIT to Print We were beyond lucky to have our first group be Tara, Nicole and Shannon. All three of them are athletes that possess a strong desire to learn and improve. From there we have been fortunate to work with other kids, both boys and girls, as young as 9 and up to 18 years of age. The best part about the program is witnessing each new kid we get progress from week one to week eight. Every kid that enters speed school is unique and possesses different strengths and weaknesses, which is what makes it so much fun and so challenging for Chelsea and me. Depending on their strengths and weaknesses we formulate a different plan to help them make improvements in their speed, agility, coordination, strength, balance and confidence. By focusing on these factors we see improvements week by week. Kids are sponges at a young age and quickly absorb the information we give them, creating mind-muscle connections that allow them to grow and improve at a rapid rate. Chelsea and I look forward to working with new kids as our program continues to grow. It has been a fun adventure for both of us and extremely satisfying to watch our students improve and grow right before our eyes. We're looking forward to creating new innovative ways to improve young athletes throughout the winter season. If you're interested in FI Speed School, you can call 631-587-5766, visit our website: http://www.fitnessincentive.com/person al-training/fi-speed-school/ or email us at fit@fitnessincentive.com Watch Tara, Nicole and Shannon (shown below) and our other Speed School athletes running through their Speed School drills on Instagram: http://instagram.com/fispeedschool Jourdan Brown is a certified Group Fitness Instructor, Youth Speed & Agility Instructor and a Front Desk Manager at Fitness Incentive.