Attention Parents…

Lets get our young athletes stronger by  training them as

young athletes not young adults!!

 

Dear Parents,

As a high school coach and a father of a young middle school athlete , trust me when I say, our 7th and 8th grade athletes do not need to get into a weight room to get stronger just yet. 

 Yes, I know in their young eyes, it would be cool to workout with the high school athletes but a weight room is designed for athletes to train intensely and as a wided eyed middle school athlete, it can quickly become a bit overwhelming and potentially unsafe.

Strength begins by learning how to control and lift your own body weight  first.  Performing simple movements like lunges, squat, chin ups, push ups and dips is a neccessary starting point that is often bypassed.  Interestingly, many pro and college level athletes still do nothing but body weight training to get ridculously strong.     

Once these basic movements are mastered,  adding a resistances that allow young athletes to complete the movement efficiently without compensation is fine.   Challenging a  young athlete to become proficent with these movements does not occur by adding more and more weight.    Instead by  increasing rep volume or rep speed while constantly altering their base of support and center of gravity to challenge stability is the next step.   

For most young athletes who are growing into their body, stability and  muscle memory must come first to improve balance, muscle coordination and flexibility.    Lifting heavy at this age only leads to compensation, muscle imbalance and over use injuries.

Once they have mastered basic movements, than assuming their stature is appropriate, they could look at doing more traditional weight training however this often does not occur until at least their freshman year.     Less than 5% of all freshman have the core stability to squat or press a bar over their head

Athletes and parents need to realize that muscles are dumb.  They don’t know the difference  between a barbell, dumbbell, body weight or sandbag when it comes to resistance.  All they know is they better work hard  and adapt when an increased challenge occurs over and over.  As a result  resistances  like sandbags, medballs,  kettlebells, bands or body weight actually make athletes work harder due to the irregularity and odd shapes than traditional barbells.

Parents trust me, as a physical therapist, performance specialist and a youth training specialist, I want the best for your son and I can promise you that creating success and increasing their confidence with weight training is far more important than forcing them to bench press. 

I want our young athletes to have the right training and ultimately get stronger for the long haul.   We all know getting stronger is not an overnight event.   I have put a great deal of planning not just into the  G’town Power High School program but the entire  strength program from middle school on up.   Thats why I am so excited to finally offer what I hope will be a significantly better and safer way to get our  young athlete ready for the weight room as they enter high school.

 I hope you will consider letting your son join me in this introductory camp.    I promise, parents and athletes will leave  more knowledgable on how and what we are going to do to get our young athletes stronger as part of the first ever….

 

 

Youth Strength Training

Introductory Camp

 

 

 Teaching and training our young athletes how to safely and effective improve their total body strength outside the weight room

 

Camp Details

 

Introductory Camp Goal

 The Introductory Camp goal is to provide parents and athletes a  low cost opportunity to take part and learn about what is a “New Concept” strength training camp for middle school athletes.   

This introductory camp will teach young athletes not only how to push, pull, press, squat or lunge but also how to effectively stabilize and support themselves with resistance.  The  introductory camp will be 4 structured strength workouts  that will  provide  athetes and parents the opportunty to see and feel first hand what it takes to get athletically stronger not just weight room stronger.

Athletes be prepared  to:

Squat – Push – Pull – Press – Swing – Lunge – Crawl  and Lift from all heights against a resistance created with bags, dumbbells, body weight, sleds, bars and bands.  All things that fit the middle school body and challenge it to get stronger. 

Attention Athletes :  This is a strength training camp not a running camp.  90% of your workout time will focus on getting stronger and faster at moving weight not just running to get tired.

Days:   Tuesday and Thursday after school        Time:  4:15 to 5:00  

Dates: December 8 – 10- 15- 17th

Location:  Faith Lutheran Church of Germantown (Corner of Division and Mequon Rd)

 

Who Should Attend:  Any 7^th or 8^th Grade Male Athlete who wants to learn and begin strengthening their body to become a  stronger performing athlete.  

  

Introductory Camp Cost:   $20 for ALL  4  introductory sessions  

 

Instructor: Dave Schmitz (Learn more about Coach Schmitz at www.gtownfastnfit.com)

 

Camp Format:  This camp will focus primarily on developing total body strength endurance, muscle memory and movement efficiency 

 

All athletes should come with – Running or Court shoes, shorts, T-shirts, Filled Water Bottle, towel if needed and a dry t-shirt if the weather is cold.

 

Parents I look forward to introducing you to what I feel will be a great addition to helping our young athletes have success at getting their body’s functionally stronger and performing better.

 

 To Register your son for the

Introductory Strength Camp Click HERE