Summertime Training Prepares Athletes for Fall Season<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This article originally appeared in the fall 2015 Harker\nQuarterly and was reprinted in Harker News Online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The football team and the boys and girls basketball teams\ntrained particularly hard over the summer to get into peak shape before school\nstarted, said Jaron Olson, head athletic trainer. \u201cGirls volleyball team\nmembers were also in the gym, working on moves and staying fit for the season\nstart.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI never really had a routine until postseason last year,\u201d\nnoted Satchi Thockchom, grade 10. \u201cBefore that the only time I was exercising\nwas in the gym during practice. Last year I could only do arm exercises with 15s-17.5\nlb weights, but now I\u2019m ranging from the 20-27.5 lb weights. I think I\u2019m much\nstronger mentally as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thockchom noted additional benefits to summer training.\n\u201cEvery offseason\u2019s an opportunity. It\u2019s also a great team-building environment\nfor us to push each other and meet the incoming freshmen,\u201d she said. \u201cWe had an\nopen gym a few weeks ago, and I could see a huge difference from last year. I\nthink a lot of that comes from staying active in the weight room.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPhysical preparation in the weeks and months prior to the\nstart of a sports season is critical to an athlete\u2019s success regardless of\nskill level,\u201d noted Olson. \u201cIn addition to the performance advantages, our goal\nwith preseason strength training is to help reduce or prevent injuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cStudent athletes who neglect to adequately prepare for the\nrigors of a sports season put tremendous strain on their bodies once practices\ncommence. Essentially, trying to go from zero to 60 very quickly doesn\u2019t always\nwork out so well, making otherwise preventable injuries more likely. Hard work\nand conditioning during the summer also helps athletes acclimate to the heat\nbefore practices begin in August, which is often the hottest part of the year,\u201d\nhe noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Football had a robust summer program, training on the field\nas well as in the weight room in preparation for a new season with new coach\nMike Tirabassi. About 25 football players trained almost daily over the summer.\nThey were joined by more than a dozen basketball players and another dozen or\nso volleyball players, so there were about 50 students training several days\nper week, Olson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The athletic department hired two new people to help manage\nthe athletes\u2019 health. Garret Jones joined Harker this summer as strength and\nconditioning coach. He jumped right in, advising and directing athletes as they\ntrained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jones, who has trained youth athletes to senior citizens,\nholds various personal and group training certifications. \u201cMy personal motto is\nmovement quality before quantity!\u201d he said. \u201cGaining strength and speed greatly\nreduces the risk of injury with all the acceleration and deceleration athletes\nmust do. It is imperative to have strong muscles, joints and ligaments. Above\nthe physical adaptions, training improves mental focus and confidence. We are teaching\nlife skills in the weight room and every student would benefit from better\nquality physical activity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jones is joined by Jon Marques, a certified athletic\ntrainer, who was hired as an assistant athletic trainer. Meanwhile, Jenna Allen\nreturns for her second year as an athletic trainer. All three work under Olson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having the athletic trainers will allow the department to\nprovide better coverage for teams, particularly on the middle school campus.\nThey will continue to address students\u2019 needs across the spectrum from\ntherapeutic and corrective exercises to strength training and performance\nenhancement, all critical elements to maintaining general health and building\nwinning teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition, a kinesiology and sports medicine course,\nintroduced last year and taught by Olson, will allow students who complete the\ncourse to work as athletic training student aides. They can practice taping and\ninjury care skills on our athletes under the supervision of faculty athletic\ntrainers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The athletic department also added two sections of a\nstrength and conditioning course during the school day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI have really enjoyed working with all the student athletes\nthis summer,\u201d Jones said. \u201cThe encouragement and camaraderie developed in the\ngym will carry over to the court or field. These athletes are going to be tough\nboth physically and mentally, and I am really looking forward to watching them\ncompete.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Summertime Training Prepares Athletes for Fall Season This article originally appeared in the fall 2015 Harker Quarterly and was reprinted in Harker News Online. The football team and the boys and girls basketball teams trained particularly hard over the summer to get into peak shape […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[193],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-and-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=973"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":975,"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973\/revisions\/975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}