What makes the difference between a good team and a great team? The answer is fundamentals. Team coaches are responsible for taking their athletes and teaching them sports’ fundamentals. If the team consists of several average athletes and only a few good athletes, you can bet the team will not perform very well. A team is only as strong as its weakest link. Training an entire team to be better athletes first, will lead to a much better athletic average and a stronger base for the team.
This is where Powerhouse Athletic Academy comes in. We develop better athletes for coaches to work with. We train them to become faster, more agile, stronger and work better as a team.
Components of team training include:
- Speed development
- Strength development
- Agility training
- Conditioning
- Proper warm-up
Skills can’t be developed by practicing a few weeks before a team’s first game. To be really effective, athletic training should be year round. Speed, strength, and agility are all skills that take time to develop and incorporate into performance.
Controlling Body Weight
How well an individual controls their body in space is a major indicator of how great of an athlete he or she is. At Powerhouse Athletic Academy, we train improved balance through body weight movements and also address muscle imbalances to prevent injuries. Strength per pound of body weight is a big indicator of overall body control. The more force (mass x acceleration) an athlete can apply to the ground, the faster he or she can run. We conduct body weight strength training first because it teaches the athlete to do the exercise correctly without concern about extra weight. These body weight exercises include squats, lunges, push ups, sit ups, pull ups, dips, and stabilization techniques.
The Proper Way to Warm-Up Your Team
At Powerhouse Athletic Academy we teach athletes perfect technique in performing an active dynamic warm-up routine — the most effective way to warm-up before workouts or competition. Remember, proper warm-up is critical before any running or lifting exercise. Active dynamic warm-up consists of pre planned movements that increase flexibility, blood flow and body core temperature. These pre planned movements improve mobility, balance, and stability by turning on the brain-to-body connection. Active dynamic warm-up also increases muscular/cardiovascular endurance, motor skill coordination and help prevent injury. NOTE: Static stretching before lifting and running will decrease power output, shut down the nervous system and microscopically tear muscle fibers. If you feel the need for your athletes to perform static stretching, we recommend you do it at the end of practice or a training session.
Team Speed is a Skill
Coaches often have their athletes run 40’s, do some type of change of direction, or have them run distance without any attention to technique. We train athletes to perform sport drills with impeccable technique. Performing running drills correctly will increase the athletes overall reaction time, maximize speed and prevent injury by learning correct acceleration, deceleration and change in direction techniques.