ARTICLE 1 -GOAL SETTING TIPS

ARTICLE 2 - ASK THE ADVISOR

ARTICLE 3- CROSS TRAINING

ARTICLE 4- RUNNERS KNEE

ARTICLE 5-  DON''T BE FOOLED BY THE WALK-ON LETTER

ARTICLE 6- SPEED SERIES Part 3 of 7 BALLISTICS

ARTICLE 7- HEART RATE TRAINING

ARTICLE 8 - SENSIBLE WEIGHT LOSS by Nancy Clark

ARTICLE 9 - CAN MUSIC IMPROVE PERFORMANCE? 

ARTICLE 10 -  NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS THAT WORK!

ARTICLE 1 - Goal Setting Tips

January is a time when we often set goals for the upcoming year. Follow these proven goal setting tips:

1. Be as specific as possible and define the desired behavior.
2. Challenge yourself to reach for new levels but make it realistic.
3. Have a way to measure the results of your efforts.
4. State your goals in the positive by avoiding words such as can’t won’t and not.
5. Whatever it is you want to achieve, write it down.
6. Reward yourself for attaining goals.
7. MOST IMPORTANTLY - WRITE YOUR GOALS DOWN!

Accept failure as a learning process and re-set your goals

ARTICLE 2 - ASK THE ADVISOR

A: This is a common occurrence among injured athletes. To build your confidence in the injured area have your doctor and trainer give you the complete results of a strength test that shows the injured area is as strong as it can be. Gradually simulate game like conditions to test the injury. For example if you play basketball, work up to full speed solo, then try one on one, two on two etc. Your coach can create drills that will test your strength and agility in practice and boost your confidence for games.

A common strategy among athletes recovering from injury is the use of visualization. Imagine putting yourself and the injury into a real game situation. Picture all the stress and strain you go through and see yourself performing with great success and see your injured area holding up as if it was never hurt. See the success in your mind before you hit the field or the court. Tell yourself "I am ready and in great shape" or "Go 100%, my hard work will let me succeed at top speed." Keep you confidence up, being timid and nervous tightens you up and makes it more likely that you will re-injure yourself.

ARTICLE 3- CROSS TRAINING

Definition- Cross training involves conditioning the mind and body for a specific performance by partaking in activities not normally associated with your usual activity.

Then why do it? Cross training has several benefits.

1. It provides a change of pace and variation from your normal routine. There are times when familiarity breads boredom and decreased productivity. Changing your workout can refresh you mentally and physically.

2. It allows for active recovery. Cross training allows for a systemic training effect without a sport specific training load. In other words you can get a general workout without over taxing the systems used in your regular routine. The body must be trained very specifically to see specific results. Runners must run, cyclists ride and swimmers swim. To take a break a runner would cycle and a swimmer might run.

3. It enhances total conditioning beyond what is normal for your sport. Cross training makes you foundation of skill and conditioning even stronger then before. Sports do not require the same movement patterns and muscular strength. It doesn’t hurt to have all areas covered though in event that you do need to call upon a seldom used movement or rely on secondary muscle groups. Think of it as being trained in 3 dimensions and 360 degrees. Leave nothing to chance.

ARTICLE 4- RUNNERS KNEE

One of the most common injuries among runners is Patella Femoral Syndrome (PFS), also know as runners knee.

PFS is an overuse syndrome characterized by dull, aching pain under or around the kneecap, and is usually most noticeable when descending stairs or hills. PFS is caused by abnormal movement of the patella (knee cap) against the femur (thigh bone) during flexion and extension of the knee, resulting in irritation of the underside of the patella and/or surrounding tissue.

Abnormal patellar-tracking in the groove of the femur can be caused several ways: direct trauma to the patella, weakness of the quadriceps muscle (especially the vastus medialis oblique, or VMO, which is part of the inside quadriceps muscle group, just above the knee), and /or tightness of structures surrounding the knee, such as the iliotibial band (ITB), the connective tissue running down the outside of the thigh,

Runner’s knee can also be caused by running on sloped roads, over-training, and/or increasing your mileage too quickly. Over-pronation can also result in runner’s knee, so you might look into shoes designed to assist in controlling pronation, featuring good stability and motion control.

Once you’ve consulted your health care professional, you can treat initial acute runners knee with ice packs and proper stretching of the quadriceps and ITB. As long as there’s no pain, you may continue running. This will probably mean decreasing your mileage and pace however.

As pain decreases, the long-term treatment of runner’s knee includes gradually increasing the strength and flexibility of the quadriceps, and increasing the flexibility of the ITB. Some good exercises to strengthen the quads include: partial squats; wall squats; step-ups; and leg extensions. While performing all of these exercises, concentrate on strengthening the VMO. This muscle is best strengthened during the final 15-20 degrees of leg extension

Left unchecked, the occasional twinge in your knee can become a constant, irritating pain. To prevent runner’s knee from sidelining you in the future, incorporate the exercises mentioned above into your workout. You’ll strengthen your quads, increase your flexibility, and should eventually run pain free.

ARTICLE 5-  DON''T BE FOOLED BY THE WALK-ON LETTER

It happens every year to hundreds of HS athletes. They are all excited about the opportunity to play college sports and maybe they have even been recruited by a local college. Then it comes. "The Letter."

Unfortunately we are out of scholarship money this year and cannot offer you any. The good news is that I am inviting you to camp as a walk-on candidate. In a couple of years we might be able to come up with some money for you.

I am looking forward to seeing you at camp this year and having you as a part of our program. See you on August 24. Thanks

Lesson #1: This letter was sent to several dozen other student athletes.

Lesson #2: Walk-ons rarely make the team and a scholarship is a longer shot.

Lesson #3: If a coach didn’t pay much attention to you and sends you that letter, you are not being recruited. Look to where the coach might actually have a sincere interest in you.

Lesson #4: If you attend a college based solely on the athletic opportunities, real or perceived, you stand the chance of being extremely disappointed. Choose the right school first, then pick on athletics.

ARTICLE 6- SPEED SERIES Part 3 of 7 BALLISTICS

If all you had to do in your sport was run 100% in a single direction without any obstacles, training would be easy.

As you know such things as change of direction, running backwards, altering angles on the fly and handling the contact of collisions, bumping and various pieces of equipment all come into play.

The majority of sports included the following tasks: Multidirectional movements, short starts and stops with bursts of speed, rapid changes in direction, explosive power delivery of an impact through contact with the ground or an opponent, instantaneous power reception at contact, and explosive power delivery to an object.

The ability to manage energy and changes in energy flow is vital to playing with speed. It is imperative that you include ballistics training into your regime so that this becomes natural during competition.

Sports Speed by Ward, Dintiman and Telez and Published by Human Kinetics Publishers, offers several suggestions on how to train with ballistics.

Go see you PE teacher and ask him or her to dust off the old medicine balls. If you can’t find a medicine ball make a 10-15 lb sand bag.

With a partner or by yourself practice throwing the ball up in the air and catching it off of your body. The idea is to catch the ball in different positions, while moving, and standing still and with different parts of your body, i.e. shoulder, stomach leg etc. You also get strength and power benefits from throwing the heavy ball.

With this type of training you should be able to maintain speed while encountering obstacles, changing directions and adjusting angle of pursuit.

In the past 5 years there has been a big increase in the use of heart rate monitors as training tools for athletes and fitness enthusiasts. In the old days you trained by how you felt and if you wanted a heart rate you put your finger just below your ear and took a pulse.

How things have changed! Heart rate can tell an athlete more then you imagined and the methods of measuring and manipulating heart rate data is mind bending.

The Information

Using a heart rate trainer allows for more specific training protocols which are precise vs. using a "how I feel today" guide.

1. Waking Heart Rate. A good measure of your conditioning is your AM HR. Generally speaking, the lower your resting heart rate the better condition you are in. Your heart takes few beats to provide enough oxygenated blood for the body. The amount of blood per stroke (heart beat) increases and your efficiency to utilize oxygen is increased.

Seeing a higher then usual AM HR often means the body is fatigued, over trained and needs a rest. Keep a running log of your AM HR so you can compare data.

2. Aerobic Threshold. This is the point just before you would go into oxygen debt and become anaerobic. Usually it is right around 80% of your Max HR. Using a monitor will enable you to control your output so as to not surpass the aerobic threshold should your training not call for it that day.

Max HR= 220-(your age) x 80%

3. Interval Traininingg.

Intervals allow you to train at a high output level followed by a period of rest or recovery. Intensity of intervals vary depending on your program and goals. A simple way to utilize HR for intervals is to set an HR level you want to train in for intervals (based on your max). You can gage your needed effort by your heart rate. Often times we put more effort then needed to reach desired training levels leaving us fatigued for the next session and possibly overtrained.

HR monitors involve a transmitter which straps around your chest, directly to the skin and a receiver which you wear on your wrist like a watch or mount to a bike.

A basic HR monitor will record your HR have a timer, and cost about $70-80. Advanced models come with many options such as interval memory, multiple threshold settings, ability to record the amount of time spent in, above and below your targeted HR range, and some can be downloaded directly into a PC software package for analysis and graph readouts. These models cost from $180-$300 and are not needed until after a basic model is used and you develop the need for more features.

Polar-The best known of all HR monitors. Offers basic monitor starting at $79 for the Polar Beat and advanced with the Polar Vantage NV for $399. Software programs available for individual and team data download and analysis.

Also,Visit your local sporting goods store. health club or running specialty store check out the models.

ARTICLE 8 - SENSIBLE WEIGHT LOSS by Nancy Clark

ARTICLE 9 - CAN MUSIC IMPROVE PERFORMANCE?

Surprisingly yes, but it can also hinder your performance as well.

For years scientists have know that music can influence our emotions and even our intellect. Classical music of Bach or Mozart will not elicit the same emotions and feelings that Rage Against the Machine or Prodigy will.

As an athlete you have what is referred to by sports psychologists as an "Optimal Performance State." The variables involved with this optimal state include: Physical arousal (energy level), cognitive arousal (being psyched), heart rate, respiration rate and overall physical conditioning. The optimal level for every athlete is unique. A "Win one for the Gipper" speech may have as much a negative impact as it does a positive. Some athlete’s do not perform well when overly "jacked’ or "psyched" up.

If your performance is not what it should be then maybe you are under or over "aroused" and have yet to find the "optimal" level you function at.

The music you listen to before a game (not everyone does) can influence your performance. If you determine that you are either too pumped or not enough prior to practice or a game then perhaps selecting and listening to music, which you know creates the emotions and thoughts in you that you will create your ‘optimal state,’ will help.

Again keep in mind that each person is unique and what works for one may have no bearing on another. On the other hand understand that not everyone shows his or her readiness to perform by screaming and banging the lockers. I had a college football teammate who did not speak to anyone from Friday practice until kick-off on Saturday. Other guys laughed and joked. It all depends on the person.

ARTICLE 10- NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS THAT WORK!

Resolutions. We make plans to produce change in our lives beginning January 1st. We resolve to lose weight, study more, become a better athlete, prepare for the SAT and really hit the weight room this year. Usually we work on these things for a few days, maybe weeks and fall back to our old habits; the path of least resistance. Why does this happen. How come your history books still have dust on them at the end of the quarter? Perhaps before we make a resolution some thorough introspection (self examination of our values, thoughts and motives) will be helpful.

If your house is cracking because of a poor foundation you have three choices: Do nothing, repair the cracks, or rebuild the foundation. I think rebuilding the foundation is most effective, but it also requires the most personal investment.

The first thing we all need to do is take responsibility for ourselves. You are responsible for your own

actions, how you think, feel and react. Next, remember what it is that you love about being a student, athlete, son, daughter, brother, sister, etc. What would you miss the most if it was taken away from you? Are you in touch with those things you love-on a daily basis? Being a better student or a better anything else is a day by day process. Pete Rose’s 4,000 plus hits did not happen at once nor did Barry Sanders 2,053 rushing yards. They occurred one at bat and one rush at a time until we looked up 23 years or 16 games later and saw the unreal results of what today+today+today equalled. In pursuit of our grand ideals we can lose sight of the day to day process and the enjoyment it often manifests.

When making your resolution this year pay attention to your foundation and see if it needs rebuilding. Set your goals, plan your mission and make things happen!