Takano Athletics

Finally getting around to blogging after last weekend’s Crossfit Olympic Lifting Certification in Las Vegas.  Thanks to Joe at Crossfit Las Vegas for hosting the event and providing an excellent venue for the cert.  Lead trainer Josh Everett did a great job of keeping things moving and the organization as set forth by Mike Burgener provided an excellent learning experience for all of the 35+ participants.  Spacious with plenty of good equipment, CF Las Vegas was a great location and I think we came away with a lot of satisfied athletes who have a much better conceptualization of the correct performance of the Olympic lifts.

I have to give credit to Josh and my coaching colleagues, Jason Salyer, Johnny De Gregorio, John Brown and JP Bolwahn who were anxious to help and were right on with their coaching tips.

The PVC was flying Takano Photo

I have to compliment the participants.  Everytime I work one of these certs, I’m always impressed that so many people are showing up with some preparation having been done beforehand.  Most of them have a pretty good idea of the positions, and are aware of the need to perform movements that involve most of  the musculature of the body.  Most have above average motor skills and the most prevalent problems are range of motion limitations which can be worked on and improved over time.

As I’ve stated before, I think that many of these Crossfitters are going back to their respective gyms where they will be introducing more people to the Olympic lifts.  There are already 53 Crossfit Oly Certs scheduled for 2010 and they are filling up fast.  The last time I talked to Mike Burgener, requests for dates were coming in for 2011.  These are becoming immensely popular and the word is going to be getting out about the Olympic lifts to the point where I believe they are going to become a much more substantial staple in the training curricula for athletes all over the country and much of the world, if they aren’t at that point already.   The next one I’m working will be the February 20 and 21 with Coach Mike Burgener at Crossfit Balboa in Costa Mesa.

A Little Consumer Ed

Last night I had an opportunity to speak with the parents of female club volleyball players at Point West Volleyball Club in Simi Valley.  This is the team that is coached by my former athlete, Staci Venski.  She’s the one whose photo is in the testimonial section on the front of the Takano Athletics website.  Staci was the best volleyball player that I ever coached, and she had a great career at USC.   She trained with me for three years before college and she was able to jump and touch 10′7″ upon entering Southern Cal.

She’s a grown up lady now and asked me to speak to her parents group about strength and conditioning.  Since I haven’t set up a volleyball S & C program at Team Crossfit, I wasn’t selling my services, but just providing some consumer information for those who were interested in the topic.

I talked about strength and conditioning, that there was a proper way to pursue it, and that it had now become a factor in the college recruiting process.  I spent some time discussing the range of abilities presented by people calling themselves personal trainers and how widely those abilities and backgrounds could vary.  I told them to ask questions about prior experience working with athletes, the success levels of those athletes, injury rates of their athletes and what factors would be improved besides vertical jump.  I provided them with an arsenal of questions to help them determine the competency of any strength and conditioning coach or personal trainer they might encounter including whether or not they were certified.   They all seemed grateful for the information and amazed at how involved the process of physical preparation can be.  As an educational opportunity I felt like it was a major success.

I answered quite a few questions and got to personally meet some of the parents and discussed their concerns.  One parent introduced me to his daughter who was 6′4″ at age 14 and still growing!  The girls volleyball game is consistently raising the bar.

It was good to see Staci again and it was good to provide some sound information to some very concerned, involved parents.   The old school teacher in me just won’t die!