Daily Jourals
Day 1
Our locations will be Parker Bennett Curry Elementary School (165 Webb Drive) and Bowling Green High School (1801 Rocking Ave) In Bowling Green, KY 42101. There will be a guest speaker on the last day of camp (Jihad Morris). There will be various other places we will be training and doing our camp to add variety and eliminate dullness in the athletes.
My supervisor was basically there to assist the athletes and address workouts and what our plan was. We was introduced to many different people and trainers as well in the midst. We had the opportunity to work with many athletes and other trainers and coaches to expand the Athletic Academy. My duty was focused on just helping set up stations and giving my input on certain situations and how I felt about it. Sometime I would jump in and participate and other times I would sit back and let the athletes do them while assisting when I’m needed.
Get To Where You Have To Be Student Athletic Academy
The first day of the student athletic academy was one marked by very exclusive satisfaction and imperfection. Our main focus of the first day was to teach athletes the importance of values and morals. We have a concept that must be attained and in order to reach that we have to stress the importance of discipline. When meeting with the different groups of kids this is understood that we treat this experience as a job. It was a bigger introduction of what we should and should not focus on and do and what is important and isn’t. My main purpose was to be a shining light and model how it is to be of moral character and stand for something. These kids and teenagers all have different backgrounds so it’s more than just sports that must be learned. We spend the first half of the time explaining the meaning of life and how one must focus on the bigger picture. Being that the training is intense we have breaks, down time, and time for the athletes to focus on recovery/regeneration. We understand that these hours are long for our camp standing but it is split up into segments. It’s more than just training many things go into this procedure. Being that our Academy is 5 weeks continuous we have plenty of time to work with the athletes. Many of these athletes will go back to their sports seasons/school and be better student-athletes and greater people in society.
Day 2
We spend a lot of time going through the individual characteristics that come with being a complete student athlete. In training we spent our first couple of hours going through the fundamentals which are important. The main reason we focus on these small fine details so much is because they are essential to life. Sustaining yourself and standing tall and be bold is what we want to engrain in this student-athletic academy. By the end of each training session these athletes will be tired but most importantly better role models. These student-athletes will be better and their friends will notice, their families will notice, and that’s what makes us proud. We wanted the first approach to be surrounded by flexibility. It is important to have flexibility not only as an athlete but it is essential to health and wellness. We went through a series of stretches and warm up drills that help to get the athletes blood flowing. This helps them to feel better about themselves and get things moving in the right direction.
Day 3
We begun with time and assorting of learning who we are and aware of the things we focus on in this life. “We fade out of darkness and feed light into the universe”. This was the quote we started the 3rd day with in order to stimulate the mind in a sense of positive reinforcement. We always want to wake up the mind first before each session because that is the foundation to great progression. We ask each athlete questions about themselves for reasons such as who they are and what is their purpose. Even though it is a lot for these young athletes to attain in such a small time frame we are ingraining something in their minds. In sports and life we always hear it is 80% mental 20% physical.
Day 4
Today we focused on different biomotor abilities that help enhance an athlete's performance capabilities. There was a focus on understanding that each one of these individuals are all different so we shouldn’t compare ourselves to other individuals. There was a focus on body weight exercises for strength, stretches for static and dynamic warm- up, and speed, and we talked about endurance and the different energy systems. It was important that we break things down into small details to help these athletes understand why we are doing what we are doing. Everything that was done is focused around being very mindful of what is going on.
Day 5
Today was an individual assessment and sports specific day. There was a chance for athletes to experience and expand on different movement patterns and exercises. We put a lot of time and focus on efficiency and postural alignment. Overall this helped with fellowship with the athletes and coaches and character development. We want to teach every athlete that comes in that we are marked around proficiency and to rethink how the body functions.
Day 6
Everyday is started with deep breathing and slow controlled movements. We want the athletes to feel their body in space and understand how movement affects efficiency. Once you strive to be the best absolute person by focusing on these little things then we begin to see things change. Life is a serious of doing many little things right and that makes the big things happen.
Day 7
We wanted to focus on our beliefs and what it is that we want because once we have that understanding we start to grow. When we start to grow and reach for something greater than ourselves that’s self improvement. We focused on self-awareness and a sense of where we are in the universe and this is very important. This is important because it teaches us that as athletes and people we can only control what we control.
Day 8
This day was focused solely on agility training. Our focus was we did work with speed ladders and cones and just feeling our proprioception. The better the athletes felt with feeling where they were the better it was for the progression. I remember my supervisor Tyreon saying If you cannot feel where you are efficiently you are missing out on a lot of improvement.
Day 9
We went through a series of games and circuits for the athletes to have fun and add variety to things. Circuits for an athlete allows them to help build each other up and their confidence and to accomplish more than one thing at a time. We also went through a demonstration of how important it is to eat healthy.
Day 10
Today was about stride patterns so we used certain devices to help the athletes to understand posture and positions. There was a lot of knowledge and bringing in biomechanics which was fun since I have a background in exercise science.
Day 11
This was a fun day where we was focusing on taking all we have learned and put it in a fun sports game. This allowed the athletes to work on building character and working together with one another while also getting better. Much of what we do is bigger than the reason why we do it because everything comes down to self development. Everyday we wake up we should all strive to learn and be better as well as make the world a better place.
Day 12
Today was a day we focused on mechanics and coordination to improve the athletes running. These will carry over to better performance and the athletes will definitely feel the difference. Not only will it help as an athlete but it will help them as students in life and the sport. In ways such as paying attention to detail and focusing in.
Day 13
What day is better than a day to improve strength and power for the athletes. Focusing first on body weight then next focusing on actual weight bearing exercises. Push ups, pull ups, bodyweight squats are all good ways to start off and build a good base of general strength. Also soft tissue strength was something we got into such as myofascial tissue.
Day 14
Today we focused on recovery to help improve muscle functioning as well as regeneration of the muscles. We allowed the athletes to do recovery runs slow paced easy runs to get the blood flowing and relax the muscles. The athletes felt good and got a good easy workout for the day.
Day 15
Today was a day we allowed the athletes to get individual focus so we split them up. It helped with getting more details and helping to gain a competitive edge. We all know everyone is different so it’s always good to focus on the individual.
Day 16
This was a great time to focus on being an all around athlete in many areas such as growth. Growth in this lifetime we talked about in the beginning starts with being uncomfortable. Sometime the things we really like doing the least is actually what helps us grow the most. It takes time and practice and being diligent in what you are doing to have more. Each and everyday we steer in the importance of it. So conditioning today was the main focus and how to be mentally tough.
Day 17
We focused on being fast and strong at the same time. We took what the weight room is used for and helped it to supplement what is needed in their sport. It is one thing to be strong but to be able to put it somewhere is another thing. So everything we talked about we tie it into more than just being athletes but students of life.
Day 18
The experiences that I gather each day help to ensure that I am well polished as an individual as well. The reason being that if I am going to be a positive light in these athletes life then I also have to model what it means. Everyday is a new challenge and I want to be prepared for each challenge so we prepare for anything. It will never be a time where things are perfect or always right but you can’t become bitter. The workouts today was focused around being mindful of each and everything that we do.
Day 19
We focused on sports specific training for the athletes. We let each athlete get a dosage of what they will mainly see in their sport of choice. So by simulating real game simulations it helps the atmosphere to become a little more clear. The more we get use to doing something right the harder it is to make the wrong mistake. Not saying that we will never make mistakes but we work on being use to the trial and error. If we stay ready we won’t have to get ready.
Day 20
Today everything was all about movement. Movement is everything because in this lifetime nothing can happen without a start. So being clear of movement and what is around us, over us, and under us helps us grow. The better we move in life and athletics the better and healthier.
Sharing The Love
I got to know myself better than I was able to encounter on my own terms. I had the ability to meet with two kids a little girl and little boy to get work in. This changed my life because the little boy 8 and his little sister 4 just was looking for guidance and I was there to give them that. I could tell they had been through challenges with their parents and in their life. I wanted to deliver them hope because I feel life is about helping one another. My mother Always told me son this life and your purpose isn’t all about you it’s about changing you to help make someone else's life better.
Understanding The Body
Connect the dots was a game we played where us and the athletes would work on getting each other to understand the body. The body in which how it will function on the field and it will be used. In athletics and in life we will use our bodies in space in different planes of motion and in all types of movements. The better we are at coordinating our body in these fashions the better we will be in our sport.
The Little Things- Injury Prevention
Injury Prevention you want to focus on more than the bigger things it is more than just worrying about what you see. It’s the little things that make the big things happen this is what my coach preached at My D1 college I attended before tiffin. When you're healthy and doing the right thing and taking care of the small things we can then succeed.
Admire How You Were Created
Love yourself is the motive of today’s work. We all are born and come in many different shapes, sizes, forms. God made us all different in our own way but that’s what makes each one of us significant. We must all find our greatness from within and use that to press forward to the future and see what is in store. We all have a story and something different that we bring to the table so we must focus on ourselves.
Strength and its Purpose in Sports
Strength is the foundation of all movements. The stronger our muscles are the more we can do, the more weight we can push and overall the better our life can be. We did body weight circuits and just a foundational approach to the weight room getting use to the weighs and moving weight. These things make our muscles capable of doing more, getting stronger, getting bigger and make us better athletes in life.
Knowledge that was Implied
My supervisor talked a lot about conserving energy while working hard which is hard to do. We are so use to hearing work hard but in the world of sports things are in moderation. Do too less and you get nothing but you do too much and you burn out. This is why you should moderate what you do also make everything make sense. If it doesn’t make sense or go together than you might not want to structure it together. When we do that then we can get mixed results.
Circuits Included
Body Conditioning is where we work on functional fitness and how it affects our everyday lives. We can be in shape or have great lung capacity but if our body endurance isn’t up to par then it isn’t worth it. This being said we work on circuits because this more likely symbolizes the stresses our body will undergo in sports. We are constantly moving and doing something and that causes stressors so we must get our body adapted to that.
Sports Specific and Game Focus
It was more sports specific we used cones and other uses of equipment just to help the muscles and movements fire. Everything in life starts with a thought then a thought turns into a movement and a movements turns into an action. Everything is executed in the mind so we must keep it well polished in many ways. We have to challenge ourselves in ways our mind finds difficulty in so we can continue growing.
Life Lessons Being Taught
Find Comfort in being uncomfortable. Hard days is apart of life but we all have to do them there is no way around them or escape. I learned through trial and error and going through many tough times and challenges these are what create you. What i mean is the challenges in our life is what set us up to the best times of our lives. It’s a must to use the good and bad to our advantage to get what is meant for us out of this life.
Activities Included
The Athletes got to have fun and we played games and just let everyone have a good time. In life we always make time to work but how often do we make time to have a good time and enjoy ourselves. The better we are at balancing in our lives the better things will go and the better we will feel. So today we just had fun with the athletes it was games played but with more balance at a relaxed pace.
Fun Day
Fun day with food and swimming and games. The last day we expanded with athletes and their families and everyone was invited.