Semi-Private Training Observation

Many activities I participate in require serious commitment. Most notably, I am the captain of the Cross Country team and on the varsity Track team here at Brookfield East. To be at peak performance, I must train every day. Although running is difficult, it is how I “seize the day.” To get to where I am now, it took countless hours and substantial dedication. Now I am at the end of the road, all the time I put into acheiving my goal was not in vain. I have become faster than I ever was before and have lead my teamates to do the same as we pushed each other and met with success. The demands of race also require a straightforward mindset focused on competing. The difficulties that were tolerated during the training and race are turned

By working as hard as a player can, they show themselves and others how determined they are. Coaches and teammates will not always get along with an athlete, but if they are dedicated they will still try as hard as they possibly can to hopefully avoid the issue. The extensive, excruciating practices also differentiate the players who are concerned about their performance from those who are not. Out of a hundred reasons not to show up at practice, that one dedicated athlete will find just one reason to show

It was important for me to keep up the positivity at practice even though I had been feeling negative. Despite my feelings for the sport, I was sacrificing everything for my team so we could stay together. We had awesome practices where we got so much done and then we also had practices that weren’t so great. But each time, my girls pushed through. And then, soon enough November was here and it was competition season. We were doing full-outs, the whole routine, 10 to 20 times every practice and then fixing and cleaning up our technique in between each full-out. Each time, the full-outs became harder as we were using more and more energy. But still, we pushed through. The night before, I went to bed early to prepare my body for what I knew was going to be a very long day ahead of me. Sometime in the middle of the night, I received a text saying our competition had been cancelled due to the host school having a lockdown the previous day. We had to wait. After all of the preparation we had had, we were forced to wait all of Thanksgiving break and then compete. So, we went on Thanksgiving break and I tried my hardest to get my mind where it needed to be for the competition. When we returned from break, we had exactly one practice left before our competition. As soon as everyone arrived, I could already tell something was off. And that is when we were told that one of our girls wouldn’t be competing with us due to grades. I don’t think I have ever felt so frustrated before. I was in complete shock that she had done this to us. But we had become that team that could bounce back from anything and we didn’t let this get us down. We rearranged the routine. The day finally came for us to compete. All day, I was anxious, wanting my team to do amazing but also to win. When we got to the school, everyone’s nerves were on but I knew we had it. I could feel it in my skin. I could feel myself

Private one-on-one training is personalised to fit your needs and help you to reach your goals. As your trainer I will be with you each minute of your session, guiding you, cheering you on and giving you important feedback so you can take your fitness to the next level.

During the fall of senior year, I joined the cross country team to help prepare and condition me for the track season, in the spring. Skeptical at first, I knew that I didn't have any endurance since I only sprint over hurdles during the track season, but little did I know that the weeks were passing and the end of the cross country season arrived. Though I was one of the inexperienced long distance runners, I knew that I ran the fastest I could because when I crossed the finish line I had an overwhelming nauseous feeling. As someone who runs a short distance, I was proud of myself for making it to the end of the season without quitting, especially since cross country is running for a long distance, which other sports make their athletes do

This past week I attended two different camps. The basketball camp was at NC State in North Carolina . NC State is an up-and-coming basketball program in the ACC . My goal is to play basketball at NC State for my college years. This is a very big goal for anyone because NC State is a prominent basketball program. Some say College basketball is something to high of a goal for me and that I should set easier goals but I would be setting myself up for failure if I set goals that are things that I wouldn't like. At camp we would wake up every morning at 7 and go to bed at 11. My body was sore from going to camp the week before but to succeed you have to be willing to outwork others. Some people have skill and talent. Talent is something you are

Imagine yourself, about to join your first season as a student-athlete of an elite, collegiate Cross Country team. It could be scary at first, but if you think about it, that is the next level to improving your physical and mental body. It’s also because it’s your first time joining an actual elite team that includes individuals, similar to you that have the same driven desire to win and go to finals like you. For instance, I was able to feel the same feeling when I joined DeAnza’s Cross Country team a year ago. It was hard to decide whether I should join the Cross Country or not since I'm in college now.

Olympic weightlifting has a special place in my heart. It’s a sport that many young athletes don’t consider; in fact, I didn’t consider partaking in this athletic discipline myself. It wasn’t until I realized what I was cable of; shaping and moulding myself into a strong, powerfully built, individual. The concept of improving myself was a fixed goal that I was willing to pursue. From there on, my weightlifting career quickly blossomed. I was first informed by my soon to be coach, that I would be competing in the school’s weightlifting competition. The word competition brought excitement and fear. A proper mind set was needed in order to compete. Building confidence on the platform and being consistent with my technique was the main focus. Countless

The author has had a lifetime of experience with athletics in multiple sports as an athlete, as a coach, and now as an athletic director at a high school. As an athlete that was highly competitive, his mindset was to always work hard and do whatever it took to win. About a year after all of his college eligibility has been completed his good friend took a job at a high school in San Bernardino as a water polo coach and asked him to come out to the pool to teach his boys a few things. The author took on an assistant coaching position from that point on for the next 6 years because he loved teaching the athletes what it was to not only be a competitor but to be a competitor the right way, through hard work and respecting the game. He eventually took over the program and progressed from a coach who wanted to desperately win to a coach that wanted his kids to be successful at everything they attempted to do above all else. That mindset has spilled over into his job as an athletic administrator at a new high school.

It was freezing cold out, and the coach had made the call that there was still going to be running today. Some of the runners on the cross-country team were relieved to hear this news, but I was frustrated with this weather. “Is there any way I can just run farther tomorrow? We’ve already had to run three to five miles each day for the past week,” I commented. “I know it’s tough running in this heat Michael, but it builds endurance and stamina,” coach replied. “You need to push through the heat in order to perform well.” Coach had been making us do mile repeats to prepare us for the next meet, but I was already feeling discouraged about the upcoming meet from my last performance. My goal was to make varsity before the end of the season, which

Towards the end of summer my parents- who are the president and secretary of my swim booster club- told me that we’d be getting a new coach for the high school season. I was a little uncomfortable with the idea of a new coach. When summer ended and school started we met our new coach and started practices. We even had optional morning practices as well as afternoon practices and voluntary morning weightlifting. I was putting in at least 3 hours of work every

When I was in seventh grade my mother, against all odds, convinced my awkward, out-of-shape self to join the football team. In spite of my initial begrudging attitudes, by the season’s conclusion, I had made numerous new friends and enjoyed the experience of playing a sport enough to join track and field that spring. Eagerly, I continued with athletics in high school, training vigorously during the off season. Like a character leveling up before a boss fight, I trained with intensity, lifting weights four times a week, gradually improving on my personal records each time until I was far stronger than I had ever been. I had heard the vague platitudes since I was a kid, but sports truly taught me the meanings of commitment and discipline. As the years passed, the brotherhood formed between my teammates and I became unbreakable. I believed without a doubt that every one of my teammates would give his all for me, and I would do the same for them. Because of athletics, I have become healthy, mentally and physically stronger, and I have friendships I will cherish

The rest of that season leading up to the Class MM State Championship and the State Open Championship went very smoothly. Confidence-wise, this team was unlike any other Tech School team that I had dealt with. They were, as I referred to them, ‘a blue-color team’ and openly welcomed competition. Because, they were so tough, both mentally as well as physically, I felt I could put them through a workout two weeks before the Championship race that would hopefully give them the added self-confidence to climb one more step on the ladder of success. The workout that I designed was similar to one that I had created and done myself in preparation for an upcoming race. Entitled, “The State Meet Won’t Hurt This Much”, it involved initially running

Looking back on this entire course, I’ve learned how to recognize the true value of hard work, and the importance of being the best that you can be instead of always comparing yourself to someone else. To be completely honest, I was quite nervous about grade 9 physical education and did not know what to expect. I have history of being last-pick for a team and was the slowest at Track and Field. I really did not like exercise, in fact, I found it really boring to run in circles for extended periods of time, but also did not like being known as the worst athlete in the class either. Therefore, ever since grade 7, I have been working to become a stronger athlete. My efforts had been weak before I joined cadets in grade 8, which showed me how to enjoy

I think when you are training an athlete in your program it’s important that you have a relationship with your athletes that make them trust that what you teach them ultimately improve their performance. When training an athlete as a coach you need to understand how identify their personal feelings, moods, and their free time all contributes to their performance and potential overtraining. I can recall one of my 300m Hurdler when we had to implement some strategies because of him overtraining during the season. As a staff we had to monitor his practice efforts along with the mileage of training on a weekly basis. This athlete was trying to practice two times a day during the season. Once we had to come up with a plan for him he began to