JFL Parents: Get your kids faster at Ageless Squared in Staunton

“Make my kid faster” – Almost every parent we meet

It’s no surprise that the fastest, most agile kids are the usually the best kids on the team. Football is a game built upon speed and strength. Just take a glance at the combine statistics. As you move along the hierarchy of football – high school  to DIII to DII to DI to professional, you’ll see the following trends:

• Strength increases from one level to the next. The average middle linebacker at a DI school will be much stronger in the bench press, squat, and clean than the average middle linebacker at a DIII school.
• Speed and power increases from one level to the next. The average running back at a DI school will have a higher vertical jump and faster 40 than the average running back at a DIII school.

In fact, a good football scout can probably tell what level a kid plays at just by looking at his strength and speed levels. In the NFL combine, one-tenth of a second on the 40 or 2 reps on the 225lb bench press can mean a couple million dollars.

However, what most people don’t realize is that much like football, strength, speed, and agility are highly influenced by technique. College strength coaches spend an enormous amount of time on technique work – proper acceleration mechanics, proper deceleration mechanics, foot placement, landing mechanics, and exercise form. One of the primary tenets of strength training is to never add strength on top of dysfunction (poor technique).

Football Combine Training for Young Athletes

Although we firmly believe young athletes shouldn’t strength train until they’ve started puberty, we cannot emphasize enough the importance of technique and movement training prior to puberty. A young athlete that already knows how to properly decelerate and accelerate,  how to absorb force with proper landing mechanics, and correct exercise form during fundamental movements will have a HUGE advantage when they enter high school. They will be:

• Less likely to get injured, especially ACL injuries
• Stronger
• Faster
• Spend less time working on the fundamentals and more time working on sport-specific skills.
• Be able to lift weights sooner
• Be more confident on the field

The Details for our Jr. Football Combine Training

• When:  Starts February 5th and will be on Wednesday nights from 5:00-6:00pm
• Where: A2 in Staunton
• Who:  Boys and girls in 5th-8th grade
• Length: 4 weeks
• Cost: $35 per child
• Register:  At the front desk at Ageless and A2 by February 3rd.

Class Outline

1. Dynamic Warmup – Learn how to warm up properly prior to training and games to maximize strength, speed, and power as well as reduce risk of injury.
2. Deceleration Mechanics -Learn how to properly stop to improve lateral and linear quickness on the field.
3. Acceleration Mechanics – Learn the right and wrong way to sprint with a focus on arm mechanics and shin angles so that we squeeze every ounce of speed out of every athlete.
4. Landing Mechanics – Learn how to absorb force properly so that cuts on the field are explosive and lightening fast.
5. Exercise Fundamentals – Learn how to perform the basic movement patterns like the squat and hip hinge so that as soon as the athlete is ready to load, he can start building strength.

Coaches

Brad Seketa – Brad, a former collegiate football player at Millikin,  is the head trainer at Ageless where he trains high school and collegiate athletes.

Kevin Fuller – A former high school standout football and basketball player at Staunton, Kevin just completed his 4th year of collegiate football at Illinois College where he lead the team with 11 TD receptions.

T.J. Allan – A certified strength and conditioning coach (CSCS) through the NSCA and a level 1 functional movement specialist, T.J. has written strength training articles for Stack.com, Ihoops.com, and Strengthcoach.com, as well as has been training high school and collegiate athletes for the past 5 years at Ageless.