Kinetic Lab is excited to provide a new program, ‘Athletic Edge,’ a Strength and Conditioning small group program for those aged 15-18 years in Tamworth. At Kinetic Lab, we already run three Long Term Athletic Development programs each week (ages 12yrs +), aimed at developing movement patterns, reducing injury risk and increasing strength, covering a range of sports for ages 10+. Our new Athletic Edge class is an extension of our LTAD aimed at older adolescents who want to further their sporting career, incorporating specific strength and fitness testing, specific program design, re-testing and progression. Our new Athletic Edge program is targeted to our athletes who are reaching and playing in state, all schools, NSW country, championships and club level competitions.
Each athlete will complete a full body and movement assessment, including a range of motion, strength measures, FMS risk screening and sports-specific testing prior to entry into the group. Testing may include sprint testing, agility, power and plyometrics, reaction time, balance, jump mat testing, aerobic capacity and more. This will allow our Exercise Physiologists to develop a targeted program to the individual’s capacity and sport demands, a program to be completed and updated within the group. The testing is developed in line with NSW pathways to higher programs, to increase competitive progress.
With each new athlete who has an element of speed in their sport, from athletics sprinting to basketball or rugby 7s, we need to identify the faulty mechanics, elevate the function of that component and re-integrate it back into their sprint.
Below is an example of how we enhance speed in this Athletic Edge program:
- Build strength. Strength is the foundation of speed; functional strength will make you faster and more explosive. Strengthening of the lower body should focus on glutes and hamstrings, with exercises such as the deadlift, split squat and box squat. Core strength is also crucial to keeping the body stable when sprinting, and upper body strength to improve arm drive, increasing power and forward momentum.
- Increase stride length. A more powerful and efficient stride length will propel you further forward. Increases in backside extension and knee lift can enhance thigh separation to increase stride length. Hill sprints can help increase backside extension and bounding drills can increase thigh separation. Mobility is also an important element to increasing stride length, when athletes run they extend at their ankles, knees and hips, if one of these areas is not working efficiently it will limit their ability to run as fast.
- Relative force production. The amount of force you can output relative to your body weight, this is critical to speed, both vertically and horizontally as you fight against the forces of gravity. We can improve relative force production through the power of plyometrics, eccentric and isometric specific muscular strength and tendon training, and absolute strength with compound lifts.
- Acceleration mechanics. Research has shown that if two people are equally matched in every part of the race, besides the start, the athlete with the better start (enhanced acceleration) will finish the race with a full second advantage. So if your botching your start, you are at a serious disadvantage. If you are looking to increase your first step explosiveness, acceleration mechanics is what you need. Stance, generating force and steps focusing on lower limb action are the highlight for this phase. If our athletes can produce efficient motion we can drastically produce more force with each step and decrease unneeded motion.
- Maximum velocity mechanics. If we correctly shift contact with the ground more towards the front of the body, we can produce more force and run faster. We need consistent and effective drills that isolate the frontside components of ground contact force.
So this is where we come in, we know all about the above necessary components to increase speed and the exercises and training process associated, so let us do the work in developing your program, and you put the work into the exercises.
Each sport has varying components that are crucial to improving performance. Below we have selected some sports and will highlight their specific and testing measures we utilise:
Swimming
There are some essentials to swimming performance that we need to address, including thoracic spine mobility, ankle and shoulder range of motion, hip extension, pulling strength, mechanics, and injury prevention. We can assess swimming mechanics and athletic ability through body composition, reaction time, aerobic capacity, flexibility and more, through specific tests such as the max push up test, lateral trunk endurance, triple forward bound, unilateral shot put test and glute strength measurements.
Rugby union
A rugby match involves complex gameplay with collisions, high-speed running and technical skills interspersed with short periods of recovery. Players have the opportunity to perform a wide range of individual and team skills: running, passing, catching, kicking, tackling, rucking, mauling, lineout play, scrummaging and so on. The game offers players of very different abilities and physical characteristics the opportunity to participate in a team together. Individual players will have many skills in common whilst at the same time they will also be able to specialise in positional skills. Testing for rugby union athletes involves body composition; height and weight, muscular strength; grip strength, isolated hamstring, glute and quad strength, back squat 1-3RM, muscular power; vertical jump, countermovement jump, horizontal jump, linear speed, change of direction and aerobic capacity.
Soccer
Characterised as an intermittent sport, requiring athletes to execute a variety of explosive technical and tactical movements repetitively. The performance of such an array of activities requires a complex physiological demand that highly taxes anaerobic and aerobic energy systems. Within this assessment, we focus on acceleration, speed and agility, strength and power, plyometrics, and injury prevention. In terms of injury prevention, the lower body extremities are most at risk (knee, ankle, thigh, groin), and research suggests that most injuries in soccer occur in non-contact incidences, mainly in running and turning. We need to improve the structural integrity of joints through increasing muscle, bone and tendon strength to reduce this injury risk.
In a nutshell, why should athletes join this group?
• They will have an Allied Health professional who will individualise their training and goals
• The training program is driven by data and insights that optimise athletic profile
• They will tap into a new level of strength that transfers to the field of play
• Sharpen reaction time and build explosive power to win the big moments
• Develop runaway speed that changes the course of the game
• Enhance recovery
• Have a team of specialists in their corner (our Allied Health practice incorporates physiotherapy, remedial massage, dietetics, mental health coaching and podiatry).
The weekly Wednesday sessions begin August 7th at 4:30pm. Please contact the office on 02 5778 0195 or contact the email below for further enquiry or to book your initial consult.
When: Wednesday 4:30-5:30pm
Where: Kinetic Lab- 4 Hawker Rd Taminda
Cost: $140 initial consultation, $25/session after initial. (Both services are claimable under supporting private health funds).
Contact: nat@kineticlab.com.au