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FAQS

What is our Sport Prep Training Program and what is it intended to accomplish?

Who is eligible to participate?

When will it be held?

How much does it cost and how do you join?

Who is the running the program?

Who do you contact if you have any questions?

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What is our Sport Prep Training Program and what is it intended to accomplish?

Strength, coordination, and flexibility are essential to all sports endeavors.  When young athletes have a firm grounding in these fundamentals, it enhances their ability to succeed and excel at any sport they choose.  Our twenty-plus years of experience in youth sports has shown us that children who have conquered basic athletic skills tend to learn the mechanics of all sports more quickly, and in doing so, build a greater degree of self-confidence and self-esteem through sports participation.

In addition, since all sports pose some potential for injury, learning about safety should be an important part of any sports preparation program.

That is what our new Sport Preparation Training program is about.

With the help of experienced professionals, who have structured and will run this program, your children will get a jump start onto a smart path toward safe physical competency and confidence.

Using fun games, the sessions will teach skills that apply to all athletic endeavors - balance, weight transfer, coordination of gross motor movements, flexibility, how to fall safely, and more.  Indirectly they will learn how to take direction and execute progressively more complicated tasks.   The games will also provide the opportunity to teach strategy, teamwork and healthy competition. (We do not believe in avoiding competition, but rather teaching it in a positive environment where the competition occurs in the context of group competition or competing against one’s previous accomplishments.  We do not believe in pitting individuals against individuals at an early age.)

The basic elements will then be integrated into sports specific actions, such as hand-eye coordination, ball control, and so on; giving them a strong foundation of physical skills and the confidence to undertake any sport.

In the mix we will add the fundamentals of building strength, aerobic conditioning,  proper hydration, proper diet to attain the body's proper chemical balances and to avoid obesity, and teach them how to gain mental control through visualization and other proven state-of-the-art techniques.

This program is part of our continuing effort to improve the experience of our players.  It is an outgrowth of our coaches’ support programs -- programs intended to help our volunteer-parent coaches enjoy their dual role as player-parents and team coaches, and to impart meaningful lessons to all their players.

Who is eligible to participate?

We envision this coed program to serve boys and girls from four through ten years old.  We recently complete the inaugural clinic of 7 & 8 year olds.  For the Fall there will Clinics for 8 & 9 year olds which will contain the basics of the program with drills geared towards the upcoming baseball season.  Those clinics are called Sports Prep Training - Pre-Season Baseball Clinics.  We expect this to expand rapidly (with the possibility of basic clinics following the pre-season baseball clinics), so please return to this section of our site regularly and keep an eye out for our emails.

When will it be held?

The Sports Prep Clinic- Baseball Clinics  will be comprised of eight 60 minute sessions each Saturday starting in December 11 ending February 26, 2011.

How much does it cost and how do you join?

Registration for the four Baseball Dec-Feb clinics are not full and accepting wait list applicants only.  Click here to register.  The eight Saturday sessions will cost a total of $150.

Who is the running the program?

We are lucky to have obtained the leadership and participation of David Robinson to help us create and run this program.  David has been involved in the education and physical training of children for more than fifteen years.  Many of our parents and kids know David because he was the Athletic Director and Physical Education Teacher  for a public elementary/Middle school located in the  Carroll Gardens area from 1998-2006.

David is certified as a personal trainer by the American Council on Exercise (ACE) and as a Child Fitness Specialist through the East Coast Instructor Training School (ECITS).  He also holds NY State Child Abuse and Violence Prevention certifications. 

David is also a 7th degree black belt who teaches Jujitsu and Aerobic Thai boxing.  Additionally, he develops self defense, and violence prevention seminars for children and adults and creates and conducts adult fitness boot camp classes.

Aside from his personal training and martial arts work, he is currently a Guidance Counselor for a Alternative public high school in Manhattan.

Who do you contact if you have any questions?

If you have any questions, feel free to email us at sportsprep@78pyc.org  

FAQs about the Program

CDC on Concussions - for Parents (English & Spanish) and Coaches

For each session please have your child wear sneakers and either shorts or sweatpants, and bring water (not sweet drinks or Gatorade). 

What to Work on At Home

  Stretching: 

  -  Shoulder rolls: 10 small, 10 medium,10 large
-  Waist rolls: 10 left,10 right
-  Knee rolls: 10 left, 10 right
-  Neck rolls
-  Follow the leader jogging
-  Bear crawls
-  Squat thrust with a hop

  Circuits
 1- Rubber band rows/ up and downs
 2- Step jumps
 3- Ball slams
 4- 30 sec push up hold or agility ladder

Parents please help reinforce home work assignments:

  -   Drink 4- 8 glasses of water a day
 -   Eat 1-2 pieces of fruit every day
 -   Eat 1-2 vegetables a day
 -   Limit soft drinks to once or twice a week (this includes Gatorade and sugary beverages)
 -   Students should practice as many skills and exercises learned during that weeks lessons before coming to the next weeks lesson.
 -   Parents and athletes should stretch 10 min before going to bed. This will help release some of the daily stressors parents and Athletes may encounter during their daily routines.

Parent and athletes please remember to practice as many movements as possible before coming to the next session

 I put together a few definitions of words that we used during the last two sessions.

What is Lactic Acid? (Gabe Mirkin, M.D.)

When you exercise, sugar is broken down into different chemicals, to produce energy for muscles. As long as you get all the oxygen you need, the final products are carbon dioxide and water, but if you exercise so vigorously that you can't get the oxygen that you need, the reactions stop, causing a chemical called lactic acid to accumulate in your muscles and spill into you bloodstream.

Lactic acid buildup in muscles does not make muscles tired and may even make muscle contract more efficiently, which may increase your endurance. This concept contradicts what most instructors teach in their exercise classes.

Hip Rotation: The forward rotation of the hips that takes place during a stride while running or walking.

Muscle Strength: Greatest amount of force an athlete can exert at one time.

Plyometric Training: Exercises characterized by powerful muscular contractions in response to rapid, dynamic stretching of the involved muscles. The muscle flexes and extends. Through this type of exercise this muscle reflex process is improved.

Set: A group of repetitions followed by a rest period.

Warm-up: The gradual process of raising the body temperature and loosening muscles prior to strenuous exercise.

Muscle Endurance: Ability to repeatedly continue the work without muscle fatigue. This is particularly important for distance runners.

Flexibility: Ability to move a body joint through its normal full range of motion.

Aerobic (with oxygen): A cellular process in which foods (carbohydrates) are completely oxidized by the oxygen in the air, and the maximum chemical energy from foods is produced. Aerobic activities use the largest muscle groups that can be maintained continuously and whose function is rhythmical in nature (i.e. walking, jogging, swimming, bicycling, etc.).

Anaerobic (without oxygen): A cellular process in which foods (carbohydrates) are never completely oxidized because the oxygen in the air is not used.