Monday Chatter November 10 2008

I couldn't really think of a theme for a unified blog post, so I am just going to rattle off a few thoughts on my mind.

In the picture above from left to right. Myself, Deb Aylward (Dayls), Eddie O'Connor (Eagle), Rich Aylward (Rocket), and Mike Aylward (Big Mike).

1. Last Thursday evening I had the pleasure to train the Aylwards and Eddie O'Connor in one session. I already know how bad ass the Aylward men are, but I was completely floored by Deb. She was much stronger than I expected and kept complaining that Mike, her husband, was slowing her down. She also hates to stretch. Her son Mike, one of my best friends, is over in Iraq patrolling the Syrian border as we speak. Thanks for your service Mikey, love you buddy.

2. Based on an article I wrote this morning, if you aren't going to train with a good strength coach or trainer, why do you continue to waste time going for jogs, walks, and long bikes? You should be lifting weights, doing more intense energy systems work, and overall training like an athlete. Watch any college or NFL football game. Do you want to look like one of them or the same fat guy at the gym who does 30 minutes on the eliptical 3 times per week?

3. Want a good quick workout to do? Go to a park and perform the following. One short distance sprint, 5 pushups, and one time across the monkey bars. Drop down on the other side, catch your breath quickly and repeat 10 times. If you aren't breathing heavy you aren't working hard enough. Sometimes training can be this simple and fun.

4. This week is the last week of the fall session at the facility. If you are looking to put on size, speed, and strength this winter, come train with us at Sullivan Training Systems. Shoot me an email for more details at tssullivanjr@gmail.com.

5. We have had some impressive performances this fall session and I will blog later this week with a highlight reel.

6. I have no idea why I can't figure out the spacing of these blog posts, but it makes me want to spike my laptop on the ground, set it on fire, and perform the Maori Haka dance around it.

5 Tips to Make Your Recruiting Visit a Success

If you are a high school athlete starting to enter the recruiting process, there are a few things that will separate you from the rest of potential recruits as you begin to sit down and interview with coaches. Notice I use the word interview and not meet, or speak. It would be beneficial to start thinking in these terms if you are going to be meeting with coaches. Here are some tips you can use right away to make these meetings a success.

1. Overdress. Will it make a difference to a coach if you show up in jeans and a polo shirt versus khakis, jacket, and tie? Maybe, but why risk it. If you show up dressed well, a coach will know that you are taking this opportunity seriously.

2. Eye Contact. As you sit across a desk from a potential college coach, make sure you maintain eye contact and be confident. They are making judgements about you even when you aren't speaking.

3. Ask Questions. Show up to each recruiting trip with 15 questions to ask the coach. You may not get to all of the questions but it gives you a good number to start with. Write them on a sheet of paper and take some notes as the coach answers your question. He will be blown away by this. Good question: Can you describe the style of play that I will encounter in your league? Bad Question: Are there a lot of hot girls on campus?

4. Figure out exactly where you stand. If this were an interview for a job you wanted, you would close the meeting by asking for the job. So ask for the job. Ask the coach where you fit in with his plans for your recruiting class.

5. Repeat this process on all of your recruiting trips. If you use the same 15 questions at each meeting, you now have 3-6 sheets of notes on your questions from each school that you can use for reference when you make your final decision.

Winter Session 2008-2009

I am happy to announce that we are accepting applications for the Winter Session. There will be two options to train. One will be a two day per week training schedule and the second option will feature a three day per week. Session will run from November 24 through the last week in February. For more information please contact me at tssullivanjr@gmail.com

Below is an article I wrote for the Boston Patriots.

7 Successful Habits for Young Athletes

1. Academic Success. It is crucial for young athletes to start developing solid study habits as they get older. When the college selection process begins, any coach will tell you that a good player who has excellent grades and good test scores is invaluable to a program. Usually a coach has a small number of players they can be more lenient with during the admission process. If you remove the obstacle of you getting admitted, you make the coach’s job much easier.

2. Hard Work. Kids might not be happy to hear me say this, but hard work may be the best trait a player can possess. The beauty of this habit is you have complete control over how hard you work. You want to build a reputation as a “guy who will go through the boards if you asked him too”. Coaches love these guys. So start working hard in practice, stay after to shoot pucks, ask what other things you can do to get better, block shots, finish checks, and just flat out hustle at every opportunity.

3. Be a team player. This means at all times, not just when you feel like it. Pick up pucks at practice, clean the locker room, don’t talk back to coaches, be positive to your teammates at all times, don’t bitch and moan.

4. Summer Jobs. As soon as your son or daughter is old enough, they should be working in the summer even if you are wealthy enough where they don’t have to work. A kid who spends a summer or two working construction or landscaping becomes a mentally tough kid. I would take a construction worker over a kid who plays video games all day. Also, it makes them respect the value of hard work and education. Five summers of landscaping for me really made me think about how I should work hard in school because I didn’t want to do this for the rest of my life.

5. Reading. Read anything and everything. Find an author or some books you like and read them. It makes you smarter. Read magazines, newspapers, anything you can get your hands on.

6. Play every sport you can. Don’t specialize in hockey. Play baseball, golf, football, soccer, water ski, tennis, etc. It makes you a better athlete and actually makes your body more injury proof by being exposed to multiple stimuli.

7. Respect your parents. You won’t realize it right now, but your folks kill themselves to get you to practice, to pay for select teams, off ice training, school, etc. Tell them you love them and appreciate everything they do, and clean up after yourself for god sakes!

95 Pound Front Squat Test

Pictured above: Richie Aylward in the middle of a complex including squat jumps, clap pushups, and 25 pound plate corkscrews. Rich has been training with me for close to a year now and continues to train with me during the football season. Hard work like this has led to some excellent results for Rich. Keep it up buddy.

=>This week at the gym as a change of pace I have added in a couple of tests in order to bring out a little competition among the guys. The tests have been a 95 pound front squat test to technical failure, max pullup test, and a 95 pound bench press test. Another reason for implementing the test was to train for some mental toughness. A set of front squats where you take it into the high teens, 20s, 30s, and 40s, tells you a lot about yourself. Can you push past discomfort? Can you deal with some adversity?

=>During the 95 pound front squat test we had some great results.

Eddie O'Connor set the bar at 28. Brian Talbot went after Ed and posted a number of 30. Pat Bohan batted third and got 35. Brian Mac went and posted 40. Brian Byrne got 42. Pat Bohan dialed it up for another set and posted the record number at 46. The atmosphere during the testing was electric. Guys cheering each other on to get one more rep secretly hoping that their number would remain atop the leaderboard. I was more than satusfied with the way this test went and will use it in the future to test the guys in addition to the regular 3RM tests we do in various movements.

=>There is definitely something to be said for gym atmosphere. Get a group of like minded guys trying to get stronger together and you get results far greater than what you could accomplish on your own.

Separating the Good from Great

Today's post comes from an email I was forwarded that was written by Jamie Rice, the head coach at Babson College.

"I just returned from the BU/Michigan game, and while the game had plenty in it to think about and discuss from a hockey and tactical standpoint, there was something that struck me as what makes a championship team/creates a winning culture... following the game I went down to the locker rooms to say hello to the BU and Michigan coaches, and within 10 minutes following the game the entire BU team was finishing their shakes, eating some pizza AND immediately heading into the weight room, where the following activities were taking place;

players were stretching out, and using foam rollers, players were riding air-dynes, players were RUNNING on the treadmills, players were lifting weights, players were getting and performing self muscle massage, players were talking about the game. They were doing this willingly and eagerly, with no one trying to duck out...they were enjoying the workout as much as they did winning. Obviously, the scientific physiological reason was to dissipate LACTIC ACID as quickly as possible to help ensure their bodies would be ready to perform when needed next. It would be easy to dismiss this as DI scholarship athlete's "doing their job". However, I spoke with one of their coaches and the strength coach, and they both said two different, but related things"We are sick of being a second tier team, and this is an area where we can beat our opponents, in our training/recovery...of working SMARTLY while others rest.""It is a mindset, and certainly beneficial from a physical standpoint, but our belief is that we will stop at nothing to improve. We can only get better if we work at self-improvement." Think of Mike Venit's season last year...Mike rode the bike following every game, and would then again ride every Saturday morning (when we were home). Mike wasn't satisfied with how his career had gone, so he decided to impart change. What do you want to do...how do you want to play...what outcome do you desire? BU won 7-2, and the outcome was never in question...it also was apparent to me following the game that the seeds for success were planted well before 7pm last night, they were planted while others were taking the easy path, looking for short cuts, or using the time away from their teammates to hide..."

Kind of speaks for itself. Do you want to be good or great?

Nutrition For High School Athletes

About 2 weeks ago after a relay race style workout that I completed with a handful of my high school guys we sat down on the floor and had a talk about diet. Most of them had no clue what they should be putting in their bodies. So based on our talk I left them with a few take away points.

1. A good breakfast is not cereal. Cereal sucks, no matter what kind it if. Yes, Special K Blows too. A good breakfast involves a handful of eggs, some oatmeal or whole grain bread with natural peanut butter, fruit, and as much water as you can stomach. Guys were shocked when I told them this.

2. A lot of the guys said there was no way they could eat that much food. So I told them to eat last nights leftover dinner, a sandwich, pizza, or a protein shake with some fruit. Then they came back with, "I don't have time to eat that much." Simple, get up 20 minutes earlier if you are serious about performance.

3. Eat 6 times per day.

4. All of them left with instructions to order a protein supplement. I feel this is crucial. At the very least immediately post workout combined with some simple carbs.

5. Drink a gallon of water per day.

6. At sub shops, stay away from steak and cheese and cold cuts. A better option is steak tips or grilled chicken.

7. Lean guys have a bit more freedom with starch. Heavy guys need to get rid of most of the starch in their diets including things like potato, pasta, bread, corn.

8. In the cafeteria, avoid eating pizza and fries everyday. I thought this was a no brainer but it deserves getting mentioned I guess.

Check the facebook group for some new videos including the Eagle's broad jump.

October 21st, 2008

I spent last Thursday through Sunday playing golf in Myrtle Beach. The trip was very enjoyable with 4 rounds of golf being played at four different courses as well as catching up with three of my buddies from Babson Hockey '06. A couple of quick thoughts about he trip as it relates to this blog:

1. There is something to be said for training for strength and power and the way it transfers to golf. I have never really been a great golfer. I usually score in the high 80s. This weekend was much different however as I had noticeably more pop off the tee. Even when I mishit the ball I had more distance and found my club selection to be about 1 less club than usual.

2. Being strong and mobile in the joints leads to minimal residual soreness after taking roughly 400 swings. Any recovery issues were tied to minimal sleep and too many cocktails. Most issues were from wear and tear on the skin of my hands.

This week in the gym we are doing some heavy loading of the big exercises. I had two guys (Pat and Ed) front squat 230 pounds pretty easily on a heavy single. Probably would have been closer to 250. I also had guys doing 50 pounds of external load on p-grip chinups. I will post more personal bests as the week goes on as well as coming up with a leaderboard for some specific exercises.