Get to Know Coach Noe

Hello Everyone!

Athletes at AGSP get to work with the area's best sports performance coaches during their training sessions. Recently I did a QandA with Coach Noe, check it out and get to know your coaches better!

Our athletes know you as Coach Noe, what does Coach Noe like to do outside of making athletes better?
I enjoy playing competitive sports as well as participating in outdoor activities such as hiking, biking, bonfires, etc.

How did you get started working with athletes?
I started training high school volleyball and track athletes during the course of my college career to earn extra money. However, it wasn't until my undergraduate internship for Exercise Science that I realized I thoroughly enjoy helping athletes reach their full potential.

Based on your experience, what is the one, biggest physical skill that today's athlete lacks? How do you address that need?
I believe the biggest physical skill that today's athlete lacks is maintaining proper flexibility and developmental support throughout their training and growing experience. I address this by emphasizing the need to stretch both before and after physical activity as well as the need to learn proper technique before increasing weights during lifting.

You've been a Collegiate Division One Athlete, how has time at the collegiate level helped your current athletes?
It has helped me to better understand how the body functions at all levels and how to properly design different speed, strength and conditioning components of a workout.

What do you like most about working with athletes?
Being able to watch them mature and grow within their sport!

What advice would you give today's athlete?
Work hard all the time and never give up. Also, do your research! Don't wait for a school to recruit you. They are recruiting from hundreds of thousands of athletes all over the world. If you are interested in playing at the collegiate level, you have to recruit the school just as much as the school recruits you!

Thanks Coach Noe for your great coaching!

Keep Training!
Akron General Sports Performance

Hinging and Improved Athletic Performance

Hello Everyone!

Well respected strength coach Dan John stresses that hinging is the most powerful and most important human movement for improved athletic performance.

Hinging is maximum movement at the hip (think, pushing your butt back to block someone out in basketball), with minimum movement at the knee (the knees don't bend much, but they are not locked out either).

Hinging is different than squatting which is maximum movement at both the hip and knee.

Athletes hinge a lot more than they squat. Example of athletic hinging (lots of hip, little knee) include:
- jump shots
- rebounds
- setup on the scrimmage line (position varied)
- throwing
- tackling
- swinging

At AGSP our athletes practice and strengthen their ability to hinge every single day. We coach them on how to properly hinge and how to properly apply this "most powerful and most important human movement" to their athletic ability.

The results of jumping higher, hitting harder, and throwing further speak for themselves.

Keep Training! 
Coach Amanda Kephart and Akron General Sports Performance

AGSP and Green High School picking up steam

Hello Everyone!

Did you know that AGSP is the Speed, Strength, and Conditioning provider for all of Green High School?

We've been working with the athletes in the early morning hours and after school since the end of January and the results are impressive!

Check out the spring update HERE.

Keep Training!
Coach Amanda Kephart and Akron General Sports Performance

Don't Add Speed to Dysfunction

Hello Everyone!

"Don't' add speed to dysfunction." - Gray Cook, physical therapist and strength coach

What does that mean? Don't add speed to dysfunction.

It is a warning to athletes. A warning against trying to perform movements faster when you are not performing them correctly in the first place!

It is like shooting a basketball incorrectly as fast as you can (or shooting a hundred shots in a row). Just because you are doing more, or doing it faster, doesn't mean you are going to get better.

Having coaches teach you the proper way to move, the proper way to perform, the proper way to play and THEN adding speed is how you become a better athlete.

Great athletes are great at the fundamentals. Great athletes learn the fundamentals first and then add the speed. Are you ready to be great?

Keep Training!
Coach Amanda Kephart and Akron General Sports Performance

The Time to Prepare for Opportunity

Hello Everyone!

The late, great UCLA basketball coach John Wooden is quoted in saying, "The time to prepare isn't after you have been given the opportunity. It's long before that opportunity arises. Once the opportunity arrives, it's too late to prepare."

That is why an athlete's off-season is so crucial to an athlete's success. The off-season can be defined as when and athlete is not competing on his/her biggest stage: such as high school games, combines, and special invite tournaments.

Just yesterday I had a baseball player stop by AGSP to tell me he hit a home-run during that day's varsity game (he's a sophomore by the way). Had had trained at AGSP throughout the winter months...preparing himself for yesterday's opportunity. When he stepped-up to the plate yesterday he brought with him all his commitment and hard-work from the winter, and the result was something he desired.

That is why AGSP is having so many basketball, football, soccer, and volleyball players coming in to train now. These athletes know that now is the time to prepare for opportunity. The athlete they present this fall is an accumulation of of what they choose to do (or not to do) now during these spring and summer months.

Are you preparing for opportunity?

Keep Training! 
Coach Amanda Kephart and Akron General Sports Performance

Athlete Spotlight #64) Amanda Beebe

Hello Everyone!


Our next athlete spotlight is a pleasure to train. She always arrives to the training session with a smile on her face and a desire to become better. She's what every coach wants: driven, hard-working, motivated, and consistent. We are honored and excited to be a part of her senior year preparation! It is time to meet...

Athlete Name: Amanda Beebe
Sport(s): Basketball and soccer
Position(s): Shooting guard and stopper
School: Archbishop Hoban
Graduation Year: 2014
AGSP Athlete Since: 2012

Favorite Professional Sports Team: Ohio State Men's Basketball
Favorite Professional Athlete: N/A
Favorite Lift: Cleans
Favorite Movement Skill: Maximum Velocity
When I am not training at AGSP, I am: Playing soccer and basketball.

What are your short-term goals? Increase all my numbers.

What are your long-term goals? Higher than a 20" vertical jump.

How has AGSP impacted your performance as an athlete? I have become faster and my agility and speed have also increased.

CHECK OUT SOME VIDEO OF AMANDA TRAINING AT AGSP!

(we've put them all into one video!)

 

Keep Training!
Coach Amanda Kephart and Akron General Sports Performance