Toronto Track and Field Center Testing

Hello,

today was a very interesting day. I woke up early and went to York University to test the National Team members of Canada's sprinting team. A few olympians were there and some up and comers that were on the rising stars program. Chris and myself and Caroline from Canadian Sports Center set up the OPTO JUMP and set the lasers all the way down the 100 meter track. We also set up beams that took split times at the 10 m, 20 m, 30 m, 40 m and 50 m marks. All the data went into a computer and statistical analysis was taken of each runner. A Dart fish program was also set up to visually analyse the run of each member. It was a great experience and directly related to my schooling in obvious ways. I hope there is more experiences with other teams in the future. If you dont know what the OPTO JUMP system is I put a link below.

http://www.performbetter.co.uk/News/November-2008/UK-Athletics-order-Microgate-Optojump-system-for-Indoor-facilties.aspx

Thanks:)

Second Provincial Qualifier

Unfortunately, second Qualifier did not go as well as the first one. 2 shaky routines pushed me down to a fourth spot before finals where a best finals routine pushed me back up to a bronze medal. The results are in the link provided. (Mens Senior level) This finals routine gives me a great start and base for the rest of the season where scores in all three routines are needed. I have a great finals routine on the board and a preliminary routine on the board now so the season is off to a great start. Now preparations for Elite Canada must commence. 
On the provincial Side Martin Broadhurst had a great compulsory and optional routine landing him securely on the third place spot only tenths away from second place. With this great competition Martin has qualified for Provincials along with Erik. Congratulations to both of them. 

http://ogf.com/documents/content_6680.pdf- Mens 13+ provincial C for Halton Hills athletes

Thanks everyone, I will keep in touch with the events of tomorrows track and field testing.

:)

Results For Halton Hills Gymnastics: First Qualifier

Mens 13+ trampoline ( page 8) Halton Hills Provincial qualifier #1

Canadian Sports Center Placement

Hi Everyone,

As you all know I am taking Kinesiology at Guelph Humber, currently 3rd/4rth year. I am taking a placement at Canadian Sports Center with Chris Dalcin and other high educated trainers for Canadian sports teams. Here I have an entire sports lab with the highest equipment available to me. I have currently learned to calibrate a metabolic cart for VO2 max tests, learned to use force plates, myotests and my favourite the BOD POD. I hope to learn more every day I am there. I have already gone to future to test national level gymnastics with the OPTO Jump equipment and I am going tomorrow to test track and field athletes at York University. I could not ask for a better placement. If you have any questions you want me to ask any of the trainers or book a time where you can be tested on any of the equipment you can contact me.

First Qualifier Success!!!

Hello Everyone Sorry for the hiatus, I have been very busy lately with a full course load, a thesis, training 5 times a week, co op placement  and still finding time to run a trampoline program at Halton Hills gymnastics. I am planning on keeping updated regularly and thought I would start by posting the results of the Men's Trampoline results for First Qualifier of the 2012 season. After 3 very well done routines I managed to reach the top of the podium, as well as attain national qualifying score and team degree of difficulty score. On the provincial side Erik Peterson of  Halton Hills Gymnastics qualified for provincial for  his first year competing provincially. Unfortunately Martin Broadhurst had a slight over rotation on a particular skill and caused him to not qualify. The videos will be published along with the results from Gymnastics Ontario as soon as I can actually find them ( laugh at loud) I wonder who made these websites.

Thanks everyone:)

TRAMPOLINE COMPILATION 2

PREVENTING INJURIES IN SPORTS:

Hello Everyone,

Recently I have hurt my neck and got inspired to write up a little post on how to help prevent injuries and how to deal with them. This is a general idea of preventative action. Please know that not every injury can be prevented and or treated the same way.  With this being said however, there are ways to decrease the chance of injury and that is what this article is about.

I was trying a trick on the trampoline and over rotated a trick and landed on my head and rotated after taking full impact on my head to my stomach. As I landed on my head I heard a lot of muscle fibres snapping in my neck as it was forced to flex suddenly with 140lbs landing on it from 15 ft. I was able to get up after 2 minutes of resting wit nothing more than a sore neck because of one major reason. I had built up the muscles in my neck and back so well that the muscles were able to withstand the impact and prevent my neck from snapping like a twig. Any exercise physiologist, injury specialist, physiotherapist or any trainer that works with high level athletes knows the importance of muscle mass for injury prevention. The unfortunate part of it is that most trainers and athletes forget how crucial hypertrophy is on a regular basis to maintain a strong body that is ready for impact.

I notice that a lot of trainers will focus on hypertrophy during the pre competition season and as soon as the first competition comes along, hypertrophy takes a second to more specific types of training such as power, speed, technique etc.

In my opinion hypertrophy training should be at least 40-50% of a weekly conditioning program that is done alongside of sport specific drills or training. With my athletes in Competitive Trampoline I force them to do 30 minute of conditioning a day during their training sessions. I focus on simple compound movements and isometric holds.

The simplest way to remember the importance of hypertrophy training is by thinking about the reason why electronics are not open. Why are they all surrounded by a material? It is because this material takes the impact instead of the fragile circuits. Take this open circuit machine and wrap it in one layer of construction paper. Do you think that will take much load before the circuits get broken? Probably not. Now put a metal sheet around the circuits. Do you think that will protect the electronic or machine more? Probably yes.

Take the time to build up your athlete’s exterior shell. It will do wonders. For an example, where I train, there are a lot of injuries with ankles, knees, low back. I have never gotten injured more than a day in four years. I did gymnastics and continue to work out and condition regularly and I can see how helpful it is when I hear others complain about seemingly small injuries. Why wait till the athlete is injured to put them on a conditioning program to strengthen the already most likely permanently damaged tissue?

I know this seems very basic, but you would be surprised how many trainers completely forget about conditioning their athletes and properly building muscle mass to help prevent injury. I am not saying all injuries will be prevented but I can confidently say that the incidence of injury will decrease enormously.

Thank you

Greg