Performance Training Center Conference, March 10–11, 2007: An Overview

By Jim Winkler

For www.EliteFTS.com

“Continue to be passionate about your profession and you will never have to work a day in your life.” —Mark McLaughlin

Conference topics: “Rebuilding Today’s Athletes: Addressing Common Training and Recovery Missteps” and “Solutions for the 21^st Century Athlete”

The conference was held in a classroom-type setting where a diverse group of coaches, athletes, and students from all over the United States sat and took notes from Val Nasedkin and Michael Hope.

Val Nasedkin is the director of technology and training for OmegaWave Systems and a former decathlete at the national level. He has served on the Olympic Committee for the Dutch, USA, and China. Val has experiences as an Olympic level coach for Switzerland and Canada and is affiliated with three professional level soccer clubs.

Michael Hope holds a bachelor’s of science degree in exercise physiology and physical therapy and currently owns and operates Summit Physical Therapy in Syracuse, New York. He specializes in spinal disorders and injuries in sport due to overuse. He has lectured in the fields of rehabilitation, injury prevention, and sports performance and has assisted high school, college, and professional level coaches in creating programs designed to reduce injuries and enhance performance.

Val explained to us how the biological model should be applied to training programs. He took the basic physiology of the organism and applied it to five, main components that should be addressed when creating a training program. We were then taught four basic principles that should also be applied when creating training programs. We discussed the cardiac/pulmonary system, the peripheral and central nervous systems, and the metabolic and hormonal systems. Val explained to us the differences between an athlete’s preparedness level and readiness level and how, as a coach, you can monitor these levels and adjust the intensities and volumes of a workout accordingly.

As Val finished up his lecture, he mentioned some errors that he personally sees in training programs. He first spoke about the lack of exercises athletes do for their feet. He explained that an athlete can have a lot of power in his or her torso and legs, but you can only see half of the power at work because there is no connection to the feet. He demonstrated the foot and toe exercises that he has all his athletes do prior to their dynamic warm ups.

The second area of the body that Val believes is undertrained is an athlete’s core/hip strength. Val used me as an example. He had me lie flat on the ground with my hands (palms on the floor) completely extended above my head. My feet were together, and my toes were on the ground. He then instructed me to raise my body off of the ground using just my toes and the palms of my hands. I did it properly, and Val said, “Good, you have very good core strength.” Then he took me over to the stall bars where I was instructed to grab the top stall bar so that I was hanging off of the ground. I was told to raise my knees to my chest and then my toes to my hands. I did it but struggled. I tried doing as many as I could, but I stopped at four reps. Val said, “My athletes do sets of fifty.” He explained that my core is strong because I do a lot of sit-ups and abdominal bridges (which is true), but I don’t do enough Roman chairs and stall bar toe touches (which is also true).

I found this to be very interesting and have applied these new toe/foot exercises and core exercises to my training programs. It was a great experience to take notes from a true professional like Val Nasedkin. The material discussed was so detailed that it took about 7–10 hours of the two-day seminar to cover it all.

Val could have spent his time discussing Omega Wave Systems or merely telling us how he thinks we should train and coach. Fortunately, he took the approach to simply teach us the science and then model how to apply that science to athletes. I believe this method opened our minds and helped us realize that there isn’t just one way to train athletes. As long as you address the areas of the body that should be covered and know why, your athletes will be more successful.

Michael Hope was a great change of pace. For those of you who know Mike, you know that he’s a very upbeat, funny, and animated individual. He spent his time discussing the alarming rate of overuse injuries that take place in athletics. He showed us different exercises that should be added into programs as a means of “pre-hab.” Mike also showed us how to test for tightness in the muscles of the shoulder girdle, hip flexors, hamstrings, lower back, and quads. After he showed us how to test for these things, he explained exercises we can do to stretch out those areas when needed. He provided everyone with a DVD to use as a reference as well as a packet of the different tests, stretches, and exercises that were discussed.

There are two reasons why I believe every coach and athlete should take advantage of opportunities like this to attend conferences and listen to people like Val Nasedkin and Mike Hope speak. The amount of knowledge dispersed in merely two days was unbelievable. I now have more confidence in designing programs for athletes and myself. 

In addition, the people who you meet at these conferences are there because they have the same passions and interests as yourself. I exchanged phone numbers and emails with several people from all over the United States. I now have more colleagues who share the same scientific approach and have thus opened up more opportunities for myself then I could have imagined. I’m now surrounded by professionals who have discarded the traditional methods still in use today simply because “that is the way it has always been done.” It was a refreshing departure from outdated modes of athletic training.

Thank you to Mark McLaughlin for this opportunity.

Jim Winkler is a former college-level student athlete and is currently one year away from earning his bachelor’s of science degree in exercise science at Western Oregon University. He plans on continuing his education and attending graduate school where he will research the physiology of exercise, and more specifically, the physiological changes that occur when stress (particularly exercise) is applied to the human body.

He was a successful multi-sport athlete in high school and has been exposed to multiple types of weight training and conditioning programs throughout his lifetime. Unfortunately, those regimens were applied traditionally and were never based in science. It wasn’t until two years ago that he was exposed to the science of training by Coach Mark McLaughlin (owner/operator of the Performance Training Center). Even though Jim has put his career as a competitive athlete to rest, Mark has continued to do everything in his power to expose him to the science surrounding athletic training and encourage him to pursue his passion in strength and conditioning and the sciences involved.

Elite Fitness Systems strives to be a recognized leader in the strength training industry by providing the highest quality strength training products and services while providing the highest level of customer service in the industry. For the best training equipment, information, and accessories, visit us at www.EliteFTS.com.