By Melissa Gaynor, A-GAME SPORTS Strength & Conditioning Coach

What is strength and conditioning?
Strength and conditioning is the teaching of physical and physiological development to improve movement patterns and motor skills to help promote increases in strength, power, endurance, coordination, overall sport performance, cardiovascular health, and neuromuscular adaptions.

Who is strength and conditioning for?
Anyone who is looking to enhance physical exercise and sport performance.

How old should my child be to begin strength training?
While there is no minimum age to begin strength training, children should be able to accept & follow directions, understand & respect basic safety considerations in a weight room environment, and when they have basic levels of balance and postural control, children are typically ready to begin strength training and conditioning.

Is strength and conditioning for a specific sport?
Strength and conditioning can be applied to any sport or physical motion. As a young athlete grows biologically and their chronological age increases, their training age will differ drastically from individual to individual, resulting in some children being more advanced than others earlier on or vice versa. A S&C program can be made sport specific, but isn’t necessary until athletes are older and are at a more advanced level with a solidified movement & motor skill foundation.

Will strength and conditioning stunt the growth of my child or have a negative affect on my child’s health?
While there are many negative stigmas associated with youth strength and conditioning training, there are many health benefits that positively influence overall fitness. When the body is placed under a heavier load[ex. resistance training] or performs an explosive movement with impact[ex. jump & land], bone density and bone mineral content will increase. Simply meaning, bones are stronger, denser, and less likely to break, therefore increasing overall bone and skeletal health. Developing proper movement patterns, basic techniques for running, jumping, landing, agility, and balance are all key components to building a solid foundation for a youth athlete. Having these skills and being able to further evolve them as biological (physical) development and chronological age rise, allows for the potential reduction in injury as athletes can grasp a better understanding of proper form and better movement mechanics, therefore having an overall positive impact on your child’s health.

Other Positive Affects of Strength and Conditioning 
On top of having a positive influence on body composition, less cardiovascular risk, reduction in body fat, strengthening bone, and working to enhance psychosocial well-being, strength and conditioning positively benefits young athletes as it has a great impact on self-esteem and self-confidence. Many young athletes struggle with comparisons to other children, especially at developmental rates of children who are the same age and play the same sports and S&C can work to bridge that gap and instill confidence in younger individuals.

Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning. NSCA. Baechle & Earle. Fourth Edition.

Need For Speed is a progressive, periodized 12 week speed skills program designed to give your child that extra step on his/her competition. Odd weeks of the program will be based around linear speed development (sprinting in a straight line), whereas the even weeks of the program will focus more on multi directional speed development (change of direction, which is just as important as linear speed in all team sports).

With the combination of practicing linear AND multi directional speed development drills may very well be the difference between getting to that ground ball or not, between getting that shot off on target or not, between breaking up that touchdown pass or not. 99% of sports are games of inches, We can give your child the potential to move to that winning side of the inch.

Boys & Girls Ages, 10 to 16

Wednesdays 7:00pm – 8:00pm
April 11th – June 13th

Cost For 10 Sessions: $300

By Natalie Rizzo, MS, RD

The winter is jam-packed with so many amazing things—holidays, snow days, ski trips and hot chocolate, to new a few. But what it doesn’t have is tons of daylight or time to get outdoors and move your body. Unfortunately, that means more time indoors on the couch with your favorite snacks. For many families, being trapped inside is a license to overeat and pack on the winter pounds. That doesn’t need to be the case! As we head into the holiday season, use these five Dietitian-approved tips to avoid stuffing your face with apple pie and eggnog.

Ask yourself if you would eat an apple
When you feel the urge to nosh, ask yourself if you’re hungry enough to eat an apple. If the answer is no, that’s a good sign that you may be eating for a reason other than hunger, like boredom or stress. If that’s the case, use your free time for a different activity, like family game night or picking up that hobby you meant to get to all summer long.

Have a holiday party plan
Winter weight gain tends to start with holiday parties. After all, it is tough to avoid the tiny appetizers, sugary cocktails and abundance of desserts. If you know you’ve got a holiday party that night (or your kids have one in school), plan out your healthy eating throughout the day. Snacking before a party will prevent you from showing up ravenous and loading your plate with tons of fried appetizers. Have a game plan for how many appetizers, drinks and desserts you will actually eat and stick to it!

EAT your meals!
It may sound crazy to eat in order to avoid eating, but there’s a method to this madness. Skipping meals always leads to overeating…always. Think about the last time you skipped a meal and how much you actually ate when you sat down for your next bite. I would guess that it’s much more that you typically eat. Not to mention that it’s difficult to make healthy choices when you are starving. Make a conscious effort to eat 3 meals per day with a snack or two thrown in there, and you are likely to make healthier food choices.

Hydrate
Hydration really does affect all aspects of life, from hunger to working out. Dehydration often masks itself as hunger, causing many people to overeat when they don’t actually need any extra calories. Keep a water bottle with you throughout the day and make sure it’s full at all times. The insulated ones are great at keeping water cold and tempting you to drink more often. You can also throw a piece of frozen fruit in the bottle to flavor the water. When you feel like you want to reach for food, ask yourself if it’s possible if you’re just thirsty instead?

Don’t keep junk food in the house
I can’t tell you the amount of parents who tell me that they keep cookies, candy and chips around the house for their kids. But they don’t want to eat them. Let me ask you this—if you don’t want to eat them, why should your kid? That’s not to say that you shouldn’t have an Oreo every once in a while, but keeping them around the house is setting yourself up for disaster. Force yourself to go out and brave the cold winter to get your favorite treat. The trek will make you less likely to indulge quite as often. And, of course, stock your kitchen with plenty of healthy snacks, like fruit, nuts and yogurts.