Fury Performance: The Prowler Files #5.wmv

Brain Food #9: Winter Wonderland & The Sham of Power Bracelets

I would be complaining if we got buried like this - PROMISE!

The weather gods must not like the South too much this year. Breaking character completely, they decided to dump another 5-8 inches of snow in the Chattanooga metro area. For a transplanted Yank like myself, this is not much of a bother, having built up a resistance to snow after going to school in upstate NY. We would be routinely bombarded with 12-18 inches of white nastiness several time each winter. The trials and tribulations of driving in that crap actually led me to keep a snow shovel in the back of my pick up truck because I would get stuck so much. Sad but true.

Basically, these experiences hardened me to all manner of inconveniences related to snow but this is the land of sweet tea and BBQ after all and this much snow generally creeps people out. I guess when you aren't used to it, you don't know what to do with it and a certain level of "I'm going to drive into a ditch and freeze to death because no one will come to rescue me" paranoia sets in (I tried to keep my Yankee snarq out but I failed - ooops - haha). When I first came South, it would not have occurred to my Yeti-like self to cancel training sessions on a day like this, assuming incorrectly that people would actually show up. However, I know better now the kryptonite-like effects of snow on the average Southerner and got on with the early cancellations today (to which all of my younger clients surely rejoiced). After all, what better workout could there be to them than sledding and goofing off all day?

If you can't appreciate this - please check your pulse - NOW

Sooooooo...what the heck do I do now? Being a bit of a work-a-holic who actually enjoys their job, I am not used to random days off. I am a creature of routine and I feel totally jacked up at the moment because my whole day has been set adrift in a white wash of snow- literally. My fiance will read this and surely mock my dread of 11 hours of "un-plannedness". Unlike me, she thrives in the unknown and actually seems to embrace days like this. Indeed - today is a true winter wonderland for her. Me? I will probably read some blogs and create a few videos for YouTube and be totally boring. Well...at least until she heckles me about being too much of a grinch and gets my old butt to go sledding.

Before the fun police calls, a quick comment on "work"... opening up the new Fury Performance has left me little time to do my Week in Review posts so I have decided to discontinue them. I also started to realize that I was reporting the same stuff from week to week due to the make up of the given training cycle. I will try to write a review posts when I switch programming themes to keep it more interesting for all. The hustle and bustle of the new FPT start up also left me little time to go digging for cool articles to share and the Brain Food column has suffered as a result. The new FPT is 90% complete (I think/hope?!?!) and my time is freeing back up so I am back on the attack on this post series. Eat up!

Power Bracelets = SCAM!

Watch this video featured on ESPN's Outside The Lines and SAVE your money! It amazes me how much these guys have made off this. They just recently admitted that there is no research to support their product!

Interactive Supplement Rating Chart

I saw this blog chart on Tony Gentilcore's blog and it is wicked cool. Click on a "bubble" featuring a particular supplement and it will link you to some information (study, journal, website, etc...) that will tell how effective or not the supplement is. If you are a nutrition geek like me, you might get lost on here for awhile.

An awesome video of INTENSE PNF hamstring stretching

This blog post comes from Tony Gentilcore and discusses some possible causes of hamstring "tightness" and some strategies on how to regain lost range of motion through retraining the associated neural patterns (think mind to muscle connection). He does a better job of explaining that stuff than I could but I think the highlight of the whole article is the embedded video of a therapist simply going to town on a guy's hammie using PNF. I have never seen someone demo this and simultaneously explain it so well. I have used this with many of my clients but I even picked up some pointers. IT IS EPIC!

Welcome to the NEW Fury Performance!

These pictures were all taken during mid/late December and we are constantly making improvements. Thanks for your continued support of Fury Performance - hope to see you soon!

Sign In Desk

Main Conditioning Area

The "Coach Green Has No Idea Where to Put This" Corner

Our Trusty Vertec and Water Fountain

BATHROOM!

Janitorial Area

 

What Else Would We Clean With?

 

The FPT Cardio Theatre

Deadlift & Hip Thrust Stations

Multi-Use Station #1

Dumbbell Area & Balance Stuff

The Volleyball Jumping Toys

Mult-Use Station #2 & Squat Rack

Squat Racks

Parent's Area

Multi-use Indoor Practice Area

Foyer Bath Rooms

Throwing Screen - Super Sized!

Mock Volleyball Net

Locker Rooms For Bigger Events

FPT Newsletter: January 1st, 2011

Thank You! 
I just wanted to thank all of our clients, parents, and friends who helped make 2010 an awesome year at FPT! We couldn't have created this amazing training environment without you! A special thanks to David & Mike Johnson for helping getting the new place up and running in a timely fashion - I would be lost without your help!

December Featured Athlete - Logan Long

TRX INCHWORM - Look at the gun!

Logan, who plays baseball for Grace Academy and Fury Baseball, has been training at Fury Performance since the previous fall. When "Mop" first started training with me, I discovered that he had a ton of physical talent but wasn't even close to using it to its full potential for a variety of reasons (lack of general fitness, atrocious eating habits, and sometimes suspect motivation). This combustible combination made for an uphill struggle at times at FPT for Logan. I am quite certain that he got REAL tired of me reminding him of where he could and should be if he "got right". Despite these struggles, Logan managed to make some good progress that fall/winter and ended up being one of the top hitters in the region that spring and summer.

As the summer neared its end, I happened to run into Logan one day and the topic of fall/winter training came up. After following his success all year and seeing what he was really capable of, I challenged him to come back to training with the mind set of a college or pro player because that is how I was going to treat him. I told him if any of the poor habits from the prior year surfaced, he would be summarily booted from my training program until he got rid of them. He accepted this at face value and we got to work.

What a difference a year makes! Logan's complete and total transformation this year as an athlete has been impressive to watch. In addition to routinely smashing his performance numbers (listed below), Logan has changed his entire mental approach to training, becoming a model client in the process. His new-found dedication and consistency even led me to ask him to help train a youth baseball team a few times, which he excelled at as well. Logan has truly begun to see himself as a college or pro ball player and I am enormously proud of him!

Pre-season Testing Numbers 2011

Vertical - 24.5 inches      Broad - 104 inches     Push Ups - 35     Chin Ups - 16     Deadlift - 275lbs

The "List"  

Lily Berger - U13 Vertical Jump Champion

Payton Cripps - New Facility Push Up Record Holder

Katie Henderson - Committed to University of Kentucky to play softball!

Kalyn Helton - 2010 Best of Preps Player of the Year: Volleyball

Rachel Harper, Callie Hildebrand, Georgia Paturalski, Hayli Raines, Nicole Sumida - 2010 BOP First Team

Haven Carter, Brooke Calhoun - 2010 BOP Honorable Mention

Signal Mountain & Red Bank Volleyball - 2010 BOP Teams of the Year

Ally Baker - Committed to play softball at Chattanooga State

Editors Note: The holidays have been pretty crazy - if I have omitted anyone I apologize!

Gunshow of the Month

Erin "Twinkie" Jackson getting her swole on!

Training Pic of the Month

One of FPT's dual use training stations!

Bonus Pic!

Kudos to Meggie Brown on the Awesome Sock Clash!

Bonus Pic #2

Another new toy - THIS ONE WON'T BREAK!

Video of the Month

I will be working on some new videos this coming month so check my YouTube site often!

Fury Web Soup

Fury Performance Training

Fury Academy

Fury Performance Training is on YouTube!

Fury Performance is on Facebook!

My apologies!

The combination of getting the new Fury Performance ready to go and the holiday crazies have left me little time to work on this blog of late. Starting with this month's newsletter in a few days, I promise to be back on the attack for 2011 with new content. Sometimes life just gets in the way when you are trying to get things done!

Hope everyone has had a happy holiday season!

FPT Week in Review: Turkey Hangovers Anyone?

Sunday 

I wasn't in on Sunday for the first time in forever so nothing to report here. I know you are all crushed (insert sarcasm here)

HOD: None

Monday

After giving a massive shout out the Mon/Wed volleyball crew in last week's review, I am sad to say that Choo Choo practice schedules have dismantled it. It was great while it lasted I guess. The Helton sisters and "Meggie" Brown still rocked out though despite being in smaller group. As for me, all of my various clients and groups had strong workouts today across the board. The day saw heavy deadlifts from former featured athletes Bethany, Kasey, and Ash and some awesome explosion skips-sprints from Bayli C, who is proof positive that not all catchers are clunky with proper training! One of Fury Academy's trusty old tires got worked over today - congrats to JD, Allison, Katie, and Carly on your first tire flips!

HOD: Seeing Ashley "Princess" Irvin dominate her trap bar deadlifts. I originally had these in her workout plan months ago but it didn't go so well - I will simply leave it at that. Fast forward to now...the months of careful low back strengthening and hip mobility work showed out and she looked like a pro! Get em girl!

Tuesday
I guess the Choo Choo crew is trying to confuse me some with their schedules - the monster group simply moved over to Tuesday at 4! This new group has a nice mix of younger and older girls, who were all bringing it throughout the workout. In other Volleyball news, Rachel H. treated us to some knarly, calf-hugging, striped socks. I really should have gotten a picture of those retro bad boys! My crew was rocking as usual from 3:30-7pm with Lacye W., Monk, Hope, EB, and Logan all getting in some mean kettelbell and trap bar deadlifts. Unfortunately for us all, Logan managed to break the trap bar on one of his heavier sets. Since he PR'ed doing it, I guess I can forgive him. I'm sure everyone who hates deadlifts will cheer this announcement though.

HOD: Seeing the dungeon and immediate floor area packed with volleyball and softball studs from 3:45 - 5:15. We had 15 athletes and 5 different work out plans going all at once without it turning into a cluster. DO WORK SON!!! (as Blaes would say)

Wednesday

Wednesday was as hectic as ever for FPT. I started out with the Averitt crazies, had some good munchkin workouts in the middle, and finished strong with Taylor K., who is getting more confident with each workout. We also tested push ups and everyone that tested improved their scores - AWESOME! Clarissa had a pretty even mix of workouts and harness/skill session through out the afternoon/evening and was going so strong she had to pop outside to cool off. If the coach was getting her sweat on, you know the athletes were getting after it too!

HOD: Lil' Payton Cripps broke the U13 & Facility records in push ups and also qualified for the Women's All Time Record board with a score of 40. Here is a picture of her with her new shirt - I hope she grows into soon. Great job Payton!

Thursday

Thursday was slower than normal this week - several clients had other obligations and couldn't make it over. I did have several good workouts with my older crew featuring rotational and side lunges. I'm predicting some serious groin soreness tomorrow (insert evil laugh here). A special shout out to Zach D. - I was pretty hard on him on Monday and challenged him to bring it in his next workout. I wasn't sure how he would respond but he busted his butt and had one of his best workouts ever. Clarissa doesn't usually work on Thursday but made a special appearance to train Hayli Raines, one of Soddy's top boppers. I am pretty confident that Hayli will have a standout Choo Choo season once Clarissa works her magic.

HOD: Zach Dean...New Push Up Record (51)...Again...BEAST

Friday
I had a "bookend" Friday with morning and evening workouts on the schedule. In the morning, the "Dinosaur" crew of Mary, Hunter, and "Killer" Sawyer had a good all around workout and were followed up by the Averitt crazies, who want to burn off some finals stress with a rare morning cameo. In the evening, I had two groups of boisterous "munchkins" AKA Fury Boles and Fury Millwood, assisted by super intern Bethany C. Both of the teams have already made a ton of progress and have vastly improved on the basics of Planks, TRX Push Ups/Rows, and various core drills. Both groups finished up with a little bit of fun by battling among themselves during partner tag drills. The races between Tory and Trinity from Fury Millwood were particularly entertaining since both of these kids can fly! For the record - Trinity won 3 out of 4. Clarissa had several smaller groups that featured some her top high school and college boppers in the afternoon, including Callie, Rachel, Meggie, and Brook Calhoun. Clarissa's last client of the evening, Brittany, was lucky to survive a near trampling at the feet of a excitable Fury Boles crew. Beware the munchkins - they don't always know how to use their brakes!


HOD: Neither of the munchkins crews had all of their players able to do a proper Plank for a full minute when they first started a month or so ago. I was really proud of both groups last night when I saw that almost all of the various team members can not only do a Plank correctly for a minute or more but also can "tuck" their elbows on Push Ups and seemed to be running more efficiently as well. As Blaes might say - such a proud papa bear...

Saturday
The Cherokee Fury crew came up again today and have already shown some improvement over the previous session in their attention to detail and performance of various drills. We had to cut it short due to some other engagements but I could tell that several of them had been working on their own. This is one of the keys to longer term improvement so I challenge them all to keep at it. Good work guys.

HOD: Seeing Logan Long's transformation from last year to this year. At this time last year, I was all over him at times for his effort, mental toughness, and dedication to getting better. Fast forward to the present and he is helping me with a group of young guys (that are probably alot like him several years ago) and doing a great job at that. What a difference a year makes!

By the numbers...

The Blaes "THERE ARE OTHER WAYS TO SHOW CONTEXT" exclamation ! tally - 11

Heaviest Med Ball at FPT - 20lbs.

Workout Song You Need on Your IPOD

Nonpoint - Bullet with a Name

Facility Update - Part 6: Bells & Whistles & Field Space

Here is the next round of pictures of the new facility. The field space at the bottom is multi-use practice space for Fury Fastpitch & Baseball teams but I will be able to use it some as well. I also hear that the new turf is going in FPT next week and we might be moving in the weekend before Christmas. Now, that's a early present for sure!

Heat & AC #1

HEAT & AC #2

HEAT & AC#3

The new sink

The New Utility Sink

Outdoor Workouts Anyone?

New Field Space View #2