Amid the concern about the trend towards early specialization, young athletes today are hearing that it’s incredibly important to participate in multiple sports. It's well-recognized by coaches that playing different sports gives athletes an edge because they have the chance to become more well-rounded, developing complementary skills and building versatility. In addition, mixing up the demands they place on their bodies helps minimize stress on muscles and joints, making multi-sport athletes less susceptible to injury. Those who play the same sport all year round are at risk for developing repetitive movement injury, from working joints and muscles the same way over and over again.
What if an athlete feels they can’t (or don’t want to) compete in multiple sports? Fortunately, the right off-season or pre-season training and conditioning program can develop the athletic versatility and resistance to overuse injuries they would naturally obtain doing a different sport. In the words of John Brenkus, Athletic Republic’s Chief Sports Science Officer, they can effectively work on developing “the whole athlete” by following a well-balanced training program.
John Brenkus has made a career of exploring all aspects of athleticism, in showcases like his Emmy-award winning “Sports Science” show on ESPN. ““While I knew of Athletic Republic’s existence, it was not until I first experienced its training back in 2017 that I saw for the first time a company applying the principles of sports science to sports training in a replicable way. I was intrigued, so I went through all the protocols and looked at everything under the hood. I thought, ‘Wow, if I were to open a gym, it would be exactly like Athletic Republic.’ They completely understand what being a great athlete is all about, and I knew I had to get involved in the company.”
He explains, “A lot of athletes fall into the training trap of thinking that they have to be ‘strong’ without really understanding what that means. For them ‘training’ means ‘strength training’ and it’s going to be focused just on their sport. The truth is, they need to have some component that trains the whole athlete—that means not only training strength but training speed. And not only training speed, but training agility. Not only training agility, but training endurance, balance, stability, and mobility. You're building an entire athletic repertoire in that way." He continues:
Being a complete athlete not only improves performance on the field, but it plays a critical role in injury prevention beyond the avoidance of repetitive use stress. The reason being is that by far the biggest potential roadblock for an athlete’s career is getting injured. As Brenkus explains, “For young athletes, the priority is keeping the kinetic chain intact. When an athlete gets injured, as many of not most athletes do, they break the kinetic chain. And once that happens, their bodies need to be able to make up for the weaknesses that have now manifested themselves in the form of redistributed energy. Athletes that are physically well-rounded are one, less likely to get injured, and two, if they are injured they can bounce back better with fewer long-term repercussions because they have the ability to avoid that downward spiral of one thing breaking down after another.”
Athletic Republic is built around the mission of developing the whole athlete. Our Acceleration Training program does this by:
- Increasing speed
- Building explosive power
- Developing dynamic stability
- Increasing agility
- Increasing strength and anaerobic capacity
- Maintaining mobility and flexibility
- Improving balance and coordination
This may seem impossible to accomplish in 2 or 3 hour-long sessions a week, but our protocols are carefully structured and periodized for maximum effectiveness. Pre- and post-program testing assesses areas that need to be worked on and measures results.
Interested in seeing what Athletic Republic’s proven training system can do for you? Contact us to learn more.
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