We always talk about the atmosphere we have created at Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training.  It’s one of diversity among our clients and one of support.  I really like it because it keeps us interested as sport performance coaches and fitness trainers, but the interesting thing is to watch the interaction between athletes of different sports and fat loss program clients and how well they get along and share information.

For example, in one week, here’s a short list of the different sports that we work with in the gym:

Professional MMA fighting
Martial Arts
Olympic Bob Sled
Baseball
Women’s Collegiate softball
Professional Golf
Wrestling
Football
Soccer
Olympic Weightlifting

So this poses a common question.  How can you effectively work with so many different sports effectively? 

Mike Robertson and I do this with a few simple tools.

The first is a sport analysis.  This is quite simply an identification of what an athlete needs to be able to do to perform at their best in any particular sport.  We break the abilities of a particular sport down based on sport-specific flexibility, strength, power, agility, speed, and endurance.  In essence, we create what the perfect athlete for a particular sport or position would look like.

Then we perform an individual needs analysis.  After performing our extensive individualized assessment on an athlete, we determine what abilities the athlete needs to improve to raise his or her physical potential to a level necessary for top level performance.

The important thing to remember is that just because two athletes may play the same sport or even the same position, their needs to reach peak sports performance may be different.  Therefore, their programs must be individualized.  Some athletes may have sufficient sport-specific speed or endurance but lack strength.  Some may already have sufficient sport-specific strength but lack agility or the power necessary to play at their best.

Certainly, there are commonalities among athletes and among sports, but expecting to achieve top performance by taking part in large group classes of generalized agility drills or by having everyone perform the same exercise program just isn’t possible.

To overcome this at Indianapolis Sports and Fitness Training, we work in teams of no more that four athletes or fitness clients with their own coach.  This allows for a great deal of individualized attention and creates an environment of support in a team atmosphere.  Each client gets an individualized sport-specific program designed to address his or her needs to achieve their goals in shortest time possible.

Remember we’re the only gym in Indy that let’s you become a member for free for a full 14 days which includes a complete fitness assessment, individualized sport-specific program, and six training sessions with your coach.

Bill