Thursday, June 04, 2009

Shining Star

I had a very proud moment this week as one of my top clients finished up her high school athletic career. I always feel like a proud parent when an athlete I train prepares to head off to college after training with me. Today I tip my hat off to Lexington High School's Sabrina Gordon.

Sabrina started training with me a few months back to engage in some pre-season lacrosse strength & conditioning, but more specifically, to engage in injury prevention methods as she suffered through several ankle injuries. While her lacrosse skills were in check, my role as her strength & conditioning coach has been to prepare her body for the rigors of a season. As you may or may not be aware, the primary goal of a sound strength & conditioning program is injury prevention. Of course Sabrina's agility, strength, and stamina all improved throughout our training, but I am thrilled to say since she began training with me, she hasn't suffered a single injury.
Injuries come about in many young athletes from overuse patterns. This is why the training program I engaged Sabrina in entailed multi-directional movements, varying intensities of conditioning, and varying loads with strength work. In other words, I had Sabrina do different things on different days so as not to overwork certain muscles. We began each workout with a dynamic warm-up and engaged in agility work 2-3 days/week in addition to the total body strength training 3 days/week. Interval conditioning also played a major role in our training.

I can say with all honesty that few, if any, athletes I've trained work as hard as Sabrina. She truly defines the term student athlete. I think that term gets thrown around a lot, but Sabrina truly captures it. It's a thrill working with great athletes and great students, but not too often do I encounter students who enroll in more AP classes in one semester then I took my entire high school career.

Sabrina's lacrosse career came to an end in the MIAA tournament this week with a tough loss to Reading. Recently, however, Lexington triumphed over Middlesex-league rival Winchester High School (http://www.wickedlocal.com/lexington/sports/high_school/x1083516813/Girls-lacrosse-beats-Winchester), a team it had not beat in 10 years! I was so happy for Sabrina as that was a high point in her lacrosse career. She played well, scoring three times with one assist.

This Sunday, Sabrina will graduate from Lexington High and head to Tufts University at the end of the summer. This summer, we'll be preparing her for her next big step as her collegiate career will begin before she knows it. Having worked with Division 1 women's lacrosse players at Boston University in the past, I'll be able to apply what I've learned to prepare Sabrina for the rigors of NCAA lacrosse.

I often tell Sabrina to say to herself during each training session, "I will not be outworked." It's one of my favorite mantras that I instill in the athletes I train. They know there are others out there in weight rooms across the country training hard who may possess more talent, but they will certainly not outwork the athletes I train.

Please join me in wishing Sabrina the best for a successful academic and athletic career at Tufts University. Keep up the great work Sabrina!

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