Hey guys,

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Hope all is well on your end and you’re training is going well.

It’s almost THAT TIME again – yes, Summer is almost here, and with Summer comes hot weather and sunny skies. This is the IDEAL time to work on your speed & agility for all athletes, male and females.

During the Summertime, many athletes will make excuses as to why they can’t train – they would rather sleep or play video games than get faster and quicker (this boggles my mind). When I was in middle school, as soon as I found out I had some decent speed, I did EVERYTHING I could to learn how to get faster, stronger, and more explosive (yes, even at the age of 12-13, I was OBSESSED with this stuff. True story, ask my mom )

My point here is, even at a young age of 10-14 years old, you are at a very valuable time in your athletic careers to start ingraining proper speed and agility training. A younger athletes Central Nervous System (brain + spinal cord) is still in development at this stage and once bad habits are formed, they are very hard to break as an athlete gets older. However, if we work on things such as SPEED, AGILITY, QUICKNESS, TIMING, COORDINATION, BALANCE, RHYTHM, TIMING, STRENGTH, MOBILITY, FLEXIBILITY, AND GENERAL CONDITIONING early on and often enough, then this will set the athlete up for much greater success as they grow into a mature teen/young adult. Not only this, but the INJURY PREVENTION aspect of this type of training can’t be beat – if you’re hurt, you can’t play! Our goal is to keep these young athletes as far away from injury as possible while developing these critical skills for success.

With this said, CTS is partnering with Brock Daniels (Head Strength & Conditioning Coach/Varsity Football Assistant Coach, Vintage High School) this Summer for our 2nd annual SPEED & AGILITY CAMP for young athletes, males and females, ages 10-14, who want to get faster and quicker for their sport.

You can learn more about our 6-week camp by clicking here ==> SPEED & AGILITY TRAINING CAMP

Spots this year WILL fill up and we can only take on 40 athletes this Summer. We are beginning to build our pre-registration e-mail list and have already had about 20 inquiries… So, if you’d like to be a part of this exclusive camp with us this Summer, head over to that page and we’ll be in touch soon!

Any questions? Drop a comment below.

See ya,

John Cortese

PS – Here’s that link one more time ==> SUMMER SPEED & AGILITY CAMP

Hey guys,

Short post today, but thought you would enjoy this video. It’s of one of our coaches, Cody, who continues to “Walk the walk” and show our athletes that he continues to be just as athletic as anyone else out there!! This was at the end of his workout yesterday – I think he just felt like doing some fun stuff and felt good, so he went for a big box jump – 52 inches to be exact! This is quite impressive, especially considering he had knee surgery back in August!!

You might be wondering what exactly we do to get our athlete’s vertical jumps UP!? Well, we hit the basics and we hit them hard: Squats, deadlifts, cleans, snatches, jerks, (and all variations of these lifts) and basic jumping exercises are the standard “GO-TO’s” for our athletes to help develop EXPLOSIVE POWER!!

If you want explosive power and speed that kills the competition, don’t hesitate to give us a call at (707) 738-0190 to schedule your free trial workout!!

Make it a great day,

John Cortese, CSCS, USAW

CTS Strength & Conditioning

Hi there,

I hope all is well with you and you or your young athlete(s) keep getting great results in your quest to become the best version of yourself!

I wanted to write you personally today for a number of reasons and let you know we have some really cool happenings going on this coming month.

1.) FEBRUARY & MARCH REFERRAL CONTEST!!

I have made a decision that instead of paying for “traditional” marketing and advertising, I would like to reward my athletes, clients, parents, and coaches for referring others to train with us at CTS!! As you may or may not know, for every referral you send us that signs up with ANY of our programs (youth, high school/collegiate, or “Seasoned Vets”) you receive $50 off your next month of training (or $50 Visa Gift card). Well, starting this month (February 1st) to say THANKS to all of our loyal athletes and parents, we are having a referral contest!

Here are the details:

2.) NEWSLETTER BEING E-MAILED OUT THIS WEEK! 

Some of you have heard, but we are going to be e-mailing out a monthly newsletter to the CTS Community on the 1st of every month, starting this week on February 1st! We will be giving updates, answering training related questions, sample workout routines and exercise demos, nutrition column, as well as feature our “ATHLETE OF THE MONTH” recipient! Stay tuned for this really cool feature!

**If you aren’t currently on our e-mail newsletter list, please click here to sign up. It will only take a few seconds of your time and makes it easier for me to communicate with everybody. 

Here is the link just in case: http://forms.aweber.com/form/96/113157296.htm 

Again, it only takes a few seconds of your time and will be much, much easier to communicate with everybody!

Anyways, with that being said, I think that’s all for now!! Remember, our referral contest begins February 1st and ends March 31st! GOOD LUCK!

If you have any questions, please give me a call regarding the Referral Contest or the Monthly Newsletter!!

Thank you again!!

–
John Cortese, CSCS, USAW
Owner, CTS Strength & Conditioning
Napa, CA
http://CTSgym.com | http://facebook.com/CTSgym
Phone: (707) 738-0190

It’s of my opinion that the most efficient and single best way to develop EXPLOSIVE speed and power is by utilizing the Olympic lifts (clean & jerk, snatch) and their variations into your training for continued speed, strength, and power.

Obviously for an athlete, these qualities are of great importance if they wish to succeed on the athletic field. I mean, just look at the vertical jump on the athlete in the picture!! Nothing bulky or slow whatsoever about him (he is a multi-world champion and Olympic medalist).

Take a look at a few of our athletes filmed today performing different variations of the Olympic-style lifts and notice how much force and explosive power it takes to get the weights above their heads. You can even pause the video right at the most violent portion of the lift (when the bar meets the hips) and see for yourself – looks awfully familiar to a vertical jump!

If you aren’t familiar with how to do these lifts, you need to find a qualified coach to teach them to you! Trust me, you will NOT be disappointed once you find out for yourself how FUN and CHALLENGING they can be – but the end result will be worth it!

Time to get after it!

- John Cortese

PS – If you want to learn how to perform the olympic style lifts, come on down to CTS. We have qualified coaches that can help you learn how to perform these movements to maximize your athletic potential!

Hey guys,

Hope you all are ready to crush this new year!! 2012 has brought many changes to CTS (in a good way) already and we are very excited to share them with you! Our hope is that by constantly improving and striving to get better, you all as athletes will get better and better as well. It wouldn’t be right if we asked all of you to be the best if we as coaches didn’t work our tails off to be the best as well! 

Recent happenings include:

• Completely NEW facility layout, including: field turf (8.5′ x 40′ of high quality, artificial turf), new paint (red and black themed), new equipment, platform inserts for practicing and performing the olympic lifts (clean & jerk, snatch), and more!
  

• Addition of two assistant intern coaches, Jeff Hermann and Cody Krantz. These guys both are very passionate about their training and have extensive athletic backgrounds and walk the walk with their own training in the gym as well. I’m very excited to have them on board to help CTS continue to grow and help as many athletes we can get stronger and faster for their sport(s)!
• More CTS apparel on it’s way: t-shirts and hooded sweatshirts should be in within the next couple of weeks!
• Online scheduling: We are very close to enabling ONLINE SCHEDULING so that each of you may sign in to our online scheduling/client management system. This will allow you to do many things, including scheduling your own training sessions at your computer, update your personal client information, view payment history, etc. This will save us all time as well as allow everyone to work more efficiently. If you know me, I am all about maximizing efficiency and creating a hassle-free environment as possible, so I will be letting you all know when this is activated! You will be able to access this by simply visiting our website and clicking the “schedule” tab. More on this later..
• Monthly E-newsletter! We will be sending out an e-newsletter to all of our current clients, athletes, parents, coaches, as well to anyone on our CTS e-mail list. This is going to be AWESOME! We are going to be covering monthly happenings at the gym, give training & nutrition tips, as well as giving an *ATHLETE OF THE MONTH* award. We will be selecting 1 athlete per month that shows dedication, commitment, hard-work ethic, and a positive attitude to achieving his/her goals. The winner of this award will be featured in our newsletter, on our website, and on our Facebook Fan Page with a short biography, their accomplishment in/out of the gym, and why they were chosen to receive this exclusive award. They will also be given a special “CTS ATHLETE OF THE MONTH” red dry-fit shirt (only given to the chosen recipient each month, can’t buy these!). Our first edition of our CTS MONTHLY E-NEWSLETTER will be sent out starting in February, so stay tuned!

With all this said, we couldn’t have done all of this without the support from our dedicated athletes, parents, and coaches who have put their trust and belief into what we do. We are really trying to create a supportive environment where athletes can realize their true potential and understand that by working hard and consistently striving to get better on a DAILY basis, they can have as much success as they want!

I hope you enjoyed this update and are having a great start to 2012! We are enjoying every second and seeing TONS of great progress with all of our hard-working athletes. KEEP IT UP!!

See you at the gym,

John Cortese

CTS Strength & Conditioning

I wanted to share a recent accomplishment and cool story of one of our athletes. Cody, 25, is a lifelong athlete – he doesn’t “compete” in a regular team sport any longer, but the drive and determination he has to train HARD is what brought him to CTS. I have always said, even if you aren’t necessarily a competitive athlete any more, training and competing is still VERY important to make sure you reach your goals.

One of Cody’s goals when he came to me was to pack on muscle, get stronger, and improve overall athleticism – he came to me with a pretty bad knee injury (that eventually required surgery) but still showed up to every session and got after it – sled drags, deadlifts, squats, etc. Anything that we threw at him, he did it. The only time off Cody had to take was for the surgery (back in August) but a month later he was back in the gym ready to get better and start the healing process as soon as he got the “go” from the doc!

Cody started training with us back in December at a bodyweight of 142 lbs – as of last week he is back up to 158 lbs of solid muscle and is probably one of the strongest and most powerful athletes that trains at the gym! He has set numerous gym records in the “Seasoned Vet” category and on Friday performed a set of 33 CONSECUTIVE chin ups, a new gym ALL-TIME record!! I don’t know too many people that can perform even 20 LEGIT chin ups, let alone 33! Cody broke his own previous record of 26 which he set over the Summer. Check out the video below – yes he used his legs on the last few, but it’s still quite an impressive showing of relative body strength, endurance, and athleticism! In addition to this, he has deadlifted 365 lbs, bench pressed over 200 lbs, can knock out 50+ push ups any day of the week, can walk on his hands with ease, perform backflips, climb the 18 foot climbing rope with ease, and is VERY lean – quite the athlete if you ask me. 

 Cody is proof that if you aren’t afraid to work hard, you can accomplish all of your goals and more. With commitment, dilligence, and setting monthly goals, you can become the athlete that you CAN and SHOULD be!

Time to get after it,

John Cortese, CSCS

This topic of strength training as it pertains to youth athletes (age 10-14) is of special interest to me, mainly because I hear all sorts of lies, myths, and simple false facts that strength training will hurt a young athlete’s growth potential. This is no more than an urban legend and something that really has never been proven and/or validated.

Simply put, if a young child can participate in high-impact, high-collision sports (football, soccer, lacrosse, etc) then they are fully capable of participating in a structured and supervised resistance training program. The risk of injury is MUCH higher in a contact team sport due to the nature of contact, constant change of direction, and the violent nature of the game itself. 

I coach youth football and have seen kids in the ages of 8-13 years old hurt ankles, knees, backs, shoulders, necks, hands, fingers, as well as numerous other contact related injuries i.e. concussions, joint sprains, and muscle strains. How many times have I seen any of these types of injuries occur in the weight room under supervision and structure? NOT ONCE.  Yet, there’s not one ounce of hesitation to sign up young children for a game that involves running full speed at each other and colliding over and over again. 

I am ALL for playing sports and encourage young athletes to participate in as many sports as possible to develop into a well-rounded athlete. But to discount and disregard weight training for athletes is not only foolish, but it is severely limiting an athletes potential as well as increasing their risk of injury in sport. Cone drills, ladders, parachutes, bands, and all these other crazy gimmicks and tools will NEVER accomplish this and may actually become a hindrance to an athlete who is already experiencing TONS of agility and speed work at their sport practice without even knowing it. The last thing we need to do for these young athletes is subject them to MORE of what they are already doing at practice.

By getting an athlete stronger (through various means, just because they are involved in resistance training DOES NOT mean they are lifting HEAVY folks!), they will have greater potential to display force, which in turn means they will have a higher output of power and speed. It’s simple; just like adding more horsepower to an engine of a car, the same applies to the human organism.

My main point is this: young athletes CAN and SHOULD be involved in a resistance training program that emphasizes LONG-TERM DEVELOPMENT. There is no such thing as a QUICK FIX for young athletes; look long-term and you will find success not only in the short-term, but moreso the appreciation of what strength training can do for athletes, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Please leave me your thoughts and comments below; I’d love to hear your input on this topic!

In strength,

John Cortese

I’m going be very honest here. Most athletes will say and TALK about how bad they want to be the best. They tell their friends, they tell their mom and dad, they tell their teammates, and they tell their coaches. That’s all well and good, and I applaud the fact that they are ambitious. In my opinion, I think they’re full of it! The old adage “Actions speak louder than words” could not be further from the truth!

The fact is, most athletes SAY they want to do great things, but it’s becoming more rare for any of them to actually ACT on it! Seriously. I get contacted from parents, athletes, and coaches like this about training on a regular basis, and many of them never follow through and end up being just another “tire-kicker”. To me, it’s sad because that shows they never wanted it bad enough!

The ones who follow through and understand that it takes a serious commitment and dedicated effort to become better are the ones who will succeed when it’s all said and done! In my opinion, the major difference in the MOST successful athletes and the ones who never acheived “greatness” is the willingness to put in a  large amount of time, energy, and focus to reach their goals! In other words, when you are ready to sacrifice things and break out of your comfort zone, you will do things most people will NEVER do because they never took that action step!

I hear this all of the time…

“I want to be the BEST!”

“I want to get a football scholarship and play Division 1!”

“I want to get stronger and faster!”

MOST OF THAT IS A BUNCH OF GARBAGE. I don’t want to hear it, I wan’t to SEE it put into action!! I will respect an athlete that much more when they ACT. Too many talkers nowadays and not enough doers. Watch the video below, and if this doesn’t inspire you to get off your butt and do something about your goals, then I don’t know what will.

If you’re SERIOUS about becoming the best, then I invite you to come train with us at CTS. Athletes 10 years of age and up can see tremendous benefits from a properly designed, age appropriate, long-term athletic development system. I’ll warn you though, our programs are not for EVERYONE and not everyone is just “let in” to train. You have to show me why you feel you’re a good fit! That includes parents too I’ll see ya soon!

- John Cortese, CSCS

P.S. If you liked this post, please give it a “Like” and share with your friends, coaches, teammates, and family!

I‘m sure we’ve all been told this before at least once in our lives.

“Work hard and you will achieve what you’ve set out to do!”

Is it really that simple though? I think it is, and I’ll tell you why.

In order to REALLY achieve a LARGE goal that you have, you have to be willing to do what others aren’t. Are you willing to stay in on the weekends and do what it takes to reach your desired goal? Are you willing to eat what others are not? Are you willing to skip out on those extra fries and beer at the football game in order to finally see your abs?

You see, it’s simple… But it’s not easy. With any goal that you set out to achieve, you must realize that the universe and everyone around you may not always want you to succeed. It may even seem like nothing has gone your way no matter how hard you have tried. But, keep at it long enough, show consistency and dedication, some patience, and the never-say-die attitude to keep going no matter how bad it might seem – and you’ve got yourself the chance to succeed no matter what you’re trying to accomplish.

Why am I telling you this? This can relate to practically anything in life. More specifically though for athletes, it just flat out makes me very upset to hear all these kids who want to be All-State, get a Division 1 scholarship, etc; but how many of them are REALLY ready to sacrifice a few things in their life in order to get there? Are you willing to put in the work year round? Most athletes aren’t these days.

No matter what you do, there should be NO regrets when you look back. We should be doing EVERYTHING in our power to succeed. I’m telling you from experience that I do have regrets and I’m telling you this because I don’t want you to make the same mistakes that I did. I’ve been there and have seen it all. I know what’s expected of athletes at the college level. I know what it’s like to win big and I know what it’s like to get smoked in a sprint race. I know what it’s like to drop a huge pass, wide-open on the way to the endzone; I also know what it’s like to train in the rain, at 1 in the morning, at 5 in the morning, after work. As an athlete I’ve made many mistakes but also had some success along the way too. Now as a coach, I’m telling you that if you are willing to do whatever it takes to win and do what your friends and others are NOT willing to do, then you will go far.

See how simple that was? Easy… No. It’s going to take some serious lifestyle changes to accomplish some of these tasks.

How bad do you want it?

Training for speed and strength does not have to be very fancy. It doesn’t need to be all that scientific either. Don’t get me wrong, there are proper ways of planning, set/rep schemes, volume, frequencies, duration, intensity, and a whole other load of variables that go into a great program…

But you shouldn’t have to analyze the program to death and try to make it perfect. Why? Because there is no perfect program in existence. In reality, every program/workout/routine (whatever you’d liked to call it) will work for some time; but eventually you’ll stall out and either hit a wall or regress. Not good!

There are many common mistakes that I see all too often and most of the time they just need a simple fix to help get results. Check ‘em out…

1.) Too Much Volume – Less is more, especially when you are looking for all-out, blazing speed. Speed is the critical “game-changer” and more often than not, the faster team or athlete will ALWAYS have the advantage. I usually almost always start my athletes out with low volume sprints 1-2 times per week, never exceeding 200-300 yards in total volume (the number of sprints you ran X the distance on each sprint). Think about it: do you think running endless repeat 100 yard sprints , as fast as possible,with 30 seconds rest will do anything for your speed? Sure, it might make you tired; it might make you sore; you may even throw up… Most sports require you accelerate anywhere from 5-30 yards. I usually recommend the “short-to-long” approach with most team sport athletes, where you begin sprinting at shorter distances for a couple weeks, then gradually extending the distance and volume out each week.

2.) Too Many Exercises – This one is extremely common. For example: you walk into a regular gym on a Monday (also known as universal bench press day) and everyone and their mother is performing every exercise known for the chest; bench press, incline press, decline press, chest flyes, machine flyes; and often times each one will be performed with ZERO warm up, too many sets, and way too little rest. This basically is doing absolutely nothing but getting you the “pump” which only lasts for a short while after you’re through exercising anyways. Instead of focusing on how many exercises you should be doing, I think the better choice would be to focus on the quality of movement and continually adding weight to the bar each week.

3.) Body Part Splits – This is another very common occurring trend that really is only effective if you’re very advanced and have built up a substantial base of strength and muscle. Body part split routines typically explore a bodybuilder’s routine, for example:

• Monday – Chest
• Tuesday – Back, Biceps
• Wednesday- Legs
• Thursday- Shoulders, etc..

You see that each workout works in isolating muscle groups; in reality, when does the human body EVER work in isolation? Not only is this routine very ineffective for most trainees in building muscle and strength, it’s really BORING. That type of routine would leave me bored to tears and who really wants to perform 5-6 different chest exercises in 1 day? Instead of a split routine, switch up to either 3-day per week “full body” workouts, or 4-day per week upper/lower split. By doing this you will eliminate boredom, your workouts will be much more effective, you’ll be in the gym much less, and you’ll get way better results. I prefer 3-day per week full body workouts for most people, but 4-days per week has also served me well too.

4.) Employing Fancy Gadgets and Gizmos – This is pretty funny, but sad also. Parachutes, ladders, ankle weights, hand weights, thigh weights, weights, tubes, cones, velcro/band strapped to every joint on your body, etc.. The list could go on. When it comes to speed training, the simplest methods and tools yield the greatest results. I have used nothing but a hill, sled/tire with a strap and belt for resisted sprints, set of cones to mark off distances, and a medicine ball to develop extremely fast and explosive athletes. In order to move fast… You need to practice moving fast. If you’re going to utilize resisted sprints that’s fine; sprint up a hill, or use a sled/tire with a 25-45 lb. plate in it and start sprinting. Keep the rest period longer if you’re after speed, keep them shorter if you want some extra conditioning and fat loss.

Remember, this stuff is simple. Yes there is a science to programming and planning (that’s why there are professionals out there that do this for a living), but you can still get results by doing the simple things, being consistent, and making sure you are making progress every time you train.

Have a purpose, a goal, and a plan, and you will not fail.

See ya,

John Cortese, CSCS

CTS Strength & Conditioning