Reduce Breast Cancer Risk by 35%!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

We all know this. We've seen the "Pink" campaigns and products.

But did you know that all the pink blenders and pink blowdryers and pink pajamas in the world won't lower the risk of breast cancer as well as something simpler and more elemental.

Exercise!

That's right...as little as 3-4 hours of moderate to strenuous exercise a week will reduce the risk of breast cancer by up to 35%!

How might you get 3 hours of moderate to strenuous exercise a week without boring yourself to tears, you ask?

Try Power Fitness Camp for Women!

That's right...at Power Fitness Camp for Women, you'll get all the important aspects of fitness in one fun, challenging workout!!

So fight breast cancer (and excess body fat!) Check it out today, and try it risk-free!

For more information about the studies showing the link between increased exercise and reduced breast cancer risk, try this article:
http://www.aphroditewomenshealth.com/news/20030908224352_health_news.shtml

or this one:
http://www.usc.edu/uscnews/stories/13486.html

Exercise and live longer!!!

See you at All-Star Sports Academy!

Teacher's Convention Basketball Camp!

All-Star Sports Academy&

Jersey Shore Hurricanes Basketball


present

2008 Teacher's Convention Drillz and Skillz Basketball Speed, Agility and Skills Camp!

November 6th & 7th, 2008, 9 AM to 1 PM at the North Dover Elementary School Gym!

Camp Fee only $75.00! (Current All-Star Sports Academy Athletes receive a 50% rebate - email us for details!)

In this unique, fun and highly effective 2 day camp:

You'll discover the fastest way to dramatically improve your vertical leap!

You'll uncover the keys to electrifying court speed!

You'll find out how the most accurate shooters in the game got that way!

You'll unearth the secrets to dominating "in the paint!"

You'll find out how you can become a slippery and elusive "ball thief!"

You'll expose the secrets of the best rebounders in the game!

You'll (finally) have the simplest and most effective injury prevention secrets known to the basketball world revealed to you!

Note!! Space in this camp is strictly limited!! If you want to become a game-changing player, you need to be here!!

Call 732-597-3725 to register or go to: http://www.allstarsportsacademynj.com/basketball and follow the link to this Camp!!

3 Giant Reasons They Fail

Before I begin, I just want to say a heartfelt "Thank You" to all the athletes,kids, parents and coaches who have helped us grow and succeed as we have, in such a short time. We owe it all to you, and promise never to forget that!

Recently, the local franchise of Velocity Sports failed. Closed their doors and left clients cold. Yesterday, I read in our local paper that a well-known and respected Monmouth County trainer closed his training center and went to work for a gym. This gym says it's a "performance center, but admits it can't stay open without member dues from their "McFitness" side. Shouldn't performance centers focus on, well, performance?

In both cases, "the economy" took the blame. I've always believed that if you help people succeed and make progress, you will always outlast economic downturns.

There are 3 simple reasons why gym-McFitness-healthclubs-performancecenters-sportsfitnesscenters fail.

1. They focus on "training." I know a strength coach locally who is essentially a power lifting coach who applies that style to "solve" every performance problem in every sport.

Need more speed? Bigger squats and bench presses!

Need better direction changes? Bigger squats and bench presses!

Need more velocity on your shots, your pitches or your swing? Bigger squats and bench presses!

Do you see the problem here? The guy's a solid powerlifting coach, with trophies to prove it. Big deal! To the man whose only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail!

It's simple...don't "train"...teach, teach, teach!!

What does that? Simple: start younger, introduce critically important movement concepts and techniques and continue to reinforce them as the children get older.

Chain facilities and "strength coaches" take kids as young as 10 or 12 and have them working in "gym science" workouts, focusing on sets, reps and how much weight they move! These kids are working in maximal lift and absolute strength programs! My goodness!! Are they TRYING to get these kids hurt early?

This is not only a recipe for failure, it's the perfect road to sports burnout and repetitve injury patterns! Teach and reinforce movement, THEN you can "load" those well-performed movements later!

2. There's no "play" in their "training programs!" - Kids want to play! That's why they love sports, remember??

Organized sports have replaced the "free play" most of us enjoyed as kids. My colleague, Brian Grasso, CEO of the Int'l Youth Conditioning Assoc., said about play recently:

"I used to free play everyday of my life. Ride my bike to the park...Play baseball... Climb trees... Jump rope...Race my friends.

This was a normal 'day-in-the-life' for folks my age and older when we were kids.

And the effects were perfect.

Everything I just mentioned amounts to multi-lateral development.

Another way of saying that is amassing physical intelligence...

It's through this kind of free play experience that kids develop quality coordination, mobility & systemic strength.

But you know what, Phil, kids don't free play anymore.

They don't enjoy good quality PE classes anymore either.

And because of that, obesity is skyrocketing and injury rates in youth sports are going through the roof.

Without the intervention of high quality long-term development systems, where exactly are kids today going to receive the type of physical stimulus they need?"

You know what? I couldn't say it better myself! If you've ever watched an All-Star Sports Academy "training session," you've seen kids playing. You've seen athletes playing.

You've also seen them working their tails off and improving multi-directional movement patterns, multi-planar speed, power, agility, balance, coordination, endurance and strength. Real, whole body, sports strength!

That's because we remember that play is the reason their here! They want to play better! They want to play longer and healthier! Which brings me to reason #3 for the failure of "sports fitness" chains and trainers...

3. No return on parental investment! - Parents will do without a lot of things in order to give their kids the things they (parents) perceive to be important.

Some youth fitness professionals recognize this and respect it. All-Star Sports Academy is in that category.

Others see it as leverage to separate the parents from their money, using the kids as the lever. I know it sounds harsh, but that's the way I see it.

The failing sports fitness trainers wave their "success stories" around as if to say "if your kid doesn't train here, they'll never succeed like this or they'll wind up hurt...blahblahblah!"

Do you know what our "secret" is? We celebrate...and suffer with our athletes! When athletes and kids that we work with do well, we celebrate it with them! When things don't go so well, we let them know we feel it, too, and we try to help in any way we can.

They know we care, and they know we work for them. So do the parents we work with.

We recognize that many sports training centers either see themselves as a "luxury" and price their programs that way, then act as if their services are indispensable! They are completely clueless as to the economic challenges facing families, even when the economy is in excellent health!

We just won't do that! First, we want to bring our experience, programs and knowledge to as many kids as we can. To do that, Mom & Dad have to be able to fit it in the budget!

Second, we're just not that arrogant. We all have to look at ourselves in the mirror each day!

Parents, athletes and coaches are the reasons we exist! Without them, and without the support, feedback and ideas they provide us, we couldn't learn, grow and continue to provide the kind of high-quality, high return youth and sports fitness and skills training programs we provide!

The now-closed "sports fitness centers?" Well, after a conversation with the (soon to be former) owner of the chain franchise, and my experience in talking with other "strength coaches" and trainers...Let's just say that some who should "get it"...really don't!

Of course, now...some never will, some will go to work for others who don't get it and others...well maybe they'll pay attention to the things and people who really matter now...

Would you like a great youth fitness or sports fitness experience for you kids?

Give us a call at 732-597-3725 and find out what we have to offer. Or visit us on the web at:http://www.allstarsportsacademynj.com/ - the site's not quite done yet, but you'll still find some good stuff there!

Gimme back my gym dues!

If you belong to a "health club," you already know their business model flat out stinks!

If you don't, all you have to do is look at the tons of mail you get from the new, "hot" McFitness chain coming to your town or neighborhood.

Around here, it's the guys with the gaudy yellow equipment, the ones with the owners who want you to pay for their fitness business education or the ones with "fitness trainers" in their commercials who are barely dressed and educated to match their outfits.

If you go to McDonald's with money, you are going to get some food. If you go to a car dealer with money (or credit), you are going to get a car. Going in, you know what you want during both of these transactions, and unless the business is run by baboons, you're going to get what you came for!

What about when you join a "health club?" The gaudy yellow equipment clowns send mailers around bragging about how much equipment they have, their "cardio theaters," child care centers, juice bars (think 1,000 calorie milk shakes) and "group fitness studios."

Do you know what's missing from those advertising mailers?

What's missing is the assurance that you'll get the one thing for which you should be joining a "health club": HEALTH AND FITNESS!!!

You join McFitness and the "sales professional" (who was a high school student or janitor the week before) tells you that their "fitness training professionals" will design a "personalized" fitness program "guaranteed to work!"

The problem? Their "professionals" don't know a bicep from a bicuspid, a scapula from a scallop or functional movement from a bowel movement!

The "personalized program?" It's the same program "personalized" for the previous 243 members the "fitness professional" saw!

"Guaranteed to work?" Try asking for your money back after the program fails! And it will fail 99% of the time because of boredom, a lack of real challenge and no real,

Yes, I'm highly critical of big box gyms. I used to work for one, and I was critical of their complete lack of cogent programming or real client service then, too.

Now, I want all those big box, "McFitness" gyms to be really, really mad at me.

So here's what All-Star Sports Academy is going to do: we're going to pay you back for all the hours you wasted in the gym not getting what you paid for!

It's simple, and it's for women only!

Enroll in Power Fitness Camp for Women for 6 months, show up, have fun and get in shape... and we'll pay your gym dues for those 6 months!

It's all explained on postcards you may have already seen around the Ocean County area that look like this:

What are you waiting for?

Call us today at 732-597-3725 and tell us "I want my gym dues back!"

We'll tell you how to get started ASAP.

C'mon! Have fun, get in great shape and help us p**s off the big box McFitness gyms that aren't getting the job done in the first place!!

Oh, did I mention that you'll get over $100 in fitness bonuses just for enrolling? Well, you will! T-shirts, cookbooks, fat loss guides and other stuff to help you get the body you deserve & feel great & have fun doing it!

Pre-Seas0n Training for "hoops"...because you asked!

Basketball season in our area is right around the corner. It starts right around Thanksgiving, and will run through March. As Sports Fitness Specialists, our task is to assist players in their quest to prepare for this grueling run.

The season is demanding; several games a week, long practices and little rest time. The beginning of the season can include 4 hour practices.

Needless to say, we're getting lots of requests for "Pre-Season" training, so we thought we'd share some of our training ideas with you.

Players must understand that in-season training will help maintain strength, speed, power and agility levels, but only if the player is properly prepared.

A basketball court is only about 30 yards long. Most of the highest-demand activity takes place within 8 feet of the basket. This is also where some brutal physical contact can occur.

So why would coaches “prepare” their players with high levels of slower, longer distance running?

Good question! The answer is probably one of the deadliest phrases in athletic conditioning: “That’s how we’ve always done it!” OUCH!

Think about the best teams in high school, college and even pro basketball. What’s the one weapon that’s deadlier than any other? SPEED! Especially multi-directional speed!

Combined with agility, full-body power and injury resistance, speed can help a player become a weapon of opponent destruction!

During the last 4 weeks before the season, it’s a good idea to structure a 4-5 day per week training program, splitting time between strength/power training, speed/agility training and flexibility/movement mechanics.

Typical strength/power training sessions will include functional and dynamic warm-up, flexibility training, movement mechanics training and joint stability/mobility work, and circuit training variations that incorporate full-body strength workouts.

Circuit training helps acclimate the players to a high volume of work and is specific to the requirements of pre-season practice. Variations may include timed work/rest stations, gross-rep programs completed in minimal time and volume loading variations to create anaerobic and aerobic intensity.

Core training is incorporated into strength training days, with an emphasis on lumbar stability during rotational movements, as well as frontal plane movement and load deceleration. This mimics what happens in traffic when bodies collide, and when players need to explode out of a crowd for a shot or rebound.

Generally, athletes would perform speed & agility workouts, either supervised or self-managed (that depends on the temperament of the athlete), on the other 2 days of the week.

These workouts include speed & agility exercises that last only 5-10 seconds at a time. Each exercise is performed at maximal effort with 10-20 seconds of rest. The goal of the speed and agility workout in the final weeks of pre-season is not for cardiovascular conditioning, rather, to work on the efficiency of movements that will translate to the basketball court.

Conditioning, or aerobic/anaerobic endurance development during sport-specific activities, is crucial during the pre-season phase of any sport. Basketball is no different.

It’s appropriate to use shuttle and interval drills to develop sprint endurance during this phase. This should not, however, be confused with speed and agility work. Shuttle and interval drills develop endurance; speed and agility work reinforces good functional movement patterns during high speed, highly dynamic sports movement.

Shuttle distances of 150 and 300 yards seem to work well. Work time for 150 yards should be 24-30 seconds, with 300 yards taking 57-63 seconds. A work to rest ratio of 3:1 is suitable.

Interval running can be done in 100-110 yard, 200-220 yard or 300-330 yard bursts.

Use a work to rest ratio of 1:2 or 1:2.5 for the 300-330 yard work, and 1:3 to 1:3.5 for the shorter ranges. Shorter distances will allow for more intensity in sprinting, and it’s important for the neuromuscular system to recover at least nominally before repeating.

A well conceived, well managed pre-season preparation program will maximize the last 4-6 weeks before the season begins. This will let the player, and the team, start the season with full energy and force.

From there, a combination of good team leadership, smart coaching, hard play and a good in-season training program will carry the team to its’ goals.