March Madness is in full swing. We’re working our way down to the Final Four as this is being written. There is a lesson to be learned from watching these games, plannining and persistence is the key to succeeding. Kentucky toppled #1 Ohio State friday night with a perfect game plan and  perfect execution of the game plan. Butler beat Florida with persistence. They kept taking it to Florida until they overcame them. Success doesn’t just happen. It starts with a game plan. Every detail is analized. Weaknesses and strengths are identified. A commitment is made, and the team goes to work according to plan. If, in the heat of battle, things aren’t going well, adjustments are made to correct the problems. All of us make plans. Few of us follow them through to the end. The failure usually comes when there isn’t a goal at the end. In sports with a goal, you score when you get a goal. That’s why there is a score. The team with the best score wins. In life, if you don’t have goals, you don’t have anything to strive for. Achieving a goal is a way to win. Watch the Final Four, all of those teams have the goal of winning the National Championship. Each team has a plan. The one that executes the plan best, will win.

    Enough rambling. We’re happy to say, we started two new trainees this weekend. A 14 y/o male athlete and a 9 y/o female athlete. Each came to us with a goal. The young man plays volleyball and would like to improve his vertical jump. The young lady fights in the martial arts and she would like to improve her strength and endurance for an upcoming  match. We have studied our clients, identified their strengths and weaknesses, and devised a plan. We will let you know the results of the fight on April 17th and the results of the vertical jump in early summer. We’ll see what happens to our plans and whether we are able to guide them toward achieving their goals. Things are always intersting around here. Stay posted. Talk to you next week.

If you want to see what’s going on in Kinetic Connections, Check out Face Book and You Tube. We will be trying to add recent videos and photos of what we are doing on a more regular basis.

    What a week! We, the staff at Kinetic Connections, are back and fired up from The Illinois Chaper of the NSCA’s spring clinic. Some great topics were covered:strengthening for the overhead athlete, conditioning for the jumping athlete, sports nutrition, olympic lifting, warm-up for conditioning, training the combat athlete. One of the joys of being a professional, an amateur, a weekend athlete, or even a hobbyist, is learning something new. We don’t grow and improve ourselves if we don’t go out and seek information. If you think you know everything about something, especially if you are passionate about it, you will lose interest in it. Look at diets, workout programs, even the she skills of playing sports. The information is constantly changing. There is no best answer in everything we do in the training and sports world. Research constantly changes. People have ideas that defy common sense and research, but they work sometimes. What am I babbling about? If you are passionate or dedicated to something, get out there, look around, listen, research things, try things. Wisdom comes from experience and knowledge. A little knowledge is dangerous, especially when you think that little bit is all you need.  We constantly change our philosophy and approach as we learn and see results. “Knowledge is power.” Come join us.

    Again, we’d like to remind you it is time to start thinking about our S.P.A. ( Speed, Power, Agility) Camp this summer. We will be at the Antioch High School spring football meeting in early April to talk about camp. If you or any other athletes are interested, please contact us. We’d be glad to answer any questions.

Have a good week. The staff at Kinetic Connections;-)

    Another week of 2011 under the belt. Lent has started, Fat Tuesday is over and St. Patrick’s Day is Thursday. Those who observe lent, usually give something up for the six weeks following up to Easter. We’re 3 months into the year and already giving up stuff for the second time. Remember your New Year’s Resolutions, that was the first time. At that rate I would have had to have given up 100 things at this point in my life. Do the math, I’m 50. Did we start with that many bad things when we were born? No. Over time we develop bad habits, make bad choices, and let areas in our life go. Mark Twain once said, ” Giving up smoking is easy, I’ve done it hundreds of times.” With summer approaching and Spring, the season of new beginnings, here. It is time to start thinking about making some positive changes. A healthy body is the place to start. Start thinking about the summer and what you want to be able to do. Take up something new, biking, hiking, running. Rather than quitting something, do something positive. If you like it, you’ll make the right choices and quit what hinders you from doing what you want. We’re here to lead you on your journey to a healthy lifestyle. We’re here to help you perform your sport at the highest level you possibly can. Keep us in mind, e-mail us, call us, see how we can help you move forward in your endeavors.

    I’m happy to report one of our present clients has recently started shooting skeet. Her goal is to make the competitive team at her Sport Club. Doesn’t sound like something a physical trainer can help somebody improve on. Wrong, in four weeks of training, her scores have gone from 18-19  out of 25 to 21-23 out of 25. There is a physical component to every skill sport that can use training. We love to be part of opening the doors of success for our clients. This particular client is in line to make the rookie team as the oldest rookie, and female, in Club history. Not too shabby. Think outside the box. Trainers don’t just help the athlete’s of the major four sports, hockey, basketball, baseball, and football. If your sport requires physical movement, we can help. We have worked with archers, snowmobilers,equestrians, and now skeet shooters. Think about it? Hope to hear from you.

Have a good week!

    Spring has to be coming. You can’t tell by the continued snow and ice, but you can tell by the new seasons starting. High School track and baseball practices have begun in Illinois. We are still seeing athletes who are in their spring sports participating in our weekend workouts. If you are interested in seeing a sample of what we do on the weekends, go to You Tube under Sunday worlout G.L. or Saturday workout G.L. The videos of our workouts earlier this winter are up. We hope to have them on our website soon. In order to keep up with the latest information in training, our staff will be attending the Illinois Chapter of the NSCA’s Spring Strength and Conditioning seminar. This will be March 19th. Saturday’s workout that day will still be held. Not much else going on in our corner.

Have a good week. The Staff at Kinetic Connections