Most every kid who plays at a competitive level in high school no matter the sport has the ultimate ambition of playing at the elite collegiate level.

However, some of you may not be getting as highly recruited as your teammate next to you.

It’s frustrating. Especially when you feel you put in just as much work as the next guy, but have not elicited the same collegiate demand as them.

You go to practice, give your all, and feel like you might not be getting the return on your physical investment to your sport.

Unfortunately, sometimes the right players get overlooked because of limited exposure, or being in the wrong type of coaching and support system.

Take it as an opportunity to get better regardless.

Be proactive and make a shift from the mindset that opportunity at the next level will fall into your lap…because it won’t.

If you are a junior or a senior and might be going through this experience, here are 3 things that you should focus on to take full advantage this situation:

1.)     Understand that not everything will be in your control, so just focus on what you can control. You might not be getting the reps you want at practice because your coach has his eyes set on someone else at your position. It sucks. It really does.  You may have tried to talk to him, but his actions say he didn’t listen. Despite this, continue to focus daily on things you can do to improve your game. Everyday, before you hit the practice field, ask yourself, what is one thing I can get better at today. Your improvement is up to you

2.)     Don’t sulk in your own misery and complain about how schools are not reaching out to you. Start reaching out to them. You can really sharpen your grit, go out, be proactive, and get the attention of schools on your own. Its obvious that your coach is not helping you like he should, so now YOU must actively outreach to coaches, schools, go to camps, and follow up. You would be surprised at how much sending an email on your own to a coach can do. List out schools you’re most are interested, at least 20-30, and reach out.

3.)    Keep friends and people in your circle who believe in you and reinforce positivity. Again, I know from personal experience how much of a lonely island it can be when your own team coach does not believe in you, and you feel alienated from your teammates because you feel like you are the laughing stock and not taken as seriously as you should be. Don’t deal with this on your own. Keep real ones in your circle to keep you encouraged. Eliminate those in or around your circles who detract from the big picture. Find a coach outside of your school who believes in you and stick to him or her. The encouragement and positive reinforcement goes a long way.

Understanding and applying these principles in your battle to the next level will not only work out in your favor athletically, but in life. The valuable lesson in situations like these are taking the hand you are dealt, and still coming out strong despite circumstance. You learn to not give up and persevere. This is an intangible trait the many coaches appreciate, and commands respect throughout life.

Zach has been apart of our program for just over a year and has undergone a complete transformation both physically and mentally.

He gives 200 percent every single session and trains with the utmost tenacity but more importantly consistency.

It is not an overnight or linear process.

Check his interview below . Great work Zach !

Occupation: Server

Age: 21

What are/were your goals: To get lean

How much weight/body fat have you lost: I started at 168 and am currently weighing 150 so I’ve lost 18 pounds in total (and gone from 13.4 to 10.3 percent body fat)

How did you feel before beginning the program: I definitely was tired all the time. Easily out breath. I wasn’t overweight but I was still very out of shape

How do you feel currently : I’ve noticed a considerable increase in my daily energy since starting at the gym. My mental health has also improved since starting as well
How long have you been training at the gym: 14 months

What kind of training do we do: Strength and conditioning, with a wide variety of workouts so you never feel like you’re doing the same things over and over again

How has your transformation impacted your life outside of the gym: I have much more self confidence and it has caused me to be more active with hiking

Who would you recommend a training program like this to: anyone who is looking for a program that offers a wide range of workouts. If you’re someone who is easily bored with repeating the same workouts then this program is for you

Additional words: for the price I pay every month this program is well worth it. My health has significantly improved from a mental and physical stand point since starting and I have learned a lot in terms of weight training and conditioning.

Heart Rate Variability and High School: A Case Study Using HRV Guided Training to Improve Recovery and Performance for High School Athletes

By: Coach Armond Willis

Willis Performance Training

Over the past two years I have been privileged to work literally with hundreds of athletes and create specific athletic programs and make them better athletes.

One of the biggest keys to really maximizing athletic potential is creating exact programs at the right time to elicit the best responses in each individual athlete.

As a dedicated strength and conditioning coach, it is important to focus more on the long term performance enhancement, hence why I am adamant in the word program.

Yes Programs are broken down in to single sessions, but collectively these sessions have to advance the athlete to the intended goal, whether strength, speed, coordination, power etc.

However regardless of what the goal is, intensity changes according to the athlete. The key is knowing when and how to adjust.

Regardless of what the intended program may be for the week, things happen throughout the day that can change the session.

Specifically at the high school level, different stressors can affect the athlete’s level of readiness to train or practice. Factors range from diet, exercise, stress, dealing with academic pressures, and sleep.

These are often time overlooked criteria that can not only have a detrimental effect on overall performance and recovery, but quite possibly when recognized can help prevent injury by minimizing overtraining.

My Introduction To Heart Rate Variability

A few months ago I was introduced in depth on HRV at a strength and conditioning clinic where I met with one of the Head Sport Scientist at The University of Alabama (yes the national Champions), Dr. Michael Esco.

Through his in depth studies using collegiate athletes as subjects, more light is being shed on correlations between athlete recovery, and fluctuations on HRV due to outside “stressors” including but not limited to practices, conditioning, academics, and other physiological and psychological stresses.

The basic premise is that the body’s autonomic nervous system responds to these stressors in unique ways, causing a constant shift between the 2 branches of the Autonomic Nervous System called the Parasympathetic and Sympathetic Branch which we will cover briefly in a later part.

The most significant takeaway is that the biofeedback provided through monitoring the HRV in athletes provides an opportunity to reduce injury, minimize fatigue when necessary, guide training, peak performance, and promote overall body awareness.

And in working with both elite high school, collegiate, even the everyday person, it peaked my interest as a potential tool to use not only to better monitor athletes and regular clients physical states, but also really specify training programs by implementing the right training parameters at the right times based on periodization principles.

This has sparked 3 months of my very own research and experimentation.

HRV: What is It?

Heart Rate Variability is the measurement of time between heart beats (not to be confused with Heart Rate which is just heart beats per minute).

HRV is closely linked to Autonomic Nervous System dynamics, and specifically reflective of both the Parasympathetic and Sympathetic branches of the Autonomic Nervous System.

Autonomic Nervous System

The ANS is responsible for a lot of processes that occur in your body automatically. It involves a dynamic relationship between a network of nerves, muscles, glands, blood vessels, and more that not only control performance but keeps you alive!

The ANS affects blood sugar, adrenaline, digestion, pupil dilation, and much more.

It has 2 main branches: The Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) and Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS).

The Sympathetic Nervous System is also known as the fight or flight branch. Indications of this state include elevated blood pressure, increased heart rate, dilated pupils, and can cause you to sweat among other things.

The Parasympathetic Nervous System, also termed the rest and digest system, plays a huge role in digestion, lowering blood pressure, lowering heart rate, but most importantly in relation to this article muscle repair and recovery.

In simple terms, you want to be more leaning towards a parasympathetic state vs a sympathetic one, however stressors will often cause the body to be in a sympathetic state and that is normal and why also you want to have a strong SNS. The temporary disturbance is healthy for athletes in training.

It is a constant back and forth between the two and the variation in nervous system states is how we are able to actually measure HRV.

Injury and the “Tie in” to High School Athletes

Athletes are always being introduced to various training loads, whether from practice, training, conditioning, games etc.

Sometimes these exposures to loads supersede their tolerance thresholds. As a result, adaptations to training decreases, and overall performance is compromised.

When an athlete drives themselves beyond their physiological limits, fatigue accumulates at a more rapid rate…and the greater the fatigue level, the greater the negative training effects such as decreased strength and power, and more significantly a lower rate of recovery.

It should be noted that outside stressors such as work and life in general can increase with fatigue.

The Force Generating Deficit

Fatigue overtime can inhibit an athlete’s force generating capacity and cause an inability to maintain required forces for practices, weight training, even games.

After a certain level of fatigue, firing rates in force producing skeletal muscle decreases (with studies showing a decrease of up to 80 percent after 30 seconds), and negatively affect muscle recruitment.

The rate in which neurons signal muscles to fire and contract is heavily dependent on the state of the nervous system. And if the nervous system is fatigued or suppressed, firing rates are slowed down.
This research directly debunks the old school train of thought of working until exhaustion every single session as firing frequency decreased with more repetitions that were performed.

As muscle contractions progress, reserves become more depleted, resulting in more relaxation of motor units and lower frequency of muscle contractions.

Fatigue is the ultimate proponent of inhibited central nervous system behavior.

Sufficient time and recovery is needed for the nervous system to properly regenerate and produce necessary forces with quality for extended periods of time.

It is worth noting that training among fatigue is necessary to an extent in order to create a mental resiliency come time for competition. However it is the excessive doses in which this is practiced that can affect peaking during competition.

Back to HRV

Throughout my coaching years, more and more injuries have become prevalent among high school athletes and their daily routines.

The majority of these injuries are more so from overuse and lack of recovery.

In some instance, athletes have mandatory weight room classes where they lift at near maximal loads on a weekly basis, and this is compounded with sport practices that can involve a high volume of running as well as academic loads, insufficient diets, and various other lifestyle stressors.

Besides being able to coach technique properly and implement training loads, coaches need to be able to recognize when an athlete is physiologically and psychologically fatigued.

And using HRV to monitor an athlete’s state and readiness to take on external stressors such as practices and heavy lifting is a simple, and non-invasive approach that offers invaluable feedback to help create the best programs possible.

The bottom line is the majority of current high school training one size fits all programs and the lack of recognition of when an athlete truly needs a break and “run hard lift heavy” all the time mentality creates more opportunity for injury.

And my purpose for piloting an HRV program with High School Athletes was to help determine optimal times to train and recover, and the below data from a 2 month HRV monitoring using a varsity High School Lacrosse athlete supports the use.

I wanted to get to the bottom of things and actually have quantifiable data that would support change in training programs at the high school level and better my very own understanding and programming.

Case Study:

Grade: 11^th
Sport: Lacrosse
Position: Middy
Age:17

Goal: Increased Size, Strength, Speed, Recovery

This past year, this specific athlete under our training program has been able to put on over 15 pounds of muscle and decrease his 40 time from a high 4.9 to a 4.7, placing in top speeds at a few of his showcases in the north east.

The HRV reading process:

Using a Bluetooth heart rate strap, every morning the athlete wakes up, and takes a morning read. After every single one of his reads the athlete then receives a score on his Readiness for the day.

The sensor records his heart rate for a full minute to 5 minutes and calculates the RR Intervals (time between heart beats), and he receives a score and a detailed analysis of the read.

It will tell whether or not he is in sympathetic (elevated heart rate) state or parasympathetic (recovery) state.

Again, not necessarily bad to be in a sympathetic state, but too many days in that state CAN indicate lack of recovery.

The charts below show readings over several weeks’ time.

The above data segment shows the reading results from December 4 2017 to January 13 2018. The empty spaces between the bars indicate the days where were no readings done. In order to receive “scores”, a baseline has to be established. This requires that at least a week of readings are done before being able to receive a score. Reading must be done around the same

It is important to note that results are highly specific to the individual, so when a baseline is established, it is unique to THAT individual. Thus, when looking at and analyzing baseline changes, it is best to compare to that specific athlete’s scores over time.

A higher HRV score over time is indicative of better recovery from training loads and lifestyle stressors. Consistently lower HRV scores can indicate a lack of recovery or signs of over training.

The reading procedure works as such: The athlete wakes up and first thing in the morning, they strap on any compatible blue tooth heart rate monitor and just lay down while a signal is sent to the Elite HRV app that we use.  After a minute, the program analyzes the heart beats and provides a reading as shown on the below image.

A baseline reading is provided and the athlete is able to get a read for the day letting him know their overall “readiness”.

A Closer Look:

Here we have a slightly closer look at readings that originated in early December. The yellow scores indicate days where he may not have been fully recovered and average readiness scores that hovered around 5-6 (on a 10 point scale).

Not coincidentally, these yellow scores were right around when finals and exams were, and as the athlete indicated he was up late studying and stressing over finals, on top of having to participate in over the top team workouts, really stressing him physically.

As finals ended and Christmas break began, there were no school practices and exams were completed. He was able to get more rest and deal with less stress. During this time he was able to come in to our facility for his training sessions.

From this above view we can see the same information in a different charted segment. Here, Readiness Score, ANS Balance, HRV Score, and HRV CV (average of weekly variance, are delineated by column.

In the ANS column, S=sympathetic and PS=Parasympathetic

The yellow areas we can clearly see he was in a predominant Sympathetic state during the week and week prior to exams and heavy practices.

The days and week following, he was able to “get back into the green”.

Implications for Program Design

Programs are normally designed anywhere from a 3-6 week cycles, however because we commonly work with high school athletes who have separate “training classes” and practices at their schools, programs and sessions are never written in stone.

If an athlete comes in to our facility during a day where they “maxed out” at school, then we normally adjust on the spot so not to overload muscles and joints that were taxed during school or practice sessions.

In the particular case of this athlete, we looked at and analyzed his readings to increase or reduce intensity during session.

Days where he came in and he “scored” low, then we limited intensity, focused on auxiliary exercise and a cardio based strength circuit to help facilitate recovery. (Sample Recovery workout Card)

The goal was to bring his score back up after recovery days like this and from there implement more intense sessions after a sufficient recovery.

However, it is worth noting firstly that EVERY athlete responds to stressors differently and their work capacities vary, but overtime their tolerance should be improving if the right training parameters are implemented at the right times (periodization).

With that said, a “low score” was not always translated as doing absolutely no kind of intensity at all. Occasional low scores would be normal as intense training disturbs the body’s homeostasis, so a low score just means that the body is trying to adapt to the increased intensity.

Overtime, the athlete will adjust and will not be as “disturbed” physiologically from the same training stresses.

The “concern” comes when scores are consistently low, or Sympathetic dominant, which could be indications of overtraining, and a means for rest (more on this in the conclusion).

As seen here on his chart, we were able to increase his scores after adjusting his training on top of finals coming to an end.

Further to the right, we see consistent lower scores. These occurred right around when school and classes began and his preseason practices with the school Lacrosse team began. The empty spaces between readings were days that he forgot or was not able to take his readings.

 Final Results:

This in house experiment is still ongoing. Currently this athlete suffered an injury during a tournament and has not bene able to consistently do his reads. However, the implications were evident that HRV and recovery are definitely effected by the athlete’s workloads both in sport, training, and lifestyle.

We were however able to successfully increase size, strength, and speed. Even though we were able to see improvement in overall HRV scores in a short time, more time is needed to really be able to quantify his ability to recover from various stressors.

The fact that size, speed, and strength were enhanced is an indication that recovery was also improved as recovery is necessary in order to enhance these performance variables.

Conclusion:

Performance. Training. Practice. Stress. Sleep. Diet. Mood.

All of these factor into to how well an athlete recovers and adapts to loads taken on. At the high school level, specifically for a highly competitive sport like lacrosse, the demands can far outweigh the body’s supply to cope with them.

In this singular case, we were able to somewhat gauge noninvasively the physiological state of recovery of this athlete and couple it with his daily life and see the effects that it had both physically and mentally.

With this insight our team could better create or adjust training plans to not only better adapt, but also know when to dial back or increase intensity at the right times and not just go off of a rigid program.

My initial reason behind launching this program was because I wanted better physical insight on the state of the athlete and better gauge fatigue levels as it relates to injury and overtraining.

There were just too many injuries happening as a result of training, whether acute or overuse, and being able to measure and visually see fatigue, we could recognize that change needs to occur in current school training regimens and practice because they can ultimately affect long-term health.

It is clear that programs should be adjusted according to the state of the athlete, but occasionally school programs are put together with the intent of overworking just to get the athlete “in shape”, when all it could be doing is the reverse.

As mentioned earlier, the importance of the nervous system and the contractile properties of muscle make a significant difference on efficiency. If an athlete is not recovered and or fatigued, then count on the fact they will not adapt as fast because the nervous system is overworked.

Overtraining is common in high school. Couple this with adolescent habits of subpar dieting, up and down sleep habits, “stressful” academics, and sport demands and we now have growing opportunity for injury.

The intention here is to get better insight from the athlete, recognize when overreaching is beginning to occur, find potential reasons why, and create the right training environment to overcome.

Our HRV guided training program takes a global approach using key insight to enhance performance, whether remotely, in person, or both, and maximize overall fitness and readiness.

This program is a great solution for a parent concerned about their child’s workloads and does not want them to burnout, and also a great program for competitive high school athlete really looking for a custom program specific to their needs that can be executed in conjunction with their schedule.

Every day is a learning process, and the more we are able to learn, the better we can specify the right programs at the right times.

Fats get a bad rap.

The bottom line is that fats are actually an essential nutrient of overall health whether an athletes or for general fitness.

And because the body does not naturally produce fat, it must come from outside sources.

Despite the negative image that fat has taken on in the past few decades, there is a such thing as quality fats, but for this particular post, we are going to focus on Omega 3 Fats and research conducted on its intake and concussions.

Fat Benefits 101

Fats aid in regulating body functions such as hormonal balance, in turn helping to regulate muscle contraction, immune function, and blood pressure.

Fats are also necessary for the body to absorb vitamins A, D, E, and K.

More specifically, some fats may also protect the brain and heart along with many other organs in the body.

While some fats are less beneficial than others and their intake should be regulated (saturated fats), Omega 3 and Omega 6 fats are absolutely necessary for performance and overall health.

Omega 3s and Brain Health

Docasahexaenoic acid (DHA) is a type of Omega 3 that is predominantly found in fish and fish oil supplements, and algae oil.

It has been discovered that DHA serves an important function for the brain, heart, skin, and virtually every cell in your body.

Certain studies are beginning to reveal that DHA (and EPA) are so important, that aggressive intake these Omega 3 fatty acids can be highly beneficial for Traumatic Brain Injury, and those who have suffered concussions.

There is a growing body of evidence that high doses of Omega 3 gives the brain better opportunity to heal.

However it should be noted that every person responds differently, and each person should consult with his or her practitioner before taking any supplements.

American Football and Omega 3

A study published in the Medicine and Science and Sport and Exercise examined different dosages of DHA for collegiate football players over the course of a season.

When given 2, 4, or 6 g DHA per day, researchers found an increase in blood markers for DHA in each group.

More specifically, researchers were looking for a link between DHA dosages and brain trauma indicators known as Neurofilament Light (abbreviated NFL).

NFL increases as the number of impacts increase. In other words, the more hits on the field, the more NFL found in the blood.

The question was would increasing DHA reduce levels of NFL, and protect it against brain trauma.

What researchers found was that those athletes on DHA supplements had a 40% reduction in NFL than those taking a placebo.

This led researchers to believe that DHA can potentially be protective against certain brain trauma.

Diet, Fats, and Performance

Though this study done does not provide a definite conclusion on the total effect DHA has on reducing concussions, it does reveal the strong link that diet alone and brain health have.

It also brings to light the potential that omega 3 fat DHA can protect the brain by preventing inflammation associated with injury.

In describing the “age” of young athletes, typically the first thing to come to mind is that child’s chronological age, or the date and year that they were born.

Numerically, this is the only indication of letting us know how long that person has been on this earth, which of course, we need to know when “grouping” athletes on teams and sports.

However, a youth athlete’s chronological age can overlook to other aspects of age that are crucial in their physical development, and the selection process utilized by most coaches today:

Relative Age and Developmental Age

Breaking It Down.

Relative age is used to determine a kids age in relation to his or her peers that they play sport or are in school with.

For instance, Zach and Jon are both 10 years old and play on the same Lacrosse team, however, Zach is 9 months older than Jon, and they still are on the same team.

This is a significant factor as relative age can, and does usually, play a large role in coaching decisions:

Essentially, this means that a child born on January 1st can be on the same team as someone born on December 31st of that same year, despite it almost being a years difference.

It has been well documented that “relative age” has a significant impact on the athletic selection.

Research has proven that athletes who were born early in a selection year are more likely to be chosen by coaches and organizations verses those born closer to the cut off date.

Why?

With more time to have developed physiologically, these athletes are fundamentally more advanced because of the physical traits that they developed before the “late bloomers”.

This in turn gives the early selected athletes a bigger advantage in terms of competition, while the others who are closer to the established cut off dates are at a disadvantage.

The somewhat unfortunate side (in the case of the underdeveloped athlete) is that athletes chosen early tend to be larger, stronger, and more skilled than younger players, causing uninformed coaches to believe that they are overall better players, when in truth, the younger ones just haven’t hit their spurt yet.

Older kids in the same cut off year have a developmental advantage.

The biggest misfortune are what the kids with developmental disadvantages have to endure, not being able to participate or make team cuts only because of their lack of physiological age.

Sociologist Robert Merton initiated the term the Matthew effect, which describes a situation in which kids given early developmental advantages through sports are more easily set up for success.

Because athletes who mature later than some of their counterparts  lack the developmental advantage, they can be seen as less “skilled” in their respective sport because of lack of a “physical” presence.

The resulting circumstance is a lack of quality coaching and programming which can hurt their chances of fully developing their skills.

However, if late maturing athletes can withstand these deterrences, then they would actually have an advantage over the more mature athletes once they finally hit their spurt.

Proper training, coaching, and programming throughout the late growing phase will teach younger athletes the fundamentals of hard work while also preparing them mentally for the demands and challenges of their unique sport and competition.

Athletes who mature early and did have a competitive advantage over their peers are sometimes at a disadvantage because they don’t need to practice as hard since they are more developed strength and skill wise than than the others.

When a late bloomer does come of age however, the constant practice and skill development will be an additional asset to their physiological maturation.

Proper Training

While it is very important for ANY athlete of any age to partake in a proper training program, it is especially important for the underdeveloped youth athlete to be apart of one for a few reasons:

Firstly, beyond the actual physical development of training is the psychological aspect.

Kids get left behind, discouraged, and lose self esteem if they are not on the winning end of the selection process. As mentioned before, coaches can sometimes put too much focus on those athletes who are more developed at the expense of investing the attention needed for those kids who are not.

This can ultimately lead to kids quitting sports altogether and feeling inadequate.

Coaches and organizations, especially at the middle school and high school level should know how to properly identify the developmental and relative ages of athletes so that they can take the right measures in developing the athlete, and creating effective long term training programs that will get him ready for the next phases in competition.

Identification and proper training measures are key in not only preparing younger athletes to be competitive within their sport and age group, but also in creating a sound and confident all around athlete.

The long term effects of which will be beneficial well beyond competition.