Performance Training: How To Get The Edge On The Competition

If you are a competitive person like me, you are always trying to find a way to get the edge on your competition. I'm in my 40's and I play basketball against guys that are at least half my age and I love what usually happens after I play them and beat them. They ask how old am I and I tell them and the next question how are you able to play like this. I'm never offended by the question and I'm quick to give an answer which is I work on my game and I do performance training.

Performance Training has become very popular in the last few years. People are discovering what many professional athletes have known for years, that skills and drills are simply not enough to make you a better athlete.

When I mention performance training some people immediately mention things like P90X and Crossfit. I tell them that though great programs, they are more about general fitness. Performance Training is more of a functional movement training where you train doing exercises that will have direct relation to your sports activity. Those other programs incorporate some functional movement but sports performance training focuses on what you need to perform the athletic moves needed for sports. A good facility will cover areas like speed, agility, power and plyometrics to help you get the edge to out work out wit and out last your competition.

In addition the good ones will not only work on those areas but show you how to use them in your chosen sport. When you combine performance training with skills and drills you have the potential to live up to the athletic dreams you have always had and be able to dominate your competition. The proof is in the pudding as they say. I have been training at Acceleration Sports Performance-Naperville (www.accelerationpro.com) for the last several years and as you see in the video, I still can get it done. And when it comes to gametime, my friends and I play a lot of 1v1 series, best of 3,5 or 7 games to 100 (2's & 3's) and every game is intense and competitive.

As a basketball trainer, I strongly believe that performance training must be a part of any player's training regime. I believe it so much that I have recently joined the staff at Acceleration Sports Performance - Lisle (www.accelerationlisle.com) as Director of Basketball Operations where we have merged over two decades of proven sports performance training protocols with basketball skills training to offer the most complete basketball training around. If you don't live in the Chicago area look on the web and search for sports performance training and get on the road to dominance!