Are you an Athlete who is Tired, Hurt, or Overwhelmed?
Have you tried to take your performance to the next level, but instead of experiencing “the zone” find yourself tired, hurt, or overwhelmed from your efforts? Take a deep breath. Now let it out slooooooowly. My name is Hank DeGroat and I am here to tell you it does not have to be that way. There is a way to pursue your full athletic potential in a systematic, organized way, that builds on your strengths, addresses your weakness, and fits into your life schedule.
The Athlete’s Dilemma
When I was a young athlete I ran into two major problems in my quest to be the best I could be -- I either was unable to find the information I needed to excel or I received bad information. The advent of the internet and the explosion of training facilities like Catz, Velocity Sports Performance, and many other facilities started by excellent coaches have virtually eliminated the problem of no information and made it more likely to get good information. However, I have found that the accessibility to information has created a new, more insidious dilemma for many athletes that come to me seeking guidance; the inability to sort through and organize all the information into an effective and efficient game plan that fits into an already crowded life schedule. This information overload has created a reactionary “add-on” philosophy and management style. Not wanting to miss out on any competitive advantage, today’s athletes’ simply “add-on” more workouts, more practices, and coaching sessions, in a shotgun approach hoping to cover all the bases. For many athletes this leads to career ending results:
- Burnout – pilling on more practices, games, training sessions, to an already crowded work, school, and life schedule ends in mental burnout. The love of the game is lost and even the thrill of victory loses its motivating spark.
- Injury – simply put Athletes Aren’t Hamburgers, one size does not fit all. To many athletes are forced into a preprogrammed routine with other athletes of varied skill, motivation, and with little or no accounting for outside practice sessions. They find these generalized programs leave them feeling tight, bulky, less fluid and athletic overall in their sport. Unfortunately for these athletes a series of blanketed generalized workouts without proper management of overall workload and outside stress levels leaves them more prone to injury not less.
The vision for creating The Athletic Quest (TAQ) is to address the problems of burnout and injury caused by the current training culture:
- Addressing Burnout – help athletes organize and prioritize their daily, weekly, and yearly, schedules in a way that allows them to efficiently and effectively meet the demands of their sport, while maintaining the passion and love of the sport.
- Injury Reduction and Rapid Recovery – I don’t believe in “injury prevention”. The truth is if you are an athlete trying to find your performance limit it is not a matter of if you are going to get hurt, but when, how badly, and how quickly are you going to recover. My goal is to create a supervised training environment that adapts the training for the day in real time, based on the athlete’s mental, physical, and emotional state. The training sessions will be tailored in a way that maximizes productivity for the day and supports future planned workouts and performance demands.
On-line Tools for Athletes
I am one man. I simply can not see all the athletes that want to see me 1-1 and who I want to help with these problems. To aid me in my vision of helping to create self empowered athletes I have created the FREE on-line course, "Surviving AAU - Understanding the Stress Cycle". If you are an athlete seeking to maximize your potential this course is a must! The knowledge, understanding, and skills that you will gain from it will dramatically improve your ability to recover, your game time performance, and reduce your risk of injury while allowing you to play pain free. But don't take my word for it. See what these elite and professional athletes have to say and then check it out for yourself.
If you have a specific athletic outcome that you are trying to achieve and are ready to put together a game plan that is going to give you the dynamic physical, mental, and emotional energy you need at game time, then becoming a TAQ athlete may be the right step for you. Take the next step in creating your own Strategic Individualized Blueprint by completing the Athlete's Application and setting up your first strategic planning session.
Cheers!
Hank DeGroat CSCS LMT
For more information on my background and training philosophy visit www.HankDeGroat.com
