hey adarqui, wondering if you could put a bio, i'm pretty sure you have given short bio and info about yourself, i was wondering if you could give the long version. Something i've been wondering is how do you guys get to that level where your training pros and all that? Like how do you guys get so knowledgeable and get into these high class positions , is it just reading and researching, or has it been like learning from someone else.
no problem..
Well, in college (FAU, exercise science program), I was sort of a "standout" student in terms of my obsession with sports performance. My grades, the questions I asked, and the teacher's I talked too after class reflected it.
So I learned that "perfect competition" (
www.perfectcompetition.us) provided internships to student's who were deemed "serious" about the s&c craft. So I went in, interviewed. They did a "background check" with my professor's. I got the opportunity.
2006-2007So I spent an entire semester interning ~25 hours a week or so, middle school, high school, and college athletes. I was taught their system, read their internal documents on training, talked extensively with the main coaches. I led those groups of athletes through warmup, prehab, speed sessions, core, lifting, and flexibility BASED on their protocols. Usually it was myself and another intern & coach, but due to scheduling I did the entire session myself.
At this time, their was an NFL Combine Prep going on led under the coaching of Pete Bomarrito (
http://www.perfectcompetition.us/Pete_extendedBio.htm). I assisted with the training of the nfl combine athletes, some big names, some not, but pretty much all dedicated as fu*k hardcore athletes. I taught them form on lifts, spotted, made protein shakes (holy shit F that), forced them to foam roll & stretch, and got their meals for them sometimes. On a few occasions, when Pete was "out of town" or whatever, I trained the nfl combine prep class myself. I'm pretty sure it was on two occasions, and being a student-intern, that was absolutely insane - i loved it.
I also was given the opportunity to train some pro & developing nba basketball players, as well as some minor league team (the pitbulls?).
Regardless of how well I performed, Pete & I did not get along too well. We are just on entirely different wavelengths, we butt heads easy. Now, I have no shame calling this guy a huge asshole in my opinion, BUT, he is one of the most ridiculous S&C coaches I've ever seen. The guy _knows his shit_. He is absolutely obsessed with getting results for his combine/pro athletes.
So, obvious tension existed the whole time, but when my internship was over, Pete offered me "another". He agreed to pay me some cash-monies but then we clashed heads again and I dipped.
2007So now I had to do another internship, one that actually counted for credits. So I did my internship at Memorial Fitness Center. I trained old people, kids, weekend warriors, heart attack victims, etc. Occasionally I trained athletes. So, I meet this guy Bruce (Who would later hire me). He asks me why im in s&c and what I want to do. So I give him my mindset, and he's talking me out of s&c, telling me it's not for me. He was just testing me & busting my balls, but I didn't know that. So I was like whatever brosef im going to make athletes better peace-out. So he gets this guy, who is training for a "skeleton tryout", some olympic event. He had to meet a bunch of numbers for this 'skeleton combine' and he was way off. So long story short I trained him for ~12 weeks (I forget) and freaked him out, he hit every test, 5" on vert, tons on his broad jump/med ball toss/speed etc.
So bruce put me on as s&c coach, started giving me people to train.
Intern ends, get hired, work at s&c. There I started off slow, training h.s. athletes. Getting results. So we put together some summer camp. Again, ~50+ kids, real good results. So then he introduces me to one minor league guy and some football guy. They both look at me like im nuts, considering I was 147 lb, looking like a walking stick.
So whatever they decide to train because of how I talked about training. After a few weeks of training, minor league guy tells his agent about how good training is, so he sends me more people. Then more people. After you know it I had like 8 guys or so in a minor league off-season training camp. So that went well, got insane results with alot of them. They go off to minor league season, and absolutely blow up the pre-season testing. They all said they loved the training we did, because honestly it was results based, I am sort of obsessed about results like that coach Pete.
2008-2009Now it's midway into 2008, I train more people, team's, kids, high school, college, football, whatever. Summer comes around, 2008, we got ~65 kids or so, an entire baseball team, and just tons of h.s. kids. Anyway, that went well.
Then I did another minor leage off-season prep, got even better results. Some freakish shit, as you can see on my youtube.
So, Bruce Aven, my former boss, he trusted alot of responsibility in me and built a s&c program around me. Bruce Aven btw, is an absolute freak athlete & a real good dude. I mean, out of shape he can just walk up to a 300 lb barbell and squat it like it's nothing, pull 405 on a trap bar no warmup, hold it and make fun of DRusso, and broad jump 110 no warmup.
Also on the side I was training eddie/taje and myself. Eddie & taje's performance blew up. So did mine in my opinion.
Not to get it twisted though, I did of course not achieve results with some people. I do not call them athletes though, because they were wimps, lazy, and weak minded.
That's pretty much it man. I might have got some dates wrong don't hold me too it.
How do you go from just bs college or ms to a few years later training pros and olympians. For instance, eric cressey, he got his bs, then went to uconn for his ms, and then already started writing articles for tnation, and then a couple years later already had his own place and was training pro athletes. How do you guys go from just like college to that level, and how are you guys so good so fast, i would think you would need to start low follow and learn from people and keep workign your way up slowly, and then eventually you would have a lot of experience and knowledge, and start getting the big opportunities, but it doesn't seem to work that way.
Well, I hope my bio above sheds some light on it. I did learn alot from some good people & good professors, such as Bruce Aven, Pete Bommarito, Keith Shimman, and David Sandler. That's how I got my opportunities, learning, applying, being given opportunities and excelling at them.
Beyond that, I was very self taught. I just studied supertraining/verkhoshansky/every article I could find. I did alot of self experimentation with training methods.
I kind of did the 'opposite' with what you are talking about, even though it was in a short time span. I started out gaining experienced and now years later have decided to "write some articles". Kind of the flip side.
Beyond that, I always took training serious, but I never approached it with the right mindset or knowledge. Growing up I didn't have anyone tell me anything. So I started training properly for something (boxing) in 2005. I started off with a ~24 min 5k time, which of course would have been lower had I not cramped, maybe ~22m or so. I decided to get that time down as low as possible, using intervals/protocols I got it down to mid 17's, with a PR 4:32 mile, but mostly running 4:45-4:55's, as well as going 8 rounds boxing on many occasions at ATT.
I was fighting through hand injuries from early 2007 to late 2007 (nearly a year). That's where my TVS journal picks up, in october 2007.
So you know the rest, 27 to 39" RVJ. Got bored of RVJ + Family issues = detrained and became a bum.
My whole life I've been riddled with injuries, and I'm just an endurance athlete by nature. So I take alot of pride in the vert achievement, less so in the mile/5k/10flight stairs feats. Regardless, I put in work & got results. Looking back though I wish I would have stayed with boxing/kept my conditioning, because hear I am two years later with the itch to get back into it and compete. So that's my only regret. I don't think anyone on TVS/here understand how good of shape I was in, it was seriously psychotic. Hopefully I can obtain that mindset again and regain it, which I think is happening lately, but it's going to take alot of late, long, and drenching workouts to get it back
2010I'm back :F
twenty ten get right 2 years before doomsday 2012 holla atcha boy.
pc man
