Velocity Sports Performance Official Website

Referral Raffle Program Velocity wants to exceed your expectations! Refer other athletes to us and win free Under Armour Gear…or CA$H!

Gifts are always difficult to choose, but fear no more, Velocity Sports Performance is partnered with Perform Better Equipment and picked the perfect gifts for the athlete or active person in your life. 

The Velocity Sports Performance is holding an advanced-level football combine this summer. VSP is an elite training facility located in Chesterfield. High performing football players ages 15-18 will have the chance to train like their favorite players through a series of pro-style drills designed by skilled trainers.

Camp will focus on: Developing Explosive Power Increasing Your Speed Improving Agility on the Field Reducing Likelihood of Injury   Starts : June 14th!!            Tuesdays and Thursdays Time:  4:00 pm - 5:00pm Cost:  $199 Ages:  3rd - 8th grades

As an elite performance training facility, Velocity Sports Performance is proud to offer the latest in hydration and recovery science to its athletes.  We are grateful to be selected by Gatorade to pioneer these products with our athletes and look forward to sharing your feedback with Gatorade as we move forward.

This article is for the adult athlete, sometimes referred to as the “weekend warrior.”  The dad that plays hockey on Tuesday nights or basketball on Sundays, or the mom that swims once a week or even runs the occasional half marathon.  Below are a few tips on how you can make your training more productive and be more efficient to fit into your busy schedule.

This months article is a follow up to a previous article, How Late is Too Late? For those of you reading who have done the Velocity nutrition program know that our first hurdle to overcome is not necessarily what kinds of foods you are eating, but when you are eating them. Timing is extremely important for reaching nutritional goals even if you are eating the right foods you may not be getting the results you are looking for because the timing of your meals is off.       The first myth to bust within the topic of timing is:  The actual time that you eat is not important, rather the amount of time in between meals.

Rachel Phillips is the July athlete of the month in part for her recent success. She just got back from a Softball National Qualifier in Boston, Massachusetts where her team, California Desperados U14, came in first and now have a berth to Nationals in August. Her team will be competing against 120 others teams for the ASA 14U National title. According to her and her father Bryon she played real well and hit the ball hard and attributes this to her going to Velocity. She actually only struck out twice. Not sure how much training had to do with that but we’ll take some of the credit for hitting the ball hard. Either way “now the hard work begins” Dad says.

We recently evaluated the US Womens National Team, and talked with them about their training, one of the glaring needs was increased strength and stability on a single leg.  This is something we also see in younger developing players.  The good news, is that any player can improve it.

Velocity's June Athlete of the Month goes to Youth athlete Nick Manning. Probably one of the biggest reasons why we picked Nick is for his passion to train & his desire to always get better. Nick's drive and determination helps him excel in our Youth program. It is even fair to say that others in class with Nick get inspired by his drive to always compete. When we asked Nick if competition brings the best out of him he said "Yes - it makes me push myself harder and harder. For example, I love the feeling in a game when I have a break-away and I am running as fast as I can to stay in front of the defender and then take a shot on goal. That's the best - knowing that I have to beat the other guy makes me run all out".

Every time we go to the grocery store and we are standing in the checkout line with the fruits of our labor from a carefully prepared shopping list in our carts; we can’t help but notice all of the last minute purchase items stuffed in and around the checkout lane. Most of these items i.e. candy, soda, DVD’s, etc. we can pretty easily overcome our immediate cravings for, especially if we’re not at the store on an empty stomach.   There is, however, one piece of checkout line mélange that never escapes my attention no matter how hard I try to ignore it. Magazines that promise large weight loss results in small amounts of time are never a site that goes unseen. I call these periodicals, “miracle diet magazines”. They always have a promise of losing five to ten pounds in six to eight weeks. Occasionally I’ll pick up one of these MDM’s and see what kind of plan they are selling.

Recently, author, Seth Godin wrote a blog post about his “Hierarchy of Success”.  I thought it was very relevant to coaching overall.  Seth wrote; ”The hierarchy of success I think it looks like this: 1.Attitude                                                                      2.Approach 3.Goals 4.Strategy 5.Tactics 6.Execution We spend all our time on execution. Use this word instead of that one. This web host. That color. This material or that frequency of mailing.

Maddie Frome started out in the Mater Dei Volleyball Girl’s Volleyball program asking the same questions most of her teammates did….  Who is this Coach Cretti?  What is Velocity?  Why do I have to lift weights? In the past two years, Maddie has learned the answers to all of those questions.  She has transformed from a wide-eyed freshman into a focused competitor who is not satisfied with the “Status Quo”.  Maddie has pushed herself and her teammates to reach their highest potential.  This off-season, Maddie has increased her hang clean by 30%, back squat by almost 20%, and her bench press by 10%.  The statistic that volleyball players care most about is their vertical jump and Maddie has improved on this as well. In just three months, she added 3 inches to her vertical – all with hard work, commitment and never being satisfied.  Great Job Maddie - Keep up the good work!

Without variety, everything in life gets stale. This maxim not only applies to work but also to your training and your nutrition strategies. If you came into the center and did the same training session every night, you would quickly get bored and possibly stop training. Your body gets tired of the same thing as well. Gains from training are best achieved when variety is used to stimulate different muscle groups and energy systems. The same is true about what you put into your body to help you stay fueled during the day and recover after a hard training session.

Lee is a senior scholar athlete at Capo Valley HS. He is a three-sport athlete playing football, basketball, and baseball. During his time at Capo Valley, Lee was a 2 year starter on the football team playing receiver and punter along with starting on the baseball team when they won the 2009 CIF Championship. This baseball season Lee was named team captain and has accepted a full scholarship to play baseball at UC-Irvine. Not only is Lee one of the top hitters in the conference but he is an excellent pitcher as well.  During the fall he was even asked to pitch for the Tampa Bay Rays scout all-star team. 

Velocity is excited to introduce a new achievement award, Monarch of the Month, for student athletes at Mater Dei High School. The Monarch of the Month achievement award is given to a student athlete who goes above and beyond normal requirements and not only stands out in their athletic achievements, but also excels in the academic arena. They are are individual who exemplifies a strong work ethic, outstanding leadership, academic success and citizenship.

The overhead (OH) squat is a challenging, versatile, and sometimes over looked exercise.  Here at Velocity Sports Performance we use the OH squat in many different ways.  First, all new athletes to the program perform an OH squat as part of their Testing Assessment and Program Planning.  We use the OH squat to determine if and where an athlete may have a lack of flexibility, mobility or strength.

The transition from high school to college athletics can be difficult for many student-athletes. You are away from home for the first time and learning to take care of yourself without having parents around to cook your meals, wash your clothes, and wake you up every morning.  Not to mention that practice is more intense, expectations are much higher, and so is the level of competition. To top everything off you still have one more place that you are normally required to spend a significant amount of time, and that is the weight room.             During my time as a Division 1 strength & conditioning coach I spent more time with the student-athletes than anyone else on campus. At the collegiate level student-athletes are expected to give a year round commitment to the weight room, which means they saw me more than they saw their own sport coaches. That commitment is not exclusive to just football, that is typically every sport that college participates in.

Sitting at home before bed, you’ve gotten home late from work, you haven’t had anything to eat since before you left the office, and your stomach is not going to let you go to sleep without a fight, what do you do?   I’ve heard people tell me that they’ve heard from friends that they shouldn’t eat late at night for several reasons   1. Your digestion slows down at night so you’re going to gain weight. 2. You’re not going to sleep well.

Father and son duo John & Brian Schiazzano are our Athletes of the Month. We often have siblings train together, but the consistent father/son tandem is a treat for not only the coaches, but the two of them as well. We enjoy the competition between the two of them. When we asked them who is the better athlete John mentioned his dad is "weak sauce" while Brian being reserved said John is more of a natural athlete, but not yet the baseball player he was. With time John may catch his father.

Coaching young athletes and helping them develop into the athletes they want to be is a very rewarding experience. From the 8 year old Youth to the 18 year old Developmental 2 athlete there are a lot of the same goals but very different approaches to how we reach them. Everyone wants to get faster, stronger, and more explosive but training an 8 year the same as the 18 year old just doesn’t work. Young athletes have 3 main phases of development that takes place.   Phase 1: Learning how to Train. This is the phase that most of our Youth class athletes fall into. During this phase athletes have a very difficult time doing anything at a high intensity and a lot of their improvements in performance are based on motor learning and doing a lot of repetitions. The biggest problem is that most athletes want to be too specific early on and miss out perfecting the basics.   Phase 2: Training to Train. This is the phase that most of our Developmental 1 and some Developmental 2 athletes are in. At this stage athletes have hopefully built a solid foundation of training and are ready to add in a few specifics but still focus on the basics. They are able to push themselves harder than before but still require a lot of repetitions to become good at anything. It is still very important to do a few things well instead of many things poorly.   Phase 3: Training to Compete. At this stage we can perform the basic movements correctly and are able to train them at a high intensity which means we can’t do as many repetitions. This allows us to focus on a lot more specifics than before and follow a more individualized program.   You come to Velocity because you want to improve your performance. Our highly trained coaches know how to assess an athlete design a program based on what training phase you are in. It is important for parents and athletes to keep these phases of training in mind when you watch another athlete do something and wonder why you aren’t doing it. It is very possible that it may not be what you need to get better.

Sir Isaac Newton first described the three Laws of Motion and thus became one of the first performance coaches to apply scientific principles to human movement.   Newton's First Law, the Law of Inertia, states "A body will stay in a state of rest or constant velocity unless acted upon by an external force that changes that state."  Let's focus on the state of rest.   That means in order to get going the athlete must produce force by sending a message down the nervous system so that muscles can contract.  The force acting on the body's mass (weight) so that the state of rest is maintained (Inertia) is gravity.  No force produced means no movement realized.

The “Three Cone Drill” is a multi-directional drill that allows athletes to showcase their ability to shift their bodyweight and move around quickly while changing directions and keeping speed. During this drill we are able to see an athletes multi-directional movement abilities as well as seeing what the athlete lacks in their “multi-d” repertoire.  

Have you ever told yourself that you’re going to write something down to remind yourself to do it only to find out later that you not only forgot to write it down but you can’t even remember what it was that you were supposed to do?   It’s a common organizational mistake and in general, people are more organized when they plan out what they are going to do with their day and what they have accomplished already.   Nutrition is no exception. Do you remember only the great dinners that you’ve had? What about remembering only the feelings of regret after you have eaten something that you know should have stayed on the shelf at the grocery store? With just these emotional responses and not a list of what you’ve actually been putting into your body, it’s hard to make changes to your diet and monitor them once you have made them

March athlete of the month goes to Developmental 1 athlete, Spencer Krause. Spencer has been awarded this for his continued participation after suffering a fracture to his arm while in the facility in addition to his drive and consistency the past couple of months. Coming to Velocity is tough enough as it is, can you imagine coming with a broken arm? If you want to know why he continues to train with us it's because "the coaches work you hard but they also make it fun!" Spencer works hard without being asked and always takes time to ask if he is doing a task the correct way.

This month Developmental  2 athlete Justin Leong has been selected as Athlete of the Month for February. He was chosen by the coaching staff at Velocity Sports Performance Irvine for his hard work ethic and improved performance.  Justin has only been training at Velocity for 4 months, but he has shown consistent attendance and a positive attitude every time he comes in.   Justin plays basketball for the All-Net Aliso Niguel Wolverines, where he is a star player.  “I really like the Velocity training because it helps me condition for games and is making me stronger” says Justin.  He contributes his great training to the coaches at Velocity. “All the trainers at Velocity are really helpful and make it fun to work out, they push me to excel”.  Justin says his favorite exercise is the back squat because it takes balance and strength. “My legs feel really strong after doing this exercise” he says.

There’s no way around it; your environment influences your behavior.  Make things easier and you’re more likely to do them.  Take away temptations and you’re less likely to be enticed.  To increase the likelihood of reaching your goals, create an environment for success.    Start by stocking your kitchen with the foods you want to be eating for success.  Whether you plan on doing all or very little of your food prep here, you need to remove those opportunities for unhealthy eating.  If it’s in your home, you will eat it eventually.  

Recently, author, Seth Godin wrote a blog post about his “Hierarchy of Success”.  I thought it was very relevant to coaching overall.  Seth wrote; ”The hierarchy of success I think it looks like this: 1.Attitude                                                                      2.Approach 3.Goals 4.Strategy 5.Tactics 6.Execution We spend all our time on execution. Use this word instead of that one. This web host. That color. This material or that frequency of mailing.