The 40-yard dash is more than just a sprint; it’s a showcase of an athlete’s speed, agility, and explosive power. Often used as a performance metric in various sports, the 40-yard dash can make or break an athlete’s career. But what does it take to improve your 40-yard dash time? The answer lies in a multifaceted approach that considers not only speed but also strength, mechanics, and the underlying physiological components that contribute to explosive movements. When one of our athletes, Ian, joined OAP Academy as an eighth grader, he ran a 4.70 laser time with one question in mind: how do I ..read more

In the realm of sports and physical performance, deceleration is a critical yet often overlooked aspect. It refers to the ability to efficiently absorb force while positioning the body optimally for subsequent movements such as acceleration, lateral movements, jumps, dives, and bounds. The ultimate goal of deceleration is to minimize the time required for transitional patterns and changes in direction. To achieve efficient deceleration, athletes need to possess the capability to absorb and exert substantial amounts of force. This blog post delves into the significance of deceleration, its trai ..read more

In the realm of athletics, where speed, quickness, and power reign supreme, understanding the role of strength training, particularly with heavy or maximal weights, is crucial. This exploration delves into the core reasons why lifting heavy is essential for athletes aspiring to enhance their speed and power. By examining the relationship between strength training and the central nervous system (CNS), and applying these principles to a sport-specific context like baseball, we gain insights into how and why maximal strength development is a key component of athletic performance.  All this l ..read more

In selecting exercises for our programming, we utilize various variations to elicit diverse responses from the body. Different types of exercises and variations stimulate the body in different ways and provide relief to overworked areas. This month, we won’t cover all the exercises and instead, we’ll focus on a few important ones for our training. The first two exercises are hex bar deadlift and front squat. Adding hex bar deadlifts and front squats to your workout routine has several benefits. It can improve your strength, help build muscles, and enhance your athletic performance. Here are so ..read more

Throughout our youth athletic training programs, we’ve seen a lot of young athletes are specializing in one sport very early in their playing career. While this does lend itself to higher development in a specific sport skill or skills, only playing one sport does not allow for as much balance in general development and drastically increases risk of injury. As the youth athlete gets older we understand the feeling of needing to specialize in more specific skill development as the recruiting process and competitive nature of sport is happening earlier and earlier. Unfortunately, we see inj ..read more

Before we dive into understanding how much strength is needed to be as successful as possible in the high school sports arena we must have a grasp on what strength actually is. The term strength gets tossed around quite a bit without a firm understanding of what it is and how to train it effectively.  Strength is a nervous system based quality that expresses itself as how much force you can maximally produce. Strength can be trained through intense isometric training as well as lifting heavy or maximal weights. Strength is NOT muscular size although muscular size can positively affect str ..read more

The ability to live above the rim, the net, or elevate beyond your competition is a quality nearly all athletes seek to obtain. Many people wonder, “How can I jump higher?” or “How can I help my child jump higher for their sport?” The good news is there are proven methods and exercises to boost vertical jump abilities. In this article we will break down what the essential elements are and why they are necessary to train. Primary Qualities to Train to Increase Your Vertical Jump: 1. Maximal Strength: What is it? Simply put, it’s the maximum force you can produce. How to develop it: Lift heavy ..read more

In the realm of sports, the pursuit of excellence is an unwavering goal. High school and youth athletes dream of standing on the podium, raising the trophy, and hearing the roar of the crowd. To turn these dreams into reality, athletes need a holistic approach to training that encompasses various facets of physical development. One such critical facet is speed strength training – the cornerstone of explosive power and lightning-fast movements. In this blog post, we dive into the importance of speed strength training for high school and youth athletes, highlighting how it can unlock their full ..read more