Boston Sports Medicine and Performance Group, LLC Blog

 

An Update on Boston Promise

by Steve Cassidy 

Boston Promise experienced a remarkable first year on the court. Basketball (and academic) skill sessions were held at Basketball City twice a week from April through November. Through grueling sessions focused on fundamentals, players showed marked improvement in their games. On the weekends the program competed in tournaments both locally and regionally. The schedule included such challenging events as the Hoop Mountain Classic and the Gym Rat Challenge which brought in teams from all over the northeast. All the hard work paid off when Boston Promise earned its first tournament championship by capturing the Middlesex Magic Classic in October.

Learn more about the Boston Promise approach and values by visiting their website.

Boston Promise:

Our mission is to assist Boston's youth basketball players in fulfilling their promise as scholars, athletes and leaders in their communities. We aim to increase these young players' opportunities for higher education by providing them with the knowledge and experiences that will prepare them for college-level academics and basketball.

Learn how you can get involved by clicking HERE.

 

 

In discussing a case of stress fractures with some friends recently, the concept of Load vs. Mechanics was discussed.

“It’s all load. Too much running, too much conditioning heading into the season,” suggested the athletic trainer in the room.

“No, no, no – that kid was set up to fail from the start. She’s got funny feet and that’s the reason. Everyone else ran the same distance and didn’t have a problem.”

The conversation ultimately boiled down to this:

Are you applying an unreasonable amount of load to normal mechanics or are you applying a reasonable amount of load to unusual mechanics?

Yes, too much load too fast will always get you there, but having “abnormal” mechanics will certainly ensure that you get there a whole lot faster.

My father would always tell me that every time you point your finger there are three others pointing right back at you.

So the next time your athlete walks in reporting a stress fracture don’t be so quick to point the finger at the group down the hall, and instead ask yourself if that athlete suffered their injury from load or mechanics and what you did to screen, monitor and address the problem BEFORE it sidelined them.

 

Art Horne is the Coordinator of Care and Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Men’s Basketball Team at Northeastern University, Boston MA.  He can be reached at a.horne@neu.edu.

 

 

Is it any wonder that both Listen and Silent contain all the same letters?
How many times have you been listening to a colleague only to find your mouth moving the entire time?

They say silence is golden; rearrange the letters and you’ll find listening might just be as valuable.

 

Art Horne is the Coordinator of Care and Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Men’s Basketball Team at Northeastern University, Boston MA.  He can be reached at a.horne@neu.edu.

 

Some people don’t do what they’re told, and others only do what they are told.

Both are problems.

 

 

 

Too good not to share....

This article originally appeared on ESPN.com - TrueHoop by Henry Abbott on 1/3/11

So, it's a new year, and thanks to the power of resolutions, the gym is crowded again.

All these people who have not worked out in a long time are back at it, for now.

Doesn't that picture worry you just a little? All that sedentary living, followed by a frenzy of playing hoops again, or running, or spinning or whatever ... that's like an injury waiting to happen. Muscles and tendons and joints that have been aging without conditioning, now tested once more.

It's no wonder that every advertisement pushing workouts includes the line about consulting a physician before beginning an exercise regimen.

But this is what strikes me: Really? You need a doctor's note to exercise?

Isn't that entirely backwards? Shouldn't you need a doctor's note to sit on the couch instead?

In other words, if you don't exercise for six months, then sprain your ankle playing hoops one time, it's the sitting that needs to stop, not the hooping. Right?

These days, we spend the vast majority of our lives sitting still in the dim light, or lying down, watching screens. And you can make a pretty strong case it's killing us.

We're descended from people who moved their bodies just about all day every day to stay alive. They got tons of sunlight. If you believe Christopher McDougall's thesis in "Born to Run," at a key stage in human evolution, our ancestors literally chased animals all day -- until the deer dropped from exhaustion. Imagine whole families together, including the children and the old people -- running one ultramarathon after another, for survival.

Now imagine getting those people, or their descendants, to sit in the car, at the desk, or on the couch all day. They'd go nuts! They'd have obesity, heart disease, diabetes, depression, and all the other leading killers in modern society.

So hell yeah, let's get out there. Let's honor those New Year's resolutions. Let's move these bodies that were meant to move. And when you find yourself slipping, a month or two from now, and thinking about spending less time in the gym and more time on the couch ... cal

How closely are you looking at your athletes?

 

"Loss of mobility is sometimes the only way the body can achieve a point of stability, but that stability is not authentic. It is often seen or observed as stiffness or inflexibility, but on a sensory motor level, it is part of a system with no other available choice. It is basically engineered dysfunction at a local level to allow continued physical performance at a global level."

Pg. 27. Movement by Gray Cook.

The problem with right now is that right now is just too late.

Right now happened 3 months ago.
Right now was waking up 30 minutes early each morning to work on your fundamentals skills.
Right now was taking 300 hook shots in the lane each day before practice even started.
Right now was back in June when you decided sleep was more important than the continuing education course you missed at the national convention.

Seldom does opportunity present itself at the very same time as right now.

The nice thing about right now however, is that it’s exactly the right time to start preparing for tomorrow.


Art Horne is the Coordinator of Care and Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Men’s Basketball Team at Northeastern University, Boston MA.  He can be reached at a.horne@neu.edu.

As 2010 comes to an end, I thought I'd use this last week to direct you to 5 of the most popular blog articles from this past year.

Happy New Year and all the best this coming year!

Enjoy

 

Seeing The World Through The Hole In A 45 Pound Plate

I'm Not A Businessman, I'm A BUSINESS Man

SHIPPERS WANTED

Barbershop Talk

Are You Filling The Right Gaps?

 

 

 

Feeling good about getting some "work" done this holiday season - making some phone calls, checking off the to-do list and of course checking my emails, I realized I simply invested my time in keeping busy, and not producing anything of worth.

Was your weekend spent checking emails or was it spent producing something remarkable?

Read what Seth Godin has to say about "busy-ness"

 

Measuring busy-ness...

 

Purchase the 2010 Basketball and Hockey Specific Training DVD's before the new year and save.  These DVD sets will only be on sale for one more week until they return to their original price.

Watch the country's best strength and conditioning coaches and therapists discuss how to take your team's training to the next level.

Click HERE to purchase one or both of these DVD sets.

 

This conference was held in Boston, MA on May 22nd and 23rd, 2010 

Included: 4 DVDs with almost 6 total hours of Hockey Training information

Presentations by: Sean Skahan - Anaheim Ducks, In-season Training in the NHL, Jack Blatherwick - Washington Capitals, Sources of Information: Separating Fact from Fiction, Frank Burgraff - Burgraff Skaing, Protecting the Stride, Larry Cahalin - Northeastern University, Inspiratory Muscle Training: Improving Lung Function and Recovery, Alan Degennaro - formally of the Cleveland Browns, Injury Prevention and Sport, and Keynote Presentation by Bill Hartman, Corrective Exercise Techniques.

Cost: $89.00  NOW ON SALE!  $75

 

 

This conference was held in Boston, MA on May 22nd and 23rd, 2010

 Included: 5 DVDs with over 7.5 hours of Basketball Information

Presentations by: Keith D'Amelio - Stanford University, Assessing the Basketball Athlete, Charlie Weingroff - formally of the Philadelphia 76ers, Lower Extremity Performance and WBV Training Methods, Mike Curtis - University of Virginia, A Systematic Approach to Movement Training for Basketball, Tim Beltz - University of Pittsburgh, Establishing a Training Base for the Basketball Athlete, Amanda Kimball - University of Connecticut, Building a National Champion, Alan DeGennaro - formally of the Cleveland Browns, Injury Prevention and Sport and Keynote Presentation by Bill Hartman, Corrective Exercise Techniques.

Cost: $119.00 NOW ON SALE! $99