Key elements apply to all sports: speed, agility, strength, power and endurance. At Performance Sport & Speed, we train athletes in grades 4-12 in these areas. We then take their training to the next level with personalized, sport-specific workouts. Our coaches emphasize proper technique and incorporate injury prevention exercises, creating a powerful, functional athlete. Having trained over 3,000 athletes throughout the state of Iowa, we have developed a program that works to progress athletes to the next step in their careers, whether it’s high school athletics, college athletics or professional athletics.
Tuesdays and Thursdays 4:30-5:30 p.m.
$180 per 6-week session
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Pre- and Post-Evaluation
- Vertical jump to test their power development
- Broad jump to test their horizontal power and the ability to translate their vertical power into a horizontal movement
- 40/10yard sprints to test their speed and strength during their sprints
- Pro-agility to test their quickness and ability to change direction
- Bodyweight testing and strength testing will depend on the athlete, how long they’ve been working with us and what developmentally they are ready for.
Sport and Speed Coaches
Leah Robertson
- Leah played softball at the University of Kansas 2008-2012
- She completed a summer internship in 2011 for the National Strength and Conditioning Association at their headquarters in Colorado Springs. Leah worked with numerous professional and collegiate level hockey athletes as well as international competitions for figure skating and speed skating
- Leah was a graduate assistant strength coach for Auburn University. Assisted with Baseball, Softball, Volleyball, Swimming and Diving, Track and Field, Basketball, Golf, Tennis and Gymnastics
- She was hired as a full-time Strength Coach for Auburn working primarily with the Softball, Diving and Gymnastics Teams
- Leah’s teams saw great results while she was at Auburn. Softball made the Women’s College World Series for the first time in school history and then followed the next year making it to the championship game. Several of the athletes were drafted into the NPF after their senior year. Leah’s gymnasts made it into the Super Six, second time in school history. Leah’s divers also won SEC Male diver of the year in 2015.
- Leah works at Solon High School and Iowa City High School designing and implementing their strength workouts and their speed and agility camps throughout the year.
Brendon Panther
Undergrad and graduate work at UNI- Minor in coaching
- Between internship and G.A. work at UNI, worked with men’s and women’s basketball, football, volleyball, women’s golf and hockey (Waterloo Black Hawks of the USHL)
- West High strength coach and Performance PE instructor
- Experience working with athletes as young as elementary age
- 6 years experience working with athletes in group setting
- Prepared athletes for NHL draft
- Trained athletes who have gone on to NFL and NHL
FAQs
What exactly is injury prevention?
We focus on teaching the athletes proper technique to help their overall athleticism. By developing athleticism, we cover all the positions and movements encountered during a practice or competition. We focus in bodyweight movements first, covering the basic mechanics of jumping, running and landing so when the athletes encounter a similar position during a competition they already have the correct movement pattern to produce the maximal amount of force. To increase the injury prevention we also focus on strength exercises throughout the full ranges of motion to help develop the muscles fully, as to not over shorten or over stress the muscles that are most commonly injured depending on the sport.
What about the young athletes ACLs?
With knee injuries being fairly common, especially in adolescent girls, we make sure to teach the girls how to recruit the proper muscles during the movements that could put added stress on the ACL if done improperly. By teaching the athletes to recruit the proper muscles, we teach them how to move without added stress to the knee ligaments this helping prevent the ACL and other knee injuries. By teaching them in practice, we are able to have carry over into the games so they don’t get out of proper position and put their knees and ACLs at risk.
Sport specific vs general athleticism?
We focus on both of these during our sport and speed sessions. The general athleticism is what will help the athletes when they are reacting to a ball or a play during a competition. We want all of our athletes to be well rounded and able to move well throughout normal sport specific positions like throwing or hitting mechanics for baseball or softball, but also have the proper positions when they react to a ball hit to their left or when they have to jump to catch a line drive. Sport specific exercises are those that can directly be transferred to the sport, such as box jumps for basketball players, medball throws for baseball and footwork and agility for soccer. All of these types of exercises would help further the athletes development in a specific sport.
Training Notable Athletes
Many of our athletes have gone on to great athletic accomplishments including NCAA All-Americans, High School State Champions, All-State and Regional Recognition and Collegiate Athletic Scholarships. A few notable area athletes include:
- Dan Davis – Washington University Hurdler
- Jake Gannon – Iowa State University Football
- Tom Gorzelanny – Milwaukee Brewers Baseball
- Nate Kaeding – San Diego Chargers Football
- Zach Miskovic – Washington Capitals National Hockey League
- Allison Smith – University of Iowa Volleyball
- Emma Winstead – Drake Soccer
- Caitlin Wnek – University of Northern Iowa Softball
