7 vs 7

Football Feeder Program Full Ride Sports Training, LLC. is proud to partner with the football programs of Prospect HS, Hersey HS, Arlington Cowboys, and Mt. Prospect Lions. Our intent is to give a select group of 48 of our area youth football players additional football and speed training as well as competitive games using the knowledge and oversight of our high school systems. This feeder program is open to current 6th, 7th, and 8th graders as of this 2010-2011 school year. We will have 2 North Divisions to represent future Hersey and BG football players and 2 South Divisions to represent Prospect and RM football players.  St. Viator players are welcomed as well. Practices will be held on Sunday Evenings from mid-Jan. thru March for a total of 8-10 practices.  They will alternate between Prospect and Hersey high schools.  Each practice will have 30 minutes of speed training taught by Don Beebe's House of Speed.  The next hour will be position specific skill training and then learning the plays of the HS system that will be used during the season. The competitive season begins Early April-May for a total of 8-10 games.  Games are organized by All-American 7 vs 7 and held one night a week, most often Monday or Tuesday Evenings at the Lake Barrington Fieldhouse.  No practices will be held once season starts. There are also Spring & Summer middle school tourneys in which we might also participate based on interest. This is for the committed athlete only and making 80-90 percent of the games/practices would be expected.  In addition, the cost for all of the training and the entry into the league including uniforms will be $360.00. $200.00 deposit, balance payable at season start.   Scholarships are available as needed. To nominate your son, please visit the link below: http://tinyurl.com/FR7vs72011 Call us with any questions or concerns. Les O'Hara 224-241-2127 info@fullridesportstraining.com

College FB playoffs

Starting the Process – College Football Playoffs http://ping.fm/QPany

The Truth About "Quick Feet" and Agility Ladder Drills

The Truth About "Quick Feet" and Agility Ladder Drills Eric Cressey

Pre-Workout Protein Optimizes Muscle Recovery

Just a quick reminder for all you football players, off for the season, time to BUILD muscle!
Must reading...
Pre-Workout Protein Optimizes Muscle Recovery | STACK Blog

Warren Academy - A model for Full Ride

Home - Warren Academy

Very interesting site. It's like the old saying, when you have thought of a great idea, someone has already thought about it. Combining world class coaches and former players with athletes who want to achive greatness.

Let's make Full Ride happen in 2011!

Kenny Chesney - The Boys of Fall

Football Lovers....Enjoy!

Rendering

Trying to Keep the dream alive.  Just got a few renderings from Bill Bailey, our friend and architect.  If you want to help us pull this facility off for the NW suburban athletes, let's do lunch!

Les

VIDEO: Full Ride Football Camp 2010

Sports Training and Coaching Credentials ;-)

VIDEO: Univ. of Michigan S & C Coach, Mike Barwis

If you are interested in what Div. 1 strength and conditioning programs are all about, invest 10 minutes into this video and see how many of those components you have implemented into your training program.

Mike Barwis  University of Michigan

INTERVIEW: Chris Hare, Head Football Coach, Maine West H.S.

Coach Hare's brother, Andy, was one of our assistant coaches back in the day when I played for the Gophers.  By chance, we hooked up, and he has been mentoring me in coaching football for the last 3 years.

His resume includes helping Maine South, as an assistant, appear 5 times in the state championship game, winning 2 of them.  He then headed to Maine West to tackle the challenge of making them into a powerhouse team.  Here are some outtakes from our last meeting together...learning the triple option!

Girls National Junior Classic

A few weeks ago, my college teammate and his beautiful family came down from Minnesota to watch their daughter, Dominique Thompson compete in a high profile volleyball tourney at the Great Lake Center (quite a facility!) in Aurora, IL. 

As we watched her team and specifically her dominate the competition, I asked him what he believes it takes to make it to the next level:

"70% of it is hereditary such as height, athletic ability, etc, and then I would say 30% is the little things like the coaching they receive, the hard work & discipline they bring, and the family support they are surrounded with." 

Dominique is headed to Univ. of Wisconsin next year on a volleyball Full-Ride!

Why Pain Does Not Lead To Gain

Just bumped into this blog post.  One of the best I have read this year.  For you coaches and parents who yearn for the best for their kids...

By:  Garret Kramer of Inner-Sports

A Message for Young Athletes and Their Parents
Why Pain Does Not Lead To Gain

2 Hour Basketball Mini Clinic

Through a partnership with Edge Sports Intenational, Full Ride is excited to announce a one day 2 hour mini clinic focusing on basketball skills and controlled scrimmages.

Teaching is Ernie Ford, trainer of current and future college and professional players.  One of those stars is Damian Johnson, from the University of Minnesota who will be there coaching as well!

Ernie is a skilled camp presenter and teacher and will put our athletes thru a well run basketball clinic.

Friday June 18th, from 6-8 pm, we will be taking over Pioneer gym.  If you are a going into your freshman or sophomore year next fall, come on out and get a run. 

Register open to first 20 players: http://tiny.cc/FRBBCLINIC2010

INTERVIEW: Lloyd Lee, former player and coach in the NFL

Came across Lloyd from a mutual connection in LinkedIn.com.  LinkedIn has been a great business and relationship tool for me over the years.  Getting a quality audience with a former NFL player and coach is a great example of it's power.

After starting 4 years as safety for Dartmouth, Lloyd played for the San Diego Chargers.  From there he went to Tampa Bay as a Pro Scout, and then on to Da Bears where he worked up from assistant coach to Linebacker's Coach.  In addition, he has trained high school and college players that were preparing for the combine.  Here are some excerpts of our conversation:

Is it a sabbath day on Sunday if you can't take your mind off your new work related passion?

How do you get on a coach's recruiting list

College Recruiting List NCAA Recruiting

Excellent information for your athlete.

July Football and Speed Camp

Game on!

10 campers have signed on opening day of registration alone. 
Slots going extremely fast, so reserve your spot today!

Surrounding our athletes with the "best of best" current and former elite players and coaches, that's our goal.  Many of our player/instructors will be local kids who made good.

3 days of fun, intense fundamental education, speed training, and life lessons.  An excellent way to roll into the football season for the football player wanting a true head start.

See you July 19th!

Leave any questions or comments below.

MADAK Joins TEAM Full Ride

Full Ride is proud to announce a strategic partnership with MADAK design to handle all design, apparel, and sports related marketing/branding work for the venture.

Their first task was the successful redesign of the logo to take advantage of future apparel designs.

They also graciously offered to sponsor our football camp.

Mention Full Ride Blog for a significant discount off any of these services for your business or non-profit.   http://www.madakdesign.com/

Join the Adventure

One day about 3 years ago, as my duct cleaning business, DUCTZ was languishing, in walks a young guy, Homero Bernal, and tells me he works for a competitor but will work for me for nothing for 2 weeks to prove he is worth it. (he actually looks alot friendlier than this pic!)

Fast forward 3 years, we have won back to back "franchise of the year" awards, and now after we sold 2 of our franchises to Homero, he is leading the country in sales!  Here's a funny story and some lessons learned...

Mark Beier

Great meeting with Mark Beier of http://www.markbeier.com/.  A well educated personal trainer, Mark has had vast experience building up personal training revenues for other fitness related clubs including the national chain, Crunch.
He's a former college football player, and he believes that Full Ride Sports Training can fill an untapped market.  He recently was sent by NIKE to evaluate SPARQ training and came away with some cool insights.  See his blog for more details and subscribe to it for great content.

He thought it was a better idea for FR to hire and screen 2-3 trainers that can also open, close, manage, etc.  This would protect FR from trainers who steal clients away.  Also, we can ensure that we are controlling the programming.  I look forward to using him as an advisor again.

Super Sport

Met with Dave Vanderheyden of  We Build Sports at potential site #1 and he was a wealth of wisdom and ideas.  It's smart to surround yourself with the experts in their respective fields and he certaintly knew the business of facility build-out.

A major decision on the type of basketball court is needed.  Since we are exuding the character of excellence, he strongly suggested a wood court (here is a picture of a dream one) in lieu of the composite we original thought good enough for our budget.  I guess we need some corporate sponsors to stand up and pay for signage on the court!

Lastly, he explained that rubber infill turf will last 10 years and the pourable running tracks we are dreaming of, will be easy and economical to install.  Anyway, if you have an opinion on the type of court you think we should use, please comment below.

Next up, meeting with a top trainer to teach me that side of the business.

Making Ideas Happen

Devoured this book this weekend.  It read as if it was written directly to me.  The subtitle is "overcoming the obstacles between vision and reality."

The book is divided into 3 main sections. 
Organization and Execution. 
Great analogy of always moving the ball forward.  Also, every idea has action steps that have to be tracked and completed.
Learned that I am a "dreamer", so if I can partner with one or more "doers", the venture has much more chance of succeeding
The Forces of Community
Other people always play a role in pushing your ideas forward.  I realized that without a sincere group of the "community" backing and sharing the burden of this idea it will be very difficult to pull off.  Need to be transparent with the idea.  Thinking about publishing this blog.
Leadership Capability
Some of the greatest barriers we face along the path to pushing our ideas to fruition lie within us.  Self-awareness of my liabilities and flawed judgements are greatly needed.  Have a finish line in mind, something I usually never think of!

OK, I'm off to meet a sports flooring owner to get pricing at the potential facility.

Carol Roth

Met the Carol Roth of carolroth.com fame at Starbucks to have her pick apart the Full Ride venture.  Very sharp questions and cutting insights.  Major take aways: More research is needed on the competition, can we really open the doors with our current budget, and if we are going to invest this time and energy, how can we build the concept so it can scale if we want to take it bigger and better in the future.  She also agreed to advise the start-up! 

For a great article on how to raise money for anything entrepreneurial, see her "12 mistakes to avoid".

House of Speed

Met with the local franchise owner of House of Speed, Will Robinson.  Great conversation about potential strategic partnership with Full Ride.  He is using Soccer City right now as a location while scouting another for the North Shore in Fall.    His program is strong.  We also talked about partnering up for the football camp this July 19th-21st.  That looks like a done deal!

The Void

In a six mile radius...
15 High Schools
Over 50 middle schools
Thousands and Thousands of athletes...
Passionate about sports and maximizing their talents.

The Visual Vision

Here is the model that we will be trying to duplicate. 

Turf, court, weights, studio, rehab, cages, track, office.

Barn Raising

Can a close knit of people come together to build something for the betterment of the community they all belong to?  The most successful of communities have figured out that little secret and the pride and satisfaction it can bring.