When I first got into coaching strength and conditioning in
Minot I was a 20 year old college athlete. I knew very little about human
anatomy/kinesiology and biomechanics at the time. I did know, however, that I liked to lift
weights, and I wanted to help teach others how to get the most out of their own
training sessions. I know now that at the time, I didn’t even know how to get
the most out of my own training sessions. Nonetheless, I found a private
performance center in town that needed some help for their annual summer
program, got an interview, got hired, and got started.
At the time, this was only one of two private businesses in
town that did what they did. With absolutely no experience to draw from, I had
no idea what to expect, but I’ll never forget my first day. This training
center ran sessions every hour on the hour. When the athletes arrived they were
split into groups and those groups were assigned to a coach. I was assigned 5 or
6 athletes and because I was the new guy trying to earn his keep I took all the
youngsters (ages typically ranged from 11 – 14.) These athletes, as you can
imagine, were generally light years apart in training experience, athleticism,
anthropometry, movement quality and usually came from different athletic
disciplines. Thank goodness, at the time, I had no idea that any of that
mattered. I just knew it was my job to “mash them.” (Those were the
instructions I was given when I asked where I was supposed to start.)
It was my first week on the job and I was in no position to
question the boss so “mash them,” I did. We did agility ladders, cone drills,
lunges, squat jumps and “abs” until these kids could literally take no more. At
the end of the hour session, the kids drug their exhausted asses out the door
in hopes their parents hadn’t paid the deposit yet so they could plea their way
out of the rest of the summer program. This was the routine we followed for the
entire 8-week summer program.
We literally had no plan outside of our promised 5:1 athlete
to coach ratio and we were STILL the industry leader in Human Performance Development
in the area.
Bring em’ in, beat em’ up, send em’ home. Seems rather
elementary for $25/session, no?
This summer strength and conditioning program was only one
of the three programs young athletes had the option of joining at the time. As
unorganized and over priced as it was, it was still the best of the three
options. Because of the coach to athlete ratio and a super treadmill it still
had more to offer than their two competitors (the other private company that
travelled around to local schools 2 days per week and the local High School’s
summer strength program.)
I don't want this to seem like i'm using my intro to take shots at my previous employer. I’m just hoping to use it to give you some
sense of contrast. In marketing my Human/Athletic Performance Program, my most
difficult obstacle has been convincing people that at Heilman’s Performance, we
are doing things differently from everyone else. Traditionally, if you can't get them in your doors, you have no way of proving it to them. I'm hoping this can help. There are now 5 or 6 different
private sports performance organizations in Minot and I think our target market
just assumes we all do the same thing. I think parents and athletes alike think
that we bring our athletes in, scream at them while they do speed or agility drills, throw them
through a few basic strength exercises and send them out the door nice and
sweaty. If that’s the case, the only things a parents and athletes need to worry
about are program cost, facility location, and whether or not the coaching staff is likable. I’m writing this blog with hope that it can help
dissolve our target market’s assumptions and provide some insight as to how we
at Heilman’s Performance are trying to mold ourselves not around where
privatized strength and conditioning is today, but where we think it is headed
in the future.
So, what are we doing at Heilman's Performance that our competitors are not?
1.
We
offer the most affordable sessions in town.
Currently our rate is only $20 per session,
compared to our competitors who are all at $25 - $30. Look, I understand all
that capitalistic BS about “your prices should reflect your product, and if you
believe you’re the best in town, you should be priced as such.” I agree, and I
do think our program is worth considerably more than what we charge. And yes, I do believe we are the best in town at what we do. When we
first opened Heilman's Performance, however, the goal was to be able to
positively influence as many aspiring young athletes as we possibly could. We want to show these kids what it takes to
achieve the next level in their given athletic discipline and how to approach
the process on a daily basis. We want to EARN
every bit of business we get. And we want to EARN the right to some day charge a ridiculous session rate, because we
offer ridiculous results. If someday our business principle of “under promise and over
deliver” is what destroys us then we’ll live with it.
2.
We
don’t put time limits on our sessions.
With most other strength and conditioning
programs, you’re told you’re paying X amount of dollars for a session, but
really you’re paying X amount of dollars for an hour. Once your hour is up,
you’re out the door and the next herd rolls in. At Heilman’s Performance you’re
taken through a battery of assessments and designed your own individualized
program. You are expected, on a daily basis to follow your program from start
to finish. There are hundreds of things that can affect the amount of time it
takes you to finish the session you were prescribed for that day. How you’re
feeling that day, set and rep schemes, exercise selection, and your primary
training purpose should all influence how long your daily session takes you.
It’s pretty unrealistic to think that Johnny, who wants to throw the shot put,
Sally, who wants to be the best cross country runner in the state, Tommy, who
wants to be the ace on his baseball team, and their mothers who want to lose 20
pounds should all spend the same amount of time in the same areas of the gym. That
being said, we recommend that your training sessions last some where between 40
and 80 minutes. Less than 40 minutes generally isn’t enough time to work on all
the things we’d like and usually by the 80-minute mark
cortisol levels are high, testosterone is low, and you feel like garbage. At
that point we should just live to play another day.
3.
We
assess before we apply any training stimuli.
At Heilman’s Performance we take the first
week of every athlete’s training program strictly to gather information. We get
a baseline of movement quality from a functional movement screen. This screen
gives us a good idea of where we can start with our athlete. By reviewing the
movement patterns the athlete is proficient and deficient in we can get a good
idea of which movements the athlete is ready for and which we need to avoid
until they are improved through daily practice or corrective exercise. We have
standardized test methods to determine the athlete’s power output in all planes
of movement. A standing broad jump gives us a baseline for horizontal power
production, lateral broad jump a baseline for rotational/lateral power
production and a vertical jump test for vertical power production. We also use
our Woodway Curve treadmill to get a baseline sprint speed. Our strength
testing is a bit non traditional. Because most of our athletes are so
inexperienced in strength and conditioning we keep it simple. We collect a push
up and pull up test for upper extremity strength a bulgarian split squat test
for lower extremity strength and an anterior core strength test.
4.
We
offer Individualized Programming
As mentioned earlier, all of our athletes
receive individualized programming. This is undoubtedly the one aspect of our
program that sets us apart from everyone else. We do not believe in white board
workouts, and that’s exactly what you’re going to get everywhere else you go. Making
sure every individual that walks through your door gets what THEY personally
need requires extreme attention to detail, time, and effort. Because time and
effort are almost always going to be the things others are unwilling to give,
we know this will continue to be our best quality. In order to create true
individualization you need a method to your madness, and we have one; we first
determine whether or not you have any patterns, muscle imbalances or
asymmetries that require immediate attention. If we find anything that needs
correcting, it is put into your daily warm up in order to nip it in the butt
before it becomes a serious problem. We then take into consideration any other
deficient screen scores you may have. Because we would like all of our athletes
to be able to perform some form of the squat, hinge, lunge, push and pull, we
do our absolute best to get you clear for all movements as quickly as possible.
While the basic fundamental movements of ALL human beings makes up the meat and
potatoes of everyone’s program, we take into consideration current athletic
disciplines and allow them influence a small part of each training phase. By
athletic disciplines I am referring mostly to whether or not you’re in season
or out of season and which sports you specifically compete in. Because we
design programs in 4-week training blocks and then reassess, as you progress,
so does your training program. I feel like I’ve heard every strength coach I’ve
ever known use the phrase “There’s more than one way to skin a cat.” Well there
are nearly 7 billion people on this planet, so theoretically there are 7
billion ways to skin a cat. (Disclaimer: I’ve never actually skinned an animal,
I’m just referring to designing training programs.)
5.
We
have the best team of coaches in town.
Finding good strength and conditioning
coaches is extremely difficult, but finding good people is even harder. I am
convinced that we have the best people in the biz down at Heilman’s
Performance. I have three coaches that help out in our busiest times and all
three are beloved by our athletes. All three coaches have competed in college
athletics and have received their 4 year degrees. In a town that has lacked,
until recently, a sufficient pool of talent to pull strength and conditioning
professionals from I have no doubt that I have the right team in place. Having
coaches available for my younger athletes that have been through all the rigors
of training for their respective sport is extremely important to me. They all
take their strength and professional performance seriously, and I am grateful
to have them as a part of my team.
Being biased, I could obviously write for
great lengths as to why I believe we are running the most proficient strength
and conditioning program in town. I really do hope this blog allows people to
understand that everybody isn’t just filling a weight room with coaches, and
coaching the same exercises everyone else is coaching. We have worked our asses
off down at Heilman’s Performance to develop a program that is not just more
unique than our competition’s, but more effective. The relentless pursuit of
delivering EXACTLY what every athlete needs on an individual basis is extremely
hard work, and we wouldn’t want it any other way. There is nothing more
frustrating than being compared to others in the area, when you know you are
not even close by comparison. This blog to some may seem like narcissistic
self-promotion, but I assure you that is not the case. I am just trying to do
everything in my power to change the perceptions surrounding athletic
performance training in our town. My hope is that all of my athletes, friends,
and family not only read but help share this blog to help me spread the word
about what we are so passionately pursuing down at Heilman’s Performance. As
always, thank you for taking the time to read. You are appreciated.
Caleb Heilman
