As some individuals in our local athletic community already knew (and some I’m sure did not), Heilman’s Performance was in a contracted partnership with Minot Public Schools’ Athletic Department since June 1st of 2019. Our contractual obligations were to provide strength and conditioning services to all athletes, grades 9-12 during the school year, and service the annual Summer Program, which was offered to grades 7-12 in the Magic City Campus weight room.
In our attempts to serve the contract over the past two years we struggled to convince everyone in the department that our methodology was the best fit for the athletic population frequenting that weight room. Our attempt to supplant the traditional, hyper-aggressive, strength and conditioning model that most high-school weight rooms abide by was met with consistent resistance.
Our training model at Heilman’s Performance is unique and we’re not ignorant to that. It’s a different way of looking at long-term development for youth athletes. It leans heavily on enjoyment, patience, and education to ensure that athletes access weight rooms early, often, and learn to conduct training sessions consistently and efficiently by their own volition. We don’t believe in hand holding and baby-sitting. We’ve coached long enough to know that this approach will ultimately allow some individuals to take advantage of us, but trust that the freedoms provided will allow the greater majority to become self-sufficient facilitators of their own athletic development. Those who are not privy to this school of thought can have a difficult time adhering to the level of patience required for the model to work. The model, like a good investment portfolio, takes time to grow into something robust and meaningful. It requires an almost blissful ignorance in the early going to keep from emotionally over-reacting, as progress can be slow moving, and faith that eventually compounded growth will occur.
It saddens me to announce that our partnership with Minot Public Schools’ Athletic Department will officially come to an end on June 1st of this year. We will not be designing programs for MCC’s athletes or coordinating their Summer Program in 2021. Personally, I am frustrated simply because the relationship was a unique opportunity to implement and adhere to a long-term athletic development (LTAD) model. It was our opportunity to deliver our program to a number of youth athletes in the community who don’t have access to the disposable income necessary to train with us privately.
Where the athletic department will go next to ensure their athletes have access to quality strength and conditioning services I cannot say, but we wish them the best of luck. I know our coaches enjoyed working in their weight room because the athletes were so overwhelmingly positive. Some athletes attended strength and conditioning sessions every single day we offered them and experienced a significant amount of progress. Not being able to see the smiles on their faces, experience the youthful energy these kids brought to the weight room every day, and watch them grow into competent lifters will be difficult for our coaches, but professionally it was time for us to move on. We thank Minot Public Schools’ Athletic Department for the opportunity to serve the youth athletes of our community in a unique capacity and offer a very special thank you to the athletes who worked so hard with us in that weight room. Please know that you are appreciated and good luck moving forward.
Respectfully and professionally,
Caleb Heilman
No comments:
Post a Comment