Athletic Republic is proud to announce an advanced certification recognizing trainers who demonstrate extraordinary athlete development skills, maintain the highest level of professionalism, strive to improve their training centers’ operations and contribute to the advancement of Athletic Republic. The Master Trainer certification is being awarded to 20 long-time members of the performance sports training network to commemorate the company’s 20 year anniversary. The inaugural class of Master Trainers will be awarded the distinction on Saturday, April 24, 2010 as part of Athletic Republic’s Facility Conference, being held in Park City, Utah, and include:

» Mike Antoniades: Sport Dimensions - London, UK

» Darrel Barnes: Athletic Republic - Rancho Cucamonga, CA

» Paul Cialone: Athletic Republic - Rochester, NY

» Myron Cullen: St. Alexius Medical Center - Bismarck, ND

» Shawn Dassie: Athletic Republic - New Braunfels, TX

» Derek Ferley: Athletic Republic - Sioux Falls, SD

» Dan Hutchison: Ultimate Speed - Jupiter, FL

» Jim Kielbaso: Total Sports Performance - Wixom, MI

» Pete Leno: Dickinson State University - Dickinson, ND

» BJ Maack: Athletic Republic - Little Rock, AK

» Jay MacLeod: Athletic Republic - Fargo, ND

» David & Gary Nelson: Acceleration Indiana - Indianapolis, IN

» Kyle Nettestad: Athletic Republic - Lincolnwood, Morris and Orland Park, IL and Merrillville, IN

» Kyle Norris: Sports Acceleration Center - Spirit Lake, IA

» Dan O’Donnell: Athletic Republic - St. Louis, MO

» Chris Range: Madonna ProActive Sports Performance - Lincoln, NE

» Matt Stack: Bluestreak - Stamford, CT

» Rocky Tekulve: Tekulve Acceleration Training - Cincinnati , OH

» Jim Walker: TOSH - Salt Lake City, UT

Last June, Cole Marcoux was an unheralded quarterback prospect preparing for his senior season at The Fieldston School in the Bronx, when he attended Football University - Philadelphia. His size and skills impressed the production team preparing to shoot the opening episode of a new reality TV show, The Ride, and he was invited to be one of 8 unknown high school quarterbacks looking to win a spot in the All-American Bowl.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Cole made great strides in both skill and strength over the ten episodes and, despite being the underdog in the group, he was able to come away with the berth they all coveted.

During last week’s U.S. Army All-American Bowl, Marcoux completed 5 of 8 passes for 99 yards, two touchdowns and a two-point conversion to lead the East team, and, in the process, made a name for himself while competing against some of the nation’s marquee defenders and surpassing all expectations.

Cole credits his training with BlueStreak Sports Training at Chelsea Piers in Manhattan - one of 160 centers in the Athletic Republic network, as one of the key reasons he was able to earn the chance to succeed in the Super Bowl of high school football.

“Cole’s accomplishments in the game are the result of his commitment to becoming a better quarterback.  He absorbed the teaching provided by some of the game’s best quarterback coaches and became dedicated to improving his fitness, quickness and foot speed by following the principles of the Athletic Republic method of science-based training,” said Steve Swanson, Athletic Republic’s Chief Science and Technology Officer, and one of judges on the The Ride.

“In just five weeks, Cole lost 8 pounds of fat, doubled his foot speed scores, and improved his overall conditioning so much that the other judges quickly noticed the difference when he arrived at the Top Gun camp in late July.  Those improvements allowed him to jump ahead of some other contestants in the show and be in a position to earn the All-American Game roster spot,” Swanson continued.

Over 680,000 athletes have taken advantage of its individualized, sport-specific training programs to enhance their speed, power and agility to gain more than just a step on their competition.

Cole Marcoux is just the most-recent example.

Connor Sport Court has been excited to be a part of this project ever since we first learned about it a year ago when approached by Athletic Republic to design a super plyo floor for the new training center under construction in St. George, Utah.

This custom platform exceeded our previous designs since it measures 864 square feet and is 46′ x 18′ in size, making it the biggest plyo platform we have ever built (and thus the largest in the world). The design incorporates numerous activities including multiple Munoz, Krumrie, LeClair, 4-Square formations along with a ladder w/ruler (for measuring the broad jump), allowing this plyo floor to accommodate multiple athletes simultaneously with plenty of space left over for functional training. The platform is made up of 4′ x 8′ hard rock maple panels with a sleeper subfloor produced that are manufactured in Amasa, Michigan plant, by the same team that makes the NCAA’s Final Four basketball tournament floors each year. All of the graphics and formations including the Athletic Republic logo were custom painted in our manufacturing facility.

The extra large plyo floor is just one of the reasons we think Athletic Republic’s St. George training center is super!

David F. Smith
Connor Sport Court International

Acceleration St. George, a proud member for Athletic Republic, has been in St. George Utah since 2002. In that time we have relocated 3 times. July 21st 2009 was our final move into Intermountain Dixie Regional Health & Performance Center. The Health and Performance Center is an out-patient facility that offers numerous programs dedicated to helping clients get the most out of their body, and out of their life.

Southern Utah has very hot and dry summers and mild winters. That is one of the many reasons we are excited for our large plyo floor. It will allow us to do most of our agility and cord drills indoors. Along with the different formations we have a ruler and ladder painted on the floor to help us maintain the professional Athletic Republic look. With our new space we also now have a large grassy area and sport court to do more outside during the winter months.

Acceleration St. George has spent the last 7 years helping many local athletes gain their competitive edge. We know this move will only help us be able to train at an even higher level.

Dayna Player Robinson

Acceleration Sports Performance Training

Here’s a link to a post on Rivals.com that talks all about the integration of technology into Athletic Republic’s on-field and training center based football training programs.

Kyle Palmieri — 1st Round/Anaheim

Mike Cichy — 7th Round/Montreal

Jordan Samuel-Thomas –  7th Round/Atlanta

Athletic Republic Congratulates  our class of 2009 NHL Draft picks!

The recent NHL Draft was a great one for players who have trained using Athletic Republic’s patented Hockey Treadmill and proprietary training protocols. The photos above show just three of 16 players drafted after training at an Athletic Republic facility or with the USA National Team Development Program.

At Athletic Republic we take great pride in our athletes accomplishing their goals.  The NHL Draft this past Friday and Saturday in Montreal was a major event in the lives of 16 Athletic Republic hockey players. The on-ice and off-ice dedication that these 16 hockey players have shown has led them from aspiring to be NHL players to be drafted on the NHL stage. All of us at Athletic Republic would like to send out a heartfelt congratulations to these 16 athletes (listed below).   We know that your journey has been a long and grueling one. Athletic Republic applauds the outstanding coaching, dedicated parents and remarkable work ethic that has gotten you to this point, and wish you nothing but the best in the future.

On Friday night, two AR athletes had their names called, with Jordan Schroeder from the University of Minnesota being taken with the 22nd pick by Vancouver, and Kyle Palmieri being selected with the 26th pick by the Anaheim Ducks. On Saturday, the names of 14 Athletic Republic athletes were called, nine of whom are members of USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program (USNTDP) U-18 team.

Athletic Republic training and technology is currently part of the NTDP training regimen, with athletes training on our patented Hockey Treadmill during their pre-season and post-season stages.

Other notables drafted were Craig Smith (Waterloo), Nick Jensen (Green Bay), Brad Peltz (Avon), Mike Cichy (Indiana) and Jordan Samuel-Thomas (Waterloo). Every one of these players have experienced our scientifically tested and guaranteed hockey-specific training program, which is designed to give players the on-ice edge.

From Pee Wee to Pros, at Athletic Republic we have a program that’s specifically designed to accelerate a player’s game on and off the ice. Our programming is designed specifically for athletes preparing for the season, gaining the advantage in the off-season and ramping up their skills in-season. Each program incorporates regular athlete assessment and strikes a balance based on time of year, physical development, skill level, performance level and an athlete’s goals. We have over 32 levels and over 2,500 pages of protocols designed to help athletes progress from beginners to the National Hockey League, and that is exactly what we have done — helping to develop over 500 NHL players and athletes competing with the US National Team Development Program and Hockey powerhouses like University of Minnesota, Cornell, Ohio State and Michigan Tech.

Athletic Republic congratulates all 16 of this year’s draft picks! We look forward to watching your journey and applaud you on your work ethic on and off the ice.

Here’s the full report, showing round , team, hometown and current league/team:

1         VAN    Jordan Scroeder                   Burnsville, MN               WCHA              U of MN
1         ANA    Kyle Palmieri                         Smithtown, NY               USNTDP         US U-18
2        PHX    Chris Brown                           Houston, TX                   USNTDP         US U-18
2        SJS      Will Wrenn                            Anchorage, AK                USNTDP         US U-18
2        FLA     Drew Shore                           Denver, Co                        USNTDP         US U-18
2        ATL     Jeremy Morin                       Auburn, NY                      USNTDP         US U-18
2        TOR    Kenny Ryan                           Franklin Village, MI       USNTDP         US U-18
2        CBJ     Kevin Lynch                          Grosse Pointe,   MI         USNTDP         US U-18
3        NYR    Ryan Bourque                      Boxford, MA                     USNTDP         US U-18
3        NSH    Craig Smith                           Madison, WI                    USNTDP        Waterloo
5        DET    Nick Jensen                          St Paul, MN                       USNTDP         Green Bay
6        COL    Brandon Maxwell                Winter Park, FL                USNTDP         US U-18
6        TOR    Jerry D’Amigo                     Binghamton, NY               USNTDP         US U-18
7        OTT    Brad Peltz                             New York, NY                     NE-HS             AVON
7         MTL   Mike Cichy                           New Britian, CT                 USHL               Indiana
7         ATL   Jordan Samuel-Thomas    Hartford, CT                        USHL              Waterloo

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Last year when Athletic Republic moved its training and technology into the USNTDP training facility at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube, Scott Moneghan Director of Hockey Operations for US Hockey had this to say:

The U.S. National Team Development Program is a cutting-edge program that strives to make our American players the best on the World stage. And the Athletic Republic Hockey Treadmill is the type of cutting-edge technology that will help our players continue their string of five consecutive medal performances at the Under-18 World Championships, also helping them to reach their personal goals for success in college and professional hockey.

It’s seems that Scott Monaghan he wasn’t kidding with that statement.  Last week, in the same town where Athletic Republic was  created — Fargo, ND — the USA U-18 team took the ice to defeat the Russians 5-0 defeat. Five separate players scored goals in the championship game.  The U.S. finished the tournament 6-0-0-1, and captured the first world title for a U.S. hockey team on home ice since the 1980 Olympic Winter Games.

Tonight was a culmination of two years of hard work for many of our players, said Ron Rolston, head coach of Team USA. They sacrificed for each other and they became a family. They had the focus, determination and persevered, which is what the National Team Development Program is all about. There is no better way to end the season and I am really happy for our players.

Before a record crowd of 4,923 at the Urban Plains Center, Team USA struck early when Cam Fowler (Farmington Hills, Mich.) put a wrist shot into the lower right corner of the net through a screen just 2:09 into the game. Matthew Nieto (Long Beach, Calif.) doubled the U.S. advantage after he streaked towards the goal and one-touched Kevin Lynch’s (Grosse Pointe, Mich.) feather pass inside the left post at 9:27.

Just 1:55 into the second period, William Wrenn (Anchorage, Alaska) one-timed Drew Shore’s pass from the middle slot into the lower left corner for a power-play goal, making it 3-0.

Chris Brown(Flower Mound, Texas) extended the lead to 4-0 when he took Shore’s drop pass and wired a wrist shot over the right shoulder of netminder Igor Bobkov 2:29 into the third period. Just 1:10 later, Nick Mattson (Chanhassen, Minn.) fed Ryan Bourque (Boxford, Mass.) who sniped a shot into the upper left corner to ice the 5-0 victory.

Netminder Jack Campbell (Port Huron, Mich.) made 17 saves to earn his second shutout at the IIHF World Under-18 Championship.

All of us at Athletic Republic would like to say ”Congratulations TEAM USA!”

This report just in from Tad O’Had, our VP of Hockey … who is a big hoops fan too:

Basketball development was taken to another level this past weekend when Athletic Republic invaded Hoosier Country to open our seventh performance sports training center in the state of Indiana. The newest member of the Athletic Republic starting lineup is housed in The Fieldhouse of Merrillville, which features six full NBA-style basketball courts for clinics, camps, showcases and national tournaments. In addition, athletes are able to continue to raise their game to new heights with Athletic Republic’s scientifically proven training methods.

During the weekend’s Grand Opening April 17-19th, Athletic Republic – Merrillville was host to the Hoosier Invitational. Thirty-eight teams of 8th to 12th graders competed for hardwood supremacy in front of over 400 athletes, parents and coaches.

We couldn’t be anymore excited with our facility at The Merrillville Fieldhouse. The one-two punch of Athletic Republic and Fieldhouse is an incredible combination provides so many aspiring athletes with the very best in performance sports training and basketball development. Kyle Nettestad, Athletic Republic – Merrillville Owner and Operator

With Kyle’s entrepreneurial insight and passion for athlete development, the facility is sure to be a success. So much so that Kyle has taken his wealth of knowledge of exercise science and has applied it to his athlete development membership model, where Athletic Republic athletes will undergo a series of assessments throughout the year to specifically target the athlete’s strengths, weaknesses, overall development and progression. The athletes are then greeted one-on-one by Athletic Republic Performance training staff members, who will devise individualized training programs and cycles to allow the athlete to train safely, properly and assure the athlete will be rested and ready to peak at game time.

Our focus is to arm our athletes with the knowledge and know how that only professionals receive, whether it be nutrition, testing or just overall sprinting mechanics. Our objective at Athletic Republic  is to give our athletes the advantage and with our AR development model we are able to assure that the athletes train in a periodized manner year round, while taking in account the workloads of the pre-season, in-season, post-season and off-season. Kyle Nettestad

For More Information on The Fieldhouse of Merrillville and Athletic Republic  visit us at www.athleticrepublic.com or www.thefieldhouse-merrillville.com.
The Fieldhouse - Merrillville
899 E. 99th Ct.
Merrillville, IN 46307

Athletic Republic in Russian

In 1986 John Frappier, the founder of Athletic Republic, was invited to join the U.S. Gymnastics Team delegation in the U.S.S.R. for the Summer Goodwill Games. John quickly realized that America’s athletic training lagged behind that of the Soviets and began translating his experiences into better training plans for athlete development in the United States. Many of the training concepts John learned from the Soviets focused on over-speed training, plyometric training and athlete testing. On John’s return flight home, he devised new ways to train and new machines to test an athlete’s limits. Thus, the thinking behind Athletic Republic was born in Russia.

Twenty-three years later, Athletic Republic was invited back to Russia to provide our Athletic Republic Hockey Performance System and expertise to the city of Yekaterinburg and their city’s professional, junior and Olympic academy hockey players. The city of Yekaterinburg is considered a hotbed for young aspiring hockey talent. The city boosts two Olympic Development academies ranging for athletes 7-16 years of age – the Automobilist Authority and Automobilist Unost. In addition the town is home to one of the region’s elite junior programs as well as a professional team in the 2nd Division Russian Liga, the Yekaterinburg Automobilist. Over the years, Yekaterinburg has produced such NHL superstars such as: Alexei Yashin (Ottawa Senators, NY Islanders), Pavel Datsyuk (Detroit Redwings), Nikolai Khabibulin (Chicago Blackhawks) and hundreds of others to star in the Russian KHL and 2nd Divisions.

Russian entrepreneur Igor Balandin first approached Athletic Republic in the fall of 2008, after returning home with his son Ivan, an aspiring hockey standout. Ivan had spent weeks training in one of the Athletic Republic’s many Chicago-land facilities with trainer Tyler Bosch, and had seen incredible improvement in his skating. So much so, the head coach of the academy team took special notice that Ivan was clearly a stride ahead of his opponents and decided to examine the possibility of opening an Athletic Republic facility in Yekaterinburg further.  After researching Athletic Republic, and traveling to the U.S. to visit our performance sports centers in Libertyville, Illinois, Albany, New York, Stamford, Connecticut, and Chelsea Piers, in Manhattan, Igor was hooked on the concept of developing his very own center in Russia.

So, 23 years later the goodwill shown John Frappier on his trip to Russia comes full circle. State-of-the-art, patented equipment like Athletic Republic’s Hockey Treadmill, and scientifically tested and proven training methods offer hockey players in Yekaterinburg the best of both worlds.

“It is with great pleasure to bring an Athletic Republic facility to Yekaterinburg, Russia. The results that I have seen firsthand with my own son, and the fact that Athletic Republic has trained so many NHL stars is incredible – it’s an opportunity that I am excited to give back to the hockey community and help to provide a safe and effective way for hockey players to gain speed, power and efficiency.” –Owner Igor Balandin

Suffolk PAL National Champs!

At Athletic Republic, we pride ourselves on providing hockey players a program dedicated to “lighting the lamp”. Last week, the Suffolk PAL Junior “B” franchise took that to another level when they clinched a National Championship Title from the Central Penn Panthers with a decisive 4-1 win.

“Unbelievable,” was Head Coach Aleksey Nikiforov’s response right after winning the USA Junior B National Championship. “We were aware of how tough it would be and the boys worked hard to accomplish their goal.”

Suffolk PAL came into the USA Junior B National Championship as the fourth seed from the Metropolitan Junior Hockey League after losing in the Semi-Finals of the Keegan Cup to the Central Penn Panthers.  That would turn out to be their last loss of the season.

“This has been an absolute incredible experience for these young men. They have all worked extremely hard on and off the ice and when the battle was needed to be won they were well equipped,” said Jake Laime, Suffolk PAL Assistant Coach and Hockey Manager at BlueStreak, Hauppauge.

Equipped is an understatement. This team boasts the top three goal scorers in the nation, as well as the leading defensemen, and one of the finest coaching staffs in Junior Hockey with “Coach of the Year” Aleksey Nikiforov, Jim Wright, Jake Laime and GM Ron Kinnear. The team also is equipped with their own state of the art Athletic Republic Hockey Training Center, BlueStreak Sports Training.

“This is the moment we have all waited for. Since we first opened BlueStreak Sports Training four years ago at the Rinx in Hauppauge, NY, the overwhelming goal was to be able to provide the Suffolk PAL players with a state of the art training center. Being a fellow Long Islander. I wanted the best for these kids. They have the best coaching staff and the finest facilities, but I felt that they needed a training facility that could improve their on-ice strength, power, efficiency and overall conditioning,” said Matt Stack, VP of Operations at BlueStreak Sports Training. Read more

What a weekend!  Athletic Republic was out in full force at the first Football University camp in Dallas last weekend.  Over 170 high school and middle school athletes who are serious about football attended the weekend-long event.  As a former collegiate player, the opportunity I had to learn from the FBU coaches was phenomenal.  Former NFL standouts who are passionate about teaching kids who are passionate to learn is a winning combination! The athletes were incredibly focused and attentive to everything the coaches had to say, from the beginning to the end of the camp.  Every parent I talked to was extremely happy with the experience their kids had over the weekend.

Athletic Republic was fully integrated into the curriculum—from conducting all dynamic warm-ups, to providing solid tips on improving test scores and football movement skills, to administering vertical jump, standing long jump, short-shuttle, and 40-yard dash tests.  We used our new SmartSpeed electronic timing system with RFID technology to record the 40 and short-shuttle tests and captured Dartfish video with every clip.   The system performed flawlessly!  We were able to automatically upload the tests scores and videos to AIMS shortly after the event.  Each athlete will be able to access their scores in the coming week and select which scores and video they want to include in their Rivals.com profile.

All in attendance were intrigued by the system and loved looking at the videos.  Using the most accurate electronic timing available at every FBU event makes it possible for kids to truly see how they stack up to some of the best football players in the country—there will be no question about the accuracy of the timing as the same system is used at every event. Plus, recording video with each test allows the athletes to better showcase their skills to college coaches.  A video also gives an Athlete Republic trainer a means to fully evaluate the athlete and find ways to make them better.

I would like to thank Shawn Dassie, Jerry Hill and Kyle Foster from our New Braunfels, Texas facility for all their hard work at the event.  They did a phenomenal job along with Tanya Porter and Tad O’Had from our corporate team.  We are very excited about the next FBU in San Diego on February 13-15 and the rest of the upcoming season. Come join us at FBU—it’s a blast!

Steve Swanson
Chief Science & Technology Officer, Athletic Republic