Athletic Republic CEO Charlie Graves

Like a kid in a candy shop, Athletic Republic CEO Charlie Graves proudly shows off his own U.S. Army All-American Bowl East Team jersey. He’s a little older than the 90 high schools seniors on the East and West teams, but he’s just as enthusiastic about being in San Antonio for all the U.S. Army All-American Bowl week activities, including the U.S. Army National Combine, the Football University Youth All-American Bowl and, of course, the U.S. Army All-American Bowl itself.

All three Football University Youth All-American Bowl games will be Web cast live on Sunday, January 4th on www.FootballUniversity.org, and the U.S. Army All-American Bowl will be televised on NBC Sports at noon (CST) on Saturday, January 3rd.

The new Brand Jordan football spot, Become Legendary, may only be playing on U.S. television sets, but, thanks to YouTube, it’s getting global exposure. So, too, is the Athletic Republic Super Treadmill that is featured early in the spot.

If it looks like the athlete in the spot is running awfully fast, he is–over 20 mph–and he ended up running at that speed for quite a bit longer than the typical short bursts an athlete would run during a training session at Athletic Republic. Seems as if the director got carried away just watching someone run that fast.

The newest Athletic Republic franchise opened in Libertyville, Illinois, this past weekend. The 6,000 square foot training space  offers sport-specific training programs for football, hockey and volleyball, within a 200,000 square foot facility that features two indoor soccer fields and eight basketball/volleyball courts, and attracts over one million athletes to come play or train each year.

But don’t take our word for what this facility means to the community, here are a couple of local news stories about Athletic Republic Libertyville: one is from the Daily Herald, the other is from the Libertyville Review.

Don’t knock it until  you’ve tried it, says Jason Blackburn, owner and Facility Director of  Advanced Sports Kinetics (ASK) in Minot, ND, a proud member of Athletic  Republic. And Jason should know—he’s been training Dagny Knutson since she was 12 years old. Dagny recently  set a couple of national records at the North Dakota High School State  Championships, and is currently competing at the U.S. Short Course Nationals–in fact, she set a Championship Record in the 200 yard IM just last night.

Don’t misunderstand, Dagny  swims plenty of yards (miles) in the pool every day, under the guidance of her  swimming coach. But the training she and many other young swimmers do with  Blackburn at ASK certainly strays from the norm.

As Blackburn says,  this training is as unconventional as it is simple. Everything we do  at ASK is to prepare the athlete to succeed. The better conditioned an athlete  is, the greater the chance that athlete will swim at his or her optimal speed  more frequently.

The workouts Blackburn prescribes for Knutson  heavily incorporate the Super Treadmill, both as a finishing tool and for  power development. I know that when Dagny can run 20 miles per hour on that  treadmill, she’s going to be fast, Blackburn said.

Congratulations to Dagny for the national high school records she set earlier this fall. And good luck in upcoming events at the U.S. Short Course Championships.

PS: Dagny cleaned up at the U.S. Short Course Swimming Championships, setting three meet records and an American Record, taking 14 and 1/2 seconds off her previous best to set the American Record in the 400 yard IM. Read all about her success here.

Acceleration Indiana, a proud member of Athletic Republic, was recently featured on the local NBC affiliate’s morning show. The short three-minute piece offers a great introduction to some of Athletic Republic’s proprietary equipment and training protocols. It’s definitely worth watching, though you’ll have to wait for a 10 second commercial to conclude before the feature story appears.

Congratulations to Ogonna Nnamani (pictured above) and Ramon Miller for winning silver medals in Beijing!

Ogonna played for the U.S. Women’s Volleyball team in their loss to Brazil in the championship match, scoring three kills in the third game of the four game match. Brazil won three games to one.

Nnamani is a prodigious hitter, as she showed in Team USA’s final preliminary round match against Poland a week ago, scoring 11 kills and a total of 17 points, accounting for more than half of the 30 points scored by the U.S. team’s bench players. Her hitting prowess dates all the way back to her high school playing days in Bloomington, Illinois where she first experienced Athletic Republic’s Acceleration Training.

Ramon Miller ran in the semifinals of the 4×400 relay for the Bahamas, contributing to the success of his teammates in the final and, thus, earning a silver medal for his efforts.

Miller is a four-time national champion, a ten-time All American and will return to Dickinson State University (DSU) to compete in his senior season. Miller set the NAIA indoor record in the 400 meters in 2007 and was a member of the DSU 4×400 relay team that set the NAIA indoor record in 2006. Miller helped the Blue Hawks capture their third straight national outdoor championship in 2006 and to runner-up finishes in 2007 and 2008.

Dickinson State University is a strategic partner of the Athletic Republic. Under the guidance of Pete Leno, Director of Dickinson State’s Ben C. Frank Human Performance Center, DSU is conducting a series of studies to help Athletic Republic validate new measurement technology and training protocols as part of a three-year research agreement.

Brian Schaefering is a 25 year-old, 6′ 5″ 295 pound rookie free-agent in training camp with the Cleveland Browns. The Browns thought his story was interesting enough to post a story about “where Brian has come from” on their Web site.

In addition to coming from Lindenwood–a school that boasts two recent Super Bowl ring wearing alumni in DeDe Dorsey and Derrick Ward–Schaefering shares a training regime with Dorsey.

Here’s what Brian has to say about his Acceleration Training experience at Nutriformance Acceleration in Chesterfield, Missouri:

I was always a skeptic when it came to speed training–even while playing at the University of Illinois. It wasn’t until I came back for my senior year at Lindenwood that I broke down and tried it. I called Dan O’Donnell and made my first appointment and haven’t looked back since. The Acceleration Training program has put me in the best shape I’ve been in a long time. It helped me excel in my senior year and will help me perform the way I need to at the combine for the NFL. I was a skeptic, now I’m with acceleration for good.

Here’s hoping Brian’s hard work and perseverance pays off with a spot on Cleveland’s opening day roster!

Yesterday Athletic Republic announced a new strategic partnership with USA Hockey. Specifically, the three-year contract will provide Athletic Republic’s patented equipment and science-based, hockey specific training programs to the 46 members of the federation’s U17 and U18 National Team Development Program (USNTDP). As Tad O’Had, our Hockey VP, said in the press release: “Over the past decade the USNTDP has become the premier training ground for the best young hockey players in the United States. With the addition of our Hockey Treadmill and technology to USNTDP’s already successful program, we are looking forward to seeing what comes next.”

Want a sneak preview of the type of training the best U17 and U18 hockey players in the U.S. will be doing? Check this out.

There’s a new digital “magazine rack” for sports fans called Alltop.com. Acutally, Alltop is like a newsstand on all topics, thus the name Alltop.

Anyway, if you visit Sports.Alltop.com you’ll find the five most recent news stories or blog posts from sports Web sites like ESPN to Ice Junkies to Athletic Republic. Thanks Guy!

Athletic Republic is joining the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports to encourage students of all ages to join the National President’s Challenge—a six week physical activity program designed to get America up and moving. Athletic Republic facilities across the country will be reaching out to schools in their communities to encourage students to join the Challenge.

According to Athletic Republic CEO Charlie Graves:

Athletic Republic’s primary clientele are student athletes aged 8-18, but it is their classmates who we hope to inspire through our support of the National President’s Challenge. Our goal for the 2008 Challenge is to inspire the students in Athletic Republic’s group to log 500,000 minutes of physical activity per week throughout the National President’s Challenge. That would equal 3 million minutes, or 50,000 hours of logged activity over the six-week Challenge.

The National President’s Challenge will kick-off on March 20 and end May 15. Participants can register for the Challenge between March 1 and April 3 for free at www.presidentschallenge.org. Participants can join as an individual or create a group with friends, family, co-workers and students.

Anyone who wants to join the Athletic Republic group should enter 68944 as your group ID number, and list Athletic Republic as your group.