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.

North Dakota’s State Board of Higher Education recently approved a degree program in exercise science at Dickinson State University. The new program was described in a press release posted on DSU’s Web site:

DSU entered into an agreement with Athletic Republic in January and will provide more than 2,000 hours of applied research work. The university will conduct three studies using specialized equipment and computer software supplied by Athletic Republic. In return for this $68,000 in-kind donation, DSU will supply the student athletes and the man hours to conduct the studies. The first study involves validating Athletic Republic’s new athletic performance composite testing system in their online database, which gives individual athletes feedback on their current level of fitness. The second study compares three different modes of exercise programs to be used by student athletes to see which generates the best results. During the third study, DSU researchers will develop strength training program content and produce supporting video examples for future Athletic Republic online products. Pete Leno, assistant football coach and director of the Ben C. Frank Human Performance Center where the research is conducted, will oversee the project.

Athletic Republic President and founder, John Frappier has worked with Pete Leno for years. In fact Pete was one of the first athletes John trained–in preparation for two Canadian Football League combines. John offered these observations about this latest collaboration with Pete Leno and DSU:

We are all brought up by our parents with the intention of going to college. Higher education is viewed as a way to better our lives and become successful in whatever endeavor we choose.

With its new exercise science program, Dickinson State University has stepped forward to offer a degree with tremendous practical application. As an individual who went through the hoops of undergrad and graduate school, then stepped outside the box to form my own business, I built a company that needs trained exercise scientists with relevant college degrees. The DSU program really fills that niche.

Athletic Republic is always looking for qualified applicants, at both existing and new facilities. Career opportunities come from preparation, and DSU is offering their students the preparation they’ll need to succeed. We are proud to be a part of that. And, I’m pleased that my longstanding collaboration with Pete Leno continues.

Play is the New York Times Sports Magazine, and it’s published three or four times per year. In the March Issue, inserted into yesterday’s Sunday NY Times, the “Master Class” column featured Chelsea Piers BlueStreak and Athletic Republic in a story titled Be Nimble, Be Quick…

The backstory is that the author, Josh Dean, is a 30-something soccer player who realizes he has lost a step on the pitch. He turns to the trainers at Chelsea Piers BlueStreak for help and discovers first-hand the genius behind Athletic Republic’s Acceleration Training protocols and equipment.

Dean trained at BlueStreak for three months,

working out alongside college athletes, out-of-shape financial types, decently fit office drones like myself and a seemingly endless stream of high scholl kids with generous parents…

I was noticing results on the soccer field. I was making better touches during my evening games, feeling a step quicker and even reaching some balls I wouldn’t have bothered to chase before starting BlueStreak.

In other words: Dean learned how performance sports training at an Athletic Republic facility works–through science-based training protocols that deliver real, measurable results. In doing so, an adult recreational athlete learned the value of a program that is typically thought of as being tailored to kids and aspiring collegiate and professional athletes.

Bottom line: Athletic Republic’s Acceleration Training programs are designed for athletes of all ages and abilities.

A recent article in the New York Times identified anterior cruciate ligament tears as a rising problem for young athletes. Titled Big-Time Injury Strikes Little Players, the piece told a story of better diagnostics leading doctors, parents and young athletes down a path of difficult decisions, with the most difficult decision being whether or not to operate on a young athlete’s knee.

Steve Swanson, Athletic Republic’s Chief Officer of Science and Technology, offers his perspective on the story:

The article does a nice job of bringing awareness to a very serious issue in youth athletics. Female athletes are especially at risk. They are 2-8 times more likely to incur a non-contact ACL injury than their male counterparts. Over the last decade, a number of research studies have worked on the underlying mechanisms of these injuries. The latest “consensus” (scientists never really reach one) revolves around maintaining dynamic stability during athletic movements–such as landing from a jump or making a cut. If the athlete cannot maintain a stable, athletic position, the alignment of their legs tends to get into a “knock-kneed” position. If they get into this position with their leg fairly straight (bent at about 30 degrees to straight), the geometry of the knee is such that it doesn’t take much of a rotation or pivot to stress the ACL—resulting in an ACL sprain or tear.

There are several factors that may explain how an athlete has difficulty maintaining stability and getting in these positions. Several scientific papers have pointed to various reasons—the majority of them pointing to inadequate strength of key muscles of the hip, trunk and even the hamstrings. No matter the exact muscle group, the key thing to remember is that the body is a complex system, so strengthening one muscle does not result in a magic fix of a problem. The key is that the system as a whole becomes more stable and able to resist getting into these bad positions during dynamic movements—thus the term “dynamic stability”.

The good news is that several researchers have shown that the type of training we do at Athletic Republic can reduce the incidence of these injuries by over 60%. Learning better movement skills is the key to improving dynamic stability and reducing the likelihood of getting into these uncompromising positions. Learning how to properly stabilize when landing from a jump and staying in proper alignment when making a cut are part of mastering fundamental movement skills. As these skills are mastered, performance naturally improves and provides a rock-solid foundation to make real performance gains in conditioning and overall athleticism. A well-conditioned athlete who moves well drastically improves their dynamic stability, performance and, most importantly, decreases the likelihood of incurring an ACL injury.

At Athletic Republic, we have spent years developing testing tools and training programs to keep athletes healthy and performing at their best by continually monitoring what works best for athletes in many different sports in order to deliver the best possible programs to all our athletes.