2009 LETS ATTACK IT!

Good morning!

Its been a while since my last post, but it was a busy month getting my knee sorted out (hopefully) with a full ACL reconstruction & cartilage repair in mid December. I was lucky to save the cartilage as 2/3rds of it was torn off and it was 50/50 wheather to just take it all out or try to repair it!

My surgon likened it to
"TRYING TO STICH WET SPAGETTI TOGETHER!" Nice.


Big thanks to him & his team though up at Windsor, he is the Top Knee guy & they were responsible for Michael Owens ACL after it went at the championships for all to see. He was back playing in 7 months.

Anyway, enough of whats gone on in this last month, lets look to the future, what is up for 2009???

MY GOALS:

0 - 3 MONTHS
*ACL Gym activities & SWIMMING at 6-12 weeks.
*ACL LIGHT JOGGING at 3 months
**SSA is known to the people who need it & given an opportunity to help aspiring Youth Sportspeople!
**SSA releases its 1st Youth Peformance DVD: Animal Acceleration to help a greater number of coaches/teachers/youth sportspeople!

3 - 6 MONTHS
*ACL Work on FITNESS LEVEL.
*ACL Non-contact Sports Training/RUNNING at 6 months.
**SSA continues to invest in performance research, going anywhere in the world to get the best & bring it to YOU.
**SSA directly/regularly helps over 100+ youth athletes.
**SSA is the known YOUTH CONDITIONING SPECIALISTS in the SOUTH OF ENGLAND.
**SSA releases its 2nd Youth Peformance DVD.

6 - 12 MONTHS
*ACL 9 months FULL Sprinting & other sports.
*ACL 10-12 months FULL RETURN TO POLEVAULT??
**SSA Youth conditioning Revolution has a strong, large, dedicated following, helping and supporting each other and pushing up the Youth Performance standards in the UK and Overseas.

Whoops! Now I've done it now, once there down in black & white, goals become a bit more real.

More obtainable.

You know what you want.

YOU CAN NOW MAKE STEPS TOWARDS YOUR GOAL

But more than anything else.... Be Happy.

Your success will come,

I will be FANATICALLLY dedicated to helping you reach your performance goals what ever you decide they are!

JUST POST THEM HERE,
DO IT TODAY.

IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE?
HOW CAN YOU ACHIEVE THEM!

I look forward to finding what your GOING to achieve in 2009...

Yours in Sport & Speed,

Adam Walker BSc PGCE CSCS
THE SPEED FREAK

STRONG MIND, STRONG BODY.

Afternoon all,

Early start to the day, up and out by 6.30am, going early training? Early coaching? Nope, up to Windsor and the Princess Margret Hospital for an MRI on my lovely (slightly mis-shaped) knee.

An improtant day, well the results in a few days are more important!
Just another "Fun" outing since my freak accident on August 9th. The local newspaper ran an update on my knee this week (must be a slow week for news) and I thought I'd pass on the story and keep you guys updated. Here's a few bits...

Walker fights back from the brink

Dislocated kneecap, torn knee ligaments, season over. Adam Walker's athletics future was looking pretty bleak as he lay in agony on the pole vault runway at Eton.
Foremost in Walker's mind is trying to return his knee to full working order. A full 15 weeks after it happened, he is coming to terms with just how badly the joint is and is finding it as much a mental battle as it is physical.

"I have been having two to three hours a day rehab and now the injured leg is as strong as the other one. My quads are stronger than they were before the accident.

The injury has left Walker's knee severely weakened, and its vulnerability was highlighted last week when he slipped slightly on a wet floor and damaged his anterior cruciate ligament - the front ligament in the knee.

"I'm so gutted," he says. "I have been really careful but it looks like I have now overstretched or partially torn the ACL. It has put me back about three weeks to a month and my limp is back.

"You can't fix it quickly which is frustrating and there's no chance of me having an indoor season now. I'd be more upbeat if I thought I could be jumping by the time of the outdoor season. It's 15 weeks since I did it now. For 11 weeks it was improving so quickly, getting better day by day. But the thought has popped into my head: 'What if I don't get better?'"

Walker is keen to avoid the fate of one of his friends, who suffered a career-ending injury at the same venue eight years ago and still limps.

But he can at least see a silver lining.
"I didn't land on my head so I am happy about that but they thought I had broken my leg, that my tibia had snapped. I was happy to see there was no blood."

It was an unhappy end to what had been Walker's best season, setting a new personal best of 4.65m in Dublin and also becoming the Sussex senior champion. He intends to return to the Irish capital, believing the size of the competition and the crowds helped him reach that PB.

"I would find it a lot easier to retire after five metres," he admits.

"To clear that is a question of technique and belief. I cleared 4.65 in Dublin and thought, 'Brilliant, I must have scraped it'. But my coach said I did it easily, so I had a pop at 4.75 and in three attempts I got lots of height but came down on the bar."


Anyway guys, as I lay inside the MRI tunnel this morning (a cross between a building site and standing next to a music speaker experience) I thought, this is rubbish & wondered why I didn't feel worse? Sure I have bad days & I'm angry about the knee, but mentally I'm positive, working round the problem and focusing on getting it better. Slowly the body is getting the idea and catching up! Have to mention helping "mini-me" sportspeople is a massive help aswell! Hopefully YOU can avoid some of the injuries that I have had and learn from my mistakes. The mind is the most powerful Sports Performance tool...

"BECOME STRONG IN MIND & THE BODY WILL FOLLOW"

Adam Walker
THE SPEED FREAK

PS: IF YOU WANNA CHECK OUT THE FULL STORY ALONG WITH SAD PHOTO'S OF ME! HERE IS THE LINK BELOW (copu & paste it into your browser).
http://www.thisissussex.co.uk/crawley/sport/Walker-fights-brink/article-503354-detail/article.html
LET ME KNOW HOW YOUR DOING IN YOUR SPORTS AND ABOUT ANY INJURY WORRIES??

YOUNGER & FASTER WILKO!

Morning all!

With the Autumn Rugby Union Internationals fully underway, you can't go a weekend without viewing some quality rugby and Speed to match!

One who tends to stand out is The younger faster version of Jonny Wilkinson... DAN CIPRIANI !

Wilkinson's injuries are the cost of too much contact. But Cipriani is still young, developing, bigger, stronger and FASTER than Wilkinson already! A RUGBY SPEED FREAK!

This is not luck though. Like SPORT SPEED ACADEMY, Dan Cipriani identified weaknesses and did something about it!
When Dan joined Wasps he commented:

“Wasps have a gym culture so I quickly got big and strong — but I was convinced I needed to work on my speed. So I started working with Margot Wells — she’s the wife of former Olympic gold medal sprinter Allan — and I pay her out of my own pocket!"

Cipriani who comes from Croydon the same stomping ground that produced a TRUE SPEED FREAK in Paul Sackey. Cipriani gained a Rugby scholorsip from Whitgift school and hasn't looked back.

In his time there I was lucky enough to be at the school and taught him in disciplines such as Water Polo and Basketball. Sadly no Rugby speed work back then! Anyway, it was Paul Sackey who started to pay Margot £400 a month to help his speed six years ago. Sackey is always quick to credit Wells for her part in turning him into an international rugby player. As a young lad joining Wasps, Dan started his regular Speed sessions with Margot off his own back and has also paid tribute to the help she has given him.

So what does she do??

She only gets 45 minutes, twice a week, to make a difference to these blokes. She needs discipline and hasn't got time for them to turn up and muck about! She maintains she fuels their talent in a step-by-step manner. The first thing she did was to teach him how to run properly, immediately making Dan run faster. She then looked at his body to find out where are all the weaknesses? Then she starts to fix them.

SIMPLE.

Personally physical mistakes and weaknesses jump out to me too and I can appriciate and understand exactly how and why she does what she does. You need a structured system to follow and then you can reap the rewards when you take your skills onto the pitch! I only get 60 minutes once a week at my Academy at still get results!

Still with all this (as I have found in Polevault) you cannot avoid the "Freak" injuries and Cipriani suffered a fractured dislocated ankle injury in May. OUCH! Wilkinson dislocated his knee like me in September, and this is with us all being in good condition for our sport. Mmust be the season for it!

Expected to be out untill the new year, Dan has burst back in time for the Autumn internationals! His speed coach reckons he is faster than before he got injured, so it is looking good for England. Margot currently looks after 28 rugby players and says that she is unable to take anybody else on board. In the past (as all good speed coaches should!) she has also worked with swimmers, fencers and coached a variety of team sports.

SPORT SPEED IS ESSENTIAL & I LOVE IT!

I'll leave you with some great words that we apply daily at SPORT SPEED ACADEMY...

“You can’t tackle what you can’t catch.” Margot Wells

GET FAST. WIN MORE.

Adam Walker BSc PGCE CSCS YCS
www.SportSpeedAcademy.com
www.TheSpeedFreak.blogspot.com

THE SPEED FREAK

PS: Check out this Key Exercise to eliminate a massive weakness on the SPEED FREAK Channel... AdamWalkerPro on YouTube, Subscribe for free now!

WEMBLEY FOOTBALL SPEED!

Morning all,

Did you watch the big FOOTBALL game at Wembley last night?? It was quality and some of the SPEED on show was impressive, I could watch it all day!

If your wondering what game I'm talking about, Man U Vs Arsednal?? Liverpool Vs Chelsea??
Nope...

San Diego Chargers Vs New Orliens Saints!

Thats right a NFL regular season game of American Football was played at Wembley to a sell out crowd and millions of viewers watched around the world. I watched. and in particular one player...

LT! This guy off the San Diego team was not the biggest (5 foot 6!), but actually the smallest. His one defining SKILL was his Superhuman SPORTSPEED!

You know what it reminded me of.
Seeing my SSA junior athletes that I coach the Academy. When these little guys go up against other juniors in their sports or we have a new kid come along to try a session, it makes them look so QUICK and EFFICIENT with their movements.

I LOVE IT.

In this sporting arena it wasn't just that LT was soo fast, but that everytime he had a one on one situation he was FASTER than the other highly conditioned athlete he was up against!

If you are aspiring to these levels in whatever sport you chose, imagine the damage you could do with these speed skills. Put them onto a Football pitch, A rugby pitch, a basketball, netball or badminton court! The potential is endless and so is your potential!

DONT JUST WATCH THIS SPEED, GET OFF YOUR BUTT AND DO SOMETHING SMART TO REACH YOUR POTENTIAL.

I'm inspired.

Where's the next american football try-outs!?

Guess I better get my knee sorted first! (3 weeks till I can run on it, still)

GET FAST. WIN MORE.

Adam Walker
www.Sportspeedacademy.com
www.AdamWalkerPro.com
THE SPEED FREAK

CHOCOLATE OLYMPICS ?

Morning!

Can you believe it?? Yesterday LONDON 2012 unvieled(quietly)its newest major sponser for the games the well known sporty, healthy brand...

CADBURYS CHOCOLATE???

Hmmmmm... once again maybe I'm missing something here, but I didn't realise they premoted healthy lifestyle, diet, competition and sports nutrition. I must be simple, I thought it was chocolate treats marketed at people who struggle to control their diet & health. Who already eat to much rubbish, are too young to know better, oh and to make as much money through as much exposure as possible. A healthy, sporty, 2012 Olympic tag to all its products, well its bound to help brainwash another generation of ever increasing obese people with Olympic ideals??

OLYMPIC IDEALS!

Ancient Greeks and Baron De Coubertain (Founder of the Modern Olympics) I'm sure would be very happy with the way things are going, NOT.
As usual... its to the HIGHEST BIDDER.

I am not niave, I know big sporting events are big business. But the whole idea and point of the Olympics are the Olympic ideals, this is something more. Its why I fully support GB's LIFETIME BAN on DRUG users in sport, when other countries are soft.

Whats next?

MARLBRO CIGARETTES TO BECOME THE NEXT BIG SPONSER OF 2016??

Your havin a Laugh.

Yours in Sport & Speed,

Adam Lewis-Walker
www.sportspeedacademy.com

THE SPEED FREAK