The 2nd annual Davidson County weightlifting Challenge took place yesterday at Hepler Strength and Conditioning. This is something we started last year as a chance for the athletes I train and any other local high school athletes to come and compete. There are three competition lifts, power clean (or hang clean), bench press and deadlift.

This year we changed it up a little and did just three weight classes for the guys and awarded by weight class an overall total winner and a pound for pound winner. This gives the lighter weight guys an opportunity to compete with the bigger guys.

It should also be noted that these athletes, both male and female are just that….athletes. These guys are not amateur powerlifters or Olympic weightlifters. Many of these athletes are in-season right now playing sports at school.  They show up to compete and have fun and I think it was a fun time this year with some returners from last year and many new athletes.

Before I get into the results, I want to thank the following people and or businesses for helping make this happen:

GI Nutrition – www.ginutrition.net for sponsoring the competition and providing prize bags

Design Illusions - http://www.designillusionsinc.com/ for the trophies and t-shirts

Matt Wiggins of http://www.workingclassfitness.com/ and Jake Wagner for judging

And for all the other volunteer help with spotting, loading, registrations, data entry and so on that helped make this go off so smoothly – Taylor Shoaf, Brittany Moretz, Mackenzie Moretz, Jenna Hepler, Brooke Hepler, Jeffrey Beck, Jonathan Skeen, Avery Bowles and Daniel Price. Thank you all so much!

This year we only had two females competing. I wanted to have more. I was missing a few of my athletes due to some injuries and schedule conflicts. And emails to local athletic directors didn’t help much as I guess no other female athletes in this area were ready to step it up against my girls.

The female winner was Taylor Moretz with a 465 pound total. Taylor is a sophomore at East Davidson and it was her first year in the competition. Taylor as most everybody in the gym knows is a freak athlete and although she didn’t put up some of the numbers she had done in training, it was still an impressive  display and I expect even bigger things from her in the years ahead. Breanna Walton from Central Davidson was second place female with a 395 pound total. Breanna competed last year but it’s obvious she has been working hard too as she blew away her last year totals.

For the guys the winners were:

Lightweight 175 and under
OVERALL – Desmond Mabe Central Davidson 800 pound total
POUND FOR POUND – Casey Jenkins East Davidson 740 pound total

Middleweight 176 – 215
OVERALL – Saig Skeen Central Davidson 1,060 pound total
POUND FOR POUND – Dee Greene Ledford 1,040 pound total

Heavyweight 216 and up
OVERALL AND POUND FOR POUND CHAMP – Derrick Davis Central Davidson 1,110 total

Most all of these guys competed last year but everyone make big improvements in their performances. Saig Skeen had the highest individual power clean at 290, Sam Henderson had biggest individual bench at 350 and Derrick Davis had the biggest individual deadlift at 505.

And aside from these winners, EVERYONE who competed is a winner in my book. We had young guys of all shapes and sizes in here willing to step on the platform and show what they’ve got. That's what I like to see and that's really what this competition is all about. In fact it’s what Hepler Strength and Conditioning itself is all about….not how much weight you lift or who “wins”, but that you are willing to push yourself to the limit, to never give up and never quit.

So again, congratulations not just to those who left with trophies, but to EVERYONE who competed, and thanks again to the coaches and parents who came out to support their athletes, and all my volunteers who helped make this event happen.

Full results sorted by overall totals is available for download below:

Friday night was one of those nights. It’s a night I will remember years down the road and still be able to recall every detail…the chill in the air, being soaked through from sitting in the rain for two hours, and those words.  The words I am referring to are what one of the players leaned in and told me as we were all down there on the field celebrating with the team. Being the seniors’ final game it was very emotional. There were a lot of tears from everybody and as I hugged this player and told him good job he leaned in and said “I gave it all I had”.  Six simple little words but it meant much more here, and I knew that he had in fact given it all he had.

This blog is not at all to discuss what went down at Central Davidson over the past few days. I would rather tell you what has gone down over the last few years because that is the REAL story. It’s the story of a team of dedicated athletes who showed what a commitment to training can do.

Three summers ago I was first asked to get involved with the Central Davidson football team as a whole. I had already been working with several players training them in the offseason and because of these associations I ended up working with the whole team during the summer building up their speed, agility and conditioning.

That first summer they probably didn’t know what they were getting into.  Many of them chose to come and train with me after the summer camp was over. We got bigger, we got stronger. Summer number 2 went by and now things were starting to click. Many returning players who had done my camp the first year were now showing promise. They were beginning to understand how to move, how to react and how to apply speed to the game of football.

Now this past summer was the best one yet as now we had a large group that “got it” and they worked hard. Even more players than the previous two years were coming to the gym and training over and above football training and my speed training camp. I had for three summers both on the field at Central Davidson and at my gym preached about hard work. And that's an all-encompassing term to me. You have to work hard in school; you have to work hard in the weight room and on the field. You have to be both mentally and physically tough.

During this past summer multiple individual PRs and gym records were set by some of these football players. And as much as we celebrated their lifting success and posted videos to show off their accomplishments on youtube, it was always known that its success on the field we were after.  As a trainer that's what you want, for the athletes to be able to see their work pay off where it counts, on the field. The feeling they get from experiencing that is what makes my job worthwhile.

We worked hard. I personally worked hard, giving up time away from the gym in order to run the camp at Central each summer. I invested a lot of energy into my time with the team both at Central and when the players were at my gym. I believed in my training, I believed in what we were doing and I committed to the guys that it would pay off.  And it did pay off.  In fact I would think it’s safe to say this season it paid off BIG.

This years’ Spartans…my boys… had the best football season in many years, more than most people around here can remember.  They were bigger, stronger, more explosive, faster and better conditioned than just about any team in the county. The offense was explosive and in some games unstoppable.  Central finished the season with over 3,500 yards of offense, the rushing of the top three for Central was almost 1,000 more than the next closet team. They took wins over Thomasville and Lexington, two teams they were not expected to beat. In fact as far as conference goes they only lost to one team, the defending 2A state champions Salisbury.

What is says on paper will NEVER matter in the long run. A forfeited game means giving back a win… it DOESN’T mean the win never happened. And everybody in the stadium on those nights will remember, just like I will, that those WERE WINS.

So I want to say congratulations and job well done to the entire Spartans football team. And specifically to seniors Jake Smith, Nick and Alex Gallaher, and Matt Meadows I would like to say I am proud of all of you. You are winners, you are champions and I want you to know that I appreciate all the work you put in and I hope that you feel like I “gave you my all” for you guys just like you gave it your all on the field.

Your vertical jump probably isn’t as high as you think. There I said it. Probably not going to make some of you happy but the fact is a great vertical takes a lot of work and is a long term development process that involves multiple factors of strength training, power training, and body composition.

The internet is littered with videos of guys you have never heard of that are supposedly jumping 45”, 50” and more and they “prove” this with videos of them dunking basketballs, jumping on high boxes (which has only a partial coorelation to vertical jump) and other things. Funny thing is what you don't see them doing is jumping on the Vertec vertical jump tester…a method which would actually prove their vertical is as high as they think.

So now that I have burst your bubble about these internet jump “phenoms” lets break it down and get really specific.

Using the pictures above, you need to start by understanding a vertical jump measurement is the difference between standing reach and maximum height of jump. Regardless of how cool it looks that they are playing "above the rim" the vertical measurement starts with how high they can reach and then how much they come off the ground as the jump.

In the first pic, while this is a good looking vertical I doubt 54” because the rim is at 10 feet, i.e. 120” and he appears to be fairly below halfway as it compares feet to ground as opposed to feet in relation to rim.

It’s almost an optical illusion when you look at a high speed freeze frame like this because you are drawn to his hand stretched out in relation to the rim rather than looking at what a vertical jump actually is.

He is 5’9’ tall. The average reach for someone 5’9” is 7’9” which converts to 93” with a differential of 27” between standing reach and height of rim meaning, a roughly 27” – 28” vertical will allow most guys who are 5’9” to grab rim.

(Average reach relative to height came from this website - http://www.draftexpress.com/nba-pre-draft-measurements/?page=averages&year=All&draft=100&pos=0&sort=)

And a vertical of, let’s say for sake of discussion 33” puts them a full 6 inches ABOVE RIM. It’s also widely accepted that 5” – 6” over the height of the rim is what is necessary to be able to dunk.

Now this is not at all showing disrespect to the guys in these videos. For regular athletes a 27 – 28 vertical is good and above 30 is great. This guy in the video here is probably in the mid-30s and that is great….but it is simply NOT a 50” vertical…or a 45….or a 40 even.

The best vertical jump at the NFL Combine is 46" by Gerald Sensabaugh (FS), from North Carolina in 2005. This was measured on the Vertec vertical jump tester.

For all the claims here and there of people with 50” verticals there is little to any measurable quantifiable proof. Isn’t that convenient?

And if this comes across sounding like a jerk, then so be it, but if NFL prospects, some of the strongest, most explosive athletes in the world don't have a long list of players jumping 50” verticals, I have real doubts that there are these supposed “freak” athletes in every little town across America busting out 50” verticals on a regular basis.

If there are they should prove it, there are plenty of schools, sports performance centers, etc. that have legitimate vertical jump testing equipment. Go test yourself, and then post it. Not dunking….not jumping over a high hurdle or on a big box. Test yourself on a vertical jump testing device.

If you really want to improve your vertical, don't buy into these crap programs sold on the internet or the silly platform shoes that will supposedly add inches to your jump almost overnight. One program actually claims it will “double your vertical jump”. Well if that were possible EVERYONE on the planet would buy it because even athletes with relatively small jumps like 20” – 22” would now be jumping over 40”. Its B.S. people and I can’t make it any clearer than that.

Want a better vertical? You better be increasing your strength through squats and deadlifts, increasing your power with jumping variations and making sure your body composition is in check (i.e., don't get too heavy or have too much excess bodyfat). That's what it takes. Work hard put in the time and although you may not be jumping a 50” vertical (because neither are these guys) you will see improvements in performance.

I wanted to take this blog post to talk about missed opportunities. As the school year has come to an end and another summer begins, for athletes what they do this summer can have a big bearing on how they play in the upcoming fall and winter seasons. Summer may be a time for the beach, the lake and spending time with friends, but it is also full of opportunities...opportunities to become a better athlete. But there is a catch to these kinds of opportunities and the catch is if you miss them you can’t ever get them back.

I have trained a number of girls who have gone on to play college basketball and I have seen the workouts that their different colleges send them and regardless of what college it is most all of them are expected to do a lot of shooting on their own during the summer. Lots of shots, sometimes 100 or more per day. Doing that will help them get better. But it’s the consistency and commitment of doing it that makes the difference. Not 100 shots one day skip a few days then another 100 shots. That’s not the same.

If player A shoots 100 shots a day 5 days a week  (at the park, in their driveway, wherever) and player B shoots 100 shots once a week, player A will have shot 2,000 shots at the end of the month whereas player B will have shot 400 at the end of the month. Who do you think is getting better?

And that’s being generous to assume player B is shooting 100 at least once a week. Lots of high school players aren’t shooting at all. Do you play basketball? How many shots did you take last week? 100? 50? None at all? Are you going to be player A or player B?

What about workouts? A football player hitting my gym 3x per week on our program will be power cleaning twice a week to the tune of about 30 - 50 total reps per week of power cleans at various intensities. That’s 120 - 200 reps of power cleans a month. Do you think the football players who aren’t doing anything are going to be more ready than these players who are doing 200 cleans a month?

The list goes on and on, soccer players practicing footwork, track athletes continuing to run and sprint, volleyball players playing volleyball. One of my athletes, Kathryn Johnson, a standout rising sophomore volleyball player from Wheatmore is in Orlando playing for a team at AAU Volleyball Nationals. When she gets home she will be gone again in a few weeks to Arizona for a week to compete on a volleyball national high performance select team. When she is here she is in the gym 2 - 3 times per week training and playing volleyball on other days. Is there any doubt that Kathryn is getting better this summer?

But the problem is that these opportunities come with a cost. Some cost money, some cost your time and energy....but they all have a cost. What I try and get my athletes to see is not the cost of doing, but rather the cost of not doing. The "cost" of missed opportunities is often far greater than the cost of doing them in the first place. Days go by quickly in the summer, too fast sometimes. It’s easy to lose perspective but the summer is a very limited time in which to take advantages of these opportunities. Once a day has passed that day cannot be gotten back. A day without taking those 100 shots is just gone. A day without working out is just gone.

So I am not saying you shouldn’t have any fun this summer. You have worked hard all year doing schoolwork, playing your sport, training and practicing. It’s OK to have some fun in the summertime...but understand that you can balance the fun with the work and the athletes who want it the most will be the ones working. You may be letting opportunities to get better go by....but your competition is not. And that’s the worst kind of missed opportunity, one that you have given up that the competition has taken.

And last but not least, don’t let opportunities pass you by to have fun and challenge yourself at the same time. This past weekend myself and one of my athletes, Sierra Cefali ran a 5K at the Tour De Kale in Denton. Tour De Kale is a great charity event put together every year by some good friends of mine. If you are not familiar with it you should check it out here www.tourdekale.com Now Sierra nor I are actual distance runners. We are definitely not "hardcore" competitors when it comes to 5K but we ran it and we had fun. We challenged ourselves to do it. And actually for us it’s a warmup for some bigger challenges we are going to tackle later in the summer including a 10K mountain trail race and the Warrior Dash.

Now for me there is no real reason to do these other than just to say I did it, to challenge myself and to create a bonding experience with one of my athletes. I don’t look to be competitive, just to have fun and say that we did it. And my athlete Sierra, well she is doing all of this on top of summer league, volleyball camps, basketball camps AND training at my gym 2x per week. Sierra is not missing any opportunities. And Sierra will be a better athlete AND a better person as a result of putting in this time and effort.

So I encourage all athletes to think about how you are spending your time this summer. Are you going to be getting better this summer or worse? Are you taking advantage of opportunities to get better or not? And if you let these opportunities go by are you prepared to pay the cost of missed opportunities?