I often get questions about what makes Endeavor different from other sports training companies or trainers. Last week's post went into detail about our training philosophies and how we actively seek out other sports medicine professionals that offer a service that will improve the performance and well-being of our athletes and clients. If you missed it (or want a refresher!), you can check it out via our website at the link below:

At Endeavor, all of our athletes are trained in a semi-private format, also known as small group training. While there are some exceptions to this, it basically means that we train our athletes in groups of 6 or less, instead of 1-on-1. In explaining this format to parents, sometimes I get a "no I want my son/daughter working with a trainer 1-on-1" response. In their eyes, 1-on-1 training would lead to more personal attention, which would lead to better results. Logical thought process.

Semi-private training is becoming increasingly popular amongst private sports training facilities like ours. The idea is to take a collegiate or professional strength and conditioning atmosphere and make it available on a private basis. In other words, make it available to a larger audience. Every collegiate strength and conditioning program differs in facility design, coaching philosophy and overall program structure, but in most cases you'd see a common implmentation of the program. A group of athletes, or a whole team (depending on the sport) would enter the facility, grab their training programs, and get to work. The program would dictate the exercises, sets, and reps the athletes needed to do, and would either have the weights/loads filled in or the athlete would understand that coach's system for determining weights and know how to calculate them on their own. The Strength and Conditioning Coach's basic roles are to:

• Design all the programs
• Teach the athletes the rules of the facility
• Teach exercise technique and ensure the athlete is training in a safe environment
• Monitor for movement impairments that may predispose the athlete to injury
• Make program adaptations when necessary
• Provide added motivation to the athlete

The athletes are expected to know how to follow the program and how to conduct themselves in a training environment, which means working hard, helping and motivating teammates, and asking for the coach's assistance when something is unclear. This is true of men's sports; this is true of women's sports.

This is the exact same set-up we have at Endeavor. The purpose is to provide a safe, motivational training environment for the athlete to follow a comprehensive, professionally designed training program, while also empowering them to take responsibility of their own training and success. Not only does this give the athlete a greater sense of ownership over their accomplishments, it also better prepares them for higher level athletics, which many of our athletes are actively pursuing.

Semi-Private vs. 1-on-1
Coming back to our 1-on-1 insistent parent, you may be starting to get the picture that the assumption of 1-on-1 training's superiority ignores the psychology of the athlete and, to an extent, the competency of the training professional. Athletes prefer to train with a group of their peers; it's what they're used to. They like talking with them between exercises and they like competing against them during certain parts of the program (like conditioning). Now, not every athlete has that "I want to beat the person next to me" mentality (although many do), but most athletes still like the feeling of working toward something with a group of like-minded friends.

With regards to the coach (what most people refer to as the "trainer"), a good coach will teach new exercises efficiently and provide specific cues to ensure the athlete performs them with proper technique. As athlete's training age increases, the hands-on teaching role of the coach is less and less and the focus changes more to ensuring proper loads are used and motivating the athlete through the program. In the case of unexperienced athletes, the coach will need to be more hands-on and provide more frequent "cuing", but still needs to allow the athlete some time and repetition to develop new motor patterns. 1-on-1 training lends itself to "overcoaching" which is incredibly frustrating for the athlete. Semi-private settings with reasonably sized groups allow enough individualized attention to make sure the athlete can train in a safe, results-driven environment alongside like-minded peers. In other words, moving from a 1-on-1 to a semi-private training format doesn't only NOT interfere with the quality of training, it actually enhances it.

Group Size Exceptions
Earlier I mentioned that there were some exceptions to our 6 athletes per group rule. This may seem counterintuitive, but with younger athletes we prefer smaller groups (up to 3-4), and with older athletes that have trained with us for a while, group sizes can increase up to around 8. I think most people think high level athletes deserve 1-on-1 attention and younger athletes can be thrown in a group and just taken through a generic workout. In reality, younger athletes have more unrefined motor patterns and need more hands-on coaching, whereas older athletes tend to have an older training age and don't require nearly as much instruction. It may be worth pointing out that "group sizes" here merely refers to the number of athletes per coach. If a team of 14 athletes comes in together, we'd simply break them up into 2-3 groups depending on the age and training experience of the athletes and the complexity of their training program. In this way, the team is all training at the same time, but our optimal athlete:coach ration is preserved.

Wrap Up
Training athletes in a semi-private format certainly isn't the ONLY option, but in my opinion, it is the best. It's the most cost-effective and training-effective way to make comprehensive athletic development training programs available to a larger audience. In other words, it's an effective way to help more athletes pursue their dreams and achieve their goals, which is why we started Endeavor in the first place.

For more information on how we design our programs and schedule our training sessions, check out this link:

>> Endeavor's Semi-Private Training <<