National Scholastic Athletics Foundation

Imagine a culture where the pursuit of athletic excellence is the unequivocal goal of everyone around you; a campus filled with every facility and resource needed to train and prepare to compete in almost every sport; a weekly- and daily-life routine meticulously scheduled and structured to foster the development of the complete student-athlete.

That’s the environment in which more than a dozen Project Triple Jumpers, Head Coach Peter Pratt and Coordinator/Coach Macka Jones, and attendant NSAF staff found themselves enveloped during the recent October 15-18 weekend, as the Project trained for three days at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.

“The IMG facilities are quite simply amazing,” said Coach Jones, after the clinic had drawn to a close.  “However, what impressed us the most was the staff.  Everyone that we encountered during the weekend was more than accommodating.”

This past summer, the coaches and NSAF staff connected with IMG Director of Track & Field and Director of Speed and Movement Loren Seagrave – for decades one of the great gurus of the sport, especially in sprinting and jumping – and the IMG staff to create the event.  While Coach Seagrave was unable to be present during the clinic, several other IMG coaches and staff members facilitated things all weekend – and were part of the teaching and training, too.

For example, IMG Strength and Conditioning Coach Tyler Peacock led a great session of instruction and light training at the Academy’s cavernous, 10,000-square-foot weight room Saturday.  Then on Sunday, Coach Joice Maduaka – a British Olympian in the sprints and relays herself not long ago – led the Project TJ’ers through an epic “warmup” that probably exceeded what any of them had ever seen or done.  And throughout the clinic Coaches Maduaka and Rob Jarvis, along with Program Director Lamont Thomas, were there to make sure everything ran smoothly and that everyone got to experience as much of the Academy as was possible in a weekend.

“We let them know that we have a great facility and the ability to provide them with all of the resources that they need to make this event possible,” said Coach Thomas regarding the NSAF’s original inquiry into working with IMG.  “We knew that you guys have a great group of athletes that you wanted to bring down here … so we said, hey, we could help you out, provide you with the facilities, the weight room, the meals, the facilities for you to reside – provide you with everything you needed to be successful at what you were planning to do.”

Perhaps the most unique opportunity of the weekend came when the athletes arrived on Thursday afternoon.  The Academy utilizes the Functional Movement Systems philosophy and all of its athletes undergo the Functional Movement Screen (FMS).  The website FunctionalMovement.com explains that the “exercise philosophy and corresponding set of resources is based on sound science, years of innovation, and current research.”

“Put simply,” it adds, “the FMS is a ranking and grading system that documents movement patterns that are key to normal function.  By screening these patterns, the FMS readily identifies functional limitations and asymmetries. These are issues that can reduce the effects of functional training and physical conditioning and distort body awareness.

“The FMS generates the Functional Movement Screen Score, which is used to target problems and track progress. This scoring system is directly linked to the most beneficial corrective exercises to restore mechanically sound movement patterns.  Exercise professionals monitor the FMS score to track progress and to identify those exercises that will be most effective to restore proper movement and build strength in each individual.”

So each Project athlete was able to experience a 15-minute individual sampling of the FMS, administered and scored by IMG’s on-site Hospital for Special Surgery professionals, Matthew Morgan and Jorge Giral.  The testing results will help Coaches Pratt and Jones to be able to pinpoint areas of physical strength and injury vulnerability in each athlete.

The Project athletes also had the tremendous bounty of spending time with 2004 Olympic gold medalist and 4-time IAAF World long jump champion Dwight Phillips, who is also working and coaching at IMG now.  Phillips was the special guest speaker during the opening evening Thursday, delivering an uplifting presentation that highlighted his own somewhat unlikely and amazing transformation into a world class athlete, while delivering great encouragement to all present.  He was also on hand and accessible to the Project jumpers much of the three days.

“My story is just to help inspire generations of athletes that look up to me,” he said as the clinic wrapped up.  “I wasn’t very good initially when I started off (as a young athlete), but I worked extremely hard, I was extremely dedicated, and I sacrificed a lot … It’s very important to have an excellent work ethic, an optimistic attitude and just be willing to learn.  If you can have those attributes, you can definitely be successful in sports and in life.  I’m more about teaching athletes to be that gold medal winner in life and not just in sports.”

“Having Dwight there added another component that took our event to another level,” said Coach Jones.

As always, Coaches Pratt and Jones trained and taught the kids for three days, mixing on-the-field lessons, drills and jumping with classroom work on all aspects of triple jumping.  The classroom sessions alternated between a special conference room and a classroom in the 40,000-square-foot fieldhouse, adjacent to the IMG Academy Stadium, which is used for track and field, football, lacrosse and soccer.  The field sessions were held, of course, in the stadium, utilizing the twin horizontal jump runways next to the scoreboard.

Naturally, much of the weekend focus was on pre-season preparation, appropriate given the fact that all of the athletes are at least a few months away from their competitive seasons.  In fact, Coach Pratt and the other coaches and staff placed particular emphasis on how important it is to maintain a base fitness level in the fall after the competitive season, so one isn’t “starting from zero” when serious training starts up again and so that an annual progression can best be facilitated.

The weekend’s lone jumping session – just a few attempts off a short approach – revealed some athletes closer to that base level than others at this point, though a few went far enough to indicate that significant PR-improvement might be in the offing not long after the season begins.

The athletes training with the NSAF over the weekend included veteran Project athletes Chinne Okoronkwo, Arielle Mack and Nashedah Mu’min (all starting their 3rd season with the Project); Saudia James-Heard, Allyson Weiss, Jordyn Lesh and Jalen Seals (all 2nd season); and Project newcomers Tara Davis and Jasmine Moore (check out the bios of all of the Project athletes HERE).

They were joined by a quartet of registered clinic athletes from points near and far – all with talent and potential – including Jaimie Robinson (Homewood-Flossmoor, IL junior), Katie Barnett (Admiral Farragut, FL junior), Marcus Floyd (Middleburg, FL freshman) and Amy Warren – a fast-rising Virginia middle-school athlete whose older brother John was the NBNO triple jump champ in 2014 and now competes at University of Missouri.  And then there was the accomplished Thomas Dale HS (Chester, Va.) head coach Jamarri Price, whose star pupil – Titiana Marsh, a 41-footer and indoor/outdoor state champ who paced all 9th graders nationally in 2015 – was unable to attend and he came to Florida to learn in her place.

“I gained so much valuable information from Coach Pratt,” said Coach Price.  “It wasn’t just learning new things …well, some things absolutely were new, but it’s also building upon the toolbox that you have … and it was a great atmosphere for the horizontal jumps.”

Suffice it to say that the NSAF’s athletes enjoyed and benefited from the weekend, learning a lot and very much wowed by what they were able to experience at IMG.

“This weekend’s been amazing,” said Jalen Seals.  “I can’t even explain how much they have here; they have everything you could possibly need and more.”

“I love IMG, the facilities, the coaches here … they’re all amazing,” added Saudia James-Heard.  “The kids here are so welcoming and so nice … it’s like family here.”

Track and field is actually a relatively new offering at IMG; the program started with a single athlete four years ago and now has 19 – and is growing fast.  Its international group includes Miguel van Assan of Suriname, who has triple jumped 53-8.5 and long jumped 25-0, and is one of the top horizontal jump medal contenders for the 2016 World Juniors.  In fact, he and the Project’s Ja’Mari Ward took turns beating each other in the Great Southwest LJ and TJ last June.

Project TJ athletes have had the opportunity to train in outstanding venues and with outstanding hosts the past few years, including the St. John’s School in Houston, with several Texas-based jump legends; Joseph C. Carter Park in Ft. Lauderdale, with St. Thomas Aquinas coaches and staff; and Desert Vista High School in Phoenix, one of the most impressive prep programs and facilities in the country (a January, 2016 return there is planned for the next clinic).

Even with that impressive list, this past clinic at IMG Academy stands as a truly special opportunity and may be the start of something long-lasting.  “I want to thank everyone at IMG,” said Coach Jones, “Hopefully, this will be the beginning of a real partnership that will allow us to realize our goal of American success in the triple jump.”

Finally, Coach Jones said he was excited to meet the new group of campers this year and is curious to see how everyone will develop, both the veterans and newcomers.  “Sometimes it just takes just the smallest suggestion or tweak that could turn a runner-up into a champion.  I would like to believe that something we showed them will make that type of difference in their training.”