Training athletes: Silverton High adopts ‘whole body’ philosophy

By Kristine Thomas

Silverton High School Athletic Director Greg Kaatz doesn’t want to train football, soccer, basketball, volleyball or baseball players.

Instead, he wants to develop athletes.

What he learned by visiting the Adapt Training Center in Beaverton is that when a student focuses on developing a single set of athletic skills, muscles in one area are strengthened and others are ignored.

“What I like about the Adapt program is it addresses the entire body and how it works rather than focusing on building one area of the body,” Kaatz said.

For example, he said, his 11-year-old daughter, Halsey, is “an active kid who plays a lot of sports.”

“You would think a girl her age would be super flexible but what really surprised me when she had a personal assessment at Adapt is she was tight in her hips and her hamstrings,” he said. “It was pretty powerful to see a kid who is really active have visible areas of weaknesses.”

What Kaatz learned by watching an Adapt trainer work with his daughter was if one part of the body isn’t performing properly it could cause injuries or prevent a person from performing at full potential.

Believing it’s important to train the entire athlete, Kaatz has invited Adapt trainers to host four clinics at Silverton High. The clinics are for students entering sixth through 12th grade and will take place Friday, Aug. 13 and Saturday, Aug. 14.

The four clinics are “Speed and Efficiency,” “Injury Prevention and Vulnerability Training,” “Power Development for the Upper and Lower Body,” and “Flexibility Testing Routine.” Each clinic is $25 or there is a one-on-one personalized training for $85.

“Whether a student is taking a PE class or participating on an athlete team, we want them to have sound athletic bodies,” he said.

The philosophy of Adapt training is a  body needs specific movements to function correctly and teaching a person how to train improves performance and reduces injuries.

Kaatz said last fall every student who took a PE class or participated on an athletic team was given an assessment. Based on the assessment, the student was given a personalized plan. For example, if a student rated low on upper body strength, she would start with push-ups, then progress to dumbbells and finally to lifting weights.

“We are training kids (beginning) at the stage they are at,” Kaatz said.

While Adapt instructors have worked with high school teams and individual athletes in Oregon, Kaatz said this is the first time Adapt has worked with a school to develop a program for its physical education department.

“Our goal is develop athletes so they can play any sport and be successful,” Kaatz said.