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Cottonwood Heights Journal

Sport Ready Academy helps young high-performing athletes train smart

Mar 11, 2022 09:40AM ● By Peri Kinder

Sport Ready Academy is changing mindsets in the sports industry, addressing the misconception that constant, sport-specific training will make you a better athlete.

Robin Cecil, Sport Ready Academy owner and physical therapist, brings together all aspects of healthy training including nutrition, sports psychology, workload management, and strength conditioning to help young athletes train for success.

While pro athletes have dedicated professionals working with them, teen athletes don’t always have that luxury. Teen athletes training at elite levels are often not getting the support they need on the back end. Sport Ready is that support. Without the support, athletes find themselves not performing well, fatigued, burned out, or even injured. 

Working with athletes from ages 12 to 17, Sport Ready Academy offers online courses and in-person workshops on topics like Strengthening the Mental Game, Fueling for Peak Performance and Training as a High-Performing Female Athlete. 

Most online courses are $199 for a team, that’s only $10 each for a team of 20. In-person workshops are $249 for a team, and individual online courses are only $59. Robin says it’s an inexpensive investment that will have big payoffs.

“They train like mini-adults and are often caught between multiple coaches. Now we’re seeing a domino effect of overuse injuries created by our current competitive system,” she says. “These courses provide the knowledge to help keep young athletes in the game and available to train so they can reach their goals.”

If you coach, or parent, dancers, gymnasts, cheerleaders, endurance athletes, or soccer, lacrosse, basketball,  or volleyball players, Sport Ready’s programs will help create a high-performance team. You’ll learn how to apply sports science principles, how to help your athletes develop a mental game, and how to create return-to-play protocols. 

Most athletes don’t have an offseason or take the time to recover, leading to major injuries such as a torn ACL, with fatigue being a major contributor. Allowing athletes to recover by incorporating rest days, cross-training and stretching can make the difference between a great career or a career-ending injury.

Nutrition is a big part of the Sport Ready approach. ReD-S is a syndrome where an athlete’s dietary energy intake cannot support the energy required for health, taking exercise and sports training into account. Changes in nutrition can make a big difference in overall health and performance.

“This is prominent in sports where athletes are training at such a high level but they’re still growing and not fueling themselves properly,” Dr. Nicky Keay, who is a world-renowned specialist in RED-S states. 

In a five-star Google review, Shaylee Wilson, head of youth development at 7 Elite Soccer Academy says the Sport Ready program provided knowledge for athletes to prepare their bodies and minds for competition at the elite level. 

“The support given to our players to prevent, and in response to injuries, has allowed our players to return to play more quickly while healing their bodies in an appropriate manner,” Wilson writes. “The importance of educating our athletes on how to care for their bodies while playing at an elite level has proven to be imperative in our success.”

“We want to empower athletes and give them control over their training and their sports journey,” Robin says. “Our goal is to help the kids do what they want to do and give them the power to make wise choices by applying sports science into their training.”

Former soccer player David Mayer has played with professional clubs around the world with access to world-renowned physiotherapists. Now a coach, he says Robin and Sport Ready Academy reach the same level of excellence, always going the extra mile to assist and support the athletes she works with. 

“[Robin’s] knowledge, ability to transfer that into practical manners and attention to detail is as good as I have seen in the USA,” Mayer says. “She has the capability to help athletes on their paths, and she also cares deeply during this process. As a coach, she has been in constant communication with me whenever I have seen an athlete go through a tough time with any physical issues.”

For more information, visit SportReadyAcademy.com