Sports Performance

Mission Statement  

The Francis Parker School Sports Performance Program is committed to instilling the principles of character, leadership, and discipline. We approach training with a holistic view and believe in educating, motivating, and preparing our competent student-athletes to be efficient lifelong movers. We strive to build our student-athletes on and off the field and believe a healthy body leads to a healthy mind. 

At Parker, we have high expectations, and continually challenge our student-athletes to become the best versions of themselves during every workout. We hold them to a high standard in order to build character, strength, and a commitment to excellence. Our primary objective is to maximize athletic potential while mitigating the risk of injuries,  improving athletic performance, and building physical and mental fortitude. We utilize a systematic approach that encompasses all aspects of training to accomplish our goals. We implement the use of free weight, ground-based, multi-joint movements in an encouraging, positive, professional, and safe environment. We strive to develop the whole athlete and enhance performance that translates to on-field success.  

Philosophy 

The Sports Performance Program at Francis Parker School is committed to the utilization of an Athlete-Based Strength Training system that emphasizes training sport-specific bio motor abilities to meet the demands of the sport. We focus on augmenting strength, power, speed, agility, and specific sports conditioning. Our research-based, periodized, strength training program integrates cutting-edge methodologies to assess movement quality and implement the most effective exercises that will best prepare our student-athletes.   

Parker’s Sports Performance Program strongly believes in integrating principles of rest and recovery to bridge the gap between rehabilitation and strength and conditioning. Our goal is to properly prepare our student-athletes to prevent injuries and minimize recovery time. Additionally, in conjunction with our athletic training team, we strive to provide the highest quality recovery techniques and nutritional guidance. Our end goal is to instill lifelong practices amongst our athletes so we can prolong their athletic careers. 

Program 

At Parker, we prioritize the implementation of principles fundamental to our mission and facilitate opportunities for our student-athletes to achieve peak athletic performance.  We analyze and correct movement mechanics, teach proper lifting techniques, and enhance overall work capacity. We introduce functional strength training concepts that teach athletic position, jumping and landing mechanics, stabilization exercises, and posterior chain movements. These concepts are foundational to what we do and facilitate a smooth transition into more complex movements.  We integrate these concepts with the training of important sport-specific qualities. 

• Ground-Based Lifts and Strength Development

A large majority of sports are played with power initiated from feet planted into the ground. Teaching our student-athletes how to move with balance, purpose, and force is imperative. Our program prioritizes multi-dimensional movements using either free weights or body weights to increase athletic abilities related to the sport. We incorporate multi-joint actions similar in nature to the sport to strengthen musculature, joints, tendons, and ligaments; enhance performance, and decrease injury. The wider the range of motion the more athletic the lift. Greater athleticism under resistance translates to higher chances of success on the field.    

• Speed, Power, and Agility Development 

Our program utilizes closed-chain, multi-joint exercises that require our student-athletes to produce force against the ground. The greater the force our athletes can generate, the faster they will run, jump, and change direction. We utilize Olympic weightlifting variations of the clean, jerk, snatch, and plyometrics to teach the importance of triple extension. The triple extension includes the ankle, hip, and knee joints. When transitioning from flexion to extension, the body moves explosively. This is imperative for our athletes to dunk a basketball, explode off the line of scrimmage, or hit a baseball with force. To maximize gains, we adhere to the principles of intent and high effort when training for speed and power.

• Anaerobic and Aerobic Capacity 

Our goal is to increase our athletes’ ability to sustain high output workloads over prolonged periods of time to boost sport-specific abilities. We accomplish this by analyzing the demands of the sport and the season and then vary training variables (volume, intensity) accordingly. We use scientific practices to monitor training volume and loads to prevent overtraining. At Parker, our goal is for our student-athletes to train with 100% effort during every workout to fully enhance their work capacity. 

• Flexibility, Mobility, and Stability

We strive to improve and maintain joint health, integrity, and a full range of motion. We implement mobilization, stabilization, and flexibility techniques to achieve our objective. We incorporate soft-tissue work, dynamic warm-ups, and rhythmic movements before every workout to increase flexibility. Additionally, we cool down after workouts utilizing static stretches. Our program places a high priority on hip and thoracic mobility. We implement many rotational exercises to explore the capabilities of both areas as they are essential components to athletic movement fluidity. Lastly, we incorporate anti-rotational exercises to strengthen and stabilize the core. 

Middle School Program 

We implement a “block zero” training plan that considers an athlete’s relative training age as zero. Our mission is to properly introduce our student-athletes to foundational strength training principles for daily life activities and on-field success.  

At Parker, the Sports Performance Program takes pride in fostering a culture that promotes team-building, accountability, integrity, total effort, and having a one mission one goal mentality.