Chip Smith answers your questions!

Question: How important is it for the draft prospects to prepare for the draft at a complex like CES. -- Cody from Chesapeake, VA.

The NFL is one of the most highly competitive professions in the world. Today, it would be virtually impossible for an NFL athlete to go through the draft process without this kind of specialized training. Just to give you a perspective on the numbers…there are only 32 NFL teams, with just 55 roster spots each year. So if you do the math, there are roughly 1,800 guys involved in the league at any one time when you take practice squads and injury lists into consideration. The average career of any NFL player is less than 3 years, which means that about 1/3 of the league turns over each year. That’s why you will hear guys around our facility referring to “NFL” as meaning “Not For Long!” as a player’s career goes. So saying that the NFL is “highly competitive” is really an understatement.

There are 238 NCAA Division 1A and 1AA Football Programs in colleges and universities across America. Each one of those schools has about 100 kids in each program, so that’s 23,800 guys all dreaming about having a career in the NFL one day. So the odds are that only 7.5% of all college players will ever see the inside of an NFL locker room. And when you take the millions and millions of high school kids playing football across the country into consideration, the odds of ever making it to the NFL for a young player are extremely small. So today, specialized training like we provide at CES is really mandatory…not only for the small group of players going through the draft process, but ANY player trying to climb that ladder at any level.

It is well known that CES has prepared more NFL talent than anyone else in the world…over 20% of the league has been through our doors, but we also train dozens of major league baseball players, and pro athletes in numerous sports. The real growth in the industry is coming from the amateur market. Last year alone at CES, we trained more than a dozen high school All-Americans, and hundreds of high school players transitioning into college ranks in numerous different sports. From soccer to lacrosse, to women’s softball, tennis and golf, we are seeing tremendous growth in amateur training.

Until next time, keep training hard,

Coach Smith

Chip's Travels in China

(Picture descriptions, going clockwise starting from top right).

1. Chip Smith standing on the Great Wall of China.

2. Chinese Handball Team Member wearing the CES Hitting Harness. This drill works with the specific movements of a handball player.

3. Chip Smith does reaction training with the Chinese Women's Gold Medal Badmitton team.

4. Olympic Gold Medalist in weight lifting.

5. Lifting warm-up for Chinese weight liftining team.

Until next time, China.

I got up early and walked around the city for most of the morning, taking in the sights and sounds. Beijing is really a unique city with tons of culture and history. I know I’ll look back one day and realize how lucky I was to have had this incredible opportunity to have experienced it.

Until next time, all my best!

China trip coming to an end...

We had our meeting with Mr. Sun this morning; it was really more of a debriefing than anything else. He suggested that on our next trip, we would work with only Olympic champions. The problem that poses is that there are so many Olympic and World champions walking around this place. Its unbelievable! Our meeting lasted about two hours and when we finished the meeting, it was time for lunch and another meeting with the director of all the National teams. Today they took us to a Japanese steak house where they cooked on the table. I was excited at first until I saw some of the food coming out to be cooked.

They did serve us Kobe beef, which is very expensive. I believe the cost of the meat was around like 30 yen per ounce. It was really good and I enjoyed it. This lunch lasted a couple of hours and when we were through, I headed over to the training center for my 2:00 session with the high jumper. I started him off with a resistance dynamic warm up which consisted of me having him wear a belt and I hooked two cords to him to speed up the process. I then had him do the same exercises with the shackles that I had done with him a couple of days earlier. We then went into a lateral resistance movement drill, working on the push off and drive phase of his jumping. I then hooked him up with a make shift vertimax that I have developed to be taken on the road. I had him do different types of jumping, fast explosive jumps, quarter jumps, negatives, and fast bouncing and explosive jumps. We always finish with a set of contrast jumps. He LOVED it!

His coach and a couple of track athletes had come to watch and film. I asked them if it made sense to them and they all said, “absolutely!” Again, my problem can be adapted for any sport or movement in that sport.

His session lasted about an hour and a half and he was drenched. We finished his session with a long cool down stretch. Next time I’m back in China, his coach wants me to work with all his jumpers and throwers. I can’t wait!

I finished off my day by working with the men’s weightlifting team. I love all the athletes that I get to work with however, the weightlifters have a special place in my heart. I have been doing strength training since I was a very young man and have followed the strong men from Paul Anderson to the current world and Olympic champions. The Chinese head coach has trained more Olympic champions than any weightlifting coach alive today and it was really an honor to get to hang out and work with his team!

I showed him and some of his lifters some eccentric loading of the quads to strengthen and stabilize the hip region. Dr. Bob had identified some areas that needed to be addressed. The strength athletes were eager to add these exercises to their training regiments.

We spent about three hours working with multiple athletes and I had so much fun hanging out and interacting with the weightlifters. They reminded me of our NFL players with there pushing, shoving, flicking, joking, and generally having fun with each other. I felt right at home.

We had dinner and said our goodbyes to all the staff, I can’t believe it’s already time to go home. My flight will leave at 4:00 pm from Beijing and get into Chicago at 5:00 pm on the same day and then I’ve got a two hour flight back to Atlanta. I guess I’ll head off to bed. Good night!

Work is Work!

This morning they picked me up at 8:30 to go and train one of the women’s badminton teams. The coaches liked what I had done with the Olympic and world champions and had asked if I was available to work with all the team members. Again, we broke down all the movements on the court and trained them with resistance. I also included some reaction drills that are relevant to their sport. I really enjoy working with female athletes for a number of reasons. One, they have so much passion for their sport. Two, they are just fun to work with and three, they are all so appreciative of anything you do for them.

We had a couple of hours training and they seemed to enjoy the work even though - work is work! It’s hard to believe that I only have one day left to train. The time flies when I’m here. I’m not looking forward to that flight home, however, I am looking forward to going home.

This afternoon we had a lecture and called it quits for the day around 4:30. Tonight we had a pleasant surprise when our meeting was held at TGIF’s. This was the first western food that I have ever eaten while here in Beijing and boy did I need it!

Tomorrow morning we have a meeting with the deputy director of the training bureau at 9:30 am. We then will have lunch and debriefing with the assistant deputy director and talk about the schedule for next year.

Dinner tomorrow night is with the doctor in charge of treatment for all the national teams. Well, it’s 10:30 pm and time to hit the sack.

Train Like you PLAY

This morning I woke at 5:30 am and decided to go out for a walk. You would think that the streets would be relatively quiet. Wrong! The streets were filled with hustle and bustle and people going to work, kids bicycling to school, old folks out for their exercise, shop owners getting ready for the day, street vendors displaying their wares, and this strange westerner walking by with an ipod, oblivious to the outside world. It occurred to me this morning that people around the world are just like us. They have the same wants and desires, same aspirations for their children, feel the same happiness and same pain as us.

Listening to one of my all time favorite bands, the Doobie Brothers, (I’m really dating myself now) I’m reminded of their lyrics, “What the people need is a way to make them smile, it ain’t so hard to do if you know how.” I realized that a smile and a “nihao” or hello as I walked the streets this morning might be the only smile or acknowledgement that that man, women, or child might have today. Life is too short not to enjoy every moment, every experience, every meal and every encounter with a stranger. It occurred to me this morning that I might be the only person from America to ever speak to that Chinese person. I’ve always used my travels to spread diplomacy in foreign countries and am always amazed to see the smiles reciprocated back to me.

As I walked by a group of middle school boys waiting for the bus, I high fived a couple of them and the surprised looks on their faces and giggles made my day! Today is going to be a GREAT day!

This morning I helped the rehab staff with some exercise questions. We take for granted our education system and what we have access to in the way of academia. This morning was pretty slow but I was told that I would be working with the women’s badminton team this early afternoon so I was taken over to their training complex and videoed some of their training. Later in the day I would be working with the women’s Gold medalist from the 2008 Beijing Olympic games. As it turned out, I worked with both the women’s Olympic champion and world champion. Both of these girls worked extremely hard and I had a blast training them. I’ve found women athletes work hard, are appreciative, and don’t have the attitudes that some of the elite level men athletes have.

I warmed them up with my ballistic dynamic warm-ups to get their core ready for work. I used the shackles to start the work. We did walking lunges, marches, step squat, backward diagonal steps, lateral slides, 3 step diagonal slides and finished with a suicide reaction drill. I then had the girls partner up and I started some resistance pattern reaction movements. I had watched video from the morning session and came up with specific movements that mimic the actual movements on the court without impeding the skills. They loved it and it made sense to them, train like you play! I did a couple of other different movement with the cords and punch belts and again both girls worked hard and both gave me a big hug when we were through. Oh, the benefits of my JOB!

Both champions asked if I would be in a photo with them and I was honored to be sandwiched between and Olympic and a world Champion! I knew it was going to be a great day today!

Tomorrow I have been told that I would be working with five Olympic Champions from men’s badminton: gold, silver, and bronze Olympians, plus gold and silver medalist from the World Games. It should be another great day.

Touring China

I knew that I was going to crash last night. We got back to the hotel at 6:30 and by 7:00 I was out like a light. I awoke at 1:30am with all my clothes on and the light’s still on in my hotel room. It was nice to finally get caught up on some sleep. The Chinese decided they would give us Saturday off in exchange for us working on Sunday.

I had planned to visit a few famous places around Beijing and shoot some video. I have worked enough with Bob Sharrett, our video guy at CES, to know how to use the HD camera that he has loaned me. The director of the training center is picking me up at 9:30 am and has volunteered to drive me around. The first place he takes me is this giant outdoor park where hundreds of people are doing all kinds of exercise. He explained to me that belonging to a commercial gym is very expensive so all these people come to the park and do some form of exercise. Now, let me tell you, I mean all kinds of exercise! I saw Tai-Chi, swing dancing, calisthenics, fan dance, synchronized racquet forms, all types of people playing musical instruments, martial arts, gymnastics, checkers, carioca, and every other kind of exercise that you can and can’t even imagine. Old and young, in shape and not in shape, the Chinese definately know how to enjoy the outdoor environment and all their surroundings. One of the coolest things I saw was an old man using a big paint brush painting a poem on the sidewalk in Chinese characters using water. It was really beautiful and the old man told me he has done this for 20 years for his exercise. It’s pretty amazing how creative and ingenious these people are.

Next, Mr. Lee and Mr. Lou took me to Tiananmen Square. It’s a very famous place here in Beijing and a lot of history took place in the Square. I took some great video and enjoyed walking around watching people and haggling with the street vendors. I have traveled enough to know how to play that game.

They returned me to the hotel around 2:00 and we had lunch. We had deer, lamb, eel, and shark fin, just to name a few of the dishes that my host ordered for us. Needless to say, I’m not a fan of REAL CHINESE FOOD!

Tonight my host is taking us out for a dinner of spiced crab and scrimp. We are eating dinner at this very famous restaurant that serves seafood and where all the celebrities who visit Beijing come to eat. They have photos of Yao Ming and many, many, other famous athletes who have eaten crab here. The food was actually very, very, good and I really enjoyed tonight. We had a meeting back at the hotel around 9:00 with a Chinese businessman who wanted to visit with us about some opportunities here in China. I finally went to bed at 11:00 and I’m hoping for another good night’s sleep.