Athlete News

Many people take a DIY approach to training for events. Why hire a pro when you “know” what you’re supposed to do, right? Not so, say athletes who’ve experienced the Athletic Mentors difference.

Just ask Jim Bonnell, who, in his second full cycling season and first year will Kelli Emmett, was able to secure 5 wins and take the podium in the expert 30-39 Mountain Bike class in every race he entered. He capped off the season with a 4th place finish at the Iceman from a 5th wave starting position, and hopes to take advantage of a wave 1 start next season.

“Coaches certainly shorten the learning curve. However, when your coach has competed at the highest level for over 10 years and been trained by various high level coaches, the experience factor is pretty much unbeatable,” Bonnell said of his training time with Emmett.

Bonnell credits Emmett’s insight and assessment skills as setting her apart from ‘ordinary’ coaches.

“Any coach can assign workouts and follow a general workout regime. Kelli is able to understand the strengths and weaknesses of a rider. Then, focus on how to improve. I have been able to maintain and improve my strong areas and almost eliminate some relative weaknesses. It seems Kelli has a knack for getting to know an athlete.”

If you’d like to boost your performance and optimize your training time, contact us to be matched with a coach who can take you to new heights!

Athletic Mentors would like to send out a BIG congratulations to one of its long-time Basketball trainees, Jake Walbridge. In his best Varsity performance of his young career, Jake lead the way Tuesday (Jan 24th) in the Gull Lake Blue Devils 79-50 victory over Parma West. Jake scored a season high 11 points, 9 of those coming in the fourth quarter. Jake hit a bunch of 3 pointers, had numerous rebound and added some assists to make a big impact on the game.

“Jake is an extremely hard working young man, with some of the best focus I’ve seen in an athlete of his age,” said Mark Olson, head coach at Athletic Mentors.

“He is very committed to whatever he is working towards, be it sports or academics. Jake holds well OVER a 4.0 GPA and is a leader in class academically. He is also very active with the National Honor Society. I feel Jake is just getting started showing his ability to contribute to the Blue Devils’ win column and I’m looking forward to watch him progress.”

Check it out at http://highschoolsports.mlive.com/game/news/1145646/

Join us for one of our 2-day sessions:

Time: 9:00 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Location: Kalamazoo College Pool

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Athletic Mentors would like to congratulate Brent Tate on his commitment to play for Bowling Green University starting for the 2012 season. We started working with Brent last spring by developing a pre-hernia training program to keep him in the best shape possible before he underwent surgery. After a successful surgery, AM got Brent back into shape in time to do serious summer training by participating in our Elite Summer Hockey Camp. Throughout the summer Brent worked extremely hard and went into The USHL’s Lincoln Stars pre-season camp in excellent condition.

“Brent has impressed me from the first day I met him with his toughness, both physically and mentally. He showed up every day for our summer training camp prior to the start time and shot pucks and worked on his stick-handling. The kid is extremely committed to becoming to best hockey player he can be. BGU made a great decision to recruit Brent and I feel strongly that Brent will make an impact the day he shows up at BGU,” said Head AM Coach Mark Olson.

“We are really looking forward to working with Brent this coming summer to prepare him for his college hockey debut.”

Follow this link to read the Lincoln Stars Blog: http://www.lincolnstarsblog.com/2011/07/congratulations-to-brent-tate.html