Athlete Performance Training

• Minimally 8 weeks of training are required to fully complete APT. 10-15 minutes of time is necessary each week for lesson and goal setting. However additional time will also be required to set aside during week 1 and week 8 in order to complete the 6-Minute Run/Walk Test and gather any other health metrics.

• APT can be completed with any size team or group. From one or two athletes to 25 or more. The APT is adaptable to any size.

• Any sport or team can participate in APT as long as they have 8 weeks of training time. From swimming to floor hockey or snowboarding to soccer all teams during every season are welcome to participate. (Some sports may need to adapt locations or find an alternative meeting place to complete the Coopers Test, i.e. swimming may need to meet outside of the pool for this.)

• There is no paper work required! Collection of the health metrics (height, weight and blood pressure) and fitness (aerobic fitness level will be collected and automatically calculated from a modified version of the 6-Minute Run/Walk Test) will be tracked using Google Sheets. A quick tutorial on how to input the data into the Google sheet is included in the training.(see below) Within the Coaches Education Guide as well as the Athletes Guide, there are pictures, step by step instructions as well as tips for athletes to collect their height, weight and blood pressure.
• Coaches may wish to review athlete’s Daily Tracking but it is not required to keep any paperwork. Each athlete is provided their own Guide so paper copies are not necessary.

Athlete Performance Training Evaluation will be completed 2 times throughout the training season: start, which is the first training and end, which is the last training.

There are three aspects of the evaluation. To track and evaluate health metrics of athletes, height, weight will be collected. Blood Pressure may be collected as part of the health metrics. If it is difficult to collect blood pressure it is optional.

To track and evaluate fitness metrics of athletes, aerobic fitness level will be collected and automatically calculated from the "6-minute run/walk test.” Changes in your health habits will be determined by a lifestyle survey conducted at the start and end of the season.

• For questions or concerns regarding Athlete Performance Training, please reach out to Charla Stein, Healthy Communities Coordinator, at cstein@specialolympicspa.org or 610-630-9450 ext. 254.