Editor's Note: Albert Park from Hocevar Performance will be writing articles for CollegeTennisOnline.com on performance fitness training. He currently works and trains with top professional athletes that include tennis players, baseball players, MMA fighters, and football players. We hope you will enjoy and benefit from his vast knowledge!
The ominous orange glow of the street lamps make the 5:00 am blackness of a new day indistinguishable from the night before. The monotonous buzz of the alarm clock chiming in after your third rep on the snooze button finally convinces you to zombie out of bed. Another day slaps you in the face at a time when even morning birds indulge in a few more minutes of sweet sleep. But you're up, crusty eyed and grouchy as hell, but your still up.
You tell yourself you're crazy.
But you still do it. You put yourself through this to get better. To get stronger, to get faster, to get tougher. To become the best athlete you can be at the top of your game and that is exactly what I want to help you become.
Let’s take your game to the next level. My name is Albert Park and I am a trainer and a strength & conditioning coach from the rain Mecca of Seattle, Washington. I will be a new “guest” columnist for College Tennis Online (CTO) bringing you blog articles on everything from top performance workouts, speed/agility/quickness training, nutritional information, and ways to improve your strength & conditioning. I take my research from the trenches of training real life athletes like yourselves and a velvet roped “VIP” only pool of the industries top trainers and strength & conditioning coaches. Everything is written to help you improve your game and performance.
In college, I competed in Track & Field and truly understand what it means to compete at this elevated level of competition. The dedicated break away from the pack and the rest are left in the dust as the top athletes settle at the top. This is a level where technical skill, more or less, can even out and something has to become the “X” factor. Where bad days…..well let’s just say we don’t want any bad days. This is where I think strength, conditioning, speed, endurance and power come into play. You don’t want to have to look back on a performance and say “if only I didn’t get tired”, “if only I was a little bit faster”, if…..what if…… At this level athletes need to find a way to gain an edge on the competition.
“When you watch the game of tennis you can appreciate the power and strength players today have. On top of that, factor in the fact that matches can last anywhere from 30 minutes to over 5 hours, and you quickly realize that tennis players have to have extraordinary fitness, power and endurance. A properly designed strength and conditioning program can help any player elevate his or her game to a new level.“
- USTA Sport Science Department
The gym I work out of is more of an underground strength and conditioning lab disguised as a 1500 square foot warehouse. Out motto’s are engraved in graffiti across stone walls to constantly remind ourselves that this is where we can transform ourselves into dominant and powerful athletes, if we work hard. Hocevar Performance caters to the likes of our everyday fat loss “Joe” but specializes in Athletic Performance. We pride ourselves on smart and effective programs, hard work, and a willingness to adapt and continually change. From Tennis Performance, Mixed Martial Arts, Semi-Pro football, Professional baseball, Professional basketball it doesn’t matter, we train all our athletes to breathe high performance.
I hope to bring you all the same quality information I bring to all of my athletes and clients with the single goal of taking your game to the next level. To help you become a little faster than your opponent, to push your endurance a little harder, to make your game explosive and powerful, and most importantly improve your overeall performance.
Ladies and Gents, I will see you soon!
Albert Park
