March 2015

"Backyard Track Barn-Burner"

I'm certain some have had car-trips back from a track meet where your athlete was despondent over their competition. Truth be told, the DC, Maryland, Northern Virginia area known as the Potomac Valley Association (PVA) is arguably the most competitive track association in the entire country. If your kid was competing in Des Moines, Iowa, Tuscaloosa, In This Issue… Alabama or Provo, Utah, odds are they'd be going home most weekends with a plate-full of medals. Instead every meet they compete against some of the country's best. Backyard Track Barn-Burner ! There are 80,000 kids registered to do age group track in the U.S. Together, they are on 3,475 different teams, 76 of which are registered to compete in the PVA. There are roughly An Exercise 2,000 athletes in the PVA, something you have already felt while watching endless heats of Speed the 55 meter or 100 meter dash. Training The results from even small, local meets in this area rival some of the top meets in other A Myth parts of the country. The PVA's yearly championship outdoor meet is almost always more Hydration competitive than the Regional track meet for which the athletes qualify. This means there are some terrific athletes who never get a chance to run at bigger track meets simply A Future Star because of their home address. To put your next "bad post-track meet" drive home into Eriyelle Trotter perspective, 6,000 kids run each year at outdoor nationals and the PVA routinely sends 500+ athletes, nearly 10% of everyone running and almost 25% of all the athletes in the PVA.

An Exercise: A Myth:

Here's a deceptively hard exercise It's worth periodically re-visiting this myth because it's which can be done anywhere, harder to kill than Rasputin: hydration. The idea you anytime. It helps promote hip should always be drinking water (or, if you're the CEO at flexibility which is a key ingredient Pepsico or Coca-Cola, sports drink 24/7) while in sprinting. exercising is just flat wrong. Your body is insanely clever at getting what it needs and the simple concept of https://www.youtube.com/watch? drinking when you are thirsty has served mankind well v=JCzErilI4M8 for hundreds of thousands of years. Still, I hear parents consistently yelling at their kids to "drink water" after even the most mundane exercise. You want to see a kid really slow-down? Give them a belly full of water.

Legend Future Star: Eryielle Trotter

Calvin Smith was one of the best Eryielle Trotter is a 9-10 girl who defines the importance of hard- sprinters in America, work and practice. Eryielle joined DC Speed three years ago and unfortunately he chose his time to immediately showed flashes of talent in the sprints. She helped shine while Carl Lewis was several relay teams make it to the Regional track meet. Her fierce dominating the scene. Smith beat determination to get better broke through last outdoor season as Lewis to one of the more illusive she posted dramatic improvements in both her 100 and 200. She world records, 1968 100 added to her resume this indoor season and found meter world record which had instant success as one of the area's better jumpers, eventually stood for nearly 20 years before qualifying for indoor Nationals. The upcoming outdoor season will Smith ducked under the tape in most certainly be Eryielle's best ever with DC Speed. Modesto, stopping the clock at 9.93. Smith ran in two different Olympics, earning a gold medal on the the world record-setting 4X100 relay. His son recently competed in the Olympics in the 4X400 relay.