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Monday, September 25, 2006
By KEN TARBOUS
STAFF WRITER
Sports and athletics aren't just about getting the win or taking the top spot in the standings.
"For fun and teamwork and good sportsmanship and good character development, those are all good reasons to participate in youth sports," said Sally Johnson, executive director of Florida-based National Council of Youth Sports, an industry group looking out for youth sports organizations such as Little League Baseball and Pop Warner Little Scholars.
Johnson said young people join athletic activities because they want to have fun and be with their friends.
"But while they're doing that, they're not only are being physically active but they are learning skills for life, skills they can take with them on and off the field," she said. "There's good social skills and character building that take place while they're learning the Xs and Os."
The council's 2000 survey on youth sports trends and participation found more than 38 million kids, 18 years old and younger, involved in some form of organized sports programs. Of that total, about 63 percent were boys and 37 percent were girls.
In Central Jersey, there's no shortage, either, of enterprises, from former coaches to corporations, providing young athletes with training and instruction in the fundamentals that build character and make champions.
Head over Heels Gymnastics, Dance & Cheer Center, in Sayreville and Middletown, caters to clients 18 months to 18 years old, providing classes and instruction in gymnastics, dance and cheerleading and adults in some dance classes.
Gail Boyce, president of Head over Heels, is a former competitive gymnast, and most staff members are former and present gymnasts, coaches and cheerleaders.
"Our main goal is to teach children that learning is fun, to equate taking on a challenge with being able to accomplish it instead of seeing a challenge and being afraid to try," Boyce said.
In business for 25 years, Head over Heels has its share of fierce competitors, like world-class trampolinist 16-year-old Steven Gluckstein, who trains with Russian champ Tatiana Kovaleva at the Middletown gym.
But for many of the other 2,000 students who visit Head over Heels each year in both locations, competition isn't the motivator.
"For your regular once-a-week students it's the activity of gymnastics, it's not really the sport of gymnastics," she said. "It's a physical activity. They're learning some coordination and building strength for physical fitness. We just use the venue of gymnastics."
At the younger ages, the make up of classes is usually close to 50/50 boys and girls, Boyce said, but most older students are girls.
"Gymnastics is a good basis for any sport," Boyce said. "The boys, if they've decided not to be gymnasts, they've done the stretching (and) coordination thing in order to to be good or better than they would have been at baseball, football, or whatever sport they choose."
Classes usually run in 8-week "terms," starting at $92 per term, with other programs and levels of instruction and coaching available.
Families across the region are more than willing to commit their resources to help their young athletes and players improve their skills.
Frank Grippo brings his 13-year-old son to the Basketball Shooting Academy in Edison because his boy likes to play ball.
The younger Grippo, Greg, a seventh-grader at St. Matthew the Apostle in Edison, signed up for 20 half-hour lessons at a cost of $400. He's not alone.
Since BSA opened this summer, more than 100 individuals and 20 teams have signed up for coaching sessions or to use the half and full courts, shooting and rebounding guns, and other equipment designed to improve a player's game, said Mike Allocco, BSA's owner and a former NBA player.
Instruction focuses on repetition and muscle memory, with analysis and ball-return equipment that can help shooters manage up to 1,500 shots per hour.
"You really can see the results," Allocco said, pointing to certain players who've upped their shooting accuracy from 35 percent to 75 percent using the intense coaching and documentation provided by BSA's staff of former pro players, high school coaches and other basketball people.
BSA lessons run from $35 per half-hour to full court rentals of $100 per hour.
But if young boys or girls in his programs don't show passion for the game, Allocco said, he doesn't want to take parents' money.
Addressing expectations, then, is important.
"You're definitely going to be better when you leave," he said. "I'm not going to say you're going to play in the NBA."
The elder Grippo said the basketball lessons' value goes well beyond sports, helping the teen build leadership qualities.
"I just try to put him in the best position I can to give him the benefits wherever he plays," Frank Grippo said.
Sean Economou, director of indoor baseball and softball training facility All Pro Academy in Edison, said parental demands aren't the problem they might have been in the past.
"We tell them right in the initial signup that it is quite unrealistic to think that their son or daughter can come in for one or two lessons and be fixed and be a .400 hitter. It doesn't work that way," Economou said. "I think there are enough of these facilities out there, and enough of the whole lesson concept out there. Most people are pretty realistic."
Getting instruction takes a commitment of time and money. All Pro has lessons and clinics to develop offensive, defensive, pitching, catching skills for boys and girls starting at age 4 starting at $40 a half-hour or 10 lessons at $325.
Jack Cust Baseball Academy in Flemington is often-cited by many in the baseball-instruction community as one of the most popular softball and baseball training facilities in the region.
Over at the Baseball Warehouse Instructional Academy in Highland Park, Director Kevin Connolly said serious-minded players are usually the ones who sign up for instruction.
"Ninety-nine percent of the kids love it. They get to play the game they love," Connolly said.
Marc Moreau, owner of Leading Edge Lacrosse in Far Hills, said that sport is exploding in popularity with high schools adding varsity programs every year, at last count 145 school teams statewide.
Leading Edge runs camps, clinics, leagues, and travel teams and creates, produces and sells instructional lacrosse videos.
With 35 coaches — most former Division I college players, and many from past and present teams at Rutgers University — and the majority coaching at youth or high school level, Leading Edge has seen more than 2,000 boys a year.
"We start them as young as 4 years old in a program we call Mini Laxers, which is a very basic introduction to lacrosse, all the way up to our most high-profile program, our elite travel teams for the summer," said Moreau, the head coach at St. Joseph High School in Metuchen and a former two-time All-America at Rutgers.
Leading Edge, started by Moreau five years ago, enrolls middle schoolers who play in rec leagues and high school seniors.
Leading Edge creates training and instruction programs for boys in kindergarten through fourth grade because countless young athletes go into other sports.
"Now with soccer being almost a spring sport at the youth level, and Little League baseball being there, and the fact that you can start those sports at much younger age . . . by the time these kids get to fifth grade they're entrenched in soccer or baseball."
For the Mini Laxers program, 4- to 6-year-olds, usually the parent played lacrosse at some point in their life. "They want to get their kid introduced to lacrosse, but more than anything they just want them to have fun," Moreau said.
In instructional leagues, and travel teams that require tryouts, parents are looking for a solid grounding in the fundamentals and a higher level of coaching and play than in other youth programs, Moreau said.
Lacrosse is where soccer was about 20 years ago, Moreau said.
Holding back lacrosse's popularity is the cost of equipment, which at about $300 to get outfitted head to toe, is prohibitive for many players, he said.
But money or skill don't necessarily relate to the fun and enjoyment players get from another sport. All Pro's Economou said the academy is considering a new league for adults still interested in taking the field.
"Basically about every single guy I've spoken with, I mention the words "Wiffle Ball' and their eyes pop out of their head and they say: "Do it. Get it running.' "
