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Lisa Welsh
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By Lisa D. Welsh
www.CHEERMaD.com
I’m very excited to introduce a new page that will appear weekly on CHEERMaD: Go Ask Alton written by high performance, strength, conditioning, and nutrition coach Alton Skinner.
In addition to training well-known professional athletes like Jeff Gordon, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan and Lance Armstrong, Alton is the author of two books: Winning Workouts For Competitive Cheerleaders: Stunt Bigger, Fly Higher and Reduce Injuries In 15 Minutes (Volume 1) (Published Feb. 2012) and The Golfer’s Stroke-Saver Workout: 30 Minutes a Day to Longer Drive, Lower Scores, and Better Health (Published Apr. 2004).*
But most importantly, Alton is a CHEERMaD.
We named the page Go Ask Alton because that’s the phrase he says he’s most associated with. Don’t know the proper stretch? “Go Ask Alton.” How many reps was that? “Go Ask Alton.” What makes the professional athlete work so hard? “Go Ask Alton.” He’s made a career out of knowing more about strength training, injury prevention and nutrition than anyone else, as he describes in CHEERMaD’s introductory installment of Go Ask Alton:
By Alton Skinner
I grew up on a farm in rural North Carolina, the son of a farmer and an aerobic instructor. When I was a child, my mother was overweight but with diet and exercise she transformed her body and our lives by losing nearly 100 pounds. It was then that I first learned the transformative power of strength and conditioning.
Years later, I was reintroduced to strength and conditioning in 1982 by a (then) little known basketball player named Michael Jordan. Weeks prior to our meeting, he had hit the legendary shot to win the NCAA championship. I was in Jr. High school and attended a small basketball camp at Campbell University and quite honestly was one of the shortest, slowest and least skilled players there. But I was the recipient of Mr. Jordan’s kindness when he picked me and another kid to be on his team against three college players. We proceeded to win by a pretty good margin.
Afterwards he said this to me, and I will never forget it:
“Skinner, you may not always be as talented as other people, but you can out-think and out-work most other players. You’re a tough kid. If I were you, I’d start by getting stronger and see what happens.”
I don’t think I’ve missed a week of working out since that day.
In high school I began leading the weight training program for our basketball team in 1984 and have been a trainer since that day in some form or fashion.
My introduction to competitive cheerleading came in 1988 while attending North Carolina State University on a full academic scholarship. My dorm-mate, Reed, tried out for the mascot Mr. Wolf; I tried out for the cheer team on a whim. He made the team, I did not. My jumping had not improved much from basketball camp I guess.
But I did become friends with a number of cheerleaders. I helped them with their strength programs for my remaining time at NC State. During my tenure, they won two national championships. That is when I learned cheerleaders train much harder than many of the athletes they cheer for.
NC State also had, and still is, a national power in Men’s college golf. They were among the first programs to apply a systematic strength and conditioning program to the sport. By combining strength, conditioning and flexibility expertise I began training professional golfers and golf instructors. I have been fortunate to provide equipment, training and consultations with many of the legends of the game.
I have also been a competitive martial artist and have interviewed most of the top flexibility specialists in the world in the search to develop extreme flexibility quickly. That is where my love of research and writing began.
It was during this time that I wrote one of the first books on golf fitness with Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player’s assistance. Because of this I have been able to work with many national champion players and teams.
In my practice I have successfully trained MMA fighters, ultra marathoners, Broadway dancers, Olympic sprinters, Olympic gymnasts, elite ballet dancers and athletes in professional soccer, basketball, baseball, football, hockey, NASCAR and lacrosse.
But to this day the most challenging sport to design a program for is cheerleading. That is because it has elements of all sports combined and has one of longest seasons of any sport.
In my quest to help my daughter receive the best chance to be a good cheerleader, I have applied my love of research and coaching to cheerleading full-time. For the last two years I have scoured the world of cheer looking for the best and most effective techniques to boost performance quickly. I have had the good fortune to have help from or provide help to athletes and/or coaches from the majority of Allstar’s national and world champion programs. I never share the specifics of any program with another program but I look for the overall trends and try to share that information in order to grow the sport.
Since my book Winning Workouts for Competitive Cheerleaders was published in February, I have been contacted by many of the national and international governing bodies of cheer to provide fitness information. It’s a big responsibility but I look forward to helping grow cheerleading and cheerleaders.
I’m very happy to join CHEERMaD with my weekly column which I hope will become a resource for parents, athletes and coaches alike as they try to maximize the development of their cheerleaders, teams and programs.
Skinner’s Partial Client List: Jeff Gordon, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Lance Armstrong, Greg Norman, Gary Player, Emily Wilson (Ms. North Carolina Teen), Ashley Kaizen (Ms. North Carolina, Ms. United States), Kristen Dalton (Ms. America), Edward Jones, Raymond James, IBM, SAS, Caterpillar, Wal Mart, McDonald’s, PYA-Monarch, Merrill Lynch, Wachovia, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of the Carolinas, Coventry Health Care, Carnival Cruise Lines, Princess Cruise Lines, Disney, ESPN, The Travel Channel, PGA of America, USGA, USTA, PGA, Greenbrier Golf Resort, Pinehurst Golf Resort and Country Club, Tournament Players Club at Wakefield, Nation Wide Golf Tour, Carolina Hurricanes, Carolina Panthers, New York Rangers, Atlanta Braves, Durham Bulls, Pittsburgh Pirates, Colorado Rockies, U. S. A. Baseball, UNC Chapel Hill, Duke University, NC State University, Wake Forest University, University of South Carolina-Aiken, University of Florida, Clemson University, Peace College, Meredith College, Duke Diet and Fitness Center, U.S. Army, U.S. Marines, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, NASA, The V Foundation and Make-A-Wish Foundation.
*To order either of Alton Skinner’s books go to/click Amazon: Cheer and Golf
By Lisa D. Welsh
www.CHEERMaD.com
I’m very excited to introduce a new page that will appear weekly on CHEERMaD: Go Ask Alton written by high performance, strength, conditioning, and nutrition coach Alton Skinner.
In addition to training well-known professional athletes like Jeff Gordon, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan and Lance Armstrong, Alton is the author of two books: Winning Workouts For Competitive Cheerleaders: Stunt Bigger, Fly Higher and Reduce Injuries In 15 Minutes (Volume 1) (Published Feb. 2012) and The Golfer’s Stroke-Saver Workout: 30 Minutes a Day to Longer Drive, Lower Scores, and Better Health (Published Apr. 2004).*
But most importantly, Alton is a CHEERMaD.We named the page Go Ask Alton because that’s the phrase he says he’s most associated with. Don’t know the proper stretch? “Go Ask Alton.” How many reps was that? “Go Ask Alton.” What makes the professional athlete work so hard? “Go Ask Alton.” He’s made a career out of knowing more about strength training, injury prevention and nutrition than anyone else, as he describes in CHEERMaD’s introductory installment of Go Ask Alton:
By Alton Skinner
I grew up on a farm in rural North Carolina, the son of a farmer and an aerobic instructor. When I was a child, my mother was overweight but with diet and exercise she transformed her body and our lives by losing nearly 100 pounds. It was then that I first learned the transformative power of strength and conditioning.Years later, I was reintroduced to strength and conditioning in 1982 by a (then) little known basketball player named Michael Jordan. Weeks prior to our meeting, he had hit the legendary shot to win the NCAA championship. I was in Jr. High school and attended a small basketball camp at Campbell University and quite honestly was one of the shortest, slowest and least skilled players there. But I was the recipient of Mr. Jordan’s kindness when he picked me and another kid to be on his team against three college players. We proceeded to win by a pretty good margin.
Afterwards he said this to me, and I will never forget it:“Skinner, you may not always be as talented as other people, but you can out-think and out-work most other players. You’re a tough kid. If I were you, I’d start by getting stronger and see what happens.”
I don’t think I’ve missed a week of working out since that day.
In high school I began leading the weight training program for our basketball team in 1984 and have been a trainer since that day in some form or fashion.
My introduction to competitive cheerleading came in 1988 while attending North Carolina State University on a full academic scholarship. My dorm-mate, Reed, tried out for the mascot Mr. Wolf; I tried out for the cheer team on a whim. He made the team, I did not. My jumping had not improved much from basketball camp I guess.
But I did become friends with a number of cheerleaders. I helped them with their strength programs for my remaining time at NC State. During my tenure, they won two national championships. That is when I learned cheerleaders train much harder than many of the athletes they cheer for.NC State also had, and still is, a national power in Men’s college golf. They were among the first programs to apply a systematic strength and conditioning program to the sport. By combining strength, conditioning and flexibility expertise I began training professional golfers and golf instructors. I have been fortunate to provide equipment, training and consultations with many of the legends of the game.
I have also been a competitive martial artist and have interviewed most of the top flexibility specialists in the world in the search to develop extreme flexibility quickly. That is where my love of research and writing began.
It was during this time that I wrote one of the first books on golf fitness with Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player’s assistance. Because of this I have been able to work with many national champion players and teams.In my practice I have successfully trained MMA fighters, ultra marathoners, Broadway dancers, Olympic sprinters, Olympic gymnasts, elite ballet dancers and athletes in professional soccer, basketball, baseball, football, hockey, NASCAR and lacrosse.
But to this day the most challenging sport to design a program for is cheerleading. That is because it has elements of all sports combined and has one of longest seasons of any sport.
In my quest to help my daughter receive the best chance to be a good cheerleader, I have applied my love of research and coaching to cheerleading full-time. For the last two years I have scoured the world of cheer looking for the best and most effective techniques to boost performance quickly. I have had the good fortune to have help from or provide help to athletes and/or coaches from the majority of Allstar’s national and world champion programs. I never share the specifics of any program with another program but I look for the overall trends and try to share that information in order to grow the sport.Since my book Winning Workouts for Competitive Cheerleaders was published in February, I have been contacted by many of the national and international governing bodies of cheer to provide fitness information. It’s a big responsibility but I look forward to helping grow cheerleading and cheerleaders.
I’m very happy to join CHEERMaD with my weekly column which I hope will become a resource for parents, athletes and coaches alike as they try to maximize the development of their cheerleaders, teams and programs.Skinner’s Partial Client List: Jeff Gordon, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Lance Armstrong, Greg Norman, Gary Player, Emily Wilson (Ms. North Carolina Teen), Ashley Kaizen (Ms. North Carolina, Ms. United States), Kristen Dalton (Ms. America), Edward Jones, Raymond James, IBM, SAS, Caterpillar, Wal Mart, McDonald’s, PYA-Monarch, Merrill Lynch, Wachovia, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of the Carolinas, Coventry Health Care, Carnival Cruise Lines, Princess Cruise Lines, Disney, ESPN, The Travel Channel, PGA of America, USGA, USTA, PGA, Greenbrier Golf Resort, Pinehurst Golf Resort and Country Club, Tournament Players Club at Wakefield, Nation Wide Golf Tour, Carolina Hurricanes, Carolina Panthers, New York Rangers, Atlanta Braves, Durham Bulls, Pittsburgh Pirates, Colorado Rockies, U. S. A. Baseball, UNC Chapel Hill, Duke University, NC State University, Wake Forest University, University of South Carolina-Aiken, University of Florida, Clemson University, Peace College, Meredith College, Duke Diet and Fitness Center, U.S. Army, U.S. Marines, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, NASA, The V Foundation and Make-A-Wish Foundation.
*To order either of Alton Skinner’s books go to/click Amazon: Cheer and Golf
