training

How Greeley Athletes Stay Fit Over the Summer

June 1, 2018 by Madeline Rosenberg

For most Greeley students, summer is a well-deserved break from the stresses that consume the school year. They no longer spend their days completing piles of homework, waking up at 6:30 a.m., and preparing for exams. During summer, most students can finally relax. But those months off from school can be anything but relaxing for athletes intending to play a fall sport. For these students, every bit of free time that comes with summer is spent training for preseason, which begins in August.

Although running through the heat of summer seems unappealing for many students, Greeley varsity athletes complete ambitious summer training routines over the summer to prepare for their fall sports seasons. Junior Max Notarnicola, a three-season varsity runner, says, “For the first few weeks of the summer, I plan to run about 20-25 miles per week. By the middle of the summer I plan to increase my distance to about 30-35 miles. Leading up to preseason, I plan to run over 45 miles and I will also be doing some speed work on the track. The speed work will most likely include mile repeats at around a five minute pace.” Nortaricola’s demanding summer training will prepare him well for his cross country meets in the fall.

Preparing for the Fall Season

Cross country coach and Spanish teacher Mr. McKenney can attest to the importance of running over the summer to prepare for the upcoming season. “Running and conditioning is our sport. All cross country runners who want to do well need to run over the summer,” McKenney explains. But he admits that not all runners follow as strict of a training regiment as Notarnicola does because “summer commitments and camps make it hard to find the time to run.”

While sports that revolve around running require rigorous training, the workouts that other varsity athletes complete over the summer to prepare for the fall sports season are equally as demanding. Captain of the Greeley Girls Varsity Soccer Team and junior Rebecca Putnam says that she stays active during the summer to stay in “soccer shape,” and tries to vary her workouts to avoid injury, as she works on different parts of her game.

She states, “Two or three mornings a week, I go to my SPARQ (speed, power, agility, reaction, quickness) trainer Andrew Abt in New Rochelle, and three nights a week, I work on technique in a co-ed soccer clinic for serious high school players and college athletes home for the summer. I also practice on my own to improve specific skills like shooting.” As captain, she will also be holding kickarounds for girls who plan to try out for the varsity team.

Younger Athletes Train Just as Hard

Although upperclassmen complete rigorous training schedules to prepare for preseason, younger varsity athletes are just as committed to maintaining their fitness over the summer. A member of the Greeley girls varsity field hockey and lacrosse teams, freshman Grace Arrese explains that she plays on a club lacrosse team four times a week, and also finds time to play on her club field hockey team, which the varsity field hockey coach runs.

Arrese’s training doesn’t stop at team practices and games. “During quiet weeks,” she says, “I go on runs with my sisters and grab a field hockey or lacrosse stick and head to the turf at Greeley.” For a varsity athlete, training for preseason is a time consuming, summer-long commitment. While many non-athletes get discouraged from exercising as the temperature rises, how do Greeley athletes stay committed to their training, especially during summer? Putnam says that she is able to stick to her training plan because she knows that “in the long run, [she] is not only improving [herself], but [she] is also benefiting [her] school and club teams.” She also explains that “improving should always make an athlete excited!”

Keeping Their Eyes on the Prize

Other athletes echo Putnam’s sentiment. “Having a decisive schedule for working out helps me stay committed,” says Notarnicola. Making a plan is the first step to sticking to summer training. He also states that “a strong work ethic is the most important characteristic to staying in shape.” Athletes must be willing to run through 80 degree temperatures, knowing that their preparation will benefit their teams in the fall.

Ultimately, though the training that Greeley varsity athletes complete over the summer is strenuous and time consuming, their hard work to maintain fitness is well worth the effort, because as Grace Arrese explains, “It is the best feeling when I arrive prepared for preseason.”

Boys & Girls Club CEO Alyzza Ozer Looks Forward, Gives Back

December 1, 2017 by Amy Kelley

On a recent school day afternoon, the lobby of the Boys & Girls Club of Northern Westchester in Mount Kisco contained a bustle of activity. Cheerful-looking teens and adults wearing staff T-shirts greeted kids coming in and said goodbyes to kids leaving; an enthusiastic game of ping-pong was partially visible through the game-room window. Nearby, a young boy with special needs thoughtfully drove his toy yellow car along a table on his way out. A young woman in a pink headscarf walked down the hall past a complex, brightly-colored paper schedule affixed to the wall, toward a mother paying for swimming lessons at the front desk.

“Miguel, you’re matching all over today!” CEO Alyzza Ozer said to a boy whose sneakers, sweatshirt and backpack displayed the same green and blue. Down the hall, she asked another boy why he didn’t eat his mashed potatoes. “They’re so good!” she assured him.

Shantae Artis, director of volunteer programs at the club, was gathering signatures on several cards. “Yes, we write real thank-you notes,” she said, explaining that several local pizzerias had donated pizzas for a taste test and the Boys & Girls Club youngsters were expressing their gratitude the old-fashioned way. Artis was able to get everyone’s attention pretty easily, perhaps partially because the club has had a no-cell-phones policy for two years now. The only cell phones you’ll see in the halls are in the hands of parents coming to pick up their kids.

Ozer, a Chappaqua resident who grew up in Armonk, said at first, the teens resisted the policy –but now many express gratitude for it. “When we first instituted it, there was resistance,” she said. “But now the teens say, ‘thank you. Now there’s a part of the day when I can just enjoy myself and not be distracted.’” Technology is available, though, to groups of youngsters in the room where Power Hour is held, right across from the game room and around the corner from a busy kitchen and dining room where more than 80,000 meals are served every year. Homework is done, studying takes place, all assisted by adults, many of whom are bilingual. Some are staff members and some are part of the large volunteer contingent that is essential to the club’s operation.

According to Chappaqua resident Solveig McShea, director of community partnerships and fundraising at the club, “The club is a vibrant, welcoming and impactful place, where kids can just be kids. We need, however, the community’s help via financial and volunteer support to keep our programming running and to continue to help kids have the brightest possible futures.”

New Castle resident Dan Harrison volunteers to help with homework three afternoons a week. “I like to see the light bulb go off when a kid understands something they didn’t understand before,” he said. “We want the volunteers to have an equally valuable experience to the kids,” Ozer said. Then the experience becomes a partnership and the volunteers learn from the kids as well as vice versa. “There’s another world out there than what we see immediately around us.” Ozer is currently seeking, particularly, volunteers with expertise in the college application process.

The club serves kids ages 3-18 and their families, offering more than 40 programs including preschool, camp, swimming lessons, after-school care, volunteer opportunities and more.

The swimming program is, by any measure, stellar. Aquatic Director Dennis Munson, a club alumnus himself, has been with the club since 1969 and coaches the Marlins, a high-level swim team that’s consistently well-ranked nationally and has won the national Boys & Girls Club National Championships every year since since 2000. Marlins swimmers have been recruited to top colleges and make the pool atmosphere one where excellence is encouraged. Swimming instructors at the club employ innovative techniques.

More than 500 kids are served by the club every day. The children come from all over Westchester, primarily northern. Kids start trickling in at 7 a.m. and the last bus leaves just before the 9 p.m. close. Some of the kids from families below the poverty level, and others come very affluent homes.

All the youngsters who come learn there’s a wide world out there with all kinds of families in it, and are taught to value their community. “It’s not just a place,” Ozer said, explaining that many club kids spend many hours there for many years. In the process, many come to love the club, which is why so many staff and volunteers were ‘club kids’ themselves.

Tatiana Restrepo, 2017’s Youth of the Year at the club and now a freshman at Pace University, said, “This was my second home, my community.” “We have advocacy and leadership throughout the curriculum starting with 3-year-olds,” Ozer said. “What makes someone a great leader, able to advocate for their community? They need to be able to recognize their community and be grateful for it.”

Recently, younger children at the club made capes for children in the hospital. “They’re learning about empathy and gratitude and that not every kid is lucky enough not to be in the hospital,” Ozer said, and then the children act in response to that information. “All people, especially youth, learn leadership skills and empathy from giving back to the community.”

Older club kids have made trips to Albany and Washington D.C. to advocate for funding and legislation for various issues, and the club hosts various politicians to come talk to the kids, “so they know what a leader looks like and does.”

This training pays off into adulthood: Ozer said eighty-seven percent of kids who regularly attend Boys & Girls Club after-school programs are committed to giving back to their communities as adults. The club boasts other impressive statistics: Last year, 11 of the high-school seniors from the club were the first in their families to graduate high school in the US and go on to college. One hundred percent of the seniors continue on after high school to college or technical school, Ozer said.

Ozer had a career as an attorney in commercial real estate before turning her energies full-time toward her passion: the non-profit sector. “That was my passion,” Ozer said. “My extracurricular activity was always philanthropy.” For years, she served on the boards of various organizations while continuing to work in commercial real estate. “You get to a certain point in your life and you ask yourself, what am I doing and do I love it?” she said. “This is what I love doing and I’ve been extremely fortunate” to be able to make the transition, she said. Ozer also credits her mother for her interest in community service–she was a teacher who always stressed the importance of giving back.

The Boys & Girls Club of Northern Westchester depends on private donors and volunteers to do its work, Ozer explained. “There are a lot of extraordinarily worthy agencies, but the youth is really our future. Our work is essential,” she said. “That’s why I’m always excited to get out of bed in the morning.”

For more information, visit: http://www.bgcnw.com/

DIVISION ONE: “More than an Athletic Gym”

December 1, 2016 by Matt Smith

Karl Pfshtner, owner and Head Strength Coach at Division One Prep — Karl Pfistner, owner and Head Strength Coach at Division One Prep

“This place is really [a gym] for everybody.” It’s with this idea that Karl Pfistner, owner and Head Strength Coach at Division One Prep, on the border of White Plains and Armonk, runs his lively fitness facility. No matter who you are, or what level of training you’re at, Pfistner assures you, “You’re going to come in here and feel like you belong.”

A strong advocate of “effective training” over “just working out to work out,” Pfistner–a former athlete at the high school, collegiate and professional Arena Football levels–prides himself on Division One’s unique approach to training, which, in keeping with his beliefs, focuses just as much, if not more, on the mental health, body control and overall movement aspects of the workout as the actual physical workout. “You could come in here and squat 400 pounds, [but] if you can’t move on the field, that means absolutely nothing,” he explains.

Eager to instill his clients with this same way of thinking, Pfistner creates any given workout in the same way. “My focus is on getting you moving,” he says, straightforwardly. “It’s about quality over quantity or time [spent], and achieving the absolute best possible results for your body.”

To that end, while every workout covers several key focus areas–agility work, strength training, core work, and static stretching–the specifics of each session, 60 minutes in length, are tailored to each individual’s needs. “We push clients to their full maximum potential, so that they get full range of motion, and receive full maximum burn,” says Pfistner, adding that programs are further categorized into “sport-specific” exercises, so they can easily be translated onto the appropriate field/court/pool, etc.

Essentially, no matter what your age, conditions or limitations, “You’re going to have a workout that really caters to your goals and what you’re looking to accomplish.” (For the record, Division One’s staff also includes a Nutritionist and Life Coach to give clients the full “mental health” experience).

Another element Pfistner cannot emphasize enough? Structure. “That’s the biggest difference between us and other fitness facilities or high school gyms,” he explains.

“There’s a big difference between having a history teacher sitting there supervising an open gym, and an actual structured, laid-out program. Especially with colleges as competItive as they are to get into nowadays, athletes need structure. It can really set them apart.” Though his gym is indeed open to people of all ages, as a dad of four– who range in ages 5 to 15, he can’t help but hold a special place in his heart for the youth athletes. “I love working with youth,” he says, stressing the importance of instilling children with these values and ideals at an early age. “They’re hungry for knowledge; they just soak everything up.”

But, as mentioned, they’re not the only age group he sees: “I have a 45-year-old ex-college football player that wants to train before he goes to work on Wall Street.

I have two middle-aged tennis pros, who also used to play football, I have a 62-year-old retiree who’s looking to pursue a new passion and lose some weight. It really runs the gamut.”

And with so many people of different ages and abilities, and various levels of training, filtering in and out of the gym at any given time, Pfistner acknowledges it’s hard to say who will retain what they’ve learned after leaving the gym.

Still, he’s fully aware of the role he plays in the lives of his clients and strongly encourages them–and everyone else–to follow through. “The bottom line is it’s a small piece in a much larger puzzle,” he explains, in reference to his clients spending just one hour (out of 23 others) at the gym.

“My goal is to motivate my clients and instill in them a desire to stay healthy, so it’s ringing in the back of their head throughout the day… It’s my job to make you want to come back, and to give you the right training to get you excited about working out. If I can instill that idea in my clients, and have them carry that [healthy outlook] on through their life, then that’s a win for me.”
Division One Fitness Prep is located at 4 New King Street in West Harrison. For more information, please visit www.divisiononeprep.com.

Matt Smith is a writer and regular contributor to The Inside Press. For more information or inquiry, please visit www.mattsmiththeatre.com.

For Empty Nesters, Getting Back into Shape is a Worthy Challenge

December 1, 2016 by Andrew Vitelli

When Grace Bennett, this magazine’s publisher, saw the last of her children leave for college, she found herself with a bit more time to commit to getting into shape. But the added time at the gym, along with weekly walks with a friend, weren’t leading to the results she envisioned.

“My regular workout wasn’t helping me keep the pounds at bay,” Bennett recalls. “I just wasn’t pushing myself very much, and I definitely wasn’t watching what I ate very well.”

Bennett’s problem is one many empty nesters, and others looking to jump into a training program, encounter after only months of working out, says Saw Mill Club Fitness Director Billy Goda.

smc_grace-169-edit — Personal trainer Sarah Eichorn showing Grace proper form

“People think that they just need to learn the best ten moves, do them two-to-three times a week, and they’re good,” Goda explains. “They’re looking for an easy solution. There’s not an easy solution or quick fix.” “Routine,” concludes Goda, “is the opposite of fitness.”

Looking to step up the intensity of her workouts, Bennett decided to hire a personal trainer. She had trained a few years ago, but for the sake of convenience and consistency, she wanted the personal trainer to also be inside the Saw Mill Club, where she had recently become a member. “I gave up on the idea again that I could do this by myself,” she says. Still, she now admits that she wasn’t exactly looking forward to being pushed to her limits. “I fully expected [the trainer] to be something of a taskmaster. I thought, ‘This is going to be really awful.’”

In her first meeting with her new trainer, Saw Mill Club’s Sarah Eichorn, Bennett realized her fears were unfounded. Eichorn pushed her to gradually up her intensity without going beyond what Bennett could comfortably handle.

“With her we circuited between getting her heart rate up, going to an upper body [workout], then a lower body,” Eichorn, a Mt. Kisco resident, explains. “As she learned these movements individually, we started putting them together.”

Soon, Eichorn saw great improvement. “I noticed a big change in her cardio, with the respiratory, with her heart rate,” Eichorn says. The two also developed a nice rapport and personal connection. “I feel very comfortable with Sarah; she is both low key and knowledgeable about fitness and health.”

Goda says Saw Mill Club gets many men and women in their 50s, like Bennett, who decide it’s time to get back into, or just into, shape.

“One thing that we stress is that what you’re going to do in your 50s,” Goda says, “that’s going to determine how you feel in your late 50s, your 60s, your 70s, and beyond.”

But while joining a gym is a good first step, there are many potential pitfalls that can derail one’s fitness program. Often, Goda says, people in their 50s join a gym and do the same simple workout every time, leading to some early but unsustainable progress.

“In the third month, when things aren’t going well, they disappear for a year,” Goda says. “What we try to do at the Saw Mill Club is we try to make sure people don’t just disappear.”

Goda gets the club’s clients to focus on the five major components of fitness: muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, cardio health, and body composition. Trainers may have their clients start by improving their range of motion, then add weight to the movement, and then throw in a twisting motion.

Communication, Goda stressed, is essential so clients know what they are doing and why they are doing it. This will not only help them see quick results, but will better the chances that they continue to push forward six months to a year in the future.

Goda also points out that no one is too old to start training, and said that working out can alleviate problems like back pain.

“My oldest client is 92 years old,” Goda says. “I put him in all these different movement patterns, and he is pain free.”

When Bennett began her training, her focus was on the number she saw when she stepped on the scale. Eichorn convinced her that this approach was misguided, as losing weight and getting fit are not one and the same.

“People are telling me that I look better,” says Bennett. “I feel better in general from day to day. I feel like I have a little more energy. I’m coupling it with much better eating too.”
For info on membership and training packages, visit www.sawmillclub.com.

PHOTOS BY: Philip Holt/Mad Shots Photography

Andrew Vitelli is a Westchester native and the editor of Inside Armonk.

Avoiding Injuries While Getting Back into Shape

April 21, 2016 by The Inside Press

Armonk Physical Therapy & Sports Training Clinical Director Robert Fay

Article and Photos By Andrew Vitelli

You’ve spent the summer sitting on your couch, your treadmill collecting dust and the golf course or tennis courts frosted over. Now, with temperatures finally back in the 70s, you’re eager to spend every free moment at the driving range or on the track, enjoying the sunshine while putting your underused muscles and joints through the wringer. It’s an experience many of us can relate to and, according to Armonk Physical Therapy & Sports Training Director Robert Fay, a leading cause of injuries during this time of the year.

“If you do too much too quickly it leads to overuse injuries like tendonitis, stress fractures and that sort of thing,” Fay explains. “A lot of these injuries can be avoided if people go a little slower as they start up. But I know that it’s hard sometimes.”

Fay, who co-founded Armonk PTST in 2001, sees an increase in these kinds of injuries around this time of year. A general rule of thumb for aerobic workouts, Fay says, is to increase your workout by no more than 15 percent from your previous efforts. If you’ve only been eking out a mile at a time on the treadmill over winter, don’t try running a half marathon the first time you make it to the track.

“As the weather starts to get nice, we’ll get somebody this weekend that’ll go out and play golf Saturday and Sunday, hadn’t picked up a club in several months, and go and play 18 holes,” Fay says. Instead, he suggests, “Maybe go and just play nine holes the first couple of times.”

A large part of Fay’s practice consists of treating patients who have sustained injuries, whether minor, like Tennis Elbow or tendinitis, or serious, such as an ACL or Achilles tendon tear. Fay and his staff also, however, will meet with healthy athletes to evaluate where they may be particularly prone to future injuries.

“If you have weakness in one joint, a lot of times that’s not the joint that you injure,” Fay explains. “You might have a shoulder weakness, and then you overuse the next joint.”

Or, for example, having strong quads but weak hamstrings could make you more likely to tear your ACL (anterior cruciate ligament). Of course, getting healthy people into a physical therapist’s office to prevent injuries is a lot tougher than it is to get them in once they’ve hurt themselves. Mostly, Fay says, those who come in for preventive treatment are high school athletes whose parents are concerned about potential injuries.

“But I think it should also be done for that weekend warrior, 40-year-old or 50-year-old type person,” Fay notes.

After evaluating the athletes, Fay’s team can advise them of what exercises or stretches they can do to address their deficiencies and lower the risk of injury. And if saving oneself from a serious injury isn’t sufficient motivation, Fay points out that the weaknesses that these injury prevention exercises address can also be hurting their performance. “So that’s the key thing that I think it’s very important to get across to people.”

Fay, now the sole owner, co-founded Armonk PTST in 2001 after previously working in Pleasantville and Greenwich, Conn. His aim is to give clients true one-on-one therapy, meaning their trainers are only working with one person for the full hour.

Physical therapist John Connolly works with client Gwen Grotta at Armonk Physical erapy & Sports Training — Physical therapist John Connolly works with client Gwen Grotta at Armonk Physical Therapy & Sports Training

Armonk PTST also offers services ranging from Pilates to occupational hand therapy (a full list can be found at their website, armonkptst.com). Armonk PTST’s trainers, Fay explains, have a greater understanding of injuries than a typical trainer, giving them insight when working with clients who have suffered injuries in the past.

Not all pain and soreness is injury related. Fay acknowledges that, as anyone who’s gotten back into working out after hiatus can attest, a moderate amount of soreness the next day or two can be expected. If, however, you feel pain during your workout rather than the day after, that can be a sign of an injury. Another red flag, Fay says, is if the pain is in the bone or tendon rather than the muscle.

While there’s no fool-proof way to avoid all injuries, taking precautions can make them a lot less likely. The two most important things to keep in mind, Fay concludes, are not overexerting yourself early on and addressing weaknesses and imbalances before you reach mid-season form. Otherwise, you may spend the bulk of the outdoor season rehabbing indoors.

For more information, visit http://www.armonkptst.com/.

Andrew Vitelli, a lifelong Westchester resident, is the Guest Editor of Inside Armonk Magazine.