Fifth-ranked Willamette Won Its First Title in the Class 5A Girls Basketball Final

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SuperSlow Zone Owner – Ed Collins, Eugene, Oregon
Helped Williamette Lady Wolverines Get SuperResults!
Fifth-ranked Willamette Won Its First Title in the Class 5A Girls Basketball Final
Congratulation to the Lady Wolverines!

Meet Ed Collins, SuperSlow Zone owner in Eugene Oregon – he has a special interest in the Willamette High School girl’s basketball team:
1. Last school year (2005-06) his daughter was on the team.
2. Ed has an extensive background in strength training, beginning with Nautilus years ago and continuing today as a SuperSlow Zone owner.

Before SuperSlow
During the last school year (2005-06) my daughter was on the Willamette High School girl’s basketball team and I observed a couple of the off-season workouts. I noticed there was no emphasis on progression. No one was in charge of keeping records from session to session tracking machines and weights that were used as a guide for subsequent sessions; they just used the same weights over and over again. Primarily the girls were working out for an hour, two or three times a week at their school, doing multiple sets. Mainly they were trying to learn how to do traditional Olympic-type lifts.

Without strength training, I felt that last year the girls were in great shape at the start of the season, but toward the end of the season they didn’t seem as strong.

After the season ended last year, I approached the head coach and invited him to visit SuperSlow Zone to see the facility, equipment, and then introduce him to SuperSlow exercise, the philosophy behind SuperSlow Zone. He listened intently as I explained that the emphasis is on high intensity training, training to fatigue, and doing five or six basic exercises.

I told him, “Coach, I believe that if we did this during the season, we could do this just once a week.” To my delight, the coach agreed and thought it was a great idea.

Now was the chance to put in-season strength training into action and test my hypothesis that, when the play-offs start at the end of the year, they would be just as strong as pre-season or maybe even stronger.

Kick-Off SuperSlow Strength Training
So last year when the (2006-07) season began, we kicked off the in-season SuperSlow strength training. They worked out once-a-week on Saturday mornings at our SSZ facility.

In order to accommodate the team and to make best use of time, I worked with one to three girls at a time. Although not ideal, our facility is small enough to make “team strength training” it possible. It requires a little more concentration, because you are following up to three people instead of one. What we may have lacked in a strict one-on-one environment became a source of motivation because each player’s natural competitiveness inspired them to do their best.

My main job was making sure the equipment was set correctly and that they were doing the exercises properly, which was actually pretty easy as they are highly motivated athletes and caught on very quickly.

As I soon learned, the real challenge for each of them was their demanding schedule. Number one, they are students in high school – sophomores, juniors or seniors, which means about 6 hours of school every day followed by about 1½ hours of basketball practice every night. When the season starts, they maintain that same schedule but add playing games twice a week. That means the only day they have off from basketball was Saturday. So, at first, they weren’t very excited about working out on Saturday mornings; but they did it anyway.

From Fifth To First
I’m glad to say that all their hard work paid off because at the beginning of March 2007, they won the state 5A championship. Willamette, previously ranked fifth, won its first title with a big second half to win the Class 5A girls basketball state championship.

Did the team win the state title because of SuperSlow? I can’t definitely say that, but it certainly didn’t hurt them at all. When it comes to maintaining strength, I’ve always felt that, if two athletes are exactly the same skill-wise, then generally the stronger one is going to win every time. That was the general idea when we began: keep them strong through to the end of the season. I believe we achieved that goal, not to mention winning the state title.

However, hard work alone does not enough to create champions, but when it is coupled with raw natural talent this team possessed, the results were stellar. Willamette held three teams at the state tournament to a combined 25.5 percent field goal shooting. Danielle Bellando, who averaged 14.8 points per game, was at the heart of the effort.

Meet Danielle Bellando … a Senior and Co-Captain, the League MVP
and League Leading Scorer at State Tournament.
Danielle led the Midwestern League in scoring as a junior and as a senior. She was voted by the state’s 5A coaches as the best player in the classification after helping the Wolverines win the first state championship for a girls’ team sport in school history and was also nominated for McDonalds All American Team.
With her nomination to McDonald’s All American™ Girls High School Basketball Team, Danielle was instantly recognized as one the finest young basketball players in the country.

Here is what Danielle Bellando had to say about SuperSlow in her own words ~

“SuperSlow is great! I felt it worked my muscles better than traditional weight lifting.
I think the concentration required for SuperSlow helped me in games.

It was hard, but it was over quickly and I felt stronger when I was in the game, and I think that was from the strength training.”

Meet Katie Stewart … a Senior and Co-Captain, the League MVP
and League Leading Scorer at State Tournament.

The second outstanding player I want to recognize is, also Co-Captain of the team and named to the all-tournament first team.

Here is what Katie Stewart had say about SuperSlow in her own words ~

“I love SuperSlow. It was a real challenge, but I felt the results each week. I liked that it was only one time a week for 20 minutes, but I was definitely stronger during the season.”
Focus on the Off-Season
Now we need to focus on what we can do during the off-season. Skill wise, the off-season rules state that they can play basketball, but they can’t be coached by the team coach. He can work with them as individuals, but he can’t coach them as a team.

The players are permitted to have someone who is not officially one of the coaches on the coaching staff oversee what is called an “Open Gym.” They come in twice a week during the off-season and practice shooting and drilling and that sort of thing, but they don’t really practice plays and strategies.

However, they usually get together and play in a summer league touring different cities throughout the state to play in tournaments. Also, there is AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) basketball, and I’m proud to say that my daughter is playing that as well. The AAU plays in different tournaments and it becomes more of a year-round sport.

The 2007-08 Season
Looking forward to the 2007-08 season, I am very gratified by the fact that the coach wants the team to continue SS strength training during the off season this year as well. Hopefully we will be setting that up soon with the option to workout twice a week instead of once a week – but as athletes most of them could get by with once a week, because they understand the intensity involved.

There are many other pluses to proper strength training, including injury recovery and possible injury prevention. Unofficially, I know that previously the girls have had some sprained ankles and such, but if we look at injury strictly from the standpoint of what actually causes it – it is force that exceeds the structural integrity of the body. Forces involved in sports are unavoidable and we have little or no control over them other than preparing for those dangers by creating a stronger body and using any protective gear to meet those dangers head on.

Another way we can minimize dangers and possible injury at SSZ is that motor learning principles are one of the basic tenets of SuperSlow philosophy. We do not try to mimic skill conditioning by adding resistance, which does nothing for improving skill, but it does make it more dangerous. Instead, we advocate separating the physical training from the skill training. At SSZ, we handle the physical conditioning to increase strength, endurance, and resistance to injury and leave the skill conditioning to the coaches. Skill conditioning is best perfected by the athlete practicing the exact skill to be performed under actual event conditions (e.g., same time of day, same day of the week, same gear, audience, temperature, etc.) – in this case it is basketball.

The Future
In my opinion, if more coaches or people in the physical education departments knew about SS strength training principles at a basic level – they would get it. It’s not just about getting in shape; it’s about strengthening muscles, ligaments and tendons as much as possible to help improve physical performance and possibly prevent or minimize injuries.

Coaches everywhere will begin to recognize the SuperSlow Zone value when they realize how much time an athlete can recapture in their schedule. Instead of spending an average 2-4 hours per week doing some form of strength training, what we’re doing can be done in about 20 minutes.

Now just imagine what would happen, if a coach could begin the season with athletes who are stronger and more resistive to injury – and in less time – who then apply those improved bodies to practice the exact skill required in performance of their sport. Theoretically, the bi-product to such an efficient regimen would become a secret weapon – time saved. All things being equal, if two athletes become stronger and more-enduring while possessing exceptional skill, the outcome of who is best may well be decided by which of them is also the well-rested athlete.

Obviously, what I tell everybody is – it is strength training, but to me it’s the highest form of strength training: “SuperSlow is the safest, most productive, time-efficient way to exercise. For an athlete, those are all positives.”

Willamette Wins CLASS 5A GIRLS State Championship
Saturday, March 10, 2007

Willamette High School in Eugene, Oregon. is a 4-year high school of some 1500 students in west Eugene’s Bethel School District. They have a proud history, and a superb reputation for excellence in academics, athletics, the arts, club and organization activity and service to the community.

Willamette won the Midwestern League, winning two of three games. Close and intense until late in the second quarter when the Wolverines began scoring easily. Then during the third quarter, the 3-pointers – two by sophomore Ashley Smith – broke it open for the Wolverines.
Willamette co-coach Paul Brothers got his first championship in his 20th Oregon high school season. This is his 12th season with the Wolverines, whose best previous finish was a fifth place in 2002.
Katie Stewart, who sat out more than two minutes with a slight ankle injury, returned and scored on a rebound to ignite a 7-0 run that led to a 10-5 Willamette lead at the end of the period.
The Wolverines made 8-of-20 shots in the opening half. Willamette’s Shimea Jordan came off the bench to lead all first-half scorers with five points.

Smith’s three-pointer from the corner stretched Willamette’s lead to 11 points.
Bellando added a three-point play as the Wolverines built their lead to 16 points at 34-18. The pullaway continued as Bellando, scoreless in the first half, scored all seven of her points during a three-minute stretch.

“I can’t believe this … I’m on top of the world,” said Bellando, who was named to the all-tournament first team.