Titan Athletics is a program that strives to uphold the athletic abilities of many of Shadow Ridge’s own students, providing aid in several fields, ranging from sports medicine to further coaching in athletic form.
Founder of Titan Athletics, Track Coach Mike Smith conveys, “What brought me to start this program was to bring proper health care and science to athletes. I wanted to target a much needed missing gap in this type of training that most people don’t understand goes a long way. I have worked with basically every type of athlete, and the learning and knowledge that I have acquired over the years has prepared me to bring this new goal of mine to life.”
This program aims to provide ideal support in athletics, solely basing its foundation around working with members to help them reach their full potential.
Personal trainer for Titan Athletics, Coach Amber Smith explains, “We’re so passionate about quality healthcare and diagnosing, treating, and rehabilitating sports injuries, as well as improving athletic performance through evidence-based workout programming. Each athlete is treated as an individual, and each program is customized to the athlete’s specific needs and goals.”
Titan Athletics focuses on individuals and what is needed in order to provide ideal assistance, as seen in a variety of different fields within the program.
Coach Smith explains, “The business has a few branches. One side of the business is sports medicine, so Coach Mike does injury evaluations, injury treatments (manual therapy, instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization, cupping, dry needling), and rehabilitation.
We tend to be the ones that people come to when they haven’t had success elsewhere, and we’ve even had an orthopedic surgeon say we did the best rehabilitation on an ACL repair that he’s seen,” Coach Smith adds. “Another branch is the sports performance side where we focus on exercises to improve strength, speed, stamina, coordination, explosiveness, etc., depending on what the particular sport demands and the particular athlete’s deficits. Lastly, since Coach Mike and I both specialize in pole vault, we have a pole vault club that focuses on technique, run form, and body control. Last year, the top four boy pole vaulters in the state for 4A were Titan Athlete pole vaulters.”
With such vast opportunities presented for members of Titan Athletics, this program ensures the best suited benefits for each and every athlete looking to grow, both mentally and physically.
Pole vaulting with Titan Athletics, junior Ellie Fisher says, “I enjoy getting to spend more one on one time with my coach, while also getting to improve my skills before the track season starts.”
Having specified training for an individual athlete can help them to grow immensely in their sport or abilities as an individual, rather than working as a group; as every athlete requires different support from coaches.
Coach Smith expresses, “I love watching people set and surpass goals they set for themselves. It’s so fulfilling seeing maxes improve or hearing how performance in their sport has improved, and how people’s lives are better because they’ve incorporated exercise into their daily routine. It fills me with life.”
