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Click on name to read case study
Nancy Mason: Professional Volleyball Player
Carrie Dodd: Professional Volleyball Player
Frank "Twinkle Toes" Trigg: MMA Fighter
Ed Donatell: Professional/College Coach
Allie Schwarzwalder: College Volleyball Player
Todd Bynum: College Coach
Luke Chronister: College Football Player
More to come soon!
Nancy Mason
-15 years as a professional volleyball player
-WPVA, FIVB, AVP, USAV, BVA
-Owner of A Soiree – An Events Project Management Company
“When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.” (FDR 32nd US President)
Take one look at Nancy Mason and you know she is committed to her profession. Going into her 15th season as a professional beach volleyball player, the 5’9” Indiana University grad is a physical specimen. More importantly, if you stick around and watch her play—there is no doubt that she is an explosive and well conditioned athlete.
In preparing for her 2007 campaign, Nancy Mason experienced the unthinkable—back surgery. For an athlete, injuries are highly probable – still, they are never welcomed. Nancy had a choice: a.) Let time heal her body from surgery and return whenever or; b.) Take charge, expedite the process, and come back better than ever. Winners don’t wait on anything; they go out and take it!
All the pieces were put in place: Nancy’ unyielding determination, a progressive physical therapist, and specialized Zone Ready training program. All efforts pointed in the direction of recovering from the procedure for this season and for the long term. All involved wanted Nancy to get playing as soon as possible, but not at the expense of a relapse or long term disability. Communication is paramount in sports, and this challenge was no exception. Using objective and subjective information; the right exercises could be prescribed at the right time, in the right amount, and at the right intensity.
Nancy responded like a champion to her training! Her overwhelming passion to keep fighting and turn a negative into a positive is what makes her a pro. What happens on “Gameday” is only a fraction of what a pro does. There are the countless hours of preparation, of sacrifice, of enduring through the pain of injury and effort. Nancy’s adversity is fairly common among professional athletes, what is uncommon is her grit and character to pull through it. That mental toughness is what got her back; Zone Ready was just honored to go for the ride.
- Nancy Mason
See more about Nancy at www.avp.com
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Carrie Dodd
-10 years as a Professional Volleyball Player
-WPVA, FIVB, AVP, USAV, BVA
-Volleyball Coach at El Segundo High School
-Former El Segundo Fire Department Trainee
"You can teach an old dog new tricks!"
Carrie’s ability to be consistent allows her to execute many demanding skill sets at a very high level. Digging, setting, blocking, and scoring are all in a day’s work. In any sport, balance and consistency are always in high demand. The issue Zone Ready is going to tackle involves how Carrie can take one facet of her game; improve it significantly, while keeping all other areas progressing at a respectable level. In a perfect world, we would like all attributes to improve significantly; however, we must be realistic and pick one that can be achieved within the confines of the variables we can affect. Upon evaluation and communication, our goal was to increase vertical jump from a pre-loaded position. This is a jump when the athlete’s knees are bent and arms are all ready cocked to assist the elevation process. To increase a pre-loaded vertical jump is a tall order for an athlete of Carrie’s experience. But that’s why we are in this business - to make the tough things possible.
Carrie had a rich collegiate strength training experience. As a University of Texas grad, she lifted quite often and quite vigorously in her developmental years. To get stronger, she really didn’t need more weightlifting; she needed stability and core training to take her to another level. Olympic lifts, squats, lunges, and other traditional lifts would be used sparingly in her training program. Instead, we planned to spend more time training the stabilizing muscles throughout her entire body. Only, once Carrie achieved global and local stability would we begin to integrate the more traditional exercise. Indeed, it was a systematic plan. Our motto echoed the adage of legendary human performance coach Dr. Fred Hatfield: “You can‘t shoot a cannon from a canoe” – with that in mind, ZR was looking to create a battleship.
Every session demanded stability and balance in all three planes of motion. Add in stability on one leg, and Carrie was working muscles she had never used in her whole life. She could feel the difference! Her volleyball coach and teammate could see it! And her opponents hated it! Carrie’s pre-loaded vertical jump increased 6 inches in 3 months! As an AVP veteran, where fractions of an inch distinguish success from failure; this improvement is a competitive advantage.
Carrie is still chopping hard for her next championship. With her increased jumping ability and longevity—gravity and time are now in her favor.
“I was tired of just going into the gym to lift weights. More importantly, I don’t think it was really helping my game. Zone Ready provided a training program that was fun and volleyball specific. Everything I do in my workout has a purpose, it all points in the direction of boosting my play in the sand. It is the only way I train now!”
- Carrie Dodd
See more about Carrie at www.avp.com
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Frank Twinkle Toes” Trigg
-MMA Fighter in the following organizations: Ultimate Fighting Championship, PRIDE Fighting Championships, Rumble on the Rock,
-Color commentator for PRIDE Fighting Championships and a co-host of the new TAGG radio show.
“Train the way you are going to fight.” (Quote hanging in the Field House of the United States Air Force Academy)
Any athlete will tell you that there is a difference between practice and “Game Day.” The cameras are pointed at you, the crowd is screaming, and your opponent stands in front of you pursuing the same thing you are—Victory! At the highest level, raw talent is fairly even across the board. So given that a competitor maintains his honor and abides by the rules of his sport, what can he do to give himself a competitive advantage over the rest of the field?
Frank Trigg asked this question to take his Mixed Martial Arts craft to the next level. He must work on a multitude of combative skills to include but not limited to: grappling, wrestling, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, judo, boxing, and Muay Thai kickboxing. But he must do something more to ensure these trained skills sets are utilized in competition. Enter Zone Ready to bolster Trigg’s push to that next level.
Zone Ready’s plan was simple—allow Trigg to feel the intensity of competition in a controlled training environment to as close a level as possible. Furthermore, this mental and physical demand would incur within a systematic training model without any risk for major injury. High expectations for sure, but all involved were up to the opportunity for excellence!
Working closely with Trigg’s combative instructors and sport performance psychologist; Zone Ready was part of the team that created an integrated training program that raised his metabolic conditioning, increased his resistance to repetitive stress injuries, and encouraged confidence under duress essential to success in MMA.
The training was grueling, and at the same time safe and effective. When integration happens and concepts are communicated, athletes are able to feel the results. The body and mind work together and when the moment to excel arrives, the athlete pushes “GO!” and reaps what he sows.
“When Giz (Coach Chris Gizzi) puts me through a Zone Ready Conditioning session, it feels like I’m in the cage. No punches or kicks are thrown, but I must be at my peak to physically and mentally respond with maximum effort. The exercises keep coming and I must push past the pain and use all my resources to finish strong. I have full confidence that I will be in shape and healthy for my fight—it is the best of both worlds.”
-Frank Trigg
www.triggonomics.com
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Ed Donatell
-Defensive Coordinator for the Washington Huskies
-30 Years of Football Coaching Experience
“The fox knows many tricks; the hedgehog one good one.” –Archilochus (700BC Greek poet)
You don’t get a reputation as a defensive guru in football by just keeping up with the Joneses. Ed Donatell continues to push his envelope as a coach in all facets of the game. But most importantly, in that singular facet that he knows leads to victory.
Experience and wisdom has taught Coach Donatell many valuable lessons, probably one of the most valuable is the hedgehog concept. Highlighted in the book “Good to Great” by Jim Collins; the hedgehog concept demands that an organization do one thing so exceptional well, that it can rightfully say that they do that one thing better than any one else in the world. This is the trump card, the atom bomb, the soup bone—it is that which you depend upon the most because it is natural and conditioned to be the response to the highest pressure situations. The hedgehog is a bold message to competitors and an instant motivator for accountability for every member of a team.
Coach Donatell’s hedgehog concept involves increasing turnovers and big plays in his teams favor every game—at least one more in each category to swing the tide of victory. In order to achieve this turnover/big play advantage; he puts incredible energy into player selection, skill enhancement, and durability. All areas, that Zone Ready is able to provide specialized knowledge in empower the coaches and players to do their jobs better.
Zone Ready has assisted by providing static body and functionally movement assessments of potential team members to ensure top physical performance output and limited injury risks. To get physical skills sharper, Zone Ready orchestrates a protocol of exercises that the coaches use to steadily improve their players’ technical skills and abilities. By creating efficiency and economic movement; players fit into a scheme better, they stay healthy, and they are able to play to their potential.
Communication is key! Zone Ready communicates the what and how to the position coaches so that they can deliver the info to the players that need it. Let’s check the boxes: Communication is valued; every one involved is able to fulfill his own individual hedgehog concept; turnovers and big plays come in abundance; and the wins start piling up. Check, check ,check, and check.
“A successful organization always does at least one thing better than any of its competitors. Coach Gizzi and Zone Ready take this vast world of performance training and simplify it. They make it usable for coaches. That is their thing—a simplified delivery system that gets results.”
-Ed Donatell
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Allie Schwarzwalder
-Division IA Volleyball Player (Outside Hitter) at The Ohio State University
“Set the tempo of the drill” – Coach Gizzi
All Athletes feel a wide range of intense emotions during competition. It’s what makes sports fun— like being on a roller coaster. Sometimes, an athlete is too excited and that can actually hurt his/her performance. In this case, the athlete must relax, control his/her heart rate in order to achieve excellence. Conversely, sometimes an athlete can be so calm that he/she has trouble bringing the hammer down when it is needed. Remember the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears: the porridge can’t be too hot or too cold, it must be just right. Athlete’s must know what “just right” is for them, and believe us—this can be trained during a workout.
Allie Schwarzwalder has great control over her emotions when the lights are on, the pressure builds, and the game is on the line. She can calm herself to deliver an accurate serve or give an intense burst when she needs to go for the kill. As a Division IA volleyball player it is extremely important that a player can respond to the given situation to have the right touch, literally. Allie had Zone Ready help her transform from a high school player to an elite college athlete on scholarship. Performing under pressure has always been here strong suit—in order to be successful in college, she knows she must take this facet of her game to the highest level.
Zone Ready created various drills to force Allie to recognize a stimulus, process it, and act accordingly with the new developed movement patterns and power that she now possessed. Finally, through Zone Ready’s Conditioning ©, Allie was put in situations where she had to transition from performing ballistic movements to fine motor control movements and vice versa. During these transitions, she was required to focus on one object or see/react in a 360 degree environment. ZR created a training roller coater that simulated the demands of a volleyball match in the closest way possible. The biggest difference was the strict guideline to create drills and exercise that reduce the risk of injury. We want Allie to have her cake and eat it too!
Now, Allie has improved the ability to shift gears between being calm to perform a fine motor skill like a precision serve, then shift gears into aggressively jumping to deliver a spike. Knowing what gear to play at separate good from great. Allie feels confident that she is well on her way.
“While training with Doug (Coach Doug Gizzi), I was able to see how high performance training can transfer to my play in college volleyball. We hear all the time in practice—tempo-tempo-tempo, we set the tempo of the game— and through Zone Ready’s training I know how to control my emotions better to play my best.”
-Allie Schwarzwalder
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Todd Bynum
-Head Coach and Athletic Director
-Air Force Academy Preparatory School
-US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel—20 years
“Do more with less.”
The AFA Prep School is a unique institution. Its one year curriculum’s primary purpose is to ready young men and women for a four year stint at the Air Force Academy. After this 5 year journey, an exceptional 2nd Lieutenant is ready to join the active duty Air Force.
The curriculum includes a wide variety of science, math, history, and literature courses in such abundance that a Harvard freshman would feel fortunate. Furthermore, all enrolled must learn the “ins and outs” of being a member of the US military—shined shoes and marching formations included. And if this is still not enough, students participate in a wide variety of athletics against some stellar junior college competition.
Head Coach Todd Bynum had the daunting task of getting the most out of his players in the short two hour time block that the team was allocated for practice everyday. Coach Bynum and his staff were exploring all ideas on how to increase the efficiency and productivity of their athletes, as well as limit their exposure to injury. While the Prep School staff is doing all this for football, they are also completely committed to creating warriors and leaders for the US Air Force. Zone Ready was honored to offer assistance to such noble men.
ZR came in and performed a thorough assessment and evaluation of the football team’s daily regimen. This included, and is not limited to: staff meeting protocol, position/coordinator meetings with players, in season strength and conditioning, injury prevention measures, skill and techniques acquisition, and practice schedule—macro and micro. ZR quickly provided recommendations and a proposal upon these recommendations so positive change could be instituted on the fly. Living and breathing football and character development, Coach Bynum and his staff were open to all recommendations. Now a feedback loop was established so the best could be done for this team.
A few weeks later, ZR came back out to Colorado Springs and installed the information that would give the Prep School a competitive advantage. A top to bottom In-Season strength and conditioning program was put in place to replace the archaic version the team was using which resulted in poor results and frequent injuries. Coach Bynum was delighted with the new In-Season program because it kept his players in excellent shape; reduced their In-Season injuries significantly; and the players were excited about engaging in the challenging, state of the art, and fun workouts.
The additions did not stop there. The prep school staff was amazed at the ideas ZR delivered on how to create more efficiency and productivity in practice while maintaining the health of the players. In fact, practice related injuries were down as well; and on a team of 55 players, that metric is precious. Coach Bynum really valued the wealth of knowledge that ZR provided through its formal education and vast practical experience from working with athletes and teams from around the world.
The augmentations to the Huskies’ training and practice curriculum were several on top of the two that were specifically mentioned. Todd Bynum and his staff are sold and have held ZR on retainer ever since. ZR provides the Prep School with updates and feedback so the “corporate knowledge” of their team stands the test of time, turnover, and adversity. And as he hangs his whistle up at night, Coach Bynum knows he gave everything to help his players succeed—as athletes, as officer candidates, and as men.
“The workouts, training programs, and consultation Zone Ready delivered to us has been instrumental in producing a better conditioned athlete and officer candidates for the Air Force Academy. We are limited on time, money, equipment, and space—we have a surplus of effort, determination, commitment, and persistence. Zone Ready realized all this and helped us construct a fluid model to do our jobs better. Now at the P-School (USAFA Preparatory School), performance optimization training is an all the time thing!”
- Coach and Lt Col. Todd Bynum
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Luke Chronister
-Division III football player at Baldwin Wallace College
-Double major in Early Childhood Education and Exercise Science
-Graduated summa cum laude from Baldwin Wallace College with a cumulate GPA of 3.55
”We will find a way, or make one.” (Hannibal – Carthaginian Military Commander, 247BC-183BC)
Every day we face adversity, hectic schedules, and only 24 hours in the day to accomplish all of our goals. Within our days, we make choices how we perceive what is being dished out in front of us. Many people choose to become discouraged and they give reasons why they can’t get something done. Others overcome these situations and find their way through seemingly impossible odds. These individuals make a pre-determined decision to stay positive and pursue their goals with unrelenting passion. This is a story of an athlete who did and continues to do just that.
Luke Chronister’s college academic and athletic career has been anything but easy. Luke’s second season of playing football at BWC began with a season ending injury before he even got a chance to play a college game. Also, as a Division III player, he is not on scholarship so he has to hold down a job, a full class load (Childhood Education & Exercise Science major), and complete an internship. Now add in two major injuries (ankle and foot) and any athlete might start mumbling, “maybe this isn’t for me.” But not Luke! Instead, Luke was determined to find a way to survive and to excel!
Luke sought Zone Ready after his injuries. Luke expressed his desire to play the remainder of his football career healthy and to be a top notch Division III player. First order was to give Luke a thorough performance assessment. Luke’s posture, balance, movement, and explosiveness were evaluated in a safe setting so that a starting point could be established. Zone Ready identified a movement impairment in Luke’s hips that was a contributing factor in his previous major injuries. This knowledge would be instrumental in designing the best training program for Luke. In other words, ZR was going after the source of Luke’s performance woes—no bandaids need apply. Knowing where to start is crucial, it gets the best results in the quickest time with minimal chances for injuries. Furthermore, acknowledgement of Luke’s full class and work schedule was also considered when designing his program. At the highest level, performance training must be specialized and tailored so that athlete is getting exactly what he/she needs to be successful and injury free.
Now, Luke was finally training and not just exercising. The Zone Ready program was empowering Luke to stay healthy and improve his performance simultaneously. Luke’s schedule looked something like this:
6am: Rise and Shine
7am – Noon: Class & Study
12:30pm – 3pm: Internship
3:30pm – 4:30pm: ZR X3 per week
4:30pm – 6pm: Team workout
7pm – 11pm: Campus job
11-12am: Study
12am – Lights out
Luke stayed true to this schedule for 3 years! He found a way no matter what!
The end result: Luke finished his college football career as a three year starter, All Northwest District team, First Team All-Conference Linebacker, First Team Academic All-Conference, the conference’s leading tackler as a senior, and (most importantly) never missing a game in those three years. As a student, he graduated with honors and is continually creating multiple professional career opportunities. Lessons learned on the field do transition into life. If I were a betting man, I would bet that Luke Chronister is going to be successful in anything he gets himself into.
“Zone Ready gave me the answers and guidance to accomplish my goals. If you want it bad enough, this is the type of training you need to do. For me there is no substitute for the physical and mental training Zone Ready provides if you want to be the best.”
