Sunday, November 9, 2008

Distilling sport to its fundamental movements

There's a nondescript building in Santa Barbara that's home to Peak Performance Project (or "P3" as it's called).

Run by a physiologist from Harvard Medical School, P3 works with athletes to help them maximize their development. Two-thirds of the players on the Utah Jazz roster spent time there this summer.

According to the director of player development for the Jazz:

"You find this in pro sports, in the NBA, where a guy thinks, 'OK, I'm in my mid-20s, I'm maxed out athletically. I can't enhance my athleticism. I can't improve on my vertical leap, my lateral movement, my sprint speed or whatever,' when you really can."

P3 "stresses a different approach, one that distills sport to its fundamental movements, and uses science to improve power, athleticism and mobility."

According to this article, "as unassuming as P3 appears, its technology is anything but. Every workout is recorded on video and can be saved. There's a hard drive in the back that never stops collecting data and flat-screen televisions in use around the gym."

Says Marcus Elliott (pictured above), P3's director: "There's so much potential for a competitive advantage in basketball through a really hard, precise, science-based training."