Parents always are looking to give their son or daughter an edge in athletics, and that used to mean buying quality equipment, attending all the right camps, and logging countless miles going to and from travel team games.
Those all still play a large factor, but there has been an increase in demand for individualized training with private coaches and personal trainers.
It’s a growing industry nationwide, and it’s growing locally too, as more former athletes and coaches are realizing there is a market for their specific knowledge.
“I think we’re just kind of in a day and age where kids are getting more advanced quickly, and some parents don’t want their kid to be behind the eight ball,” said Byron Mayers, a former two-sport athlete and graduate of Bethany College. “Most parents are willing to do whatever it takes to help their kids stay at that top level. They don’t want them to lack for anything.”
A Brownsville, Pa., native, Mayers has worked as an athletic and fitness trainer for local youth the last few years, operating out of the OV Crossfit gym inside the Ohio Valley Mall. He focuses on strength, agility, and explosiveness, helping to develop well-rounded athletes through hard work and proper technique.
Taking a more sport-specific approach, Jeremy Hays has operated Fadeaway Fitness since February of 2017 and is approaching his three-year anniversary. While the John Marshall and Juanita College product also offers classes in fitness, his main focus is basketball.
He echoed Mayers’ statement on the increased demand.
“I feel like parents are looking for a one-up,” Hays said. “How can I get my son or daughter to be just a little bit better?”
That’s where these two young men, and a growing number like them, come in.
All Hoops, All the Time
Hays is a workaholic and a basketball junkie, both of which he admits freely.
His talents on the court saw Hays finish as the career steals and assists leader at Juanita. He also played professional and semi-pro ball, both internationally and in the United States.
He had trained players even while in high school and college, and his first client was current WVU senior Chase Harler.
His days of getting paid to play eventually came to an end, and Hays returned home. When he took a position as director of skill development for an AAU program, though, he quickly realized getting paid to work in basketball was still a real possibility, albeit in a different way.
“I became director, and all of a sudden I had access to 400-plus kids,” Hays said. “I got funneled client after client and it started to grow. Watching it grow from literally one workout a week to five, to 10 a day is crazy. But I’m young enough. I can grind and get it done.”
Hays’ record is 18, one-hour individual sessions in a day. He rarely takes a day off from Fadeway, but when he does, he’s working as the Athletic Performance Coach at First Love Christian Academy, a private school that has cranked out scholarship recipients since his involvement. His singular focus is helping his clients become the best basketball players they can be. He does so by offering not only individual workouts but also group classes and skills academies and camps.
“The camps and skills academies and group classes are great because the kids love those because they can be competitive with their friends,” Hays said. “But it can turn into wanting more one-on-one attention, so they come to the individual classes. If you can’t dribble with your left, we have to figure that out; that’s a problem. We can transition the player from building on his strength and also improving his weaknesses, making them a more well-rounded player.”
His client list boasts some of the top high school and local college players in the tri-state area, and Hays also works with younger players. The youth-level rosters of local travel teams like WV Elite are lined with Hays’ products.
Hays can be found online at www.fadeawayfit.com along with at Facebook and Instagram at @Fadeawayfit.
Forging a More Well-Rounded Athlete
Unlike Hays, Mayers has a full-time gig away from sports, serving as an admissions counselor at Wheeling University.
But like Hays, his client list is also growing.
Mayers offers both individual, hour-long training sessions and group training throughout the week.
He finds out from parents and their young athletes just what they want to work on and then tailors their workout path to reach that goal.
“They will say I want to get faster or stronger, and we can do that,” Mayers said. “When it comes to building an athlete to become bigger, faster, and stronger, you have to break it down to the fundamentals. There is a lot of carryover of movement across all sports.
“Middle-school aged students are experiencing a lot of changes with their bodies as well, and they may not be able to adapt as quickly, so we work to build that foundation of different movements.”
Mayers said that as he was growing up, he wasn’t taught the proper mechanics in lifting as a youth and had to come to that knowledge on his own. That’s a struggle he wants his clients to avoid. That’s why, taught proper technique, Mayers feels weight training can be beneficial for middle school and elementary-aged youth. He’s seen the benefits and done the research. Yes, it can improve strength and speed, but it also is beneficial for injury prevention.
“The stronger you get and the more training and full range of motion you can work through and build, the less chance a child will get injured,” Mayers said. “It has a lot of great benefits, not just about getting stronger.”
Mayers has a weekly elementary-aged group class he offers each week, and once the current winter sports season culminates, the middle/high school group class will resume.
He averages 5-8 kids for his group classes, but he has seen it grow to 14 kids depending on the week. He keeps the workouts intense, but fun, adjusting on the fly for activities to suit the class size and stated goals.
Mayers can be found both on Facebook and Instagram by searching for BMayers Fit.
One Roof
There are also all-in-one facilities locally like Total Athlete Training Center in Triadelphia and GSP Batting Cages and Training Center that attempt to offer everything, from coaching and classes to training and practice facilities.
These types of centers employ coaches who will work with athletes in either fitness or sport-specific skills training, both individually and in group settings.
These are just a few as the ever-increasing demand is seeing more individuals and groups forming to tap into the market and help mold the young athletes.
What about the blacktop?
Some make the argument that the reason kids are needing scheduled practice time is that they no longer venture outside to play pickup games on the local basketball courts or baseball diamonds.
Madden and NBA 2K serve as substitutes for some, or at least that’s the stereotype, but getting that unsupervised court time and playing with peers and building confidence in one’s abilities is just as important.
“I honestly feel like people need a bit of both,” Hays said. “You need a healthy balance of individual skill attention and also five-on-five pickup,” he explained. “At the park, you play one-on-one or five-on-five and yell and argue and figure things out, and that’s where kids learn how to play while making up their own rules.
“You see the tenacity of the athletes who’ve played on the blacktop versus someone who has strictly had individual workouts as they can get a little robotic,”Mayer added. “You definitely need a balance from both spectrums.”
