Congrats to Fred Lamarca on a great performance in his first BJJ match on Friday, March 25. Here is a recap of the fight:

“Curatolo stuffs an early takedown attempt, snatches Lamarca’s leg, kicks it out, and lands in Lamarca’s guard. The crowd is fired up from Campbell-Kotarski and loving this fast early action. Lamarca (red shorts) is back up. Curatola tries for a standing arm-in guillotine. Lamarca gets the takedown passes to Curatola’s left side, and mounts. Curatola is breathing harder, and works for the armbar. Both men are back on their feet, Curatola slams Lamarca and ends up in top position after a fast scramble. Curatols and Lamarca work for legs and ankles, and try to kick one another off. Both men’s lower bodies come free, and Lamarca pulls guard. He brings up his left shin to what looks like the Lochness Monster of submission grappling: the gogplata. The lower shin is beneath Curatolo’s chin, but Curatola wisely keeps his back and chin up so that Lamarca cannot pull down and force the tap. The red-faced Curatola shakes his way out of Lamarca’s guard. This is sick. Lamarca takes Curatolo’s back and sinks in the rear naked choke, but not deep or fast enough to beat the closing bell. Curatolo controlled early; Lamarca finished stonger. Awesome match.”

Fred has made tremendous progress here at AFTLI, under the guidance of Coach Gaglione, and we know the best is yet to come from him! Nice work Fred!

A great way to train for the stability necessary for overhead lifting is to perform overhead walks. Since the athlete is walking the weight will want to shift around and the athletes are forced to stabilize the musculature of the core, hips, and upper back. I like to utilize kettelbells for this exercise, but dumbbells can be used as well. Since the kettlebell sits behind the hand it helps the athlete pack the shoulder down and back a little easier than with dumbbells or barbell.

Give overhead walks a try and watch you overhead stability improve!

Here is a video below.

Prep: 10 Minutes Cook: 10 minutes

Make servings

The ginger and curry can be left out for a more mellow favor.

3 (5 ounce) skinless, boneless chick breast halves

1/3 cup of plain fat free yogurt

¼ cup low-fat mayonnaise

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon mango chutney

2 teaspoons curry powder

1 teaspoon of ground ginger

2 large celery stalks chopped

1 cup seedless red grapes, halved

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 (5-ounce) package of fresh baby spinach

¼ cup chopped pecans

1. Trim excess fat from the chicken. Place the chicken and enough water to cover in a medium sauce pan over high heat until water just beings to bubble. Reduce heat, cover and poach 10 minutes or until just cooked. Transfer the chicken to a bowl and let cool.
2. While Chicken cooks, combine yogurt, mayonnaise, lemon juice, chutney, curry powder, and ginger in a large bowl.
3. Chop Chick and add to yogurt mixture. Add celery, grapes, salt and pepper. Toss to coat evenly. Divide spinach among 4 plates; top with chicken salad and pecans. (Serving size: 1 Cup Chicken and 1 ¼ ounces spinach.)

Calories 181(29% from fat); Fat 6g( sat 1g, mono 2g, poly 1g); Cholesterol 28mg; protein 13 g; Carbohydrate 21g; sugars 11g; Fiber 3g; Sodium 431mg

Congrats to alumni Eddie Giron for placing 2nd at his College conference tournament this past weekend.

Eddie fell a little short of his goal, but he had a great performance wrestling with a hurt knee that could have been a season ending injury. The most amazing thing about Eddie’s career is that  he performed at a very high level in college without ever placing in the counties in high school. Ed is a great example of what can be accomplished with hard work and determination. He is a great role model for all of the wrestlers throughout Long Island.

Ed finished his career as a captain of the Springfield College wrestling team earning Academic All American honors, as well as being two time all conference and he helped  lead his team to the conference tournament team title this past weekend.

Congrats Ed and good luck with all of your future endeavors! It has been a pleasure working with you all of these years and I know your positive attitude and desire to get better will serve you well in the rest of your life!

Good luck!

I will leave you with some memories of some of Ed’s high school high lights. Enjoy!

This week’s athlete to watch is Dan Coder. Dan did a great job this season and won his qualifying tournament. At the Counties he ended up in a tough spot drawing the number two ranked kid in his weight class his first match. Dan was sent into wrestle backs.

It can be very tough losing your first match at a big tournament like the counties, but Dan didn’t let it bother him and he shook it off and wrestled tough the rest of the day. Dan ended up winning three matches in a row to make it to day two of the tournament and place All County. In the round to place he faced a tough opponent he barley beat at the beginning of the year. Dan stayed very calm and knew what he had to do and ended up dominating his opponent with a barrage of explosive double leg take downs in his final match of the first day of the county tournament.

Dan worked extremely hard for the past few years on and off the mat and we wish him the best of luck in the future. Congrats to Dan Coder!

Even when performing the tall kneeling KB press some athletes will have trouble locking out the weight overhead without pressing it forward. In order to teach proper overhead mechanics the Floor Slide is a great drill for athlete to perform.  This will teach the athlete to lockout with the arms directly in the center line of the body.

The athletes should set up lying on their back with their arms overhead. The athlete should make an attempt to to keep their head, upper back, butt, wrist, hand, and elbows on the floor at all times. Some athletes who have tight pecs or shoulder mobility issues may not be able to get their wrists on the floor initially, but over time they will get better. The athlete should actively pull the shoulder blades down and back and move their arms as if they were performing a pull up or lat pull down.  Try to keep the wrist in alignment with the elbows when performing the movement. The athlete can also perform the movement on the wall as well once the floor pattern is mastered.

Here are a few different variations you can utilize of the scapular slide in order to teach proper overhead mechanics. These exercises will help improve low trap function(which is very important for stabilizing the shoulder and preventing injuries)  and dynamically stretching the pecs(which can cause faulty movements patterns when overhead pressing) and improving technique for overhead lifting.

Prep: 12minutes Cook: 16 minutes

Makes 4 servings

Chicken:

4 tablespoons all purpose flour

1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning

¼ teaspoon black pepper

4 (6-onuce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

Sauce:

3 garlic cloves, minced

¼ cup fat free, less sodium chicken both

Zest and juice of ½ lemons

¼ cup Italian Dressing

1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Combine flour, Italian seasoning, and pepper in a bowl,
3. Dry the chicken breast with a paper towel, and then dredge them in the flour mixture. Pat off excess flour.
4. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat; add chicken breast and cook 3 minutes on each side or until golden brown.
5. Remove chicken from the skillet and place in an ovenproof dish. Bake 10-12 minutes.
6. About 3 minutes before the chicken is done, make the sauce, Reheat skillet over medium heat, and add garlic and sauté 1 minute. Add the broth and simmer until reduced by half. Add the lemon zest juice, and dressing, cook another minute. Add the parsley and remove from heat.
7. Remove the chicken breast from the oven. Spoon sauce over chicken and serve. (Serving size: 1 chicken breast, 2 tablespoons sauce.)

Calories 258(31% from fat); Fat 9g( sat 2g, mono 4g, poly 1g); Cholesterol 94mg; Protein 36; Carbohydrate 7g; Sugars 0g; Fiber 1g; Sodium 203mg

Go through the list and ask yourself, “Are you a WINNER or a LOSER”.

How to Tell a Winner From a Loser

A Winner says, “Let’s find out;” a Loser says “Nobody knows.”

When a Winner makes a mistake; he says, “I was wrong;” when a Loser makes a mistake; he says, “It wasn’t my fault.”

A Winner goes through a problem; a Loser goes around
it and never gets past it.

A Winner makes commitments; a Loser makes promises.

A Winner says, “I’m good, but not as good as I ought to be;” a Loser says, “I’m not as bad as a lot of other people.”

A Winner tries to learn from those who are superior to him; a Loser tries to tear down those who are superior to him.

A Winner says, “There ought to be a better way to do it;” a Loser says, “That’s the way it’s always been done here.”

Are you a WINNER or a LOSER?

Try to see when you were guilty of being a loser. If you can find them and correct them for the future, GROWTH and IMPROVEMENT are SURE to OCCUR.

One of the most common flaws in overhead lifting is having an “unpacked” shoulder. Many athletes will shrug up when performing an overhead press. This movement is called scapular elevation. Elevation of the scapular when pressing and pulling essentially “disconnects” the shoulder from the body and makes the shoulder very vulnerable to injury.  When the shoulder is packed down and back it is much more stable and strong since it is more “connected “to the body. The scap pull up is great exercise to teach athletes to pack the shoulder when performing overhead lifting exercise whether it be pressing or pull ups.

Set up on a pull up bar and just hand for a few seconds. Without bending the elbows pull the shoulder blades down and back and think about lifting the chest up and out. Hold for a given amount of time and relax. This will help strength the muscles in the upper back in order to maintain proper position when lifting overhead. This exercise effectively depresses the scapula, which is the opposite of elevation. This the proper position when lifting overhead for both pressing and pulling movement. The scap pull is a great way for an athlete to learn how to properly pack their shoulder for overhead exercises.