Coming off his junior year at St. Joseph High School, Zak Karsh is at a critical juncture in his football career. The All-League wide receiver has started getting letters from interested colleges, and is skipping basketball this spring to focus on working out nonstop to prepare for his senior year.
“It’s just been making me better,” Karsh said of his exercise regimen. “I’ve gained a little bit of size, and I’ve also gained speed. I just feel more comfortable with the stuff I’m doing.”
Last summer, like many top prep players, Karsh played against top prospects in camps and participated in scouting combines at colleges, where he was poked and prodded, measured and tested. He’s also listed on several recruiting websites, and his coaches have sent game film to schools. With such a competitive climate, Karsh said the extra work in the weight room is bound to give him a leg up on his peers.
“I think it will make me well-rounded,” he said. “My past two years on varsity, I wasn’t as big, and maybe I was smaller than other kids, but now I’m getting to the point where I can be one of the bigger athletes and have an advantage.”
In addition to taking part in speed training and agility drills with St. Joseph receivers coach J. T. Stone, Karsh has recently added a new dimension to his workouts, spending several hours each week with Monte’ Nash, a certified personal trainer who’s worked with local athletes for the past 14 years. Nash is also the developer of the Speedsac, a resistance training product using weighted sleds.
At Anytime Fitness in Orcutt, Nash takes his clients through strenuous weight training during the week, then outdoors for Speedsac sessions on weekends. The sessions involve weight pulls and a drill Nash calls “Beast Mode,” where weights are pushed up on both sides of the body while running.
“All sport is played with the front side of your body,” Nash said. “I’m trying to condition their backside in a way that complements the front side.”
In developing back muscles, Nash said, athletes build up lactic acid in areas they’re unfamiliar with, raising their anaerobic threshold levels. In youth, Nash said, the training enhances performance and coordination and improves reaction time.
[image-2]
Karsh’s teammate at St. Joe’s, junior Scotty Cusack, is taking a similar route, foregoing basketball to put all his attention on football. A running back, Cusack was forced to sit out much of last season with shoulder and foot injuries, making it imperative he work harder in anticipation of his senior year.
With a goal of playing in college, Cusack started working out nearly every day with Stone and is playing with Stone’s Big Picture Athletics league to get his name out. Along with Karsh, he recently started working with Nash, and hopes all the added training will translate to more letters from colleges.
“It will definitely give me a lead on people who don’t take football as seriously and will sit home and play video games,” Cusack said. “People think you can just take the offseason off and come back for football season and pretend like you’re ready to go, but truthfully, you’ve got to working all year to be at your best potential, so that’s what we’re doing here.”
With Nash, Cusack got his first taste of “Bulgarian split squats”—a one-legged squat on a weight bench—and half-squats, where participants lift weights with the balls of the feet to engage muscles used with turning and lift.
Huffing and puffing after his first session, Cusack was impressed that the exercises hit his muscles quicker than usual.
In addition to his private training sessions, Nash is also a strength and conditioning coach at Righetti High, where he trains athletes of different sports. Among the drills he teaches are “Burpees”—repeated pushups and jumps with weights—and heavyweight jump roping.
One Righetti athlete working with Nash is sophomore volleyball player Maddie Klusendorf, who just began her club season. A tall and lean outside hitter, Klusendorf is determined to move on to college and is preparing for the summer tournament season, when schools do most of their recruiting.
[image-3]
“When I was a freshman, I did exercise a lot and I did sports, but I never really focused on anything,” she explained. “When I work out, I often use [Nash’s] methods to help me because they’re quick, they’re simple, and they work.”
Though the workouts are painful, Klusendorf said she’s seen improvements in her footwork and cardio, and has gained noticeable strength in muscles she didn’t know she even had.
“When you’re doing them, you’re like, ‘Oh no, please make this stop,’ but after it’s done, your jump really does improve,” she said. “They may be hard in that period of time, but if you work your hardest, you’ll be able to achieve the goals you want.”
Only a freshman on the Warriors’ basketball team, forward Cameron Walker is ranked by several publications as one of Southern California’s top prospects. At 6-foot-6 with an impressive vertical leap, Walker started drawing interest from several Pac-12 schools, including Stanford University and Arizona, before he even played a high school game.
As a member of a traveling club team in addition to his role on the Warriors, Walker is playing what amounts to a professional season, close to 80 games per year. His club experience, he said, has exposed him to better competition and given him a marker for where he needs to be.
“A lot of people I play against are stronger than me, so I’m trying to work hard in the weight room,” he said. “I used to get pushed around a lot more, but now I can start to get more physical with guys and score.”
With Nash, Walker has been running and lifting weights to strengthen his shoulders and improve coordination, so it’s easier to make cuts on the court. Walker, Nash said, is at the perfect age to start weightlifting, because it’s an opportunity to learn proper techniques such as symmetry, grip, and breathing.
“If you have poor mechanics and you’re just doing the exercises, there’s going to be an eventual ceiling that you’ll hit,” he said. “That might lead to injury or not being able to progress past a certain point.”
[image-4]
In his private practice, Nash’s workouts aren’t just limited to high school athletes. For kids too young to lift weights, he teaches jumps and stretches to strengthen their core muscles and improve range of motion so they’ll have a foundation for muscle development later in life.
Nash admits his training sessions aren’t for everybody, but for athletes like Karsh who are committed to get to the next level, the results are well worth the pain.
“The first day I could barely walk out of here,” Karsh said, finishing up his latest workout. “Now I’m still tired, but I feel like I’m improving. My muscles are already more in shape than they were last week. I can definitely tell a difference.”
Staff Writer Jeremy Thomas should squat while he types. Contact him at jthomas@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jan 19-26, 2012.