Intro![]() The Off-Season is a time to do one thing, GET BETTER! Most athletes I see go about the off-season in a counter productive way; and they either stay the same, or digress. Some guys hammer weights all off-season and forget that body builders can't, and never will, play football. Some guys forget to do any strength training and are frail and brittle, but they run a 4.3! Some players never brush up on their technique/football skills and never seek to learn new methods, because their way is proven and that's the way it is. I have simply learned from integrating a variety of training techniques that there is no limit to our growth, unless we want there to be. There is simply just to much out there in our world that we can use to master the things we desire, as athlete's and for fitness. My path to losing 50-60 pounds in a year and attaining serious athletic prowess was not a simple feat, by any means. I realized thou after it was all said and done, that this is the way to train to be a complete athlete and to achieve maximum results. What to do?![]() You can set up as many speed ladders as you want, I have never seen a guy signed off of one of these drills. I believe in attacking every muscle fiber in the body, with the intent on making that fiber fire rapidly. Switching it up every day and developing all of your support muscles, is key to to getting your larger muscles to function at a high level. So what kind of exercises do we do? I am currently running around a 4.4, 40 yard dash. I am not bragging because I know you can too. Actually, you will probably be faster if you use these methods that I extremely value. I start off by doing some type of running everyday, up at 6,000 feet in the Rocky Mountains. I chase my Wolf Dog as she chases bunnies and work on avoiding trees, bushes and other obstacles the environment can beautifully create. We then go to the Football field and I get my kicking in for the day. Then I hit the weight room for about a hour a day. When the weather permits, swimming against the Poudre River will give you the most intense overall body workout ever. Integrating high reps in the weight room with every muscle group, running 4-5 miles a day in the Rockies and kicking for a hour a day, has given me the ability to do things I never thought were possible at 30 years of age. Why Do it?![]() The benefits of cross-training are evident on a football players skill set and overall athleticism. Football is a sport that has many different types of athletes and has many layers on how to achieve greatness. Using simple brain synapse training, has not only made me much more agile, but has made my body ready for any action that comes my way. Having a different course through nature everyday has made that reaction to the action quick and precise. Through all of the brain firing activity, I also was pounding out reps of 12-20 of every lift imaginable, but never decompressing any part of my body ( Like Back Squats). I am now throwing up easily the best numbers of my life and I am the lightest I have been since High School. Did this all happen overnight? No, it took countless uphill runs and three sessions a day of multiple activities to get where I needed to be. Honestly speaking, if I did not lose the 50 pounds, I do not think I would still be playing the game of football. I now feel like I am ready to compete at a extremely high level for a NFL Football job and win that job. I also feel like staying with this regiment will allow me 10-12 years kicking in the NFL. How to Find it?![]() There are a million different ways to train out there and every current athlete, ex- athlete, Coach and Former coach is pushing different 'gimmicks' that you can purchase. I would like to reiterate the great Ray Lewis as "There are no shortcuts to success". Or the great Ashton Kutcher, when he said that "Success looks a lot like hard work". See, everyone knows that running uphill is harder and will get you better, but I rarely see anyone doing it. Most athletes know that lower weight and high reps actually BUILDS muscle, but most guys wanna throw on as much weight as they can to pump out 1 rep. Everywhere you look players are trying to take the short cut to achieve greatness and not putting in the actual hours to make it happen. I have seen many athletes do something amazing once or a few times, but that is not the player most teams are looking for these days. See, there is a guy out there who can do what your friends thought was amazing everyday and already has a offer. He hasn't dropped a ball since he was 2 years old and he simply just worked harder. So how do you pass them up? You retrain your brain to fire at a remarkably high level and refocus your efforts while finding your why? Your heart, mind, body and spirit these days have to be fully dedicated to getting better, while dealing with severe worldly obstacles. If you find yourself winning on a daily basis, you must keep grinding because it is very easy to start losing again. Even if you do not make it in athletics, this will help you build a extremely good work ethic that is hard to beat in any area of life. Combine/Positional TrainingAt Scout Trout we have very in-depth plans for each athlete, that will maximize their individual output in overall athleticism. Each athlete needs to develop a plan to hone their strength's and eliminate their weaknesses. Most young athletes are still using old and unproductive training methods that do not translate to the football field. We have shaved 2-3 tenth's of a second of most athletes 40 times, simply by showing them the proper starting positioning. Imagine if you adapted to the training methods as well? If you would like more information on our program, or want individual training either in person or virtually, please contact merfdigg@aol.com. Intro![]() I would like to start out by saying thank you to all my Class of 2017 Athlete's and for those who are still unsigned, it is not over yet. I calculated all of our Class of 2017 athlete's offers, whether it be NAIA or D1, a offer is a offer. My main goal when I set out was to give my athlete's in smaller markets a chance. After completing this first year of the program, I believe this program actually can now be used as a measurement to where players actually need to go. I have realized my Class of 2018 and Class of 2019 have gotten way more attention than the same caliber player that I had for 2017. There is one simple fact for this and that is most big time school's were already full back in August, before your season even began. So to crack you onto a College FBS recruiting board was nearly impossible. The main observation thou is we had 45-67 players offered something to play College Football, some more than others, but we had 19 players either not take the ACT/SAT at all and/or just showed up to the test, without actually giving a crap. So if you do the math, there was 22 players left over without offers and 19 did not test or had a terrible score. To all my Class of 2018 and beyond, please schedule your test a few times, now. Why do college programs put so much stock in these tests? Well, because it's College and you are there to receive a education. If you cannot receive this education and will struggle to graduate, they simply move onto the next prospect, its just that simple. See the NCAA is also tracking these stats, as you can see in the button I provided below. I used Youngstown State's Grad rate as a example, but you can simply go back and search any NCAA institution in the country. If your graduation rate slips to a unacceptable level, your school will lose scholarships in the future. This is also why the NCAA changed the core GPA requirements and stiffened up eligibility rules. 637 Football School's (Minus D3)![]() There are 128 FBS schools, 125 FCS Schools, 171 D2 School's, 87 NAIA School's and 126 JUCO Programs in the USA. I did not count the 247 D3 school's that do not offer athletic scholarships. These school's do however offer academic money to the players they want, yea it's unfair to the academic all-star, but hey, maybe you should have picked up a ball. The rotation pretty much goes as follows: FBS - Be targeted anywhere from your freshmen season to by at least mid-season Junior YR. If your not on the boards early, do not expect to ever really get on them. FCS - At Least by End of Junior Year. This is more open then FBS thou. D2 - Start of Senior Year - Mid SR Year. (Local school's will be first in line) NAIA/JUCO - These guys are stocking up early and signing guys all the way until June. A lot of these places are just as good as a FCS/D2 program and farm players to FBS like crazy. Now as you can see in the NCAA chart I posted a link to above, your suppose to start this process your FRESHMEN year. The guys that are starting early are getting recruited early! This is a fact that some simply do not grasp and think that there play will speak for itself. I also was told by many at a young age that if you are good enough they will find you! Well with millions of High School ball players out there, this simply just is not factual. If you stand out in Texas, GA, FL or CA, than possibly you will get seen, but it still not a guarantee. The game of football from the top to bottom has become about who can see you and not particular to rooting out the guys who can actually play the game at a extremely high level. Why? Because the game is simply about capitalizing off of a hysterical crowd, who swears by their allegiance to a university and a logo. Just like I have been told by NFL execs, that they could place anyone in that jersey and fans would still pay to watch their favorite team play. It's that simple, College Football has become a big money industry and there really is not a need to truly scout anymore. The numbers have become to big and the parity is very real across the board. But this is why we created this program, because if you want it bad enough, there are still many hidden path's that most do not want you to find. Fight or Flight Mentality.![]() What happens to us when we are under excessive stress?"When we experience excessive stress—whether from internal worry or external circumstance—a bodily reaction is triggered, called the "fight or flight" response. Originally discovered by the great Harvard physiologist Walter Cannon, this response is hard-wired into our brains and represents a genetic wisdom designed to protect us from bodily harm. This response actually corresponds to an area of our brain called the hypothalamus, which—when stimulated—initiates a sequence of nerve cell firing and chemical release that prepares our body for running or fighting." ![]() I have seen this mechanism in our brains work wonders when it comes to achieving our max potential. I have also seen it destroy many athlete's who decided fleeing was the best option. This part of our brain we must wire to ALWAYS FIGHT, because fleeing will get us no where in today's game and even our world. There is no substitute for having the ability to be tortured mentally, physically, emotionally and being able to switch to fight mode. They want you to flee and give up on your dreams, because like I said before, it eliminates the weak. So my question today is, are you going to flee or fight? I have linked some great programs below and have many more who have sent me information on signings from this years class. The choice is ultimately yours, I am just presenting you with a variety of different paths to achieve your goals. #ScoutTrout #CollegeFootball #Recruiting #Football #NFL #NFLDraft #Scouting #FBScout #NCAAFootball #PlayNAIA #JucoProduct #JUCOFootball #PrepSchool #FBSFootball #FCSFootball #D2Football #PLAYNAIA #D3Football #EliteProspects #MentalAwareness #Fitness #MentalFortitude #BeastMode #GrindMode #SavageSeason ![]() Cullen Shawley is a big young man at 6'1, 235LBS and likes to finish off his pancakes with extra syrup. He is a very strong young man with impressive numbers in the weight room. On the first play of his highlight's, Cullen is able to finish off the defender and you can see his stellar lower body strength. He shows very good footwork in his pass blocking sets and is a very aggressive player on the interior line. On the 3rd play, Cullen shows great technique and gets off the ball quick after the snap, to be able to completely annihilate his man. Cullen shows very good athleticism for an interior linemen this young and should jump onto a lot of college football programs' radars going into his Junior season. At 1:36, Cullen shows very good speed getting downfield on punt team and making the tackle. Cullen continues to play with intensity on the interior line for the rest of his film and finishes his blocks. I really like his technique for such a young age and his ability to keep his feet moving, to use his great lower body strength to finish off blocks. Thank you for joining the Scout Trout Pipeline Program and I look forward to watching you play your Junior and Senior seasons! #ScoutTrout #CollegeFootball #PAHSFootball #PittFootball #DerryHSFootball #OLProspect #HogLife #NCAAFootball #Football #SECFootball #ACCFOOTBALL #BIG10Football #BIG12Football #Pac12Football #OLProspect #Class2019 #SWPAFootball Combine NumbersOur combine period was extremely productive and our prospects produced very solid numbers across the board. We had 5 prospects for the Class of 2017 and 2 from the Class of 2018. Here are there numbers along with their youtube videos.
Zachariah Apodaca 18' DB |
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2/17/2017
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2/13/2017
2/9/2017
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