38th Arcadia Invitational
home of 22 national records, 101 Olympians
April 8-9, 2005 at Arcadia High School, Arcadia CA -
a DyeStat featured meet

SPARQ for track and field debuts at Arcadia

SPARQ press release

SPARQ Track & Field Rating to be unveiled at Arcadia Invitational

ARCADIA CA 4/6/2005 -- The famed Arcadia Invitational has seen 22 national records and has helped launch the careers of over 100 future Olympians , including Mike Powell, Gail Devers, Johnny Gray, Quincy Watts and Marion Jones. In 2005, the Arcadia Invitational , will make history of another kind this weekend with the Saturday debut of the SPARQ Track & Field Rating, a revolutionary new athletic measurement to measure overall athleticism.

Every athlete will have the opportunity to be tested in each of the four components of the SPARQ Track and Field Rating -- the vertical jump, standing long jump, 30-meter sprint and over-the-back medicine ball throw. Once the athlete completes the testing, a SPARQ Trainer will use a proprietary program to weigh and combine these tests and compute his or her SPARQ Rating

�The SPARQ Track and Field Rating is the first ever system designed to measure the sport-specific � athleticism' of track and field athletes,� explains Vern Gambetta, SPARQ Master Trainer and a key collaborator in the development of the new Track and Field Rating.. Explosiveness, agility and speed are critical for all track and field athletes, whether they are sprinters, distance runners, throwers or jumpers. While lots of young athletes think that they're born naturally �fast' or �slow', the right training programs can really make a big difference in an athlete's speed and explosiveness.�

�The key value of the SPARQ Rating,� Gambetta continues, �is that it gives athletes an important new tool to gauge their dynamic athletic capabilities and gives them a benchmark to measure their progress as they train for speed and explosiveness. .   Athletes can log on to sparqtraining.com and use the SPARQ database to see how they measure up against other athletes in their events -- then retest periodically to chart and measure their progress. As a coach, I think it is a great tool to keep athletes motivated and engaged in their training.�

While the SPARQ Track & Field Rating debuts at Arcadia , athletes will also have the chance to get an official SPARQ Rating at several other prestigious track events including the Penn Relays, Nike Outdoor Championship and Nike Team Nationals. Athletes and coaches who can't make it to these events can find out how to run their own SPARQ tests and calculate and store their ratings at sparqtraining.com.

The first SPARQ Rating was rolled out in football last spring and included testing in the 40-yard dash, 20-yard shuttle, vertical jump and 185 pound bench press (max reps). It has quickly become the standard -- used for football players to measure speed and explosive power. �We expect similar success as we expand into four new sports in 2005 � Track and Field, Baseball, Basketball and Soccer.� states Ken Black, director of Marketing for SPARQ.

�The SPARQ Rating for each sport is grounded in four or five tests which are designed to capture the key aspects of athleticism most important for success in that particular sports,� Black concludes. �These tests are weighed and combined in a proprietary formula unique to that sport.  The tests are designed to be simple enough that any coach or athlete can do their own SPARQ testing and use the SPARQ Rating to assess their performance and track their training progress.�

For more information on SPARQ Testing, go to SparqTraining.com. Also, check out DyeStat.com next week for exclusive SPARQ Testing marks from the Arcadia meet.

 

Arcadia Invitational index page

 


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