There’s a famous baseball player named Mike Young. I’m not him. I’m a different kind of gamer. Here’s my bio from my company website:
In his role as the Director of Sports Performance, Mike serves as the strength and speed coach and primary biomechanist for Athletic Lab. Mike brings the unique qualities of being a nationally recognized researcher, coach, and educator. His depth of knowledge and experience in the field of athletic development is evidenced by his stays at all three U.S. Olympic Training Centers as an athlete (Lake Placid), sport scientist (Colorado Springs & Chula Vista), and coach (Colorado Springs).
Mike has an undergraduate degree in Exercise Physiology, a Master of Science degree in Athletic Administration and a PhD in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Biomechanics. He has studied extensively in anatomy, physiology, sport psychology, motor learning, training theory and biomechanics. Mike is an NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, a certified USA Weightlifting Club Coach, a Crossfit Level 1 Certified Trainer, is one of less than 20 USA Track & Field (USATF) Level 3 coaches in the country and has a USATF Level 2 certification in 3 event areas.
More than just education and experience however, Mike is a world-renowned expert in the field of speed development and conditioning for sport. He is well-versed in coaching the Olympic Lifts and creating specialized strength, speed and conditioning programs to help maximize the performance of any athlete. He has developed training plans for sports ranging from dragon boating, to soccer, to swimming and has helped prepare numerous players for the NFL combine (most notably Bradie James – Dallas Cowboys and Super Bowl Champion Marquise Hill – New England Patriots) and MLB (Andres Torres). He is currently serving as the Fitness Coach for the Vancouver Whitecaps of the MLS. Prior to that, Mike was the sport performance coach for the 2x NASL Champion Carolina Railhawks. In the sport of Track & Field he coached or assisted multiple Olympians, National Champions, and Collegiate National Champions. As the coach of the?HPC Elite team,?a team of internationally competitive track and field athletes, he has coached 6 USATF National Champions and the team has placed over a dozen athletes in national championships since its inception in 2008. Previously, Mike served as a jumps and multi-events coach at Ohio University where his athletes set 2 school records. Following OU, Mike moved to Baton Rouge where he mentored under legendary track and field coach, “Boo” Schexnayder for 4 years. While at LSU, Mike was on the staff of 6 National Championship teams. Following his time at LSU, Mike became the sprints and multi-events coach for Army Track & Field. In his short 3 years at Army, Mike’s athletes rewrote the record books with 9 school records, 54 All-Time Top Ten performances, 24 Conference Championships, and achieved the three highest point totals ever recorded in a single event at the conference championship.
Mike is equally qualified as a sport scientist and educator. His research on sprinting, stretching, balance, and throwing activities have been published and presented in Regional, National and International journals and conferences. He has been the biomechanist for the United State’s men and women shot putters since 2001. They are consistently ranked among the very best in the world and have won numerous World Championship and Olympic games medals. In 2010, Mike also took over as the biomechanist for the American high jumpers.
As an educator, Mike has been an instructor or professor at Ohio University, Louisiana State University and the University of North Carolina. He is one of the most sought after speakers in the country on athletic development. He has lectured for USA Speed Skating, the Chinese Olympic Coaches at the Beijing Sport University and the North Carolina Justice Academy where he regularly instructs on the Physical Preparedness for Law Enforcement Officers. He is a Level 1, 2, and 3 Instructor for USATF, and has served as the Director of Technology, Biomechanics Chairperson, Sport Science Chairperson and Vertical Jumps Chairperson for USATF’s Coaches? Education division. He is only one of two people to be a Level 3 instructor in three different event disciplines (sprints, throws, and jumps). In his role as a USATF Coaches Education instructor, Mike became the youngest Level 2 (at the age of 26) and Level 3 (at 28) instructor ever in the 30 year history of the program. He has also taught more Level 1 schools than anyone in the history of the program. More recently, he has taken over as the sport science chair and one of the lead instructor for the USTFCCCA’s Coaching Academy. Additionally, Mike is also a prolific author, having written 2 book chapters, 2 books, and over 20 articles published in nationally distributed publications ranging from Maxim to Track Coach.