Ellie Kormis
ALTIS Director of Education
Series 16: Aries Merritt
What better way to start Series 16, our new athlete-based feature, than an exclusive with World Record Holder and reigning Olympic Champion Aries Merritt. Aries has been an integral part of the success at ALTIS, his medal at the World Championships in Beijing last summer an unbelievable accomplishment given that he revealed he had been struggling with the biggest hurdle...
Return to Play: A Case Study with Freelap Technology
In this post ALTIS Coach Kyle Hierholzer discusses the use of the Freelap Timing System and its use during training to prepare our athletes. In my previous post, Returning to Play the Altis Way, I discussed five major principles that contribute to an effective return to competition for injured athletes. These principles are: Gathering Information Having Entire Performance Staff on the...
Keys to Success in the Throws
This week's blog-post - written by ALTIS throws coach - Nick Sheuerman looks into some of the fundamental components of developing successful throwers. It is vital for throws coaches to have an in-depth understanding of the multitude of factors involved in successful performance in the throws. I have been honored to learn about these factors from a number of highly...
Jodie Williams teams up with ALTIS
Great Britain athlete Jodie Williams is set to spend time training in Phoenix as she prepares for the Olympic Games in Rio. The European and Commonwealth medallist has announced she is to concentrate on her individual events of the 200m and 400m ahead of next summer. She will maintain her UK coach Christine Bowmaker, whilst tapping into the expertise at...
Talking about warm-up?!?
This week's blog-post, written by ALTIS sprints & jumps coach Dustin Imdieke, explores the true value of a mindfully designed and executed warm up. “Practice?!? We talking about practice.” Allen Iverson famously made this statement 22 times to a group of reporters following the Philadelphia 76’ers elimination from the 2002 NBA playoffs. As the MVP of the league, Iverson made...
Working at ALTIS
Have you ever wondered what it's like to work for ALTIS? Well, the guesswork is over! This week’s blog-post by ALTIS Strength & Power Coach – Jason Hettler reveals a behind the scenes insight into his working environment on a daily basis. A recent visitor to one of our practices posed the following question to me: “What is your favorite...
The Minority Report
In the second of this season's blog-post installments, ALTIS Coach - Natasha Harvey explores some of the challenges faced by minority groups in the coaching profession, and suggests solutions to overcoming them. In a recent interview with ALTIS’ Digital Media Lead - Ian Warner, I was asked to shed light on what it’s like to be me. Not Natasha Harvey;...
Becoming a coach in the Twitter age
I often find myself wondering whether Twitter is a blessing or a curse as we develop and learn on our journey as coaches. It is a wonderful resource, and a great instrument for building networks – enabling us to forge links with others on an intercontinental basis. It allows us to learn in our own time, from a vast number...
The inside story – Kevin Tyler on his move to ALTIS
With the athletes returning to training in sunny Phoenix this week, we caught up with a new addition to the ALTIS coaching staff, Kevin Tyler, for an insight into his journey. With a reputation for creating innovative and effective programs for coach education, athlete development and youth development, the former Director of the Canadian Athletics Coaching Center (CACC) - and...
Lessons from the IAAF World Championships – Dustin Imdieke
Recently I had the privilege of traveling to Beijing for the IAAF World Championships. At these Championships, I represented ALTIS, and was on the coaching staff for Norway, as the personal coach to Isabelle Pedersen. Prior to Beijing, we held a ten day holding camp in Hong Kong. This was my first experience at a Major Championship, and I was...