Sept. 15, 2008
COLUMBIA, Mo. - The Missouri women's basketball team welcomed Jared Lawrence, an assistant director at Performance Training, Inc., to Mizzou Arena to offer his expertise to the team in footwork, agility, quickness and balance. Lawrence traveled to Columbia from Knoxville, Tenn., for workouts with the team on Monday, Sept. 15 and Tuesday, Sept. 16.
This marks the second time in the last two months Lawrence made a trip to Mizzou Arena. During his first visit in July, Lawrence held three optional introductory sessions that every Mizzou player attended. Since Lawrence's initial sessions, the coaching staff has noticed improved footwork with the squad. Lawrence returned to Columbia this week to see how the team has progressed.
"In my return, the biggest focus is to follow up on the progression that we have implemented in the beginning," Lawrence said. "Also, making sure that the athletes understand the purpose of the drill and how it will pertain to their sport."
"I have seen a lot of improvement with the team's footwork," Lawrence added. "The emphasis now is that the players have to learn to do the drills explosively."
Lawrence and Bryan Mann, the team's strength and conditioning coach, met after the July workouts and implemented a plan on how to improve the basketball team's footwork. Since then, Coach Mann and the women's basketball staff have paid close attention to footwork during workouts, which is generating quicker cuts, closeouts and improvement on defense.
Lawrence's detail-oriented workouts ensure that each Tiger gets the most out of every session, as he makes sure every player uses the proper form and footwork on each drill. Additionally, he explains the relevance of each exercise to basketball so the players understand why they're doing each drill.
"You can tell how much of a love (Lawrence) has for helping others improve, its great," freshman Bailey Gee said. "The more and more we do his drills the more I feel improvement in my quickness and footwork."
Performance Training Inc., was founded by Jackie Ansley. Head Coach Cindy Stein learned about the group from a clinic it held during the 2008 Women's Final Four. Performance Training, which does clinics around the country, has worked with a number WNBA players, including Lisa Leslie and Sheryl Swoopes, as well as NBA player Dwight Howard. For more information about Performance Training Inc., you can visit their web site at www.performancetraininginc.com.
