Fortney named ECS performance and wellness coach

Enterprise City Schools announced on June 11 that football and track coach Brad Fortney has officially been announced as the system wide performance and wellness coach.

Fortney – who is a linebackers coach on the football team and the head track and field coach at EHS – gave a presentation to the school board in February on the way he’s been working with the football, track, basketball and baseball teams on speed training.

Fortney said that presentation led to the discussion of how that sort of training can be implemented system wide at ECS.

The basis of the program is getting students moving correctly, breathing correctly and using proper techniques when running and sprinting.

“We are going to work throughout the (system) to help create better movement and teach skills through sprint mechanics and speed that will help promote better wellness overall,” Fortney said. “Just by breathing properly and getting your heart rate to a certain level improves your performance not just physically but also academically, too.

“There have been studies by Harvard and others that show if you get your heart rate over 60 percent for 10 minutes that it increases your learning ability and not only your ability to pay attention to things but also your ability to retain what you’re learning.”

A big thing for athletes will be the use of a software program called the Freelap Timing System. A clip that will attach to an athlete’s shorts will track the speed they run in miles-per-hour and be recorded through an app on a phone or tablet.

“That’s the big thing we’ll have for us to see if what we’re doing is improving,” Fortney said. “We take test scores in the classroom to show growth and improvement. We will be able track the kids miles-per-hour and by doing this the kids they’ll be able to see where their time is and not just compete with teammates but see how they’re improving.”

That data can also help spot when an athlete could be fatigued or potentially risking injury, as well.

“It doesn’t just help to know where your time is, we’ll be able to see when a kid is way under where he or she has been and that means that there is something that could possibly be impacting that,” Fortney continued. “Is the kid getting enough sleep? Is the kid having other stresses in their life? Is the kid in a fatigued state and needs to pull back (in practice)?

“Now that helps us with injury prevention and helps us find out if there are maybe some issues there.”

Fortney said that injury prevention is a big part of the program, as well.

“If you’re moving correctly it will help with injury prevention,” Fortney emphasized. “If I can move properly my body uses less energy and if I breathe properly and I’m moving properly you’ll also watch the stress levels and anxiety levels go down.

“If my body isn’t stressed or has a high anxiety level and I’m moving properly then you decrease injuries across the board.”

While Fortney will work with all of the EHS athletic teams, he will also be working with children in the elementary and junior high schools, as well.

“When you get a kid at the high school level it usually takes them a year or so to get them to move better and move properly,” Fortney said. “Over their time when they started sports into high school they really haven’t had any structured sprint or speed training.

“Now, kids at a younger age will learn how to move better and they’ll be ready to go as soon as they come into high school. I think it’s going to be a complete competitive advantage here at Enterprise and I think it’s a game changer for our school.”