Jay Yde Gives His Wrestlers An Explosive Shot With The MVP

Jay Yde (pronounced Ee-dee) is a Physical Education teacher for the Northlake School District in Northlake, Wisconsin. A few years ago, when school administrators decided that they would have to commandeer class space that Jay had set aside specifically for athletic training for the students, Jay was faced with a dilemma.

He could either let the administrators simply take the room, or, he could prove to them why it was worth keeping as a dedicated fitness/training area for the kids.

Swinging into action, Jay created a 5k run for the local community and a 1k run for children. He picked up some sponsors and also held a raffle - all in an effort to raise the money to outfit his athletic room. The administrators, seeing his determination, gave up on their acquisition plans and, instead, offered to loan Jay $40,000 to help stock his room with top-flight equipment.

The Shuttle MVP was on his wish list. Years before, Jay had experienced a Shuttle MVP at a physical therapy/fitness clinic in Colorado and fell in love with it. While he thought it would be nice for the kids to workout on the MVP - he had to admit that he looked forward to using the MVP himself.

Jay says his MVP gets plenty of use. He has adults that will come in before school to do a variety of fitness training. He also has a group of cyclists that will come in and use the MVP to develop power in their legs for hill climbing. But perhaps Jay's greatest interest in the MVP is working with his middle and high school wrestlers.

The main way he uses the MVP for wrestling is helping his athletes improve their take down moves or their ability to shoot on their opponent. Helping a wrestler develop the explosive power of their lower body gives them a speed/time advantage. "The more explosive you get on your shot, the less time your opponent has to react and counter," says Jay.

To develop this shooting explosiveness, Jay has the wrestlers go through a series of exercises on the MVP. He starts with two leg explosive jumps. These are not the rapid, straighter leg bouncing jumps that work more of the calfs and toes. Instead, he has them explode off the kickplate, catch on the return then quickly explode off again.

Jay has them do sets on two legs, then switch to sets of single leg explosive jumps. Double leg jumps are nice for coordinated power, but the single leg explosive jumps are functional, more accurately reflecting regular athletic moves such as the wrestler's shoot.

What does Jay like best about the Shuttle MVP? "I think number one is its ease of use. I could stick a sixth grader on the MVP and they'd know how to use it. Nothing to hurt them or fall on them. Secondly, the MVP is low risk. You can have the kids do plyometrics and they're not going to get shin splints. You can do explosive work and their joints and shins don't take a pounding," he says.