Archive: Sports

Kids came to the FIELD Saturday to test their strength, endurance, and skills at Cayuga Medical Center's first annual Athletic Performance Competition.  Kids competed in three age groups and in five events to identify strengths and weaknesses that impact their sports performance.  While the event was a competition to see how kids compared to other local athletes, the underlying purpose was to identify areas where they can improve.

"This is for kids to see how strong they are, how fast they are, how high they can jump," says Cayuga Medical Center Director of Sports Medicine and Athletic Performance John Winslow.  "We also offer classes to improve your speed, to improve your power.  It's to prevent injury and improve performance."


Sports Medicine and Athletic Performance is headquartered at Island Fitness.  The team includes athletic trainers, two physicians specializing in sports medicine, physical therapists, exercise physiologists, nutritionists, and massage therapists.  Winslow says the unit caters to athletes of all ages who want to safely improve their performance in their respective sports.

"We're testing different aspects of performance," says Athletic Performance Department Manager Tim Koba.  "That is a two-fold thing.  The first part is that we want local athletes from the community to come test their skills and see how they rank against each other.  At the same time it gives them ideas of what they're good at and what they may need some help with in order to perform better."

The competition attracted up to 100 young athletes, and 20 Cayuga Medical Center employees.  Athletes competed in three age groups.  Winners received medals, and the top athlete in each group received an iPod nano.


Koba says that events like the one on Saturday are common for football, as well as other sports where they spend the first part of the week of training trying to determine how they're doing.  he notes that national teams have a testing week during which they test their athletes to see how they're performing in the off season, and what they need to improve upon before the season starts.

The Sports Medicine unit works with local teams as well as individual athletes.  Individuals set up a times for to be tested,  The group also tests entire teams, and work with local teams as well.  Winslow says that the Saturday event would help kids figure out what to work on so they can perform better on their teams, as well as making young and older athletes aware of the services his group has to offer.


"I like seeing the kids work hard,"  Winslow says.  "Seeing them run hard and jump high, and having a good time and being physically active."

Koba says the event was free for this first year, and that the intention is to make it an annual event.  Lite Rock 97.3 was on hand, broadcasting from the FIELD and helping give out awards. 

"It's great to see so many kids come out for an event like this," says Christy Voytko, who volunteered as a score keeper Saturday.  "They see how fit they are, and learn how to get more in shape for the future."

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