Last week, the Hewitt students grades K through 12, had the pleasure of learning about all aspects of staying fit and healthy. IMG is a training academy for people of all ages and a boarding school for teens. Some of the sports they offer include, tennis, soccer, baseball, lacrosse, football, and basketball. People from all over the world come to IMG in Sarasota, Florida to work with the best coaches, teachers, and mentor’s there are. Many national teams have come to IMG to train and pick up new skills and techniques that help both in the mental and physical aspects of their sport.

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At the start of the 2014-2015 school year, Hewitt took a group of about twenty girls down to IMG, where we learned not only how to come together as a team, but about mental and physical health in our lives. We stayed at IMG for one week for pre-season learning the key components to the difficult sports: track & field, soccer, and volleyball. Some of the professionals we worked with during pre-season, came back to Hewitt last week to get a chance to speak with the whole Hewitt community. We learned that the partnership between Hewitt and IMG started when someone on the board at Hewitt thought it would be a great idea to get in touch with someone they had previously worked with from IMG. We split up into different groups where we learned the fundamentals of performance which includes a high performance mindset, personal presence, power poses, and fueling for performance.

 

Credit: IMG Academy Facebook Page
Credit: IMG Academy Facebook Page

Afterwards, we had the chance to sit down with Kate Burks and Taryn Morgan, two important members of the IMG community. Kate Burks, a registered dietitian/sports nutritionist has been working at IMG for the past year. Kate told us that she wanted to work at IMG for a variety of reasons: (1) Sports, (2) The ability to work with different age groups, and (3) The ability to continue to grow. When Kate came to Hewitt, she spoke to us about eating vegetables, staying hydrated, eating breakfast, and planning ahead before grocery shopping, among other things.

We also asked Kate how she thought IMG would help Hewitt students improve in athletics and healthy living. She gave us some great advice, explaining that we should improve upon our mindset, nutrition, and personal presence. She also told us that a good way to do that was by promoting it more and more with fun, interesting, and different new concepts.

Credit: IMG Academy Facebook Page
Credit: IMG Academy Facebook Page

Next we talked to Taryn Morgan, a mental conditioning coach at IMG. Taryn has been working at IMG for 9 years, and she absolutely loves it. It brings her joy to work with kids, and she even said, “It’s amazing to make a difference in kids lives.” She helps in physical performance, and told us that doing the right movement and technique in physical performance carries over into how we live our day to day lives (which includes everything we do at school). We were also amazed to hear that IMG is still expanding. There are 950 kids on the campus already; they are building a second school building, a lacrosse field, and a baseball field. We can’t wait to go back to IMG next summer for pre-season.

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