Woody is Climbing the Workout Ladder
Ron Bailey, Publisher
September 13, 2007 – The basketball world has fully embraced the latest developmental tool – personal workouts. Whether world class NBA athletes down to pre-teen ballers, basketball players worldwide have seen the value of training in addition to officially working with their coaches; this work can focus upon physical conditioning and/or hoop skill.
But as with everything, not all training services are the same. In the D.C./Baltimore area, there has been an explosion of fitness professionals claiming to help hardwood athletes improve both their physical conditioning and basketball skill sets, which in turn boost on-court effectiveness. Sometimes, the sales puffery exceeds their knowledge and ability to prepare athletes.
Trainer supreme, Terrelle Woody
One such individual that has demonstrated an ability to improve his charges is Terrelle Woody. For a visible and tangible resume of Woody’s work, all you need to do is look at Gus Gilchrist’s development.
Last year around this time, Gilchrist was a high school senior that possessed 6’9” height, but needed to improve his strength, balance, and quickness to maximize it. Now on the verge of accepting a scholarship to a major university (he had signed to attend Virginia Tech, but decided that school was not the place for him after the tragic Blacksburg, VA shootings in which over 30 students perished), Gilchrist is not only stronger, but has also improved both quickness and balance, as well as his basketball skill set.
Gus Gilchrist working the ladders.
On the high school level, other student-athletes that have benefited from Woody’s expertise are juniors Isaiah Armwood and Terrell Vinson, along with sophomore all-everything performer Josh Selby. What’s most impressive is that Woody did not start working with these young Baltimore, MD guys or the Clinton, MD based Gilchrist when they were players of note, as some fitness pros do; he helped make them the players they are now.
Word of Woody’s training abilities has spread, as professionals like Donell Taylor – who spent all last season with the National Basketball Association’s Washington Wizards – current European professional and former NBA first round pick Rodney White, Mexican league professional and former Georgetown and Baylor forward Harvey Thomas, D.C. native and Irish pro Ty Hammonds, along with Wizards hopeful James Lang have all commissioned Woody to help develop their talents.
Lucky for our readers, i95Ballerz.com witnessed a recent session with this collection of pro athletes, plus Gilchrist, at the Capital Sports Complex, and it’s clear why Woody is effective.
Rodney White, a professional with NBA and international experience, runs with resistance generating parachutes.
In a word, the workout was intense. And high-impact. Okay, that’s more than a single word definition, but both apply. To start, 60 second bleacher running in place toe-touches were demanded of a portion of the athletes present, while parachute 30-second full court up and back runs were required of the other group. The two sections then switched exercises; a tactic Woody utilized throughout training, thereby ensuring constant activity and a wider range of exercises performed.