With the start of school less than two weeks away, many student athletes have begun conditioning. The Go: Sports Performance Center, located at 1392 King Ave. in Grandview Heights, offers an alternative to traditional athletic training programs.

The center is frequented by high school athletes from Grandview Heights, Upper Arlington, Hilliard and surrounding areas. What draws the athletes is a unique training strategy that is designed to be more effective than typical conditioning methods, said Go: Sports owner Nick Osborne.

"What we did is we said, 'Let's go back and start fresh. Let's not go with paradigms that are 40 years old,'" he said.

Osborne was a personal and athletic trainer at Fitness Central for eight years before buying the business and opening Go: Sports two years ago. Before that, he was a strength conditioning coach for various sports at Westland High School and Ohio State.

During this time, he said, he realized that many training programs are counter-productive.

In traditional sports conditioning, "you'll have the boys come in and do the bench press, maybe squats, and they're doing both (with) horrible form," Osborne said. "When we sat down and looked at the science, none of that strength translates onto the field. In fact, it usually makes the athlete less athletic."

Osborne and his staff of five coaches teach athletes to target specific muscle groups that are used most often in their particular sports. For example, a track-and-field athlete would focus on strengthening the arm he uses to throw the discus rather than trying to increase the amount of weight he can bench-press.

"We're not lifting to make them strong," Osborne said. "We're lifting to make them more athletic, and there's a complete paradigm shift."

Track athlete Ben Kompa, who will be a freshman at Upper Arlington High School this year, said training at Go: Sports helped him break several discus-throwing records while in middle school.

"I've learned how to do different weight exercises" that improved his performance, Kompa said. "I've basically just increased athleticism."

Kompa's mother, Natalie, said the Go: Sports training not only improved his athletic skills, but gave him a psychological boost as well.

"It can take a kid and enhance what they already do and then give them additional skill sets and the confidence to really go after what they want," she said. "That's coordination, it's skill and it's strength."

Osborne said most of the athletes who train at Go: Sports are brought in by parents or referred by other athletes. Because of the unorthodox training methods, few coaches refer students, but some give students permission to supplement their team training with the Go: Sports program.

"Some coaches will say, 'Sure, you can go lift there if you're willing to pay for more expert training,'" Osborne said.

The Go: Sports program is tailor-made for each student, especially female athletes who may have not reached their peak performance.

"It doesn't matter if you're a guy or a girl," Osborne said. "We're going to make you work hard. We're going to teach you the fundamentals."

Kasi Vazquez, who plays on the Upper Arlington High School softball and water polo teams, said she has benefited from training at Go Sports alongside other female athletes with similar abilities.

"It's nice, because you have other people in your class that are your strength and your age and they push you and motivate you to do better," said Vazquez, who will be a senior.

Audrey Plant, another UAHS senior, said she has excelled at softball field since she started training at Go: Sports.

"I've learned the overall technique of strength training," Plant said. "I think my whole body got stronger through doing every workout."

Plant's father, Harold, said training at Go: Sports has helped his daughter recover from a knee injury she sustained five years ago.

"These training workouts have allowed my daughter to greatly increase her performance on the softball diamond," he said.

The Go: Sports philosophy encourages athletes to push themselves, but not to the point that they're sore and out of commission for days at a time.

"Our kids come out, they're tired, they're exhausted. But the next day they're able to keep doing things," Osborne said. "Kids can do our program and still go play sports."

For more information, visit gosportscenter.com or call (614) 453-1446.

cbournea@thisweeknews.com