For Some, A Tenth Of A Second Is Worth Hundreds

Daniel Sunday, arms pumping, legs churning, is grunting and grimacing as he motors down the synthetic track in a converted warehouse nestled inconspicuously off Highway 114 in the tony Northeast Tarrant County boom area.

A product of Colleyville Heritage High School, Sunday will soon be off to play his freshman year of football at tiny Wheaton College, a nonscholarship Division III school in Illinois.

Sunday, a chiseled fullback and linebacker, has been running 40-yard dashes here since February. His goal has been to better what he labels his "horrible" time of 5.37 seconds. Through a carefully planned series of workouts, he has shaved more than one-tenth of a second off his time.

Sounds incremental. Sunday, 18, considers it monumental.

"They've made a huge difference here in the way I run," says Sunday, 18. "If this place was here when I was 12, I'd probably be going to play football at Texas instead." "This place" is Velocity Sports Performance, a burgeoning business concept in the youth sports world where the universal truth � regardless of the game � seems to be "faster is always better." Parents appear to be buying the concept.

After all, what's another few hundred dollars a month for intricate speed training after you've already shelled out thousands to play on a select team and even more money for private sports-specific skills instruction? Velocity supplies what all sport parents seem to be seeking � yet another edge for their child.

As the name suggests, Velocity is primarily about speed. It is a training ground where boys and girls are taught running mechanics to make them faster.

The search for speed, however, costs � about $35 per group session.

It's no accident that Velocity's locations in Dallas-Fort Worth are planted in high-dollar, youth sports-crazed suburbs such as Southlake, Coppell and Allen, just north of the Plano border. The fourth Velocity sits in a converted indoor flea market along North Central Expressway, south of Northwest Highway in Dallas. In the Velocity culture, this is referred to as the "Highland Park" location.

"It's expensive but worthwhile," says Mary Ross, a Highland Park mom whose junior high school and high school sons train at Velocity. She had arrived to ferry son Luke, 12, and two friends from their workout.

"I want Luke to feel good about himself," she says. "He is a good athlete, but everyone wants their children to do better." Mike Witte, a 19-year-old Grapevine High School graduate who was training at the Southlake facility, put it another way: "No one wants to be left behind." Witte hopes to walk on at Texas A&M as a safety. Running alongside Sunday, Witte and fellow football players this day are the likes of Whitney Riley, a softball player from Southlake Carroll High School who has graduated to a scholarship at Texas Tech, and Amanda Muns, who attended Class 2A Chico High School before moving on to play college basketball at Florida Tech.

It is a typical group, says Ronnie Curcio, the Southlake sports performance director, who once worked as strength and conditioning coach for the NBA Sacramento Kings.

Speed has no gender barriers, Curcio says. And no age discrimination. Velocity has clients as young as 8.

"I'm trying to learn how not to slap my feet when I run," says Riley, the softball player, who pitches and plays outfielder for the Red Raiders. "I'm trying to get my brother into this. He's 10 and he's kind of slow." Champion's mission Velocity is the brainchild of Loren Seagrave, a running guru who coached NCAA championship women's teams at LSU and whose acolytes include Olympic gold medal sprinters Donovan Bailey and Gwen Torrence.

"Speed increases athleticism," Seagrave says by phone from his home in Georgia. "If we could increase a child's speed, we could increase his or her opportunity to enjoy the sports experience." Seagrave opened his first Velocity in the Atlanta suburb of Marietta in 1999. It attracted instant interest.

One local resident looking for a place for his young son to train for football visited and was impressed. Rich Kissane, a former executive with Sylvan Learning Center, a tutoring and test preparation company, proposed the idea of franchising the Velocity concept nationwide.

Today, there are 55 franchises across the country. An additional 155 have been sold and are in various stages of completion, including one under construction in Keller. That 23,000-square-foot building, which will be coupled with a 40,000-square-foot volleyball facility, will be the largest Velocity in the country.

"Our research reveals that consumers are waking up to the importance of performance training," says David Walmsley, Velocity's chief executive officer.

"We realized that there was a core market of late elementary school through high school athletes who were not being served," Walmsley says. "We target kids who are bucking for scholarships down to kids who are just looking for playing time." Seagrave leaves the marketing and business aspects of the company to others, preferring instead to preach on the mechanics of speed.

He sounds like a giddy nuclear scientist explaining the intricacies of antimatter, beta rays and the cosmic connection when talking about what appears to be the simple act of running a 40-yard dash.

Words such as "biomechanics," "neuro-physiology" and "deceleration" roll off his tongue as he expands on theories, techniques and mechanics.

Accent on youth One concept, however, is simple enough for anyone to comprehend.

"The best coaches should be with the youngest athletes," Seagrave preaches.

It is a formula once employed by Eastern Bloc countries in building their successful state-run athletic programs.

"In our system, we have a dad or mom step forward to coach their kids," Seagrave says. "They go out there and do the best they can. They may be able to teach a child how they shot a jumper or how they took a slap shot, but they have no idea how to teach speed and quickness. ... Talk to most coaches regardless of the sport and you'll see the single biggest factor in determining who plays and who doesn't is speed." That may be true, says Fabio Comana, an exercise physiologist with the nonprofit American Council on Exercise in San Diego, but he cautions that parents should not push young children too hard or expect too much from professional coaches.

"I understand that the pressures in our society drive parents to want their children to excel," says Comana, who serves as ACE's certification and exam development manager. "But the parents have to take into account a child's natural physiological development. It's OK to nurture competitive drive, but there is a fine line between that and pushing a kid too hard, too early." Seagrave says the intensity of his program varies according to age. Because he is positive his theories and prescribed workouts will work, he guarantees results from a program that costs $850.

Another benefit, he says, is that learning to run and jump properly reduces injuries.

"Your child will get faster" after attending twice-a-week, one-hour sessions for 12 weeks, Seagrave promises.

If not, the child can repeat the course at no charge.

Steve Silvey, an assistant track coach at Texas Tech and a former Velocity employee, says Seagrave's program is technically sound but is concerned that some trainers are not expert enough.

"It's a good program if it's followed to a T, but that's not easy to do," he says. "No one should be misled into thinking it is the second coming." Buying into the idea Mike Studer, retired from the environmental and hazardous waste business, was looking for a new opportunity when he saw an ad in The Wall Street Journal in June 2002.

He made an inquiry, did some research and fell in love with the idea of buying a Velocity franchise.

While growing up in Irving, Studer played sports in the streets and local parks. But he noticed the streets in his upscale Flower Mound neighborhood were childfree and silent.

"I was comfortable with the idea that neighborhoods were not going to return to producing athletes," says Studer, 47.

Less than a year later, in April 2003, Studer opened a Velocity franchise in Allen. By the fall, he had gobbled up all franchising rights for Texas and Colorado.

"I sensed a demand," he says. "Sports were not going away and kids were not going away." In July 2004, the Highland Park location opened in Dallas. Then in rapid succession came Coppell and Southlake.

Studer has since sold the rights to six locations in suburban Houston to Steve McKinney, whose other vocation is playing center for the NFL Texans. The first Velocity has opened in San Antonio.

According to Velocity's Web site, the cost of starting up a franchise ranges from $215,000 to $650,000, depending on location. That includes equipment and an initial franchise fee of $30,000.

The four Dallas-Fort Worth training centers range from 14,000 to 20,000 square feet. Each features a running straightaway, weight facilities and a mini-turf football field.

Parents can watch from a waiting room on the other side of a glass partition.

Studer says each franchise needs 500 to 700 clients a year to make it work. The economic "stabilization" period from opening to profitability is 18 to 24 months.

He speaks of Velocity's ability to help any child, regardless of starting point or interest in competitive sports. Drill teams, cheerleading squads and school bands have shown interest, Studer said.

Seagrave says Velocity was conceived primarily to improve the speed of younger children in recreational sports and to build self-esteem.

But it has attracted an increasingly sophisticated clientele.

John Simon, a former assistant football coach at Hebron High School, co-owns the Coppell franchise, located in a warehouse district off Freeport Parkway.

Soccer teams sign on Simon reports he has started to attract entire select soccer teams. Local high school coaches are encouraging entire rosters to attend off-season workouts at Velocity.

Groups of highly skilled athletes work with their trainers alongside beginners working with theirs.

Simon says professional football players who live in the area but play for distant franchises have also begun to take advantage of the facility.

Autographed photos of Cleveland Browns cornerback Gary Baxter, New York Jets cornerback Ray Mickens and running back Jerald Sowell, and Atlanta Falcons cornerback Kevin Mathis are posted in the reception area.

"Everyone these days seems to be looking for a little extra advantage no matter where they are," Simon says. "People think if they are not, they are falling behind." Some follow up their 24 sessions with a second and third series.

"It's like taking piano lessons," says Walmsley, the Velocity CEO. "What's enough?" Ennis High School football coach Sam Harrell watched all summer as his son Clark, a quarterback, and seven teammates enthusiastically made the almost two-hour round trip to the Velocity outside Highland Park.

"Those boys are always trying to find a way to get better," Harrell says. "They wanted to work on their speed because it is important to them." Harrell says he will have to wait to see before he can judge if the money was well spent.

"Clark feels like he has gotten faster," Harrell says. "You know, sometimes just thinking you have gotten faster is part of the battle."

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