The right kind of training

In 13 years of teaching and coaching in Alabama high schools, Brooks Barron saw a lot of permanent injuries that could have easily been avoided. About 5 million youth injuries happen every year, and a simple lack of education and understanding in the weight room are to blame, he said.

“That’s a lot, and the sad part about it is that over half of them can be prevented with the right kind of training and movement skills,” Barron said. “They just don’t have that anymore because they don’t go out and play three different sports.” 

 Kids’ sports have changed in the past five years, according to the Chelsea resident. While children used to play a variety of sports such as baseball, football and soccer, now kids often stick to one specialization from age 5 all the way up to high school. 

This leads to the overuse of muscles and often the need for surgery by the ninth grade. But to Barron, it’s not supposed to be like that. His passion led to starting his own coaching program, MVP Training. MVP works to build the foundational habits for athletes such as how to move, squat and hold their own body weight. He said athletes nowadays aren’t taught those skills early, which can lead to injuries later. 

For years, Barron saw these injuries happening, but he didn’t know why. It wasn’t until he left teaching and coaching in high schools that his eyes were opened. He signed on to help form a different training company that researched the problem for a year. Although that company failed after about six months, Barron used that knowledge to form a mobile training program for high school teams. 

In the beginning he would visit area coaches and offer to take over their strength conditioning training program year-round for a small cost. He knew all the coaches in the area, and most of them were on board with the idea. 

“It seems to be growing,” Barron said. “We’ve only had one team say no to us, so we know this is a need for coaches and teachers.”

What began with only three teams has grown to more than 15 in a year. MVP trains about 300 athletes in the area and the sports teams within Oak Mountain, Chelsea and John Carroll high schools. Barron offers a long-term program so coaches can benefits and the athletes will keep them as well. 

“My favorite part is going to watch athletes actually compete and seeing what we do in its process,” Barron said. “I like seeing athletes that don’t have surgery. I like seeing athletes that don’t miss games because of injuries. That’s my passion.” 

He describes a program at John Carroll as the essence of what MVP does. They teamed up with UAB orthopedics and its trainers, and the groups share all the injuries and surgeries they are performing. So far they have cut the number of injuries in half compared to last year’s numbers. 

“It helps us to prove that what we do actually works,” Barron said. While one of Barron’s goals is to expand his mobile training into Briarwood Christian School and Spain Park High School, he is currently working to open a physical location for MVP Training so that individual athletes can sign up for programs. It’s scheduled to open March 14 at the U.S. 280-Highway 119 intersection in the previous McAlister’s Deli location. 

“We’ve done some really good things in the past one to two years, so I’m proud of that,” Barron said. “Hopefully the place will be just as good. There’s a lot to do before then, but it’s exciting.” 

Barron will continue to train middle and high school students, which remain the majority of his athletes. He won’t turn anyone away, though. He believes his knowledge, combined with his three physical education and health degrees and various certifications, will help develop MVP Training. Barron said MVP Training is unlike anything in the area, and it’s a niche that needed to be filled. 

“It’s been a leap of faith in a lot of respects because if you leave teaching and coaching, you leave a good retirement system and you leave good health insurance,” Barron said. “If you leave all that behind, you better have something to replace it with. [We’re] just relying on God to show us the path in what we’ve been trying to do. It’s worked so far, so let’s see what the future has in store for us.”