FAIRMONT – The competitiveness of youth athletics has grown drastically in recent years. With more and more middle and high school kids striving to become better in their respective sports, the opportunity to develop individual skills is needed to succeed.

Luckily, for residents living near Fairmont, this opportunity is available with two different locations: Live Fit and Cutting Edge Fitness. Each company has had a major impact on youth sports throughout the area, serving hundreds of clients in Fairmont, St. James, Blue Earth, Granada and Truman.

LIVE FIT

Staff Photo by Jake Olson: Cutting Edge Fitness owner CJ Johnson observes Ryder Thate on the SHREDmill machine during Thursday afternoon's Speed Performance Camp session at Cutting Edge Fitness.

The creation of Live Fit’s youth training program didn’t stem from head trainer Alex Schliesmann, but from Parisi Speed School, an established speed and agility organization with over 100 locations and 650,000 athletes in the United States.

Schliesmann became aware of the program in high school after training at the Kokomo, Indiana location with Parisi master coach Chad Coy. While visiting his father during the summers, Schliesmann would work with Coy throughout his high school years, returning periodically while playing football at Rochester Community and Technical College.

“I was kind of skeptical about it before,” Schliesmann said. “I’ve always been that athlete who thinks, ‘I am good enough, I already lift, I am already strong.’ Then I learned about Parisi and was just blown away by how much I almost knew, and I was corrected with the coaching.”

Fast forward to 2019. Schliesmann and the rest of his staff were gearing up to open the new Live Fit location in Fairmont. Coy reached out to Schliesmann not only to congratulate his former student but to offer Live Fit a partnership opportunity with Parisi’s youth training programs.

Schliesmann saw this chance as a slam dunk. Knowing he wanted to eventually implement youth training programs at his new facility, a deal between Live Fit and Parisi Speed School began to take shape after the gym’s 2020 opening.

“He’s [Chad Coy] the guy who goes around getting people certified sports performance facilities or master coaches,” Schliesmann said. “He asked if I was planning on doing any sports performance for kids, and I said, ‘Yes, always. I have always been training athletes.'”

The program’s first jumpstart began in the summer of 2021. With most of Schliesmann’s athletes being multi-sport, this break in the athletic calendar was the perfect time to gain some momentum, establishing itself as a great opportunity for any individual looking to take their athletic ability to the next level.

Live Fit’s Parisi Speed School offers multiple classes and sessions for all age groups. Individuals can purchase one-, three-, and six-month class passes for whatever experience level group they want to participate in. Schliesmann and his staff currently run training sessions five days a week.

After participating in a mandatory Parisi Performance Evaluation test, individuals are recommended to different groups depending on their current athletic ability and sports performance goals. Age groups range from five to 22 and everything in between.

“It’s not just, ‘Oh, you’re not a college athlete, you don’t belong here,’ it’s literally for everyone,” Schliesmann said. “The main focus is, I don’t care if you’re good, we’re going to make you better. If you’re great, we’re going to make you amazing. If you’re amazing, you’re going to be a superstar.”

CUTTING EDGE FITNESS

The Speed Performance Camp held at Cutting Edge Fitness is a relatively new program for owner CJ Johnson, but his background in training athletes through strength and conditioning sessions has always been in his life.

While Johnson established Cutting Edge Fitness’s Fairmont location in 2012, the Speed Performance Camp recently began in November of last year, emphasizing gathering athletes into a group setting while still focusing on individual competition.

The genesis of the program stems from Johnson’s purchase of the SHREDmill and OHM Kinetic Resistance Machine. These two new pieces of equipment laid the foundation of what Johnson wanted to do with the program, giving different athletes the ability to work on running form, footwork, and other athletic movements specific to their sport.

“Between those two pieces of equipment, I track everything that every kid does,” Johnson said. “It brings a very interesting aspect to it that we never really had, kind of that competition aspect. It’s not them competing with other people; it’s them competing with themselves. Our whole process is built around kids tracking their own progress.”

Johnson’s program provides training sessions five days a week, with three time slots in the morning, afternoon, and evening to adjust to any individual’s schedule. The Speed Performance Camp is held for ages 10-18, aiming to mimic a collegiate strength and conditioning program geared towards younger athletes.

“Our biggest goal is long-term athletic development, and that’s why we gear this a little bit more towards the younger kids, just because it’s very general what we do,” Johnson said.

BUILDING A FOUNDATION

While both programs have their own philosophies and principles they apply to their sessions every week, the main goal of each remains the same: building an athletic foundation for every patient interested.

The emphasis on teaching basic athletic movements will give each individual a chance to grow in whatever sport they are playing at the time, as both Parisi Speed School and the Speed Performance Camp have many athletes competing in multiple sports.

Whether it’s speed development, hip mobility, or plyometrics, both organizations are setting the stage for any athlete participating to be successful in whatever route they take in their careers.

“As an athlete inside the weight room, you want to get as big a tool chest as you can,” Schliesmann said. “You don’t want to just have tools for carpentry work, you don’t just want to have tools for steelwork, you want to have as many tools in that tool chest as possible.”