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Marc Spataro's
Moto Pro Training ATV Racer Summer Camp
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Moto
Pro Traing's Marc Spataro |
Baltimore, MD (12/17/2008) - This
summer I had the opportunity to attend Marc Spataro’s
Moto Pro Training Summer Camp, which was held near
my home in Maryland. Marc has been coaching some
of the nation’s top ATV and motorcycle pros
and he offered a weekend experience to see exactly
what his clients are doing to keep ahead of the
competition. Marc informed me that this three day
camp would cover all aspects of human movement and
the things that he would teach everyone could be
directly applied to racing and riding.
I arrived at Marc’s training facility early
Friday morning with my photo gear and work out
cloths to find a rather diverse group of guys
ranging from pro, pro-am, and amateur racers.
With the help of William Yokley National Guard/Yokley
Racing, one of Marc’s racers, our first
activity of the day would be an outdoor obstacle
course at the local National Guard facility. A
pleasant ride around a beautiful lake dropped
us into a wooded valley laden with government
warning signs and multiple gates to pass through.
After meeting all of the clearance requirements
we ventured deeper and further into the woods.
Arriving at our final destination, Marc had a
tent set up with drinks and snacks and instructed
everyone to take a seat in the bleachers for a
brief lecture as to why and what we were going
to do today. Marc focused on balance, coordination,
power, and speed and then it was time for the
physical challenges.
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| Marc
Spataro gathered everyone together to discuss
the training agenda at the National Guard
training facility |
This state of the art facility is used by several
governmental agencies to train for terrorist attacks
as well as basic boot camp for military divisions.
The obstacle course contained 15 stations and Marc
chose to break the course down into 2 areas of 6
stations to run timed trials through. Three of the
challenges were too dangerous to risk someone getting
hurt so they were left out of the regimen. These
stations would challenge every aspect of human movement
especially endurance and strength. Marc let everyone
try each station several times in order to let the
racers get accustomed to the challenge. After practice
Marc grouped the racers into groups of 2 or 3 based
on their abilities to perform the task. From here
Marc and his assistant Casey would conduct timed
trials using stop watches to record everyone’s
results.
The first challenge had racers run and leap to
grab a 4-inch rope and swing up and over a wooden
railing only to let go mid swing land on the ground
and take off towards an 8 foot wall. This angled
obstacle had to be scaled and either slid down
or jumped off. Once your feet hit the ground it
was back to a sprinting pace towards a cargo net
climbing wall. When the racers jumped up on to
the cargo net it swung back and forth as they
desperately tried to climb up it faster than one
another. This caused several of the guys to taste
dirt and try again.
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GNCC Pro
ATV Racer, Jeff Pickens testing out the
rope swing
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GNCC
Pro ATV Racer, William Yokley & Ben
Hott coming down the Pyramid |
Upon reaching the top there was a furious run
down a set of stairs touching down to the ground
and taking off in a sprinters pace towards one
of the toughest obstacles called the Pyramid.
The Pyramid is a torturous obstacle requiring
the participants to weave themselves over and
under 4”x4” timbers up twenty feet
and back down. There was no easy way to do this
and several of participants lost there grip and
fell to the shredded rubber base below. There
were three timed trials that were ran at these
six stations.
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50'
Cargo Net Climbing Wall |
The second set of obstacles involved a series of
balance beams that progressed like stairs until
they reached a height of twelve feet. At the end
of the balance beam there was a set of monkey bars
that contained 3” rungs that went a distance
of about 30 feet. Completing the monkey bars after
the first course was extremely challenging due to
grip fatigue. Most everyone made it through this
obstacle to continue on to the rope and wall climb.
This station had several 4-inch ropes that were
attached to a platform 18 feet in the air on one
side and a 50-foot cargo net climbing wall on the
other. Participants had their choice as to what
they wanted to climb, if they chose the ropes they
had to go up them without the assistant of their
feet as many times as they could. If they chose
the cargo net wall they had to climb all the way
up and down one time. These stations were not a
timed event but rather for strength and endurance.
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