He is one of the best in the world at his craft. He’s an innovator who is tasked with taking the average athlete and making him or her great.
“True sports speed is reactive speed. When you see something, you hear it and your brain processes that,” said sports performance coach Chip Smith. “By training with reaction we can increase their lateral and diagonal and backwards and forwards speed that translates to the field, the court or the diamond to make them competitive and be able to play with athletes that may be superior athletically.”
That is what Smith does.
“I’ve been training pro athletes for about 30 years. I was one of the very first sports performance coaches in the U.S.,” said Smith.
The 63 year old is based out of Atlanta, Georgia. But about once a month he comes to Bel Air to teach the M.O.R.R training system he developed. M.O.R.R stands for Movement Overspeed Resistance and Reaction.
He does a lot with football players. Good ones. This year 18 of his guys were drafted, while 37 have signed with NFL teams. He’s put over 1,700 in the NFL as well. Some of the quarterbacks:
“I’ve trained everyone from Jay Cutler to Colin Kaepernick to Cam Newton,” said Smith.
As for local QB’s, John Carroll High School alum, and current Yale signal-caller, Kurt Rawlings works with Smith.
“(In) middle school, high school I was just an average speed, middle of the pack to eventually late high school. Now I’d like to say I’m pretty fast,” said Rawlings.
And Smith doesn’t only do football.
“We have a ton of major league baseball guys. We do basketball. We do golf. We do tennis,” added Smith.
He said his training is based around specific movements for the specific athlete in his or her specific sport.
“He’s really pushing us to be our best and just pushing us so that we’ll be on the top,” said North Harford High School field hockey player Anna Racine.
Smith has actually invented and trademarked 13 pieces of his own equipment to help his athletes train. Pieces like the punch belt and another nicknamed the Chip-o-meter.
“Not everybody has the aptitude to play at the next level. But what we want to do here is we want to give them every opportunity to maximize that potential,” said Smith.
Next week Smith is set to run a camp at South Carroll High School, training kids from all over Carroll County.
Follow Shawn Stepner on Twitter @StepnerABC2 and Facebook
