Speed, Agility and Conditioning Camp at Pace
By Rudy Rodriguez-Chomat
March 25, 2003

Thanks to a former Monsignor Pace graduate and former Kansas State University football player, we now have a camp in South Florida we can call our own.

Mario Smith, a former safety for Kansas State, the CFL and Arena Football League, has started a camp that specifically works on speed, agility, conditioning, quickness and more, that is currently being held at Monsignor Pace High School Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 4pm til 6pm.

Having grown up in South Florida, there was never a camp of this nature nor individuals such as Smith who were available or wanted to help kids get better. Well, he is here now, and trust me, this camp works.

"When I was in high school there weren't any camps like this around in South Florida," Smith said. "I really didn't have anyone to guide me to help me really get better until I got to college where I learned all these techniques to help you get faster, quicker and more agile which is really important to get to the next level."

Some of the drills include pylos, overspeed, ropes, shuttle runs and the most basic one of all, sprints.

The drill that's most effective for speed and getting faster is overspeed. You really have to see it to understand it, but it's a cord, similar to a rubber band, that the one training is on one end of and the trainer is on the other end. Let me stop trying to explain it. It works. You get faster.

"When I was working out with Mario in college, he showed me the overspeed drill my 40 time dropped from 4.45 to 4.38 in a matter of weeks," Dennis Butler said.

Currently, the camp is being held at Pace High School and costs only $30 a week to attend. The current program runs 8 weeks until the beginning of spring football and will start up again in the beginning of the summer.

Many well-known players are participating in this camp including Central Michigan signee and Dade County rushing champion, Jerry Seymour. It is definitely something worth checking out because you will surely become a better football player working with Smith.

For more information on this camp, please call 786-285-3699 or e-mail him at dime_breed_inc_mario@hotmail.com or simply click on his banner at the bottom of our webpage to e-mail him.