Juma Fit’s Kids’ Performance Academy

Preparing Young Athletes For Competition and Socialization

By tara delorenzo

In an effort to help inspire confidence in kids, Juma Fit has launched its Kids’ Performance Academy, a program open to kids ages 8-18 that focuses on training to help them enhance performance and socialize.

Juma Fit’s Kids’ Performance Academy launched in October 2021, and it is a sports-specific functional training that includes speed training, agility training, strength training (depending on age) and plyometric training with the help of the program mentor StaiSean, a track and field coach in Bergen County and professional DJ. The program takes place Mondays and Wednesdays after school in specified group classes that are set up by age. like this for her own kids. She also was asked by other parents for ways to improve their kids’ athletic performance, and so the Kids’ Performance Academy was started. The first step to setting it up was finding the right trainer.

“My trainers here and I are moms, and we’re fun but a lot of times kids would not want a mom there. I have clients I specifically work with that want to work with me or my other trainers, but for these kids, they want someone fun and cool. So, the first thing to do was find the right person, which we did with StaiSean. He’s been absolutely amazing,” Alvarez said.

“Basically, it’s so you can elevate young athletes by incorporating moves they use in their sports and making them more agile or faster or make the movements they make on the court make sense for their bodies,” Gia Alvarez, owner and founder of Juma Fit, said. StaiSean Lyew is a professional DJ and music lover, as well as a former track athlete at Syracuse University. In addition to DJing, he serves as the track and field coach at the Academy of Holy Angels, and has coached dozens of all league, all county, all state and all-American athletes. He was also selected as coach of the year in Bergen County in 2017.

For the classes, they’re sport-specific and can be tailored to the needs each young athlete has. The class times vary between 30-45 minutes, and activities are designed by age group. For kids below 12 years old, they get creative with cardio, running around the building or making a game for it. For those over 12, the program is more of a bootcamp style, and participants can use the treadmill. For larger classes, they will do short walk intervals on the treadmill while others do drills, like ladder drills or box jumps or agility with cone drills side-to-side. For over 14, weights are incorporated too. The focus throughout though is primarily bodyweight movement. At its core, the hope for the program is to be able to customize the classes to fit the needs of the athletes.

“We didn’t make it a drop-in class because I wanted to make sure ages were grouped together. With the semi-private and private classes, we’re able to tailor it more, and it’s more effective for the kids,” Alvarez said. “It’s great because the season ebbs and flows, so the needs of the kids change too, so it makes it so things don’t stay stagnant because you get to shift with what the kids need.”

The goal of the Kids’ Performance Academy is not only to strengthen them as athletes but also help them grow their confidence. It also serves as a way for the kids to interact and socialize and learn about their own bodies and how to take care of it.

“Kids range in emotion a lot so sometimes they’ll come in and they’re a little tired or they come in super stoked. But when they’re leaving, they’re always red-faced and smiling and feel good about themselves and that’s my favorite part,” Alvarez said. “It’s great. It gets the kids together with teammates and friends in a way that might not happen on the field. It’s more social to be in a class like this. It also pulls from all over the place. My son goes to a different school than his friends so for him to be able to come in and do something collaborative with them, especially during the off-season. It also is collaborative that’s not on a video game. It’s a safe, healthy, good place for them to be social together, so I think that piece of the community is important.”

“We have so many people and parents that come through here that have Juma as part of their life, so being able to translate that to their kids, so their kids come in and they see what their parents do and see the fun in it and then they take part in it is awesome. I love to share that from parent to kids and have that connection,” Alvarez added.

With the early success of the program and demand growing for the program, Alvarez is excited to keep building the program. Her goal is to make sure nothing stays stagnant with the program since seasons shift throughout the year, and she wants to keep it relevant to the athletes taking the classes so that it will not only help their performance but also help them grow as people.

“Being active is just something that’s such a gift to give to kids. Making sure the way they’re active and how they perform is safe and healthy is really important for me,” Alvarez said. “Having them learn to love to move early in life is a gift and if that’s what we can give, mission accomplished.”

For more information or to sign up for the Kids’ Performance Academy, visit Juma Fit’s Instagram at @juma.fit or their website at www.mindbodyonline.com/explore/locations/juma-fit.

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