Olympics fever is on! The past weekend's events brought us spectacles like the Chinese divers, so synchronized, they were like mirror images of each other; a few surprises (and tear jerkers) like World #1 Jordan Wieber not making it to the all-around finals later this week, as well as some shifts in power evidenced by Lochte (the new alpha male in men's swimming) and Phelps unable to carry their relay team to win the gold and beat the French in the 400m relay.

To add to the Olympics excitement, this week's AA Customer Spotlight features Jay Murdock, head coach and trainer of Flight101 Sport Speed Development, a well-known training ground for our future Olympians and World Champions. Coach Murdock has been busy as he just sent off 33 of his athletes to the AAU (US AMateur Athletic Union) Junior Olympics but he still makes sure to communicate and engage with his clients/community. Let's learn how it's done the Flight101 way.

What is Flight101 Sport Speed Development?

Established in 2005 and located in Canton OH – the heart of high school football country, Flight101 Sport Speed Development offers northeast Ohio’s best available sports-specific high performance athletic training. Regardless of the sport, the greatest concern among today’s athletes is how to improve playing speed. Not just another gym or the latest “fad workout” Flight101 Sport Speed Development is a complete approach to improving athletic playing speed, reaction, agility and quickness. No matter what the sport, improved playing speed is often what separates good athletes from great athletes and can make the difference between a “winning season and a championship season.”

Head coach and trainer Jay Murdock has over 25 years experience coaching athletes at every level in a variety of sports. He has worked with young athletes from youth baseball, soccer, football and basketball to track and field at the college ranks. A former educator, on-air radio personality and long-time community activist, during his over two decades of coaching young athletes he has had athletes in national and state championships every year but three. He has coached 1 world champion, 3 national champions, 5 state champions, dozens of state qualifiers, 2 high school district championship and 6 high school conference championship track and field teams. His “athlete first, coach driven, performance based” approach to training young athletes has produced winning teams and championship athletes in an assortment of sports.

What is your coaching philosophy? How do you keep the athletes excited to come to training and be Olympic hopefuls one day?

First, it is important that our athlete’s feel like they are a part of a special fraternity – the Flight101 family. Even though they might come from different backgrounds, schools and communities the thing that they have in common is that they train with Flight101 and that they want to be the best that they can be. Over the years we have had a number of our athletes go on to prominence on and off the playing field and we make sure that our younger kids feel connected to what these athletes have accomplished. Second, we use what I call the ACT (Attitude, Conditioning and Technique) Equation to get them to understand our Coach/Athlete relationship. Conditioning and technique are the things that we can coach but attitude is what they bring to the table and without the proper attitude the drills and exercises we coach are meaningless. One of the things that we try to do in order to make sure that our athletes understand why we might be doing a particular drill or exercise. The days of just running because coach said so won’t work with this generation of athletes. We often put the goals of our workouts in writing so that the athlete can see the specific outcome we are trying to accomplish with that particular training session. Finally and most importantly, we try to make sure our athletes are having fun and enjoying themselves and to help them understand that training is about personal growth and not necessarily about winning and losing. However, with hard work and commitment they can achieve incredible things – like maybe one day representing country on the US Olympic Team.

Why did you create a FB brand page? How has the AppAddictive YouTube app helped your business since you downloaded it?

We had been using our blog and monthly electronic newsletter to communicate with our clients and promote our business for a number of months when we decided to launch our Facebook brand page. Both the blog and newsletter were great but they both required a considerable amount of time and attention in order research and write the articles on a regular basis. The FB brand page allows us to communicate with our clients in real time. By subscribing to feeds and posts that might be helpful and of interest to our clients we can update our FB brand page 2-3 times daily. We can post status updates on our athletes who are doing well on the field and in the class room. We welcome new athletes to the Flight101 family by posting their profile on our page and parents can post their videos of our athletes in various sporting events.

The AppAddictive YouTube app has helped our business in a number of ways. Again, it has allowed us to promote our business by linking our FB Brand page to other brand pages that have similar interests or provide information, products and/or services that our clients can use. We have used the video capability to highlight our clients and promote their athletic achievements to college scouts and recruiters. We have also used the videos as a coaching tool to help our athletes improve their performance.

What advice can you give to other small businesses that want to succeed in their FB and inbound marketing efforts?

We have found our FB Brand page to be the most economical way to promote our business and communicate with our client base. If your business is looking for a “get the word out to more customers” I can’t think of a better way to do it.