Need for speed drives young, old

By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

"I've always realized the need for speed," says Rich Miano, a co-founder of the Speed & Quickness Camps for youngsters and adults. Camp participants go through a variety of drills and exercises to help make them faster. leg strength. Photos by Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

Speed & Quickness Camp participants run with parachutes trailing behind them to improve their leg strength.

His willingness has little to do with being named after a Star Trek character and everything to do with, on a Sunday morning in Manoa, trying to run while fastened to a parachute.

Kasamoto, 8, was participating in a Speed & Quickness experiment designed to improve his leg strength. The parachute served the same training purpose — creating resistance — as ankle weights to a high jumper.

Weighing 65 pounds, the Hahaione Elementary student resembled a kite's tail. But with tail-wags-dog determination, Kasamoto doggedly crossed the finish line.

"Riker's a feisty kid," said Rich Miano, co-founder of the Speed & Quickness clinics.

"That was fun," Kasamoto said of the parachute drill.

It is Miano's hope the drill was beneficial. "We're doing these clinics to teach kids how to become faster and stronger," he said.

The clinics are held weekends on the University of Hawai'i-Manoa's campus. For the per-session price of a half-tank of gasoline — $10 — participants receive sandwich and juice coupons, refreshments and innovative training tips.

Kasamoto hopped onto wooden boxes to improve his vertical jump and learned step-by-step ways to improve his speed.

Kasamoto, who is 4 feet 2, has a vertical jump of 24 inches. Prorating his height-to-jump ratio, if Kasamoto were 5 feet 7, he would be able to touch a basketball rim.

After participating in the clinic, Kasamoto scored nine goals in his next 2 1/2 soccer games. (The second half of one game was canceled because of rain.)

Now Neal Kasamoto, a civil engineer, is asking for tips from his son. "I've tried to do some of those things at home," he said.

Miano knows speed

At age 6, he was a competitive swimmer at local meets in Brockton, Mass.

At Kaiser High, he was a sprinter on the track team.

He began his UH football career as a cornerback, the position that demands the most quickness.

Fittingly, his first pro football team was nicknamed the Jets.

"I've always realized the need for speed," said Miano, who coordinates UH's pass defense.

During the first training camp of his 11-year career in the National Football League, Miano felt as if he stepped into the middle of the H-3.

"Everything was so much faster," he recalled.

His first practice assignment as a New York Jet was to defend wideout Johnny "Lam" Jones, a former Olympic sprinter.

For his first NFL game, he covered Indianapolis running back Curtis Dickey, once the NCAA's 100-meter champion.

"I tried to do anything to get faster," Miano recalled. "I got a lighter helmet, lighter shoulder pads. I took all of the padding out of my leg pads. I wore lighter shoes. Everything I did was geared toward speed."

He sought advice from Jets cornerback Donny Odegaard. "He was just a regular-looking guy," Miano said, "who just happened to be one of the fastest guys on the team."

Odegaard's secret was to perform exercises in which the muscles are stretched and then quickly contracted. Today the method is known as plyometrics. In the 1980s, it was clapping between push-ups or jumping on and off boxes.

In 1999, Miano and strength coach Mel deLaura joined the Warriors' football coaching staff. DeLaura, a former UH wide receiver who became a personal trainer to several Portland TrailBlazer basketball players, shared Miano's belief that improved speed can be taught.

DeLaura was the body of evidence. In college, deLaura could bench press 400 pounds and sprint 40 yards in 4.4 seconds.

"Not many people have that combination of strength and speed," Miano said. "He's still in great shape. There aren't too many 50-year-olds who look like him."

Miano and deLaura then created the non-profit organization that produces the series of Speed & Quickness clinics.

Camp for all ages

As a UH law professor for more than 25 years, Williamson Chang has taught cases involving water rights and Native Hawaiian rights.

His pet cause is arguing against the wide-spread belief that the older we get, the slower we get.

"I don't understand why that is," Chang said. "Our bodies replace every cell every seven years. It's not like we're using cells that are 20 years old. Is this a question related to our mind — 'Do you think you're slower?' "

Chang, 52, keeps in shape by running and playing basketball. The 5-7 Chang is 150 pounds, down 10 pounds from last year, and close to what he weighed when he was in his 20s.

He attended his first Speed & Quickness clinic last year, spurred after reading an article on plyometrics.

"It was tough," he said of the clinic's drills. "The first time I was dragging a little."

He enrolled for a second session. "The techniques — how to increase starts (on sprints), high-bounding — were clearly the real plyometrics," he said.

He added: "I'm a real fan of the clinic. It helps to break those mental barriers of whether you're fast or slow. It teaches you that you can maintain your speed. There is the belief that older people have to walk, that they shouldn't run or play basketball. I don't think that's true."

Chang recently ran 100 meters in 13.5 seconds.

He also holds his own against players more than half his age during pick-up basketball games at UH.

"I think if you watch your weight and use these new techniques, you can play basketball well into the late years," Chang said. "That's what I hope to show."

Reach Stephen Tsai at stsai@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8051.