Reaching One Classroom At A Time: Mr. Parker and new weightlifting equipment

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (KNOP) - This week’s One Classroom At A Time brings us to North Platte High School where Fat Dogs and The North Platte Public Schools Foundation surprised Mr. Ryan Parker, a physical education teacher with a REACH grant.

This grant will be used to help buy new weightlifting equipment and Parker was indeed surprised when he found he was a REACH grant recipient.

“I was completely shocked I had no idea this was coming but it’s a wonderful surprise a generous amount. I know it’s not a cheap ask for such a risky item toward the strength and conditioning program. I couldn’t be happier that we are able to provide the resources that we need so that we can get the equipment that the students deserve,” Parker said.

The new equipment that will be ordered will not be for regular old weights. This piece of equipment is state of the art that will measure in-depth student athletes’ performances in the weight room.

“So we will be ordering a velocity-based training and coder which is a small ergometer which is used to measure the bar speed by a tether of like a Velcro wrap attached to the bar that measures the bar speed mostly through the concentric portion of the lifts and we can use that data to help track the quality of the reps an individual is doing,” Parker said.

It’s not just student-athletes that this piece of gym equipment will help but will include science students taking physics.

“Different metrics we will measure is like mean, velocity, being in power usually in the form of wattages, I mean a physics class can come down here and now we can incorporate two classes into one,” Parker said.

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