The official student newspaper of Walter Johnson High School

The Pitch

The official student newspaper of Walter Johnson High School

The Pitch

The official student newspaper of Walter Johnson High School

The Pitch

Local Matt Eiden Trains Both High School Athletes and the Pros

When most people think of personal training, they typically think of professional athletes. However, with more young athletes playing year-round sports, and some even pursuing college and professional careers, personal training has become more commonplace.

Matt Eiden, a personal trainer at Champions Field House in Rockville, who trains several WJ athletes, said, “there is a huge[ly] uneducated…training market with athletes of all ages today…[when] teaching in large groups [it] is very hard to give everyone the attention they need to make sure they are doing all they need to be doing their best.”

Sophomore Anna Rowthorn, who plays field hockey on the varsity team and also on a travel team, believes that personal training is very important in order to play well at a high level, especially because of the injuries that can occur.

“I have a knee problem called ‘runner’s knee,’” said Rowthorn. “Basically, it means your knees are not strong enough to support your thigh muscles. The way to cure this problem is by strengthening your knees, and this involves personal training and certain workouts.”

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As Eiden says, a personal trainer’s job is to teach young athletes “when to push, when to back off, how to peak at the right time. There needs to be a trained eye watching them…to see what they are doing wrong and fix it on the spot so they do not create injuries by being out of balance or not correcting their weaknesses,” said Eiden.

He said that the most common problems and injuries he sees are bad posture and tendonitis in the knee, shoulder, elbow and lower back, due to overtraining or training in the wrong manner.

To senior field hockey player Taylor Swift, Eiden’s training has been incredibly beneficial.

“I want to play field hockey in college next year, and I felt that having a personal trainer…could only improve my abilities, both for my club teams and for college,” said Swift.

Eiden, who has also trained Washington Nationals players Ryan Zimmerman and Jayson Werth, grew up in Silver Spring and attended St. John’s College High School in Washington, D.C.

“I was never extremely athletic [as a child] but I was a very hard worker,” Eiden said. “I played most all sports and tell all my clients that they should do the same as youths. Developing as many skills as possible is essential.”

Both Swift and Rowthorn would recommend personal training to other young athletes looking to improve their physical abilities.

“I think that it is very important to be physically fit and to keep it up by training a lot,” said Rowthorn. “I recommend that young athletes start out the personal training young, and try to do it consistently, like a few times a week.”

Even though field hockey requires some specialized training, Eiden said “There are sport specific movements in some sports, but in most cases it comes down to strength, acceleration, top speed, change of direction and reaction and the ability to do all of these skills as naturally as possible. [All of these skills] can be grown and developed and improved.”

Individualized training is not easy, and both girls say that they work very hard during their sessions with Eiden.

“I’m one of the first to complain every week about having to do Matt’s exercises, but honestly, it has benefitted me a lot. I definitely think my legs are a lot stronger from all the squats, lunges and weight exercises we do, even if it is painful,” said Swift.

However, Swift realizes that all of the work does come with a reward

“I would definitely recommend [personal strength training] to any athlete who wants to improve their game. As the saying goes, ‘no pain, no gain,’ and my experience with having Matt as a personal trainer has been just that,” said Swift.

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About the Contributor
Ellie Jorling, Print Feature Editor
This is senior Ellie Jorling’s second year on The Pitch staff. She is really excited for the upcoming year and being an editor after staff writing last year.  Along with writing, she enjoys traveling, listening to music and hanging out with her friends. She is also a member of WJ’s Forensics team, Young Democrats club and Madrigal choir.
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