Training Room

Over the past two decades, Jackie Ansley has been involved in the process of helping athletes on a variety of levels recognize their untapped potential. As a collegiate player, Ansley was the starting point guard at Virginia Tech between 1981-84, where she was later honored at the Hokies’ Senior Athlete of the Year. Having participated in the 1983 United States Pan American Games team trials and training camp, she was familiar with the type of dedication and drive required to become successful. Soon after her own playing days had elapsed, Ansley was able to parlay her love of teaching and instruction into an accomplished head coaching career within the state of Tennessee. During her tenures on the bench at Central High School in Knoxville and Sevier County High School, she garnered Coach of the Year distinction for five consecutive years and 17 of her players received scholarships to continue their careers at a higher level.

Ansley was later a Speed, Agility and Quickness (S.A.Q.) Specialist for Nike, Inc., from 1996-2000, and she currently serves one of two people employed by adidas in delivering presentations around the nation for athletes, corporations and teams. Her on-site instruction is designed to ensure continued growth and improvement to each individual’s workout plan. These lectures and clinics are intended to assist in enhancing a person’s current abilities and training, while leading the individual through diverse levels of drills.

Most recently, Ansley has focused her energies upon developing a specialized conditioning program endorsed by several of the pre-eminent athletes and coaches around the world. With two successful companies to her credit, Performance Training, Inc. (1995) and Sports Excel (1998), Ansley is a renowned speaker and clinician whose programs focus upon increasing speed, agility and quickness in training and athletic competition. Her energetic and original approach to training has enabled her to criss-cross the country as a featured presenter at such events as the 1997-2002 Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) National Convention and the 1998, 1999 and 2000 Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) veterans training camps and combine for future WNBA players and the 1999 Cramer Conference for Olympic athletes and coaches in Japan.

The WNBA has employed Ansley’s services since the inception of the league for many of the franchises’ training camps, as a consultant to their training mission, along with having her assist at the Veterans Camp each year. Her roster of women’s professional basketball clients reads like a who’s who list of All-Stars, including: Jennifer Azzi, Tamika Catchings, Cynthia Cooper, Tamecka Dixon, Chamique Holdsclaw, Lisa Leslie, Katie Smith, Teresa Weatherspoon and Kara Wolters. In all, Ansley has tutored over 120 professional women’s basketball players in her training system.

Ansley is also responsible for designing and directing the Sports Excel Program in Knoxville and Pigeon Forge with Fort Sanders Health & Fitness Center for a member base of over 10,000 individuals. Not solely limited to basketball, she has developed programs and training regimens for an assortment of athletes who compete in baseball, football, hockey, soccer, softball, swimming and diving and tennis and volleyball, as well assisting tri-athletes and boxers. Ansley has designed footwork drills for women’s Heavyweight Boxing Champion Vonda Ward and has trained members of the University of Tennessee’s nationally-ranked football team, in addition to developing the entire strength and conditioning program for the 2001-02 Indoor Professional Football League champion Tennessee ThunderCats.

She has been published in the Women’s Sports Illustrated July-August 2000 and the March-April 2002 issues, as well as being featured prominently in a USA Today article with quotes from Penn State head coach Rene Portland, detailing how the Lady Lions’ trip to the 2000 Women’s Final Four was related to Ansley’s specialized training for her squad. Michelle Snow, a center for the University of Tennessee Lady Vols, attributed her success in dunking on three occasions to the vertical explosion she learned from Ansley.

A top student as well, Ansley was a member of the Dean’s List honoree at Virginia Tech and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics/education in 1985.

Looking ahead throughout the year Ansley will provide information including post-season, pre-season and in-season conditioning guidelines/suggestions that have been most effective for her high school, college and professional teams/players. Included in the information will be weight training, speed, agility and quickness (SAQ) training, conditioning both on land and in water, injury preventive exercises (stabilization of the knee and ankle), common injuries while training and exercises to strengthen the weak area involved, and much more.

Answer the following….Are your players off balance? Do they get beat on defense (lateral movement)? Can they box out and then jump from that position? Have you continually had a large number of ACL tears? Do you have a complete conditioning program designed for the female athlete or is it really a football workout that your team uses? If these are problem areas for your team/players then stay tuned for more information.

Submit a question for Jackie Ansley