Boosting Athletic Excellence: Alyssa Hellman’s Dynamic Journey in Johnston County

Alyssa Heilman: [00:00:00] Straight out of college, I, or straight out of grad school, actually, I was living in Washington DC and my parents had that unfortunate conversation with me of, you have to start contributing.

Um, And I thought they were kidding for a while. And so I asked my cousin who’s living there. I said, you know, I need a job. He was working for the patent and trademark office. And he connected me with his actual real estate agent. At the time, I worked as her assistant for about a year and then got my license and What I realized is it was something I was great at but not something that really, like, ignited my passion and that I loved.

And so, I did that for about 10, 15 years almost and loved every second of the time I was doing it. But, you know, call it a midlife crisis, if you will, but I’ve, kind of, had this epiphany at the end of last year and the 2022 of what can I do? What’s my purpose?

Narrator: Welcome to another episode of Best of [00:01:00] Johnston County, brought to you by Breeden Law Office. Our host, Jonathan Breeden, an experienced family lawyer with a deep connection to the community, is ready to take you on a journey through the area that he has called home for over 20 years. Whether it’s a deep dive into the love locals have for the county or unraveling the complexities of family law, Best of Johnston County presents an authentic slice of this unique community.

Jonathan Breeden: Hello and welcome to another episode of the best of Johnson County podcast. And I’m your host Jonathan Breeden.

And today we have a special guest with us, Alyssa Hellman, and she owns Dynamic performance training and she also runs the basketball program for the Greater Cleveland Athletic Association So we’re happy to have her here where we talk a little bit about physical training We talk a little bit about Greater Cleveland Athletic Association.

We talk a little bit about Johnston County I’ve been looking forward to this since we were able to get her scheduled a few weeks ago. Welcome to the program

Alyssa Heilman: Thank you for having me

Jonathan Breeden: So we’ll [00:02:00] start with tell us a little bit about who you are and what

you do.

Alyssa Heilman: Sure. So I’m Alyssa Heilman I’ve run a company called Dynamic Performance Training which is an athletic performance training company focused on youth athletes.

So we train athletes from ages about seven years old all the way up to college athletes.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. And what kind of training do y’all provide?

Alyssa Heilman: Sure. So everything from hand eye coordination to speed and agility to strength conditioning. Really, most athletes come to us some with sports specific goals. Some just with, hey, they need to be faster, whatever their goals are, then we uniquely tailor a program to them to help them achieve whatever those goals may

be.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay, so what are some of the exercises that you have them do to try to. Get faster. That’s always the one that everybody wants to be faster.

Alyssa Heilman: Yeah. So faster. A lot of the time we talk to kids about actually their movement. So most of the kids that come to me, I initially connect with them by saying you can blame your [00:03:00] parents because your parents never taught you how to run.

So your parents teach you how to walk, but then everybody’s so excited that you’re walking, that nobody teaches you anything else and you just. Learn how to run yourself and oftentimes pick up some really bad habits. So, for instance, your knees may not drive as high as they need to, your stride might be fairly short, and it’s really a much different movement if you’re sprinting than if you’re running a mile.

And so helping kids kind of understand that, because a lot of the time in sports, unless you’re an endurance, long distance runner or something like that, it’s a very specific way where you’re using the balls of your feet and things like that. So. That’s really what we help kids kind of wrap their head around and then it translates incredibly fast, which is actually part of why we, we initially went with kids is things connect and you see the changes so rapidly with kids that we really enjoy it.

Well, and

Jonathan Breeden: part of it, I guess, is the. The posture of the [00:04:00] way they’re running, even their position of their upper body, their chin level for air. Believe me, I’m a long way from being an athlete, but I know these are things that you work with

Alyssa Heilman: children on. Yeah. So we talk a lot about lean fall run. So the trajectory of their shoulders and how they get a good start, what foot that they’re leading with, how their arms are moving along with their legs.

And that’s where. Once somebody sits there and takes the time to teach them how to do those things, then we see drastic results in only two to three lessons. And then from there, we can really build on it.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. And then I guess the children have to go home and they have homework between the sessions.

Some of us parents get a little frustrated. My son is trained with you some. And, you know, you got to do the homework. You’re not going to get so much better. An hour a week working with you and the trainers that you have, you know what I mean, you still have to do the homework.

Sometimes kids don’t want to do the homework,

Alyssa Heilman: right? I mean, the homework is not fun, regardless of if it’s school or outside [00:05:00] training stuff. But a lot of what we explain to kids is look, when you’re watching TV, you’re watching the NBA or. You know, Major League Soccer or Major League Baseball. These athletes didn’t get that way coming to a trainer once a week for an hour.

And so, so much of it is just consistency and repetition, especially at those young ages kind of that 7 to 13, though, that’s all repetition and your body learning. those muscle movement, building that fast twitch muscle. So yes, unfortunately, I do have to push the homework. But I think a lot of parents actually appreciate as well.

And I have two athletes of my own. I realized that it comes different when I’m telling them to do it than when you’re probably telling them to do

it.

Jonathan Breeden: Right, right, right. Right. Once they get to be middle school, the last person they want to hear from is their parent. That is for sure. I think you just kind of become background noise.

Yes,

Alyssa Heilman: I [00:06:00] think so.

Jonathan Breeden: Probably. Cause your parents don’t know anything.

Alyssa Heilman: No. Even if they went through the exact same thing. Right,

Jonathan Breeden: right, right. Believe me. My parents didn’t know anything when I was in middle school either. And now I, you know, the funny thing is my children are now old enough. I have very clear memories of being their age and I knew everything when I was their age.

Alyssa Heilman: Well, and that’s actually kind of why the company started is I played competitive softball and even got recruited to play in college. And so much of what I’m teaching kids at 7, 8, 9 years old, I didn’t learn until I was 16, 17 years old. And I’ve been playing. For a really long time. So I was breaking a lot of really naturally bad habits that I picked up over time and it changed my game once I learned how to do that.

And what I see with almost 13 and 14 year olds is these kids are playing so much more. So much earlier than they ever used to be that having these bad habits isn’t just a bad habit anymore. It’s dangerous. You [00:07:00] see 3,500,000 kids a year getting medical treatment under the age of 14 for athletic related injuries.

You see 2,000,000 additional kids in high school ages getting medical treatment for athletic related injuries. So that is something that I really want to help them. And that comes with more than once a week, which they never want to hear.

Jonathan Breeden: Right, right. Well, it is amazing. You know, I mean, I just think about my son would play more games in a year that I played maybe in my entire childhood.

You know, I mean, one year we did rec baseball and then we got into travel baseball at the same time and he was eight turning nine. And I think he played 75 games in 6 months or something. It was some unbelievable amount

Alyssa Heilman: of games. Well, and you think about it too even if you have an incredibly well run organization that baseball, for instance, is counting pitches and not [00:08:00] allowing kids to pitch more than, a certain number of pitches per day, then oftentimes, a lot of these kids are dual registered in multiple leagues, right?

So they’re leaving their travel baseball and going to wreck baseball or vice versa. And so they actually are going over what some of these healthy minimums are. And those minimums not only exist for their own safety, but those minimums aren’t Universal, in my opinion, if they’re not doing the appropriate strength and conditioning appropriate mobility work, those minimums can be way higher than what they should be at their

Jonathan Breeden: age and that’s true.

And what I always said, when we were doing that is. It’s the parents job to keep up with the pitch count. It’s not the rec baseball coach may not know what the kid did in a travel tournament and the travels coach isn’t particularly know what the kid did in the rec tournament played rec ball that week.

So to me, and we didn’t do it long before we got out of baseball and. He moved mainly into soccer, but now we’re going back into [00:09:00] baseball. We made it a point that we were going to count the pitches. And we knew how many pitches and we kept it in our note in our iPhone because there was nobody else. I mean, there’s no bigger advocate for your child than yourself.

And so. The other trick for parents. If your kid is a catcher and my child was a catcher back then throwing the ball back to the pitcher is also a pitch. And so I think you can lose track of well, he caught 6 innings. But in that six innings, he may have caught 100 pitches, which means he threw the ball back 100 times in the picture, and he may have been throwing it full speed, but he still threw it back.

So one of the things that I tried to count was the number. Times he basically was throwing the ball. Because I didn’t want him to get an overuse injury as a eight or nine year old when he was doing

Alyssa Heilman: that and overuse injuries to me are kind of a passion topic. So, I’ll try not to be too much on a [00:10:00] soapbox here as I talk about them, but a lot of it comes ironically for lack of use.

Because they’re going to these tournaments, whether it’s baseball, soccer, basketball any of these sports, really. My daughter plays tennis. She’s a perfect example. She was serving a ton on a Saturday, but if she’s not consistently serving throughout the week, she’s going to get sore on Saturday with how much she does it.

And that’s really actually where overuse injuries come from is it’s not just It’s overusing it in that moment because your body’s not used to using it that much. So, an NBA player, for instance, they have so many reps that you’re seeing a lot fewer overuse injuries because their body’s used to that kind of taxing, repetition, consistency, building, it’s built the strength to be able to do that.

So, a lot of what we do with kids is, Look, you have to be training these muscles and using these muscles throughout the week. You can’t just show up on Saturday and do what you’re going to do and play your best because Sunday is going to suck. [00:11:00]

Jonathan Breeden: Right. Right. Right. And you get all the caloric acid that causes you to be sore, right?

And it’s not an athlete,

Alyssa Heilman: but it’s hydration. It’s what they’re putting in their bodies and look. Like I said, I have an almost 13 and 14 year old that love Bojangles and pizza and crap, basically, but, and, you know, are practically allergic to water sometimes, but I also know how much that does for an athlete and their ability to perform.

So, some of this is just education of. How can we get the kids doing this? And a lot of, and you know this from your own son, a lot of the homework that they may have, they don’t have to go to a gym. They don’t have to be lifting weights, especially at those young ages when they shouldn’t be lifting weights.

It’s getting outside and moving for an hour. It’s not coming home from school and sitting on an Xbox for four hours before dinnertime. eating dinner Showering and then going back to your Xbox. It’s maybe playing outside until the sun [00:12:00] goes down and then making time for the Xbox. My attitude is I want kids to be kids.

I want them to enjoy the things that they enjoy, like the iPads and the Xbox is and all that sort of stuff because You only have time to do that, but I also think if you’re committed to your sport and you’re committed to what you want to do, you have to prepare.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay, well, good. Well, let’s talk about, I guess, a little bit about how you got here.

I know you were a very good athlete as as a child. We’ve been friends for a long time. So where were you born? Where’d you

Alyssa Heilman: grow up? So I grew up in Eastern Long Island. I played was a three sport athlete growing up. I played Basketball. I’m not standing. Luckily, so no one’s gonna be shocked that I played basketball.

But I played basketball, soccer and softball growing up. And just have also been a fitness enthusiast and sports fanatic practically as long as I’ve lived. So, 1 of the things that kind of got me into wanting to do this is. I’m a student of the game, whatever game [00:13:00] that may be. So if there’s a sport that I go see, for instance, I didn’t grow up with hockey, but I’ve become a hockey fan and I learned the rules and I learned the strategy and things like that.

That’s what I’m really fascinated by. And so that has really helped kind of shift who I am and what I wanted to get into. I got you. So where’d you go to college? I went to the University of Oklahoma, Boomer Sooner. You’re a huge Sooner fan. Yes, I am a huge Sooner fan. Oh, golly. To me, there is no greater place on earth.

But, Did you play sports in Oklahoma? I did not. So, I was invited as a preferred walk on tryout. I elected not to play. I was facing an injury at the time. And As I say, I wanted to be a kid and have that college experience when it wasn’t really going to be an option to play right then. And so I elected to do that.

My parents said to be one thing that is stuck with me. And I hope to one day say to our kids of I want you to go where you’re going to be happy, not necessarily where you’re going to play. And I think that [00:14:00] was exactly what I probably needed to hear at that age of. Okay, what is my life look like after softball?

Also keep in mind in 2004. There wasn’t a whole lot of life after softball. You know, you weren’t having professional leagues. It was the Olympic team or bust after college. And so part of me was kind of. What does my life look like at, as an adult and out of school and things like that. And as much as I’ve loved the game, it was probably time for me to stop playing at

Jonathan Breeden: that point.

Right.

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Jonathan Breeden: And you’ve you moved into real estate. How did you end up in real estate?

Alyssa Heilman: But kind of by accident, which I think is how a lot of people end [00:15:00] up in real estate. But straight out of college, I, or straight out of grad school, actually. I was living in Washington DC and my parents had that unfortunate conversation with me of, you have to start contributing.

And I thought they were kidding for a while. And so I asked my cousin who’s living there. I said, you know, I need a job. He was working for the patent and trademark office. And he connected me with his actual real estate agent. At the time I worked as her assistant for about a year and then got my license and What I realized is it was something I was great at but not something that really like ignited my passion and that I loved.

And so, I did that for about 10, 15 years almost and loved every second of the time I was doing it. But. You know, call it a midlife crisis, if you will, but I’ve kind of had this epiphany at the end of last year and the 2022 of what can I do? What’s my purpose? What do I want to do? It’s [00:16:00] really going to leave my lasting legacy.

And this was where I landed,

Jonathan Breeden: right? And you spit. When I first met you, you were traveling around the country giving speeches to large groups of people, training realtors, correct?

Alyssa Heilman: Yeah. So I’ve always had this saying that a coach is a coach, so once you get coaching in your blood, you’re going to coach no matter what.

And so once you become good at something, you’re going to coach people to try to do it better. And so I naturally kind of fell into coaching and in real estate, which. Went well, but again, it’s the subject matter wasn’t what lit my fire. So I, that’s kind of how I came, how do I mesh those two passions?

And that’s how DPT started. All right.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, when and how did you get to Johnston

Alyssa Heilman: County? Again, by accident, I’ve had a lot of fortunate accidents in my life. But I moved to North Carolina actually for a real estate job. I met my wife Lynn and fell in love and I think she probably told me. [00:17:00] Yeah, she probably told me that I wasn’t allowed to leave North Carolina, which is a blessing.

You know, as I say, a lot of times, you know, I moved to North Carolina on a leap of faith and haven’t found one reason to leave, but have found a million reasons to stay. And I think, you know, having lived in Wake County and Johnston County, we have a home down in new Hanover County. The sense of community that you have here in Johnston County is, To me, unlike any other place I’ve ever been to me, it’s a very strong community.

It’s a very supportive community. I say that from both running, you know, GCAA and being on that board with you as well as building my own business here and launching my business here. You know, people do for each other and care about one another, and they care about the community that we live in.

aS a kid, even that’s something I always wanted and I’ve definitely found

Jonathan Breeden: here. Well, yeah, and I, and that’s one of the things that I love about it, you know, having moved here in 2000 this [00:18:00] community and how much this community has supported me and my family over the years. And it’s 1 of the reasons I started this podcast was to promote the community and put a positive spin on Johnston County.

Let’s talk a little bit about, yeah. You know, I’ve been on the Greater Cleveland Athletic Association Board since I think 2015. You get on there and you kind of start to lose track of time. , you know, it’s like a black hole. You forget how long you’ve been there. Right. Forget how long you’ve been there.

I I was about, you know, my son was playing baseball and they asked me to help write some grants to try to get That’s how they get you right, right. Help write some grants so that we could get some open space funding. From the county to start fixing the facilities there right across from the Cleveland Fire Department behind the old Cleveland Elementary School, which is where the majority of G.

C. A. is based. Now. We also have baseball and softball fields at Westfield Elementary. We have soccer fields at Westfield Elementary, and we’ve been very fortunate to have C3 now hope front church allow us to use their backyard for soccer for many years. A [00:19:00] tremendous supporter of this community hope front church.

And But we needed some things. So the 1st grant I wrote was I went to the county and the county wasn’t actually giving out open space funds in the time they were sort of sitting on it. And and I think they were trying to count it towards their fund balance, which you can’t really do trying to get the triple a bond rating, which they finally now have.

And I was like, look, we got all these needs. I went to an open forum in the county, like, at the beginning where you give the 3 minute talk. And I was like. We need to do something and they knew I was coming and it happened to be an election year and that all sort of helped and They said yes, and they came up with the plan and if other people listen this podcast you’ll find the episode of adrian o’neill it’s going to be out where we go through all of that and some of the things we’ve done He’s the parks and rec director for johnson county.

Go listen to that one. That’s a fascinating Take on what’s going on as well. And We and they agreed and, you know, all this money had built up from all these houses where the builders were paying money per lot into this open space funds because they were not setting aside open space in their neighborhoods because I think it [00:20:00] was cheaper to pay the, that time it was only 400 a lot.

Now I think it’s 800 a lot. And so they did. And the first thing that we were able to do is get them to put a new roof on the gym. And this was before I even met you. And they also then. over 100, 000 to put a roof on the gym. That gym dates the 1950s. And you know, it’s not a regulation size court.

I think the court’s like 76 feet. We’re now a regulation kind of court is 94 feet. And and then we were able to get. 40, 000 to pave the driveway around the gym which is led to some flooding issue. The gym we’ve had to work on. You and I worked on that, but because that was just a bunch of potholes and it was like seven lakes out there.

And that was like, we had Fred Smith company do that was like 40 or 50, 000. And then over the years, we’ve gotten more. The county commissioners have done more open space funds. We were able to get 60, 000 to redo the lights on the softball on the baseball fields. And that kind of stuff. So it’s been A labor of love as it has [00:21:00] been for you.

You took over the basketball program, what, three years ago? About four now. Four years ago from Earl Crawford, who’d run it for about ten years. What’s involved with the Greater Columbia Association’s basketball program?

Alyssa Heilman: Yeah, so, I actually, I took mine, took over basketball at the end of 2019.

And as we all know, in March of 2020, that was interesting. So I took it over literally during the 1st cobit season. And I was thinking, what the heck did I get myself into? But luckily, and I know that you can attest because you were in those meetings. I think the board really banded together and I think if you’re looking for.

a testament to the community that Johnston County is. It was absolutely in that boardroom at that time, because I know all of the conversations were, how can we keep these kids playing? They need to do something. And obviously health and well being and safety was our chief concern, but it was also their kids, right?

A sense of normalcy [00:22:00] way to play. And so I think that was something that Pulled at my heartstrings, but it, I also, you know, grew up in programs like GCA in Eastern Long Island. So, I know that the youth programs that exist, build the middle schools that exist, built that JV and the varsity, and then eventually the college athletes that exist.

And so, I know how much support kids need at that age, how important it is for them to have a safe, fun outlet to play. I was, as I said, I was a basketball player, but a very elementary basketball player at best and, you know, a lot, it’s been such a joy to be in the lives of so many of those kids and watch them grow up.

I walk around the community now, and a lot of them recognize me and oddly enough, I know most of their names because they come across registrations year after year. So it’s been a really cool experience. And I think we faced a lot of challenges as a community that was. One of the first things since moving to this [00:23:00] community when I did that really kind of allowed me to dive in deep and understand kind of the heartbeat of this community and what people do for one another and how bad people really want to make it a great

Jonathan Breeden: place, right?

Right? Well, and it’s right. And so this year how many kids are in the program? About

Alyssa Heilman: 400 in the program this year. We’re just now uh, 2023 going into 2024. We’re really just back up to full capacity again. We missed a few years for our really young kids during coded when there are mass mandates in place, we couldn’t keep a lot of the really young kids going because it was.

Difficult for them to keep masks on and all of that. And so we kind of saw a lull in the program, but we’re really back up. I mean, we had a wait list and most of our age groups. And so there’s more work to be done as much as I think you and I. Want to bang our heads. Sometimes I think we also know there’s so much more work to be done with the exponential growth that we’ve seen in Johnston County has also come an [00:24:00] exponential growth of the amount of kids that we need to serve.

Right? And so I think, you know, we’re constantly looking for places and ways to serve more kids and kind of the most rewarding thing that I see in is. This past season, we had kids show up to our assessments who were on the wait list saying we’ve been trying to get into your league. We’ve gone to Clayton, we’ve gone to McGee’s, we’ve played other places, but we know this is the best run program around.

And I don’t say that to pat myself on the back. That is true. I could not do that without my coaches and the volunteers and the committee and even the kids. But I stand by that statement and I do think that we are and I think that is a testament to this Cleveland area

Jonathan Breeden: community. Yeah, and it’s tremendous and I’ve enjoyed every minute that I’ve dedicated to the greater association.

I’ve been the secretary for. I don’t know how many years now, six, maybe seven. I mean, really it’s a labor lobby and it can [00:25:00] be tiring and you know, I have a business and a family just like you do, but if you just go out there and you just see those kids and you see them smiling, you see them playing, you see them being active, you can’t not do whatever you can to make that possible.

You know, our County does not have a parks and rec program that actually does programming, you know, so you have to have. The McGee’s Crossroads Athletic Association, NCAA, you have to have the Greater Cleveland Athletic Association, which is serving like 3000 children this year. You have to have the Archer’s Lodge group.

You have to have the group in micro you know, the South Johnson baseball organization, which is sort of a combination of Smithfield and Vincent and four oaks because, you know, we don’t have a, we don’t have a county parks and rent. That does programming. We didn’t even have a parks and rec period until three years ago.

Like I said, the episode of Adrian O’Neill goes through all of that. If you’re following this podcast, go back and listen to it. So I guess as we start to wrap this up, what has you excited [00:26:00] about Johnston County right now and moving forward?

Alyssa Heilman: Yeah, I think the growth that we’re experiencing is good. Not just good.

It’s great because I look at folks like you and I, your son’s just about aged out of something like a G. C. A. A. My son will age out in the next two years. But I also see this community growing and people who still want to stay involved. So you look at our president or vice president of G. C. A. A. It’s been 10 years since their kids were aged

Jonathan Breeden: in, right?

I don’t know. Right. His kids are all grown in college

Alyssa Heilman: married. And as soon every time he threatens to be off of the board, we, no one will let him. Um, But, and I say that, you know, in jest, but the truth is I don’t think he really wants to either because I think that he cares so deeply about this community.

So, I mean, what I’m so excited about is not just. Who we are as a community, but what this growth is doing for our community and who it’s bringing in people who really want, you know, the future of Johnson County to

Jonathan Breeden: be bright, right? So if anybody wanted to get in touch with you and your dynamic performance [00:27:00] training program, how would

Alyssa Heilman: they do that?

Sure. So you can visit us at dynamic performance training. com. You can also find us on Instagram dynamic performance training. We post a lot of videos and content of what we’re doing with the kids. And. Drills that you can even do at home without us, but we’d love to

Jonathan Breeden: talk to you guys, right? And the program for you know is based right here in the cleveland community And I think all the training happens right out here in the cleveland community So you don’t have to live in the cleveland community You just have to be willing to get to the cleveland community to get the training.

Yes, you have people come from all over So, you know, anybody in Johnson County or Wake County or anywhere, if they would like this training they just need to get in touch with you and move it that way. All right. Well, that’s going to do it for this episode of the best of Johnson County. If you are going to go where you’re at, if you would be kind enough to like or subscribe or follow this podcast, whether you’re seeing it on Instagram or Apple podcasts or Spotify or YouTube, so that you’ll be aware of the future episodes that come out every Monday.

With new new guests and [00:28:00] community leaders, we’ve got a lot of great guests that are going to be coming out in the next few weeks. Go back and listen to some of the previous episodes, particularly the one you know, maybe with Adrian O’Neill if you’re interested in Parks and Rec. And keep following us.

I think it’s going to be exciting. You’re like what you’re going to hear. I am learning something every single time I do this. It’s been fascinating. And my office is going to continue to bring this to you. So until next time, I’m Jonathan Breeden.

That’s the end of today’s episode of Best of Johnston County, a show brought to you by the trusted team at Breeden Law Office. We thank you for joining us today and we look forward to sharing more interesting facets of this community next week. Every story, every viewpoint adds another thread to the rich tapestry of Johnston County.

If the legal aspects highlighted raised some questions, help is just around the corner at www. breedenfirm. com.