The Swamp is officially home to the North Shore’s first Parisi Speed School, expanding its fitness community to local youth.

The Swampscott-based strength and conditioning gym has served the community since 2013. The organization offers group fitness classes, personal one-on-one training and nutrition coaching. Now, the group has expanded to youth athlete performance training.

“We fell in love with CrossFit in 2012 and decided to bring our passion together and form a community built on CrossFit and the values of CrossFit and training,” said Owner Mike Dudevoir. “Over the last year or so, we’ve looked at ways that we can expand our reach.”

One area of need Dudevoir recognized in the community was youth athletics. The parent of a 12-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter, Dudevoir has watched plenty of soccer, basketball, lacrosse and baseball games. He’s even coached at various levels. 

“What I’ve noticed is that in the youth athletes specifically there were a lot of glaring flaws with their running mechanics,” Dudevoir said. 

About a year ago, Dudevoir began developing a training program for his son using what he had learned about movement, strength and body awareness, along with lessons from coaching adult athletes.

“I saw dramatic changes right away,” Dudevoir said.

Dudevoir called himself and his son as “complete opposites” growing up. Dudevoir said he was “tiny,” focusing on speed rather than strength or height. His son, however, is taller. While Dudevoir did go on to play soccer in Swampscott, at Taft and for Trinity College, he said he “wasn’t the most skilled technically.”

“I was just a really good athlete. I was fast,” Dudevoir said. “I do have a great sense of appreciation and value for speed and quickness.”

So when Dudevoir stumbled upon the Parisi Speed School last fall, all of the pieces fit into place. 

“We have the facility, and we have the expertise,” Dudevoir said. “We felt very strongly that there was a community out there that was underserved in terms of youth performance here in Swampscott and surrounding communities, and we decided to open up the speed school…Our goal now is to serve a broader community, specifically focusing on giving kids access to the ability to be faster, stronger.”

The Parisi Speed School was founded in 1992 by Bill Parisi, using a methodology to help athletes ages 7 and up to move more efficiently, reduce injury risk and reach their full potential. The program is meant to improve speed of movement and strength in character, regardless of a child’s ability or economic status. Over 1 million athletes have trained with the more than 100 Parisi Speed Schools locations in the U.S. and worldwide.

Dudevoir and Swamp Coach Paddy Boscoe earned their certifications through the Parisi online education program, and they traveled to New Jersey for an in-person certification as well.

The Swamp’s program has been running since early May. When a youth athlete comes in, they go through a performance evaluation with the team. The 60-minute evaluation begins with a dynamic warmup that incorporates a variety of movements.

“It’s an opportunity for us to assess the athlete’s movement and where they’re at in terms of specific movements and body awareness and that sort of thing,” Dudevoir said. “Then we take them through a couple of drills just to see more specifically in terms of running and speed where they’re at.”

The athletes run 20-, 10-, and 5- yard sprints to test their agility as well as broad jumps and vertical jumps. Parisi Speed School has collected years of performance data, allowing Dudevoir and his team to compare each athlete’s baseline evaluation with peers in similar age and gender groups.

“We use those numbers as testing benchmarks as we go forward,” Dudevoir said

The program has options for 8 through 11 year olds as well as 12 year olds through their completion of high school. The younger group focuses on cognitive awareness and learning to follow directions, Dudevoir said. The older group, or Total Sports Performance group, adds in strength training and more involved exercises. 

“The reason we’re starting at 8 years old is because it’s a lot easier – this is something we’ve learned in the 13 years – it’s a lot easier to teach people good habits early on than to have athletes, whether they’re kids or adults, come in with bad habits, break those down and then rebuild,” Dudevoir said. “So for us it’s about offering this to a younger demographic where they have the ability early on to feel faster, to feel stronger, which is going to allow them to build confidence, build their self-esteem.”

Dudevoir said the workout sessions and sports in general allow children to be more social, which in turn makes them build confidence, limits how much time they’re spending on video games, and gives them a sense of accomplishment “which is going to empower them to do other things, take bigger risks.”

Even within the first month, Dudevoir said he’s already seeing results in the Swampscott community.

One student athlete, Jack, started as soon as the Swamp offered the Parisi Speed School. After about six sessions, Jack’s father told Dudevoir he’s already noticed changes in the way his son runs and interacts on the soccer field.

“We’re pretty excited about it,” Dudevoir said. “It’s pretty cool.”