Sadly, that’s exactly why it doesn’t sell (as well).
“We’ve created an entire industry that uses theater to create the illusion that the development of speed is complex.
‘Buy my gadgetry & I’ll make you tired’, so all involved can confuse activity with productivity.
The best speed training is simple.
It’s why it doesn’t sell.”
-Ray Zingler on Twitter
To be ethically successful in business, you must define a problem, solve the problem, and then sell a streamlined route to the (consumers) solution. 13×22.6 = 293.8. Get them there without having to pull out their calculators.
In unethical business folks will create a problem that isn’t actually a problem, and then use lucrative marketing tactics to dupe well-intentioned, but unknowing consumers into thinking they need the perceived solution, when in fact there is no solution at all.
They make it look like 8 + .8 = 16. At first glance it makes sense if you overlook the decimal. But in reality it is no different than 8 + apple sauce = radiators. They both don’t make sense and they are both wrong, just the same.
My goal with this writing isn’t to demonize the “speed and agility” trainer. I firmly believe most of the guys you see with the ladders, cones, and shuffling are actually decent people who deep down, want to help our kids. I believe that.
But as I believe that, I can’t discount the fact that what they are doing isn’t actually helping our kids and their family’s who are investing in them achieve the solution they are purchasing, which is speed.
If there is some sort of “quick feet” Olympics out there that I don’t know about, where the goal is to get through closed (pre-programmed) drills as quickly as possible, then I’ll happily eat my words. But my hunch is that the majority of people seeking a speed & agility trainer are looking to run with higher running speeds on the fields/courts of their respective sports.
For youth athletes, to be able to run faster is so unbelievably simple, you won’t believe me. It’s because of the natural human desire to overcomplicate things.
Step 1:
Build stronger, more resilient, force producing muscles and tendons. AKA Resistance Train in the weight room.
Step 2: Run hard sprints with appropriate rest periods in between bouts.
That’s it. That’s literally it.
Get stronger. Run faster.
It’s so simple that it’s hard because actually buying into to the simplicity and performing the above consistently is a real challenge in a world full of noise competing for your bandwidth.
But, have you tried it?
Hint: It works.
