But they’ll tell you it’s doing more of what the kids are already doing vastly too much of because it pays them more.
“When you enhance general athletic qualities (strength, speed, etc.) you can use the heightened qualities in specific environments.
If you don’t enhance the general athletic qualities, you can only ‘showcase’ what you have at your disposal.
And that is:
The same limited ceiling.”
-Ray Zingler on X
May is one of the craziest month of my calendar year and I am extremely thankful for it.
We are fortunate to get an abundance of inquiries from prospective athletes and parents who want to join our program in the summer.
And something I pride myself on is taking the time to give a personalized phone call to all prospective parents.
The reason is because, I most importantly want to learn as much as I can preliminarily about each student, but also share my background & philosophy regarding our program, how we objectively define via proof that our methods work, and then obviously answer in questions in great detail parents might have.
I realize this is a bit of a different practice than the standard, “buy our cut rate training package online via a QR code” but I’m not running a chop shop.
This is highly calculated, professionally coached youth performance training program that I am intensely focused on 365 days per year. I, with vigor & joy, am keenly focused on Zingler Strength, 8 hours a day on Christmas.
Can the same be said about your kid’s personal trainer at the big box gym checking his phone consistently, trying to speed the time of his session?
Again, levels to this.
Anyway, one of the most common questions I get regarding the training is, “Is the training sport specific”?
And it’s a very valid question when you factor in the context of our current youth sporting landscape.
My answer is always, “It is, but it isn’t.”
And I explain it like this because while we don’t do ladder drills with baseball gloves on our hands, the training we do does in fact transfer to sport.
Strength & Speed Training is general by nature.
Outside of powerlifting, Olympic lifting, or T&F, no strength or speed exercise is a “baseball strength specific” or a “lacrosse speed specific”.
All weight room/speed exercises are general, however, if and when we improve general qualities, we can then harness and display them IN the specific environments of our choice.
Therefore, expecting to improve in every tournament or showcase without enhancing qualities never works.
You’re simply changing the paint color of the car, but doing nothing to enhance the motor.
