To prioritize one at at the expense of another is a disservice to athletes.
“‘Speed’ has been the most recent fad.
This has come at the expense of prioritizing strength.
Strength & speed should never be fads.
There should never be pendulum swings here.
They work synergistically.
A great coach, especially of young athletes, knows the value of both.”
-Ray Zingler on X
Speed has always been important.
It’s the quality most athletes are after, and for good reason.
And because this is the case, over the last 15 years, many
“performance” coaches have worked tirelessly to brand and sell speed.
It makes sense.
If the consumer wants hamburgers, you don’t put a hot dog stand on the corner.
But here is where the problem arises.
You don’t “get speed” because you want it.
You don’t get faster doing a bunch of goofy ass drills.
You have to pay for speed.
And the currency required to attain higher levels of speed is strength.
I can already hear the zealots now, “cHrIsTiAn McCaFfReY dOeSn’T nEeD tO sQuAt MoRe! StReNgTh IsN’t ThE eNd AlL bE aLl.”
Of course not. The all or none zealots love to take things out of context to remain loyal to their opinions, that is, until the next thing comes around that they can fully get behind in an effort to make a short buck.
The fact is that “too much emphasis on strength” is not a problem for 99.999% of athletes.
Yesterday, Army Football’s starting 11 on offense have an average squat max of 516 pounds, yes this is including the quarterback and receivers.
“That’s unnecessary!” Is it, though?
What is Army, an institution who doesn’t use NIL, doing this season?
They are absolutely beating the shit out of people.
I mean demoralizing traditional school’s with physical, wreckless abandon.
Think about it, this is a team who RUNS the option.
If strength was that big of a “detriment”, don’t you think it would negatively impact a team who makes their buck in the run game?
While I’m not implying you must squat 516 pounds or sell out on strength development as the be all end all to be a successful athlete, you do have get strong.
And I mean really fucking strong.
The most dominant athletes are strong, fast, and highly skilled within their sports.
Of course you’ll have some anomalies who might look to lack one of the above qualities, but for most people, the best prescription will always be to synergistically tie the components of strength training, speed training, and sport skill practice together.
It’s ashame simple doesn’t sell because it’s usually what works best.
