Most in the youth training industry are prescribing not what’s developmentally correct, but what best mirrors consumer perceptions & is easiest to fulfill.
“To place any training modality on a kid that you cannot morally, ethically, & physiologically defend is not only fundamentally wrong, it’s developmental theft.
Feeding them perceived low-hanging fruit because you can get away with it is why the industry is viewed the way it is.”
-Ray Zingler on X
To understand any industry, you have to put the shoe on the other foot.
Why is the training industry viewed as a laughingstock of “trainers who charge and arm and a leg & only want your money?”
Maybe because “trainers” buy $39 worth of cones, hoops, and hurdles, scatter them around on ground (they don’t own), and sell “footwork” or my favorite “speed & agility” for an egregious price?
$50/hour? $100/hour? Bro, your “equipment” doesn’t even cost $50 bucks.
And your “skills” are worth even less than that.
So obviously, the average consumer is going to notice that he could buy his own cones and hurdles, for less than the cost of a single session, scatter them around his back yard and have his kid chop their feet. To save not only money, but more importantly time.
In dramatically less than 10 minutes, the average, non-athletic dad, is equally (probably more) qualified than the same bro in joggers selling you icky shuffle drills as if they’re going to improve your kids “first step quickness”.
And what unfortunately happens is, the scientifically sound professional coaches, who’ve invested not only tens of thousands of hours in study, education, and proven hands on practice, along with investing $100’s of thousands of their own dollars into their craft, are thrown into the same “trainer bucket” as the guy who just left Dicks 37 minutes ago with a Skilz Speed & Agility bundle he got on sale for $34.99.
“How can this be!?”
As you know, or at least should know, most consumers react not on what’s “right”, but what they perceive to be right.
“Speed & Agility is benign. The kids are just running around, cutting back and forth, and getting tired. The coach is kind of nice and he promised us Timmy would get faster. We’re in.”
And “trainers” who aren’t in the know (any trainer worth even a remedial level of salt knows how bullshit “modern speed & agility” training is) sell it not because it’s right, obviously, but because it’s the cheapest way to get to short dollars.
The industry will only move forward when Coaches turn Pro and start holding THEMSELVES accountable.
If you can’t morally, ethically, and physiologically defend it, you have no business prescribing it.
