This is true for race cars and athletes.
“Speed & Agility training as you know it, only sells because it sounds good in theory.
But the theory’s been debunked.
What you really want to improve ‘speed & agility’ is Sprint & Strength Training.
But that requires professional scripts you can’t just get at the local field.”
-Ray Zingler on X
Let’s just think about it objectively for a second.
If acquiring speed & agility was as easy as going to see a trainer and doing (random) “fast feet” drills, wouldn’t everybody and their brother be faster?
There are reasons the modern speed & agility model is the “preferred” training style. It’s because it’s cheap, easy, and requires zero knowledge to implement.
It almost sounds too good to be true! And that’s because it is.
There are also (many) reasons why that training style, despite being preferred, doesn’t work.
The modern speed & agility model is akin to getting a call from a telemarketer telling you that you won a million dollars and then you following the instructions to claim it.
You’d never do that (or at least I hope you wouldn’t) but we do the same actions when it comes to dumping our kids in speed & agility class despite it having no efficacy.
The reason it’s popular is because it sounds cute.
“Oh they don’t do any of those muscle bulk weights, and it’s a bunch of running, cutting, shifting, and changing directions, which is what we’re looking for, for sports, anyway!”
That’s exactly where they get you.
They know you don’t know any better.
And to be quite frank with you, those trainers (who are often severely underqualified & most certainly not accredited professionals in the field) don’t know any better, either.
They are guys who liked sports & know there is a market of naïve parents willing to pay for whatever sounds good. From there, they hire videographers to post videos on Instagram to inflate the perception of their (phony) images.
This is why they will happily sell you on the flashy sports car.
But then when it comes time for you and your kid to drive it off the lot, you notice the car won’t turn over.
You pop the hood only to realize there is no motor.
You were fooled by the imagery. The idea.
But just like a car (regardless of how flashy it is) needs a motor run..
So does your athlete.
And you don’t enhance a motors output without first building & installing it.
Sprint & Strength training is the way.
Stay away from the palatable theater.
