When you have two kids who play sports and you train athletes for a living, it is only a matter of time before the other moms and dads pull you to the side and start picking your brain for info on how to make their son or daughter a superstar.
“Do you do classes for speed training?” is the question they ask me most often. My reply is always a non-committal, “kind of”. I’m reserved in my answer because most importantly I don’t want to get lumped into the other “McSpeed” warehouses that pack 20+ kids from all ages, shapes and sizes into classes every night running them through ladders and over hurdles with false promises of lightning speed.
Before we go much further, we should address the semantics of what “speed” actually is in exercise science terms. Speed is an attribute that best describes the activities of sprinters and wide receivers, but isn’t primarily what the layperson most commonly is in search of for their young athletes. Sure a great 100m or 40yd dash time would be great in some cases, but for most young kids getting started playing soccer, baseball, basketball, etc., they really need first to build a foundation of quickness, reactivity, agility and body control, also known as “athleticism”.
So do you have classes in that???
Sure, but before I tell anyone to join a facility or sign up for a bunch of classes I tell them the best advice I can give them is to go invest $10 into a good jump rope. That’s right, a old school jump rope.
In addition to all of the benefits listed, jumping rope is also a great calorie burner and awesome for developing cardiovascular fitness and work capacity, and doesn’t require much in the way of time, space or budget!
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