Every coach leans on a small bank of repeat phrases. They use them in conversation, in explanations, and in cues to athletes during competition.
Stuff like “run downhill”, “quick hands”, “knees up”, or, a collision sport and throwing sports favorite: “DRIVE”. These phrases have absolutely no meaning outside their taught context.
So the three phrases on the SHIFT Speed Coaching home page are equally meaningless.
Speed kills.
Strength saves.
Conditioning is overrated.
Well, confusion no more! To understand these three sentences is to understand everything we do in training here.
SPEED KILLS
Every elite program recruits the same stuff. Now, in tech companies, Joel Spolsky pulled back the veil with his book “Smart And Gets Things Done.” It was the all-purpose guide to who to hire and how to find them and how to entice them and how to develop them inside of a software org.
In sports, ask any coach what qualities they remember about their best players. The answer is almost universal. The best players had a great eye for the game, were fast, and were explosive.
There’s nothing a speed and strength coach can do for your eye for the game. You just have to get the reps. Being deliberate about watching game film can help and so can having a clear focus during practice. It’s simply on you to put in the hours. Oh, find a good coach too!
But fast and explosive we can do something about. Coaches don’t say much about the player who could go slowly all day. Grit doesn’t mean much if you aren’t a playmaker. And a bad attitude often gets overlooked if you are.
So in terms of slaying dragons, ranging from getting recruited to making first team to becoming MVP, speed kills. It’s the quality everyone wants and that no one has ever had too much of. Every unit improvement in speed, however you want to measure it (tenth of a second in the 40 or in a 10m fly; more wins against defenders), completely changes your game.
Plus, as Tony Holler has described it in all his presentations, “speed is the tide that lifts all boats.” Both the work to develop speed and the absolute improvement of speed result in improved explosiveness in every type of movement.
You’ve never seen a fast kid who couldn’t also jump high. Every fast kid you see gets described as “athletic”, regardless of the movement they execute in sport: a crisp forehand return, an aggressive block at the net, a championship-winning javelin throw, or creating multiple missed tackles in a punt return is always described as athletic.
Speed beats defenders. Speed maximizes turnovers. Speed scores points.
Speed kills.
STRENGTH SAVES
Bodybuilding continues to poison the strength sports. Gymnastics and weightlifting and Strongman, the myriad hybrid offshoots of which include powerlifting and kettlebell sport, are defined by being the strongest. Thus, what works in gymnastics (especially in the still rings) or on the platform in weightlifting to make an athlete more successful in these sports will absolutely work to make every athlete stronger.
But that can’t be taken to its logical extreme. Athletes in other sports shouldn’t aspire to be gymnasts or weightlifters. It remains that those are sports unto themselves, with quirky rules and competitive conditions that have no relevance outside themselves. And yet, the principles of training that make a specialist in the rings or an advanced weightlifter stronger over time apply to everyone.
Then there’s bodybuilding. Everyone thinks the weight room is for building bigger muscles. That’s not true. The weight room is for quantifying force production. Loading the bar is something you can measure. If you can measure it, you’ll know when you’ve improved it. If you improve your numbers and your movements in the weight room, you get stronger.
Bodybuilders recognize that being stronger helps develop larger, denser muscles. Physique athletes of every variety view the weight room for what it is: a tool in their tool kit for achieving their goals.
Name a teammate who has asked a bodybuilder why they lift while deciding whether or not to strength train.
…exactly. Bodybuilders view the weights as a tool and use them according to their own need, yet few athletes choose to think that way for themselves.
The weight room for non-strength athletes is a tool for developing all the “other” qualities. Use the weight room to develop alignment. Use it to develop balance. Use it to develop general coordination. (The ABCs of Movement, as I taught at Primal 7.)
Use the weights for correctives. Use the weights for mobility. Use the weights to challenge your stability.
Use strength training to increase maximum force production, thus increasing the size of your glass for containing other athletic attributes.
And when you’ve used the weights to practice all those odd, non-sport-specific ways of moving, continue to use the weights to measure your progress in them.
As your base of functional movement expands and as your force production capacity increases, you become harder to break. You absorb more impacts without falling. You manage weird situations without injury. You navigate difficult conditions without stress.
Strength makes you more resilient. It makes you more durable. It makes you more adaptable.
When you’re resilient, durable, and adaptable, you stay in the game longer. Strength extends careers. Strength protects joints.
Strength saves.
CONDITIONING IS OVERRATED
Coaches hate this one. I haven’t made many friends in basketball, soccer, lacrosse, rugby, ultimate, or track programs by arguing that nearly half of practice time is wasted.
I’ve made some outright hostile parties of otherwise reasonable people by saying that they are making athletes slower and less capable by running wind sprints at the end of practice.
I’ve watched athletes quit my team conditioning sessions (ironic word choice) because I give long rest periods and demand very little work yet promise improvement.
There’s a selection bias to most athletes who work with me. They come from more, more, more programs. You know, more running, more reps, more injuries.
So by the time you choose SHIFT Speed for your sport goals, you know that “more more more” doesn’t work for you. Female athletes more readily come to me than male athletes. Older athletes more readily come to me than younger athletes. Non-athlete parents send their kids more readily than former athletes.
There’s a pattern of tradition and ego among the athletes who don’t choose my programs. Why bother fighting it?
Here’s the point: the fastest athlete is the most impactful player when they are available. The stronger athlete is more often available to play. And the athlete with superior skill is an asset with every touch or every start, regardless of conditions.
My perspective on preparing for sport is born from the book Easy Strength: 80% sport practice, 20% everything else.
Know your game. Know your opposition. Know your skill set. And constantly work to expand that knowledge. Spend your 80% refining the fundamentals of your sport (because experts are just better at the basics than everyone else). Spend your 20% on speed and strength, for the reasons above.
Utilize any time you have left resting, recovering, and adapting (because recovery doesn’t just happen).
If you are sharp technically, you are above-average fast, and you are strong enough to minimize injuries, you will play the game well, even when you’re tired.
Skills deteriorate with fatigue, absolutely. They also deteriorate with stress. Being outplayed tactically is stressful. Being uncertain about your execution if stressful. Being awed by your opponents’ athleticism is stressful.
Stress has a much stronger impact on your skills than fatigue. Bulletproof your skills so you can trust them. Then any decline from 100% to 95% is still good execution.
This notion of reserve, being able to drop 5% yet still perform, is the key. Everyone fatigues.
Every player on the field fatigues. Across a point, across a quarter, across a game.
Every sprinter in the field fatigues. Within the race, between the rounds, and across the meet.
But the fast kids, fatigued, are often still faster than the slow kids, fresh. Thus, the fast kids remain faster than the slow kids as fatigue builds up.
Strength doesn’t decline much with fatigue. So the strong kids are still strong late in the game.
So having a reserve of skill, of speed, and of strength makes you a better player while fatigued than your “tough” opposition. In terms of performance, especially in a team sport, mental toughness is a lie. It’s a lie sold especially well to teams that don’t recruit talent and coaches who don’t know how to develop athletes.
You don’t need more mental toughness. You need a better eye for the game. You need to be fast and explosive. And you need to be healthy enough to play.
The only conditioning you need is properly dosed practice. Then you need the right training to develop your athletic qualities.
You don’t need “track workouts” of the 20 x 200m variety. You don’t need wind sprints. You don’t need jogging. You don’t need to be tough.
You need to be fit. Fitness isn’t conditioning and more conditioning. Fitness is the ability to do a task. Fitness is your capacity to execute specific demands under specific conditions.
Conditioning should mean developing fitness.
Conditioning should mean preparing you for performance.
But conditioning has been appropriated by poor coaches. Conditioning has been offered where quality coaching is needed.
Conditioning is overrated.
What Is SHIFT Speed Coaching About?
SHIFT Speed Coaching is about making you faster and stronger in less time, so you can focus on playing your sport.
The training you get here is about the 20% that makes you athletic and keeps you available, so you have plenty of energy and enthusiasm to devote yourself to your 80%.
Speed kills.
Strength saves.
Conditioning is overrated.
These are principles. There are many applications. If you think things through, you’ll find what to eliminate.
And when you find your applications, these phrases will have all the meaning to you that they need.
Train smart. Train hard. Just don’t ever train slow.