Circus tricks

It was early afternoon 2003 and I was sitting in the back of the NSCA (National Strength and Conditioning Association) conference hall in Las Vegas.

I had just passed my CSCS certification exam and was now relaxing at the conference reveling in the fact that I finally 'belonged to the club'.

The conference took place over a weekend starting on Thursday night and finishing Sunday afternoon.

My exam had been written Thursday morning so I was free to enjoy the rest of the weekend listening to people much smarter than me.

From previous conferences I knew that the best speakers were usually crammed in from Friday to Saturday afternoon.

Boyd Epley was probably the strength coach most respected in the United States at the time and he was the one i decided to listen to that afternoon. 

His presentation started out normally enough.

It was a power point presentation with the typically graphs and pictures of football players you would expect.

But then something happened.

Epley paused in the middle of his sentence took a big breath and stopped talking. He put his laser pointer down and sat down on the chair at presentations that no one ever sits on.

He started out almost talking to himself but his oratory grew louder as he went on. I will summarize as best as I can remember;

" For those of you that work with athletes that actually get paid to do what they do put your hand up".  (50% of audience puts hand up).  Ok keep your hand up if you work with athletes that get paid $1,000,000 or more to play their sport". (5% of audience still has hands up). Ok great, can someone please tell me why you are doing all of this Circus shit in the weight room?  If your athletes make a living at their sport, why are you wasting time on shit that doesn't make them stronger or keeps them from getting injured?  Your job is simple, make them stronger, keep them from getting injured period."

Then Epley packed up his computer and ended his presentation.

I never forgot that presentation.

I would love to speak to Epley now after the social media fiasco that we live day to day in this industry.

Seriously the garbage I see being posted from "athlete training facilities" makes my skin crawl.

Listen. To. Me. 

Strength training is wonderful done correctly and devastating to a young body if done badly.

It shouldn't be a bunch of circus tricks designed for entertainment.

Keep your athlete getting stronger safely.

Dedicated to your athlete's success

Greg and Char

P.S. - Whenever you're ready...here are 2 ways we can help you grow your young athlete:

1. Join our VS groups

If your young athlete needs better footwork, more strength and more power, our team give them all the tools they need to attain those skills.  To come try out our High-Performance training groups just send a message with "VS" and we will set up a call time.

www.junglestrengthyyc.com

2. Work with us 1-on-1, 2-on-1, or 3-on-1

Have a specific goal that you want to focus on?  Want to improve your agility or power specifically? Reply with 'focus' and we'll set up a time to chat and see if we can help.

3. Team training

We are only going to take on 5 teams this year. We have three committed. If your team is interested in training reply with 'team' and we will set up a call.