Might be more accurate to phrase as
“How many are worth the $$$ they expect to get for their expertise”
There are many coaches, worth far beyond their pay or request for same.
Many post to this very site.
One of the single biggest things that amazes me as I have opportunity to interact with those at the top end in the training world is that many at the “top” freely give out information while those wanna-bee’s charge an arm and a leg.
Insecurity, need to feed ego, somehow validates them?, etc.
I know everyones gotta eat, but there is a gap bigger than the Grand Canyon when measuring the value against their fee with many of these folks.
I live in orange county/southern cal. Velocity has a facility in Irvine. From kids I know training there, they say it is “soccer mom” dominated. Typically they hire kids fresh out of college, who probably never heard of Charlie Francis. One of the main individuals there broke away, and started his own deal at Soka University, a religious school. He was at one time a prominent bodybuilder. They are hitting all high schools aggresively. I initially was somewhat afraid of their potential, but they are slowly losing credibility. Olympic weight lifting based, similiar to the football influenced oly coach in Louisiana. Louis Simmons chains are verboten, as is anything outside of that Oly realm. Interesting concept, or so I thought, but fair to poor implementation. I understand other locations can be different. Is Parisi next out here? I like them but I think you can grow to big to fast, as is the case in all franchises. How about F.A.S.T. franchises, where a secret east german coach, who has just come in from the cold will personally train you? To much hype overall. My 2 cents.
how can a coach train kids and top athletes without losing “expert” status? can there ever be “sprint” or “speed” type schools that progress kids from “soccer mom” status to the “elite”?
The Velocity that openned up near me in Alexandria VA got trainers from health/fitness clubs i.e. personal trainers. The guy in charge of training apparently knows what he’s doing when putting together programs, but then they just hand a piece of paper to someone right out of school, point him at 20 kids, and say ‘Take them through it.’ Pretty slick marketing though.
I work at a Velocity in Willowbrook, IL and while I am largley unaware of what goes on at other Velocities, all of the employees at mine have worked with professional or college sports teams and either have or are in the process of acquiring a masters degree. We were also trained on how to do the movements by both our bosses and Loren himslef before being thrown into the fire so to speak. I’m not saying that after being trained we are supreme speed coaches just that we aren’t hired and then handed a sheet of paper.
I am not going to fill you full of hot air and tell you that we are the greatest thing since sliced bread but what we do at the Velocity I work at is simply try and help the athletes better prepare themsleves for thier sport and any other sport they might participate. As many of you know, young athletes are unable to perform a number of simple strength exercises properly, not just the olympic lifts, and this is due to a number of things aside form weak cores, such as poor posterior chain strength and improper motor patterns. And while the main focus is on the olympic lifts we are not olympic lift crazy and implement a number of other methods including those form Louie.
I have no emotional ties to the company itself, and any criticism you have of the methods implemented are interesting to me and I invite them. However, without first hand knowledge of what goes on I feel it is remiss of us all to describe what happnes.
meyersje,
The fact that you are on this site says alot of positives. I know there is a Velocity that coach x or someone at efs stated, that has a good QB coach at a midwest location. So I understand that each location can very. I’m just commenting on the location out here. I also know real estate values out here, so their “nut” to break even has to be nastier then most other locations. Because of that they may feel more pressure to get them in and get them out. Sad but true. Myersje, knowledge is a beautiful thing. Keep up the good work. That is why we are all here.
seems that these training places have the plan to make money, but no plan to keep the integrity of the training consistent. therefore the franchising concept is flawed.
I don’t think any of us here are trying to directly attack Velocity or its employees. I just think that we all believe that Velocity is taking what all of the good coaches here do, and have !Some! less qualified coaches trying to do the same thing. As I’ve said before in quoting Clemson, “You can tell my jokes but the laughs are not the same.” I’m certain there are many good coaches working at Velocity. I’m also certain that the facilities are opening up a lot of good opportunities for qualified coaches. But I’m also certain there are some bad ones that work with Velocity and as long as these coaches are allowed to associate their name with Velocity then overall the message from VSP will suffer. Unless every coach at Velocity understands the very reason every part of the program is done the way it is done then it is a cookie cutter model of training. The bells and whistles will get them in the door, and what Velocity does with that is up to them. Good Luck.
The best advice I received (thought of on my own, too) was to see who the coaches were in my local Velocity Sports. While they seem to be qualified to run programs, they’re no more so than I am, and in some cases, significantly less so.
In fact, based upon my research, I’m not entirely certain whether I’d trust Loren Seagrave himself with any of my athletes.
did he workout there one day or two days, maybe three? perhaps it was a photo shoot or an “advertisement” piece? maybe like jackie joyner-kersee, who remember used the total body gym (that chuck norris training contraption), which bought her numerous medals and some extra spending money.
Are you suggesting that the Total Body Gym WASN’T the reason for her Gold Medals?? Gee, and it worked so well for Christie Brinkley. After a few months of the Total Gym, you should have seen Christie fly through the acceleration ladder.
After all she WAS training total body. I think the total body gym could be a good substitute for the olympic lifts. Hell, all you need in order to emerge into a world class sprinter may be a 9x10 room including a total body gym and a treadmill. Strength speed centers and tracks for training may be a thing of the past.
Sorry if I came across that way.