What Comes First, Strength or Speed?

This is the old chicken or the egg debate in sports performance lingo…

The answer for us is both! Both speed and strength can be trained concurrently…that’s the premise of athletic development, am I right?

The unique element of the Parisi Strength Program is that we are largely the first encounter with structured strength training for the vast majority of our athletes.

It’s a responsibility that we do not take lightly.

Using the 4×4 matrix, and our savvy principles in strength training, we feel we are well equipped to make sure the exercise selection matches the developmental age group we are working with.

Here’s a quick refresh of the 4×4 matrix…

Jump Start (JS)

Our JS’ers strength train. At this level we work almost exclusively with relative body strength and self-limiting movements. Foundational exercises like push ups, chin ups, squats, and lunges are staple movements for us. External loads via sleds and medicine balls are also used frequently.

Total Sports Performance (TP)

This age is where it starts to get fun, but also can be the MOST challenging. Ever strength train a kid who grew 6 inches over 6 months?

Holy body awareness, Batman!

Our TP program still consists of everything you read about in JS, but does build in to dumbbell driven programming. Eventually, should an athlete show some benchmark strength, we may progress them to a barbell in certain lifts. 80% of the time, these athletes do train bodyweight variations and with dumbbells.

Elite Sports Performance (Elite)

The only thing ‘elite’ about this age group is that they have hit a few major physiological development points. They’re not full grown humans yet, but typically have the muscle and bone structure to progress to loads suitable for a barbell. Still training the same JS foundational body weight movements and utilizing dumbbells, the elite age group does progress in to some barbell-specific movements as well.

Just a quick aside on the three levels above – one of the operational elements we do take in to consideration is that the exercise selection piece DOES fit in to the programs. As an athlete ages in our program, they ‘unlock’ new movements. This is indeed a piece of strategic marketing aligned with the athlete’s physical development.

What’s next?

Looking for a Parisi Speed School near you? Check out our Location Map.

Are you a Coach interested in joining the Parisi Speed School Network? Download our Free Guide.