Sports Specific Selling

I have talked over and over about learning to speak coach and wrote a post on it here. Learning to speak coach or , learning to speak parent is the key to sport specific selling. One of  our members asked about sport specific selling so I wrote the info below.

Swimming- “lower body strength and power are huge. 50% of the race is start and turn” 

Hockey- “strength is huge. Collisions in hockey are at the highest speeds seen in any sport. No one can run faster than the fastest skater and in no other sport do you slam into an immoveable object ( the boards)”

basketball- “lower body strength is huge. The easiest way to improve vertical jump is to improve lower body strength”.

baseball- “lower body strength is huge. You hit the ball from the ground up starting from the feet and moving through the hips. Try to swing sitting down”.

The reality is training is pretty much the same but talking to parents is about learning to speak their language. I could write example after example of how we use the language of the sport to sell the parent on the idea of training. I have never seen a young athlete get involved in a good training program and get worse and I’ve seen thousands get better. What do you think?

4 Responses to “Sports Specific Selling”

  1. Jacob,

    we had marathon and half marathon athletes sign up for a Prep course who had never lifted. Their assumption was that we would just run and run. They were sceptical about strength, but had paid ahead and so ‘tied in’, if you like. When they realised post event that they had PBs and could walk properly and go back to work the next day, they were sold. Now they sell it to their peers. Runners, just like lifters, love to talk and compare times, workouts etc. Get them talking about you!

  2. mboyle1959 Says:

    Tough crowd to deal with . Most would rather run than lift. I think the key with runners is the injury prevention angle. I did a webinar on Strength and Conditioning Webinars on Training the Endurance Athlete that you might want to check out.

  3. Jacob Goodin Says:

    Mike, does your facility see many distance or mid-distance runners? Do you have much experience ‘selling’ S/C programs to runners or their coaches? I was a decent middle distance runner in college (graduated in may) and am now pursuing a career as an S/C coach and track/cross country coach. There is a HUGE disconnect between the two worlds, as I’m sure your aware. Very few running coaches take full advantage of strength programs (Gambetta and Jay Johnson come to mind), and I have found it is an uphill battle when trying to reach out to HS, college, or even average joe runners with an invitation to strength train as a supplement to their current programs.

    Any thoughts or experiences you have on this topic?


    ps I appreciate all that you share via this website and elsewhere. Valuable stuff.

  4. Dave Trevino Says:

    Coach Boyle,

    I totally agree with you on this one and can relate a lot to it, being that this is my first year as a fulltime Asst. S/C Coach training multiple sports. The sport coaches for whatever reason don’t seem to understand the value of many ‘traditional’ strength training exercises. It has been a challenge to sell my programs to them, while at the same time trying to be flexible and make them feel as though they are part of the process.

    Very applicable topic.
    Thanks for sharing your insight, experience, and wisdom.

    -D. Trevino

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