Ray Zingler

Owner of Zingler Strength & Conditioning, LLC. — Husband. Father. Mentor. Strength Coach. Working Dog Enthusiast. Hunter. Blood Bought Follower of Jesus.

[Ray Zingler @rayzingler]

Work ethic isn’t an assumed trait.

It’s learned.

Engrain that shit in their bones.

[Ray Zingler @rayzingler]

Train kids the right way.

Give a shit about them beyond their sports.

That’s the whole formula.

It’s really that simple.

If you can’t do that keep your hands off them and stay the hell out of their way.

Plenty of other less important fields you can steal easy money in.

[Ray Zingler @rayzingler]

You have to really search for quality youth training.

There is too much going on, too fast, and far too little accountability for the random guy on your block with a cute Instagram page and an investor backed facility to be truly good.

MOST take shortcuts.

Do your homework.

[Ray Zingler @rayzingler]

Mass-marketed speed & agility does not develop “speed & agility”.

The garbage you see on turf, grass, & sand all over the country are random bouts of directionless, non-transferable conditioning, designed (shoddily thrown together) to make kids tired..

And..

Tired ≠ better.

[Ray Zingler @rayzingler]

If you think your underweight kid who eats Doritos and prematurely specializes in sport needs “speed & agility”..

From a “coach” who couldnt tell you the 3 primary metabolic pathways that produce ATP..

Please DM me, I have a hell of a deal on oceanfront real estate in Iowa.

[Ray Zingler @rayzingler]

An abundance of competition creates competition fatigue.

And what happens is it makes competition feel like practice.

So you lose the benefits that should come with the kick of competing.

This drives competition quality down…

And consequently everything else downstream.

[Ray Zingler @rayzingler]

Kids are increasingly less competitive, despite “competing” all the time.

It’s because true competion has lost its zeal.

Why care about losing this “World” Series when we have 7 more on the calendar this summer alone?

The system is crushing true development in so many ways.

[Ray Zingler @rayzingler]

1) Be counter-culture.
2) Play outside.
3) Practice WWE finishers on trampolines.
4) Swim at the pool.
5) Eat pizza.
6) Play sports.
7) Get strong as fck.
8) Run hill sprints.
9) Eat animals.
10) Rest.

Stop selling out to the machine.

A real childhood kicks way more ass.

[Ray Zingler @rayzingler]

Here’s a good rule of thumb regarding youth sports & LTAD:

Do the exact opposite of what everyone else is doing.

What you see today is not “what’s best”.

It’s what the naive sold out on because it didn’t prevent outliers from reaching the top, they were headed to anyway.

[Ray Zingler @rayzingler]

“More speed & agility”
“More sport-specific work”..

Those are the easy plays.

They sound benign.

Dance around some cones & juke out some stationary dummies.

But..

Increasing volume of sport-specifc actions on exhausted, physically unpreared bodies is FUNDING the problems.

[Ray Zingler @rayzingler]

magine knowing how much sport specific work kids get today..

Imagine knowing the overuse injury related stats..

Imagine knowing how weak the average kid is..

And then as an adult, telling a family to, “buy more sports lessons.”

There are adults in real life who do that..

[Ray Zingler @rayzingler]

Pro Tip:

If your kid changes directions a lot in their sport..

And they just played a spring season and now a summer season..

You don’t need a speed & agility bro to watch your kid change more directions..

It ain’t the missing link, Jim.

Make common sense, common again. 🫡

[Ray Zingler @rayzingler]

It’s about young men who never got to become old men.

Families who got a folded flag instead of a future.

Freedom is expensive.

And the men who paid the highest price never lived long enough to enjoy it.

So how can you, in good conscience, waste the life they died protecting?

[Ray Zingler @rayzingler]

You know what’s more important than the “tier” of amaetur, pay to play, travel ball team you boast about your kid being on?

-How your kid treats people.

-Wheter or not he gets to expiernce an actual childhood.

-How much real world perspective he gains & takes beyond sport.

[Ray Zingler @rayzingler]

One kid optimized for the resume.

The other optimized for joy.

6 years later, they ended up in the same place.

Those kids who “fall behind” at 13, are often the ones smiling at 23.

Most people don’t understand this until it’s too late.

[Ray Zingler @rayzingler]

@AltamontXCTF @BurnTheLadders Where I’m from most equestrian folks (English & Western) are generally all into the horse world vs. riding and playing multiple sports at least as far as the ones I’ve worked with.

All said, it would make complete sense that there would be great carryover to traditional sports.

[Ray Zingler @rayzingler]

In 17 years of working with thousands of youth athletes all over the country, the best athletes I’ve worked with:

-Had a gymnastics/martial arts foundation.
-Played multiple sports up to age 15.
-Prioritized year-round physical preparation.
-Have sound, sensible parents.

[Ray Zingler @rayzingler]

The more you do, the less you do well.

People are very good at assuming busy = effective, but the reality is, the more you stretch your bandwidth, the more doors you open for focused people to whip your ass.

[Ray Zingler @rayzingler]

What are you families values?

Non-negotiable standards?

Are you compromising them, in any capacity, to meet the demands of society & pop culture?

Then they aren’t your values or standards.

You can’t be enslaved by the world & stand on sound familial ideals, simultaneously.

[Ray Zingler @rayzingler]

Common sense isn’t common anymore.

What’s common is emotionally reacting and emulating the behaviors of the masses who lack self-awareness and the ability to think critically.

Do you really want “what’s best” for your kids?

Or, like everybody else, “what’s easiest”?

[Ray Zingler @rayzingler]

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