The Truth About Quickness by Kelly Bagget

The Truth About Quickness by Kelly Bagget

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Every year, I make it a goal to really dive in and learn as much as possible about several new topics.

Last year it was the diaphragm, elbows, and ankles.

This year, my biggest focuses are building better athletes – and most notably, focusing on speed, agility, quickness, and change of direction.

As a result, two names I came across in my search were Alex Maroko and Kelly Baggett. Now I’ve known about Kelly since he originally posted on Rugged Mag, and wrote his Vertical Jump Bible.

But Alex is someone I wanted to learn more from, and luckily, he agreed to do an interview for the site.

Enjoy!

Alex, I’m sure you’re a new name to many of my readers. Could you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Sure Mike. First of all, I just want to say I’ve been a big fan of your info for a long time. Your readers are lucky to have someone who’s really at the top of his game steering them in the right direction when it comes to their training (and I’m not “just saying that”).

For those who don’t know me, I’m a former college basketball player and pro basketball trainer out of Southern California. I’ve worked with pros, college guys, high-school studs, and everything in between (not Kobe though…yet).

I’ve also been fortunate to have a series of best-selling training programs the last couple of years as well, with several thousand happy customers from more than 54 countries globally, which is really terrific to see. It’s become pretty common for my support team to get 10 or 20 “success story” emails everyday from athletes and coaches who can’t believe the results they’re getting. Those emails might be my favorite part of what I do.

That’s awesome man! I love success stories. What’s your athletic background like? Any specific sports you were into?

I played a lot of soccer when I was younger, but after getting cut from the 8th grade basketball team, I got really deep into basketball..

I refused to take a day off for almost 4 years, took 2 gym classes daily through high school just so I could get shots up twice before 2:30 PM and made my mom perpetually nervous, driving from the suburbs to Downtown Detroit at all times of night and day, just to play with the best.

My goal all along was to make it to college basketball after getting cut like that as a youngster, I finally did it, at a Top-25 D-II school right outside Tampa, FL.

Shockingly, from the time I got there, I felt burned out on playing, and just wanted to help other up-and-coming players instead.

I couldn’t help but think how much easier it would have been for me if I had someone to help lead me through the journey so that’s what I do today, for ambitious athletes all across the globe (we call ourselves Grind-Time Nation, ’cause we’re always outworking the competition).

I also studied Kinesiology at Michigan State University after leaving Florida, but there’s no doubt about it: my education came from mentors and just throwing myself into the fire over and over again, learning and improving more each time.

That actually sounds a lot like me – good enough athlete, but I always enjoyed helping others more than focusing on my own athletic endeavors.

How did you go about making the transition from being an athlete to working with them?

Originally, during my teenage years training myself, other player’s parents in the gym would see how quickly I was improving and asked me to train their kids. Being a broke 15-year old, I was like, “Ummm… Sure.” Lol.

It really took off from there over the years obviously (that was almost a decade ago), with the skill training and the performance enhancement training.

It got interesting later because athletes other than basketball players started coming to me for training, too.

At first, I wasn’t sure. Really. But I had some wise and successful mentors guiding me along the way and I went for it with their guidance behind me.

It ended up working out great, yet there was one thing that really stands out. Working with basketball players, there was one thing I could do that no one else seemed to be able to do: Make players truly and significantly quicker.

And since the multi-directional and anaerobic nature of basketball mirrors that of so many other sports, my methods for training quickness translated over beautifully for them too (the parents obviously liked that one).

Good stuff man.

The people at IFAST hate it, but I love nicknames – and you have a pretty good one. Could you tell everyone your nickname, along with how you got it?

Aw man, this one still follows me around.

It’s the “King of Quickness” and I got it from a teammate for making such big improvements in my quickness on the court.

I used to like it more when I was younger, but now, I’d much rather let the success of my players and coaches on 6 continents talk for me (I’m working on Antarctica).

Since you’re a go-to resource on the topic, let’s talk a little bit about quickness.

First, how would you define quickness? What is it, and what is it NOT?

Man, we could talk about myelin and laying down new synapses, but to be honest, I get bored with the science quickly, so I simply define quickness as how fast an athlete can initiate movement in a 5 foot, 360 degree radius around them.

There’s actually 4 key components to quickness:

1. Reaction Speed,
2. Movement Efficiency (a term coined by the great Kelly Baggett),
3. Muscular/Tendon Stiffness, and
4. Sport-Specific Coordination

Each one plays an important role, but the two that can be improved the most (and almost immediately) are numbers 2 and 3:

Movement efficiency and muscular/tendon stiffness.

A big thing people get mixed up on is thinking linear speed training and a good weight lifting program is enough for today’s athlete, but it’s not.

Athletes are becoming bigger and stronger everyday, and if you’re a guy who wasn’t born with Usain Bolt’s genetics, you need an advantage that’s going to keep you at the top.

To me, that’s where quickness comes in.

There’s no power-based athlete who wouldn’t play better and get more attention from scouts with more quickness.

That’s so true! I’ve never had an athlete ask me to make them slower!

Along those same lines, many would say you can’t teach quickness. Would you agree or disagree with them?

I’ll say this: I think one of those components above are more trainable for younger athletes, while their CNS’s still have more plasticity.

But obviously, I have myself and thousands of athletes worldwide who’ll be happy tell you they’ve experienced serious quickness improvements at ALL ages first-hand.

This stuff works.

Ok then, let’s talk practical application.

If someone comes to you with the slowest kid ever, what are some things you might be able to do to get them quicker?

I’d get them started on some basic, low-level plyometric drills to build their rhythm and plantar flexor stiffness, along with some beginner gymnastic stuff to help them build their body awareness and general coordination.

And then of course, just to build that base, lots of bodyweight training, basic mobility work, really get those movement patterns down pat.

You’ve actually developed an entire product on quickness as well – could you tell us more about that?

Sure I could tell you about that!

It’s called, “The Truth About Quickness 2.0” (second edition) and it’s been the top-selling quickness program online for almost 3 years straight now.

It was created after my basketball business had begun to go international, because my guys who couldn’t train with me in person really wanted something for their quickness.

It contains 48 weeks of progressive quickness training programs, exercise demonstrations, a whole presentation more on the science behind quickness, bodyweight training programs, warm-up info, nutritional info and more.

It really is almost a total-package kind of product for any athlete who wants that real, immediate edge we talked about before.

What’s funny though is although it was originally created for basketball players, more than HALF of our customers are coaches and athletes got it for other sports, like football, baseball, hockey, soccer and MMA.

The thing people love the most about it is how brief the quickness workouts are:

3 sessions a week, 9 minutes a workout.

You just add it in right before your lifts, no equipment necessary and the changes start to happen almost immediately.

I’ve got to admit, that sounds nice. I see so many guys spending 20 or 30 minutes on quickness training, and I know they’re missing the boat.

What role did Kelly Baggett have in this? He’s a wicked smart guy that I know many people (also) haven’t heard of.

Kelly’s been a training mentor of mine for a long time, and I reached out to him as I was putting all my years of “quickness training data” together for TAQ.

I know I could have done it alone, but when you have the opportunity to work with the “mad scientist” himself Kelly Baggett  and you’re just a young guy coming up, you take it, no questions asked.

Absolutely – I’m a huge fan of Kelly, and really, his entire body of work.

Alex, finish up by giving us one or two more tips on becoming quicker.

Here’s a term I want everyone to burn in their brain, whether or not you decide to give TAQ a shot today:

Plantar Flexor Stiffness.

The better your plantar flexor stiffness, the “bouncier” you are on the court or field.

The reason is because the improved stiffness means you’re spending less time on the ground

(And covering the same amount of ground in less time means MORE QUICKNESS).

Thanks Alex! Very much appreciated. Where can my readers find out more about you and the Truth About Quickness?

If you’re a coach or athlete competing in a multi-directional sport, head on over to http://www.TruthAboutQuickness.com today to learn more about the TAQ System.

If they’re a basketball player serious about their skills, tell ’em to get on my daily basketball newsletter (20,000+ strong and growing everyday)

Thanks again Alex – have a good one!

If you guys missed the links above, please note The Truth About Quickness is on sale for this week ONLY, at more than 50% off – check it out!

Furthermore, I know I’m going to have follow-up questions on this topic.

Leave them below, and I’ll see if we can’t get Alex back on later this week to do some Q&A. Thanks!v