In this episode, hosts Blake Burnard and Steve Suthers explore the Russian "Rule of Three" and discuss their philosophy at Grind House, emphasizing the importance of building a strong foundation in athletic abilities before introducing heavy weights. The episode provides insights into the debunking of training myths and highlights the significance of skill acquisition and coordination in athletic development.
In this episode, speakers Blake Burnard and Steve Suthers delve into the fascinating world of athletic development, drawing insights from the Russian "Rule of Three." The Rule of Three, created by the Russians, outlines a systematic approach to identifying and nurturing elite athletes, starting from a young age. The hosts discuss how this method involves filtering athletes every three years, narrowing down their athletic traits until they become specialized in a particular sport.
Drawing parallels to their own training philosophy at Grind House, the hosts emphasize the importance of building a solid foundation of athletic abilities before introducing heavy weights. They share their approach of training young athletes, starting as early as ten years old, by focusing on general sports and manual labor to develop body control, coordination, and kinesthetic awareness.
The episode explores the concept of strength training for beginners, touching upon Vladimir Zatskyorsky's recommendation that no athlete should engage in max effort exercises within their first three years of training. The hosts highlight the significance of developing inter and intramuscular coordination through appropriate weight training, debunking myths surrounding ladder drills and similar activities.
Listeners gain insights into the importance of a robust base in athleticism, emphasizing the need to prioritize skill acquisition and coordination before progressing to heavier loads. The hosts share their experiences and observations, debunking common misconceptions about training methods and shedding light on the science behind effective athletic development.
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[00:01:53] Unlocking Gold: The Russian Rule of Three in Athletic Success
[00:03:33] The Rule of Three: Sculpting Olympic Champions from Childhood
[00:04:48] Building Athletic Foundations: Beyond the Barbell for Young Champions
[00:06:58] True Strength Unveiled: Debunking Myths of Youth Training
[00:08:00] Unlocking Potential: The One by Twenty Method for Beginner Strength Training
[00:09:55] Building Resilient Strength: Navigating the Pitfalls of Youth Training
[00:16:42] Beyond the Game: Nurturing Character and Resilience in Young Athletes
[00:19:24] Navigating Adolescence: Coaching Stubborn Boys Through Growth Challenges
[00:23:22] Navigating Parental Expectations in Youth Sports: Balancing Reality and Aspirations
[00:30:35] Nurturing Dreams: Empowering Youth Athletes to Reach Their Full Potential
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Speaker Blake Burnard: What's up guys? This is Muscle Matters. We're your hosts, Blake Bernard, Steve Suthers. And tonight, we're gonna talk about youth athletic development. Steve, Steve are, you had all the questions. So why don't you do it?
Speaker Steve Suthers: You know what? Well, we'll start off with me. I've got a I've got a young man. And it's a challenge. Every time I turn around, this young man's taller. Yeah. It's Blake, literally, every time I turn around, I'm like, bro, stop growing. Like, when he when I got him, like, two years ago, he wore a size nine. He's in a size thirteen now, and he just turned thirteen years old.
Speaker Blake Burnard: Oh, man.
Speaker Steve Suthers: Yes. He's got some big
Speaker Blake Burnard: mitts to grow into.
Speaker Steve Suthers: Yes. And he and he reminds me of Bambi. He walks. He drags his feet, and I'm all we I call him his silly foot. I go get your silly foot get your silly foot straight because it'll just be dragging somewhere along behind them. And most people when they start training, they want to do the fundamentals, you know, let's go squat. Let's go deadlift. Let's go benchpress. Let's go squat. Let's go deadlift. Let's go benchpress. But with somebody like this young man who's in a constant state of growth, I mean, he's in a constant state of growth. He's Blake all legs and arms. His torso hasn't grown yet. And it's just it it's he wanted to do the the ladder. He wants to break out the ladder do speed work, and I'm like, you can't skip yet on your feet.
Speaker Blake Burnard: Yes.
Speaker Steve Suthers: So we need to make you learn how to skip before I can Blake out the ladder. So because you're still growing, and you're so coordinated. So my question to you is, when you have that young athlete who is in the middle of a huge, and he's just growing. Every time you see him, he's growing, he's taller, he's just longer, and he's he's lanky. How do you feel about weight training?
Speaker Blake Burnard: I think it's awesome. When done appropriately.
Speaker Steve Suthers: Okay. Okay.
Speaker Blake Burnard: And it's probably going to look a lot different than what a lot of our viewers may suspect. Like you said, they're chasing the big three. Right? Let's get to the exciting stuff right now. But, you know, at my facility, we follow the Russian rule three. The rule of three basically states that Blake starting in the Eastern block countries, as far back as the fifties and sixties, when they started pumping a lot of funds into, sport research. The the Russians essentially wanted to figure out, They had their they put their scientists to, and their mathematicians to figuring out the greatest opportunity to win gold medal at the Olympics.
Speaker Steve Suthers: And that was from the sixties Steve eighties where they dominated.
Speaker Blake Burnard: Weight lifting. Yes. And, in the power sports also, so Blake throws. So the, they identified. Hey, these are the things that are gonna make us better, and that's why they were on the cutting edge when America was putting all their money in the Steve, seventies, eighties into heart health, right? And that's where, you know, the America's infatuation with distance running all that stuff comes from. It's just where we put our money. It doesn't mean that it's actually the best thing four people. And so ultimately we go as sport research goes and whatever's getting the money is obviously what we're gonna read school. Right? So, okay, bring this full circle. I'm gonna land this plane. The Russians created this rule of three. To be the best in the world, they had to create a system that really was Blake a business pumping out talent, and it was very cutthroat. If you were not a pro by the age of sixteen, you were out of sport altogether. There was no pro sports. I don't know.
Speaker Steve Suthers: You're going to the coal mines.
Speaker Blake Burnard: Yes. You're either an Olympian or, yeah, exact You're gonna pick up work in a broth or something. I don't know what goes on in Russia. So anyways, long story short, we there are things we learned from that. The rule of three simply states that every three years, these athletes are pared down in to narrower and narrower buckets of at of athletic traits until they eventually, you know, become elite in that sport. So at six years old, start them in very general sports. And I don't think this is how they do it today, but this is how they did it for many decades when they ruled the world of sporting. They would start them in general sports. Namely wrestling and gymnastics at age six. Depending on the traits and their strengths showed they would then begin to narrow them down into, you know, select few would stay in those sports, but many of them would go would kind of branch out into maybe the track and field sports swim, dive, that kind of a deal, and they would literally filter them based on their genetic predisposition, and their, basically, the rate of skill acquisition. Yeah.
Speaker Steve Suthers: I I get I get what are they into, you know? Gymnastic shows an explosion. Wrestling will show your power. So I could see that being.
Speaker Blake Burnard: Think of all the body control involved
Speaker Steve Suthers: Yes. The the movement
Speaker Blake Burnard: capabilities, all that kind of stuff. And then if you have limitations, it's gonna rear it's like we had right there. So every three years, they would filter them down. Okay. K. We all clear on that. We use a similar model, not in the US, but at Grind House, we want to train general to specific. So we get kids as young as ten years old. In the very first thing we do is try to build a foundation of athletic abilities that does not ever include the barbell when they're beginners. Mhmm. You know, if you pay attention to what Blake you know, I'm building a curriculum based off one of my favorite textbook science and practice of strength training by, Vladimir Zatskyorsky. And he said, you know, no athlete should do max effort exercises in within their first three years of training age. The reason is they don't have well, a, you're stepping over. You're missing the forest for the trees, essentially. But also they don't have the kinesthetic awareness to even be safe under that Steve. The body control, learning how to pressurize your stomach the structure's all being, you know, supported correctly with the right right mass and right areas. And so for us, The closest thing we can get to gymnastics and wrestling for our ten year olds is manual labor. Let's get them carrying each other. Let's get them crawling around on the ground. Let's get them jumping and hanging and, bending their bodies in weird ways. It's it doesn't look like what you think strength and conditioning is, but it is found and it's correct. Our goal with that is to build a robust base of, athleticism qualities, these abilities that they can draw from later in their development. You can't start at the peak of the pyramid and try to work your way backwards. You the pyramid's only as tall as its base as wide. Does that kinda make sense?
Speaker Steve Suthers: Yeah. No.
Speaker Blake Burnard: So with a tall lanky kid that lacks that coordination, first of all, that's super common as they grow. I mean, imagine if, you're you're shooting pool, and someone just gives you a stick that's twice as long. Like, you think you're gonna it's gonna be Blake Kramer in in his house. It's bambi. Put holes in the wall.
Speaker Steve Suthers: These kids are literally bambi.
Speaker Blake Burnard: Yeah. They are. And they lose that ability to move fluidly I do believe that lifting weights and moving external resistance, manipulating some another body that's not yours Mhmm. Is a great way to build it. But all at an appropriate appropriate rate. So to answer your question, You're absolutely right, man. He doesn't need to be on ladders and things like that. That stuff doesn't do near what people hype it up to. Mainly because The body doesn't have to coordinate itself to develop muscular tension to step in a tappy foot ladder. So, yes, it looks like things are happening fast, but on the inside, things are very dull. When a kid actually has to strain against something heavy or an immovable object or something like that, think of Blake what people classify as man strength, being able to latch onto your forearm and not let go. Well, that was developed by you straining. Right? Yes. And it coordinates all the muscles in your hands and your and your arms and everything, you know, to be able to grasp and latch on. Right?
Speaker Steve Suthers: Yes. Yes.
Speaker Blake Burnard: It's called inter and intral muscular coordination things are only developed through weights. You know? So it's like we can't be maxing out kids, but man, one of the best programs for beginners developed by the late great. He just died Doctor. Michael Yes's. He came up with he came up with the one by twenty method. He was like, Hey, man. All beginners need to do is get into one set of twenty reps. Cycle through about ten to twenty exercise in a workout, repeat that three times a week. And I've seen people get incredible results off this. It's amazing, but what are they getting? Twenty reps is a whole lot of practice.
Speaker Steve Suthers: Yes.
Speaker Blake Burnard: The weight's not super heavy. It's not gonna absolutely comp compress or crush them, you know. And, they walk away to live fight another day, treating it more like a slow burn Suthers than Blake a No.
Speaker Steve Suthers: No. I would wait.
Speaker Blake Burnard: Sorry, dude. That was Blake it. PHD answer. I'm so sorry.
Speaker Steve Suthers: No, it's okay. It's okay. I'm okay with it. With with weights. Okay. So now we're talking weights. Remember there used to be the old, wives Steve. That if a kid less weights, it would stunt his growth. And it's still very common that people believe this. So let's go ahead and tell them bust a myth for people out there.
Speaker Blake Burnard: Busted. That thing was disproven decades ago. But again, so was the whole heart health thing too. We know now that power and strength are the first things to degrade as not cardiovascular health. Right? So, like, it just because that's what our grandparents taught, you know, is doesn't mean that's still true today. The growth plate thing There's a caveat to this. It you can absolutely stunt someone's, like, you know, negatively impact a kid's growth plates. Through improper training means. Okay. Too much too early. I I could just imagine putting a kit just completely overloading something that shouldn't be over you know what I mean?
Speaker Steve Suthers: Like, just causing the body to do anything if you're
Speaker Blake Burnard: dumb enough, you know,
Speaker Steve Suthers: causing the body to get out of alignment.
Speaker Blake Burnard: Absolutely. And so Again, going back to the principle of compression and expansion, you know, kids shouldn't be compressed at that age. You have to build a resiliency to, you know, resist compression eventually. And you could argue that's what real strength is. So ultimately, you know, you absolutely can. That happens in a very small percentage of individuals. And again, my part of what I do is literally giving the kids the the training, the coaching, that they can't get anywhere else. They come to me because these families have identified, Hey, I'm not a professional in this. I'm I'm willing to outsource this for the for the benefit of my kids. You know what I mean? So this is kind of what we step in to do. This is part of our ethos. But yeah, there are idiots out there Blake totally doing things improperly. The thing kids out parents should be afraid of is the kids lift in, you know, learning how to lift from their buddies that are the same experience levels them in their garage, unsupervised. That's of high school TikTok videos. Oh, man.
Speaker Steve Suthers: So we'll come back to that because what that that are come that are go away. So now I read somewhere once. That it's not so much the weights that are stunning the growth, but the kids are not stretching so the tendons are getting too strong to allow the muscle, the bone to grow. Do you wanna displace that one? So, basically,
Speaker Blake Burnard: they're saying they're not stretching enough.
Speaker Steve Suthers: They're not stretching enough to
Speaker Blake Burnard: the doing more than the muscles,
Speaker Steve Suthers: what I'm saying. Everything's pulling tight. So when the body's trying to grow, It's being pulled back.
Speaker Blake Burnard: So that goes back to, like, okay. So if that was true, then, hanging off of a pull up bar for five minutes a day would result in more inches.
Speaker Steve Suthers: I don't know Michael Jordan said he did.
Speaker Blake Burnard: Pleasure a lot of things that work for Michael Drow, don't work for anybody else. But, if we if you just flip that one upside down, it would it it would be reason to believe that, hey, if I bend over touch my toes every day or hang from a pull up bar, whatever, that we could add to her height. That's simply not true. Mhmm. Right? There is absolutely a world in which the way you train impacts the, your tendons, more than it impacts your muscles. Right? Blake, we've all done really fast calf raises. Well, what happens when you when you're just bouncing on that calf machine?
Speaker Steve Suthers: Yeah.
Speaker Blake Burnard: No pause. Your Achilles Timman's doing all the work. Your muscles are not you're not getting any of the gastric. Right? So I think that's about as far as it goes. To my knowledge, I definitely know if I hang off of pool bar, I'm not getting taller. So, you know
Speaker Steve Suthers: I tried it as a kid. It didn't work.
Speaker Blake Burnard: Plus that one. Yeah. So there's no hope for you, man. I'm sorry.
Speaker Steve Suthers: I know. My my dad was a midget, my biological. So if you, so we talk about kids. You said, let's break it down to what the Russians did. You, you stuck them in two different sports. To a lot of parents today like to stick their kids in one sport. Now, it's brutal. Is that, in some way, stunting their athletic ability. I mean, I want Johnny to be a baseball player, but Johnny has the eyesight of a
Speaker Blake Burnard: Yeah.
Speaker Steve Suthers: You can't see the ball.
Speaker Blake Burnard: I do think we were all born athletes. Okay. I firmly believe that. The Lord gave us bodies to move. He made men competitive. Even females, we got some dogs in the gym, man, that changed my, like, literally the way I see female athletes. And, you know, I think we were made to move, compete, and, and and use our bodies in that way. I just don't think that every child was given a chance to really figure out the the correct sport. And so I'll tell you what we're doing in our house. I can't do that stuff at Grind House. I can't unsee the things I've read and and and watched and viewed. So, like, my kids My daughter's starting gymnastics this year at five years old. Okay? My son, I wanna I'm trying to think of a way to guard him from the culture of gymnastics with but get him in there. There is a direct correlation. The kids who grew up wrestling or doing gym, Dude, they are ten times the athletes and the kids that just specialize in baseball volleyball football from as early as they could. Ten times the athletes.
Speaker Steve Suthers: When I was young, I Blake valet. Because it was clumsy. It fell down all over the Blake. And Lynn Swan took ballet. So I took ballet to help me learn to balance because I was just clumsy, but that was that growth spurt where I was falling over everything people take food away for me. Now
Speaker Blake Burnard: Well, it goes back to that pyramid I was talking about. The the hierarchy of development those are just two sports that develop the Blake. And dance has gotta be one of those as well. Right? Ballet in particular. There's a lot of Steve dancers have to be strong. Right? So all we're really saying is we wanna develop as many qualities as possible. Like, basically, just tools in the tool bag to be drawn from a VIN actually when they do specialize. But let's try everything. See what not only the kid enjoys because if a kid if happy athletes can be a higher performing athlete ten days of the week.
Speaker Steve Suthers: Oh, you mean like the Civil and Black smoking cigars this weekend?
Speaker Blake Burnard: Exactly. And, you know, let's give them every tool at their disposal so that they can become better problem solvers. That's all the body organizing itself is. It's reacting to its environments. The more tools they have more successful they're probably gonna be on a play.
Speaker Steve Suthers: Now, how do you deal with, the young, once again, I'm a stick sticking the, the adolescent preteen that that goofy growth sport sport where you see Blake, the young man I have. I I'll refer back here. I've got one young man and not like you would multi multi But you can see at some point in his life, he's gonna grow into something. Mhmm. How do you keep them from the frustration? Because they're looking over at the other kids. And, you know, they can't the the foot's growing too big. They can't keep up with their foot. They're like Bambi. They're falling over themselves. How do you How do you express to that child that young man or young girl? I keep saying young man because I've been referring back to
Speaker Blake Burnard: to
Speaker Steve Suthers: the person I trained. So forgive me out there. The young people that you do train, I'll get my brain right in a second. The young people that you do train, both male and female to go, Hey. Patience and follow this right here and we're gonna get you to where you're guided because we'll go back to the TikTok You see the TikTok. Everybody wants to do the the speed work, the ladder work, and they're watching these elite athletes like Tyreek Hill, whose fast twitch muscles are on another plane and he's zooming in and out of these things. And they're wanting to do that when they can't even keep their feet straight.
Speaker Blake Burnard: Narrow down your question. What do we ask?
Speaker Steve Suthers: Okay. How do you how do you keep a child motivated when it's it's literally their growth that's putting them behind the eight ball.
Speaker Blake Burnard: It it might be one of the the most challenging aspects of our job, you know, and I relate it back to when I was a teacher in the classroom, you know, and you're dealing with a kid that has circumstances maybe different than others, learning disability, whatever. You know, it's it's the thing we're trying to drive home is the principle that can only control what they can control. Like, don't waste worrying about that will not add another day to your life. That's in the word, right? But even beyond that, Blake, we're trying to build character traits that they're gonna carry with them for the rest of their lives past athletic if they're worried about, you know, what they do or don't have, genetically or otherwise, you know, it's gonna cause other problems for them later on. So That's the message we're sending. Is that easy? No. And I'll be honest. For every kid we've been successful getting them to, you know, change their perspective on that. We've had one or two that didn't and, you know, burn out as a result. It's usually not the kids though that are tall and lanky. It's the ones who haven't hit their growth spurt yet. So it's the late bloomers, the one that's fourteen, fifteen years old, watching all of his friends grow leg hair, do all that stuff, you know. Voice are getting deeper. They're starting girls are Blake, starting to be attracted to all of his buddies, not him. You get what I'm saying? Yes. And we've done this hour.
Speaker Steve Suthers: I I can relate that because I was a late bloomer.
Speaker Blake Burnard: It was
Speaker Steve Suthers: a late bloomer.
Speaker Blake Burnard: So I was tall and lanky. You know, fourteen, fifteen years old, and then I just I mean, look at me. It's really easy for me to pack on weight. I never really dealt with that man, but I feel for the kids who do because let's face it. It's the instant gratification that they're looking for and that's societal. But we know as professionals, it's learning to delay that gratification that results in success a lot of the time, like just the flexing of that muscle, the flexing of Blake, hey, the things I'm learning now are going to benefit me so much more later.
Speaker Steve Suthers: I'm gonna flip the script on that because I was thinking about kids that are playing football and you find that 01:12 year old that's already a grown man. How do you deal with that kid? Letting him know, like, hey, bro, at some point, somebody's gonna catch up to you if you're gonna have I hate that. Okay. Good. Somebody's gonna catch up to you and you're gonna look a you're not gonna be pushing the four foot two kid anymore. There's gonna be another six foot five person across from you.
Speaker Blake Burnard: I'll let you know when I'm successful doing it. Okay. Because we've had those kids. And, we I I I've got some volleyball girls in the gym dude that look like seniors. And they're they're thirteen, fourteen years old.
Speaker Steve Suthers: Two of
Speaker Blake Burnard: them I signed up tonight, they're savages bro.
Speaker Steve Suthers: Okay.
Speaker Blake Burnard: And, I don't deal with it with the females. It's the boys. It is very difficult. They've been run just Molly Wapping kids their entire lives. Yes. It is so hard to get them How do you teach a young man? They're already stubborn as it is? Yes. I I am to this day. You know, I've I don't know what I would listen either. You know. The test is when they come in and you gotta, oh, that's a strapping young lad. Like, okay, we might have something to work with here. I haven't pulled the pant leg show me your leg here. And if you're thirteen years old, mature, you know, in the face, you know, a kid who's hip puberty. And they got leg hair. Their development's just about done. I'm like, there's nothing left. You know, and I tell their parents, like, I tell them in the meeting. Like, this is at sales console. Like, I'm trying to get their business, right? I'm like, We gotta set some expectations here because I what you guys want, I think you're looking in the wrong Blake. Like, we have to you're gonna have a huge target on your back and everyone's gonna catch up to you in about two years. How do you how does a kid see that? You know what I mean?
Speaker Steve Suthers: I remember how to track me. Just just a quick flashback. I'm a hijack it. And I was in the sixth grade. It was, championships. And this kid lined up next to me with a mustache. And I remember looking up at him going Who's dad are you? Yeah.
Speaker Blake Burnard: There are a couple, like, kids like that in town right now, man. Yeah. And you're just watching him just just mop the
Speaker Steve Suthers: And I lost that track meet because I looked back for him. Hey, there's a lesson there.
Speaker Blake Burnard: That's like a pair of
Speaker Steve Suthers: Oh, I looked back for him. And I when I went to the when I got to the kid from a family, I got to the I got yelled at when I got over there and they were like, what were you looking for? I was looking for the kid. He's all. He was way in the back. And I was like, oh, shoot. Yeah.
Speaker Blake Burnard: So it
Speaker Steve Suthers: just because you were looking back on that brutal Yeah. So, and, like, it's so sometimes, I guess, what I'm trying to say, it doesn't always just because your kid's the biggest and he's bullying those people doesn't necessarily mean he's got athlete. He's an athlete. I mean, hey. So when you're talking these telling these parents, like, hey, your kid's big and bullying everybody. Right now. Okay.
Speaker Blake Burnard: Okay. But you and I both played at the next level, like, we have a different I I so much more enjoy talking to parents who played that sport, whatever it is, or just played anything in college. It their perspective on this is way different. You know? The issue usually comes when, like, the kid with a super mature 12:13 year old, you know, they did they're they're the last level of ball they played was senior in high school, you know. And, and so they're living vicariously through their stud kid. But man, it's Blake, what would you rather be? I played with guys that literally hit their, you know, they bloomed. They blossomed. In junior college and became killers. You know what I mean? Because they had had to endure all the lessons of being the PIPSqueak, whatever. They they were patient. They b b b b b bowed their time. They they, put off that gratification thing. And they stuck with it eventually sprouted like a bean Steve, you know, and oh, guess what? They have a lot more resources available to them at night twenty years old.
Speaker Steve Suthers: We can all fall back to the Michael Jordan, you know.
Speaker Blake Burnard: Oh, man. Yeah. Well, he's a great example of that, you know. And so I'm looking at his parent. I'm like, what would you rather
Speaker Steve Suthers: have? Okay.
Speaker Blake Burnard: A kid that's all in a war or You know?
Speaker Steve Suthers: Okay. I'm gonna I'm gonna go to the parents now. We're gonna we're gonna get you. We weren't planning on going this way. I wasn't planning on going this way with him, but I have to ask. Jay, so now we're talking about the parent who lives vicariously through their child,
Speaker Blake Burnard: goodness. I guess they're trying to get me fired. Yeah. I'm so and
Speaker Steve Suthers: How do you tell that parent? Like, hey, your expectations are here? Because I've I've man, I there's so many things I've seen parents doing to their children in hopes of getting them to the next level. And I'll come back to that conversation because I will take it over from there, but how do you talk to the parent?
Speaker Blake Burnard: I can give you two examples just happened the last two weeks. So one happened this evening, and the other one happened about two weeks ago. So The first one, you know, I got a mom that, she is a club volleyball coach and her, she bumped up both of her daughters to play for her. And that says a lot in itself. Right? And clearly she thinks very highly of of her daughters and they're not great movers. She swears they're great volleyball players, and I'm I have a hard time seeing it, but I haven't seen them play. I could be totally wrong. I know there's other things going on there, you know, and, and at the end of the day, I've just being a teacher and now being a coach, I've seen the other side of that where, like, you've got overbearing parents that expect so much of their kids. It's it's its own brand of toxicity. So as coaches, you know, I address it head on to temper their expectations of what they can achieve in our program. I had a mom tonight. Second example is She she said, yeah, we're coming to you guys from this other place. Listen, we weren't getting the results we want. We're bringing Blake six viable families with us because we've heard the last year the amazing results you guys getting. We want that. We were just there because our club was there. And I was like, cool, that's like music to my ears. Keep going. And she goes, Yeah. So I was just kinda thinking Blake, you know, I'd really love to see three, four inches on my granddaughter's vertical and probably next, like, two weeks. I'm like, then it's not a good fit, mom. And her daughter goes, what? We've never told that before, you know. And, I go, yeah, a good fit. Blake, if that's what you're expecting, you're gonna be disappointed. Like, I don't care how good your daughter is thirteen years old. I don't see any college scholarships being given out to BBC volleyball players at thirteen. You know? So I really care about slow burning this thing and her peak will be so much higher if we do it patiently and correctly. That time she's seventeen eighteen, and she'll have the world to be her oyster because she's a freaking stud sitting on my couch right now. So I tell him upfront. I go, Hey, it's not fit, and I'm so comfortable doing that because I want the right families in my in my gym. It's Blake Did you ever get a red flag about a girlfriend? And it, like, it came back. Like, you didn't you didn't act on it. You're like, Hey, there's something wrong. There's something. That that was a little fishy. And then, that same whatever it was that you sensed comes back around six months later. I that's always happens.
Speaker Steve Suthers: Red flag. You just keep asking me. Just go wee. Oh my god.
Speaker Blake Burnard: Yeah. That's not how I roll. So I was dude, they always result. If there's craziness on the front end, there's gonna be a lot of craziness on the
Speaker Steve Suthers: let's go back to the vertical vertical real quick. Realistically, do people actually jump higher in their lifespan or they just get taller?
Speaker Blake Burnard: No. No. No. The jump higher. We have vert mats that, like Okay. That, objectively do all that. It's not a reach. Does that make sense? Yeah.
Speaker Steve Suthers: So, now two to three inches on a vert. It's a lot. So what what what would be a time frame for something like that? It's a loaded question because we're better at the moment.
Speaker Blake Burnard: So, like, on average, in the first twelve weeks in our program, our males average four to six inches on their verve. Okay. And then, our females are about three to five.
Speaker Steve Suthers: Okay.
Speaker Blake Burnard: It really depends on, like, their history of jumping. You know, like, do they are they a kid who's, you know, played field sports Blake a soccer player, a football Blake, not jumping is not really their sport versus like a basketball player, volleyball player, really. They just you need to add horsepower and or add it now. They add some strength some power. Like, they are already good at jumping. You know what I mean? They mastered that skill. For instance, we had a, like one of my poster children. I love this girl's desk. She's one of my OGs. I've had her for the last two and a half years. She's playing Spain right now as a sixteen year old. And, she's a savage. She won't be moving back, actually, because, she's she's doing her thing, man. And, when she when she came to me two and a half years ago, she was, Hervert was sixteen inches and, and she's Puerto Rican, good genetics. 05:11, like she's a Steve. And, when she left me in the fall to go to Spain, she jumped twenty eight two. Now the NCAAA division one average is twenty one point six. So when you when you're talking about thirty inch jumper, really anything over twenty six inches is Blake elite, elite, elite, elite. And, you know, really, we all all we had to do was work on strength. It was so simple because she already mastered jumping and all those other things, you know. So it kinda depends. It's kinda loaded, and we're kinda better than most. But, you know, at the end of the day, I told mom I was like, hand two weeks we could reasonably see an inch or two because we we'll change the brain. Yeah. We'll be firing differently, you know, neurologically. But, like, that's not really what I'm going for. Like, You'd she came in and she jumped to seventeen tonight. So do I want her at nineteen? No, that's Blake You know what I mean? I'd love to see her above twenty six. So which one? Would you like, mom? You know what I mean?
Speaker Steve Suthers: And that's a better answer. Like, okay. Cool. You're looking you're looking at today. I'm looking at tomorrow.
Speaker Blake Burnard: Yeah. And you know what? I was actually writing this on the way home because that conversation Steve stuck out to me. That's gonna be my next YouTube video because it's like just like musings and ramblings about, you know, It's so good to set firm expectations with people, and it'd be as black and white as you can be because then no one's disappointed. They can't say Blake you you were selling of snake oil or or you were dishonest or any of the Steve. Like, again, if they don't like that answer, it's an immediate filter to filter out the wrong people. And some of you gotta know about me, Steve, like, for for whoever needs to hear this, I've set up as many filters in my life as possible, and it keeps me the happiest I've ever been.
Speaker Steve Suthers: Alright. Before we shut down, This is gonna be the fun one. How do you break it to a parent? Your kid's not athletic? Okay.
Speaker Blake Burnard: So the parent from two weeks ago. I I don't think that was right. I When
Speaker Steve Suthers: you said it in second and I was like, Oh, because there are some parents that
Speaker Blake Burnard: just don't
Speaker Steve Suthers: swear the little Johnny little little little Sarah is a stud and,
Speaker Blake Burnard: Well, you've probably heard Tom say this. So he was the he he tells everybody we run into. Blake got this machine. It's called the proteus. We we have a bunch of testing equipment at the I've spent more money on on basically, machines and electronics that can produce analytics and objective analysis of how an athlete is doing. Than I ever have on squat racks. Okay. And the reason for that is we can we can test. We can train. We can do it all objectively. So it takes the emotions out of it. So, really, I don't, I it's not it's not a subjective analysis of Blake, Hey, your your son or daughter needs these things. That would piss somebody
Speaker Steve Suthers: That
Speaker Blake Burnard: make me mad. Right? But if you say Blake, hey, averages for your son, the metrics we're trying to hit are here, he Blake failed all of these. You know what I mean? They're like, oh, hey, if standards as standard. You know what I mean? No.
Speaker Steve Suthers: It's easier to look at them and say, okay, I can teach your kid to be a better better athlete. And we will make your kid better than he currently is. One hundred percent.
Speaker Blake Burnard: But he's
Speaker Steve Suthers: not going to the NFL.
Speaker Blake Burnard: That's a tough one. I've never said that because again, I don't wanna shut shut down a kid's dreams. Yes. You know, I, like, I've if if, what's his face? If Spud Webb can make it to the NBA, And if, you know, sprawl, starring sprolls can make it to the NFL, dude, any of these kids can. And I will never At the end of the day, our whole ethos is Blake creating opportunities for those who wouldn't otherwise have it. So I'm never gonna shut that down. And I want them to hang on to every bit of that dream for as long as they can. I think that'll produce peer perseverance and, you know, uh-uh bearing with all the struggles of life and sports ultimately teach these kids way more than I ever could anyways. Blake, stay in as long as you can, chase that dream, you know? Okay. But going back to, like, like, I've got a machine that literally they do a five minute test on this thing. It'll tell Literally. Per your age height weight, sport, and position, you fall into these percentiles for for power, acceleration, basically how well you're using your body mass, Blake, high high it's a it's a, composite of, like, their outputs versus their height and weight and stuff like that. When you tell a kid, you're in the twenty first percentile for your age, height, weight position, all that stuff. Like, the parents kinda, like, they kinda start rubbing their eyes. Like, oh, man, I just we're pretty far off. It does the job form. Okay. You know? And I just say, hey, you wanna talk about how we're gonna change that.
Speaker Steve Suthers: Yes. And and and that's why I like that answer. That's a great answer because, you know, kids, every kid should be at a Blake sports. I think sports, build so much character. I think sports help you overcome adversary in life. If you if you wrestle something, jump something, compete against something, run against something. It helps you be better versed as an adult when adversary comes because you know how to compete against it.
Speaker Blake Burnard: And sports Blake in a vacuum are very chaotic, but sports compared to life, I mean, it's a controlled environment.
Speaker Steve Suthers: Yes.
Speaker Blake Burnard: So we can choose, hey, we're gonna put our kids on this team with this coach pouring into them on a daily basis, and we largely know it's gonna happen on the Saturday or whatever. You know what I mean? So that's a lot more controlled than, like, I don't know, home life work environment, you know, that's erratic and I I don't I don't know. I think that's one sports are one of the best things, that we can engage in as families.
Speaker Steve Suthers: Especially young, like, hormonal athletes, I think sports are great for that that hormone stage where they're just angry and they're yelling. When's football practice, when's volleyball practice Where are you gonna go get some of that energy out of you? What are you going? What time would you go into Blake today?
Speaker Blake Burnard: Well, we can talk about, like, the history of physicality, you know, and Sports are very much a twentieth century thing. But, you know, predating that, physicality as a whole was, like, ingrained in our culture.
Speaker Steve Suthers: I'm a cut you off. I'm cutting them off, so you guys have something to tune into for next week.
Speaker Blake Burnard: Next time.
Speaker Steve Suthers: Yes. Now you guys have something So tune in for yes. Because we're going next week episode because I wanted him to get enough of that out. So you guys would be there and like, hey, hey, hey, I wanna hear the rest of it. If you wanna hear the rest of it, what do they need to do next week?
Speaker Blake Burnard: Tune in, man. So, hey, and I'm Kickstarter in my YouTube channel. That's Blake Burnard coaching. Bernard's spelled with a u. We're I talk about this kind of stuff because as you can tell, I could go on forever about it. So if you want more of that tune in there, tune in here. You can find me at, grindhouse underscore s c And, we're always like, you know, highlighting our people what they're doing, what gets them awesome results, but also what you as parents can do to, set your kids up for success. Steve, where where can they find you?
Speaker Steve Suthers: Seven four two zero district Boulevard, sportline to West.
Speaker Blake Burnard: I'm gonna come in with a voice like that
Speaker Steve Suthers: next time I catch your