Black Friday is just around the corner and you’ve spent the last month making lists, drawing maps of store aisles and mentally preparing for the big day. But don’t neglect some key skills you will need for that day…speed, agility and quickness! Dedicating a day or two per week to speed, agility, quickness (SAQ) training will give the competitive edge on Black Friday meaning that those 60% off teeth whitening strips can be yours---all yours!! Not only will this type of training increase your speed, agility and quickness but it has been shown to help you lose weight as well. So let’s get into what you need to do to prepare.
Speed is how fast you can go in a straight line (think getting to the shelf of talking robots at Wal-Mart before anyone else) and is a product of stride rate—the number of times your foot hits the ground during a given time—and stride length—the distance traveled in one stride. When the stores finally open on Friday, you want to be the first one through the doors. To get the most out of speed training, proper body mechanics must be maintained. Having body parts at the wrong place at the wrong time will slow you down so this is how you should be set up.
Picture yourself running (if that’s too much of a stretch then picture someone else running) and notice there is a lead leg and a back leg. The lead, or front, leg should have the foot, knee and hip in a flexed position and pointing straight. This sets the body up nicely to allow for maximum forces to propel the body forward once the front foot strikes the ground (science nerds will recognize this as storing potential energy). The foot strike should occur directly under your centre of gravity…a foot striking the ground too far forward will act as a brake and slow you down.
The back leg should be set up opposite the front leg in that the foot, knee and hip should all be in an extended position. This position maximizes the force production of the calf, quadriceps and butt muscles which are the main muscles you will use to get to the sale items you have mapped out on your Black Friday list.
Agility is your ability to start, stop and change direction quickly. This is a key Black Friday skill to have if you if are heading to the plasma TVs then all of a sudden you notice a bin of Shaun of the Dead DVDs on sale just to your left. You must be able to safely stop your momentum and change direction so you don’t miss out. Having good agility means that you need to stabilize the joints and maintain proper body alignment while accelerating, decelerating and changing direction all while keeping a good centre of gravity. And good agility isn’t just moving forward and back but you must be able to move in all directions. That’s why good agility training will incorporate forward running, back-peddling and side-shuffling.
Quickness is your ability to react. It’s been shown that those with good quickness can put more items in their carts per minute than those without quickness training…thus saving more money. Ok, I’m not sure there is an actual study showing this but it makes sense so let’s just go with it. To be quick means you can change body position (head, body, feet, arms, hands) in the shortest amount of time so that you can react to visual and auditory cues. So, when they announce over the loud speakers that there are only 5 Harry Potter shower gel dispensers left, you need to react to this auditory cue as fast as possible…you do not want Aunt Edna going without this Christmas do you? Luckily, this skill can be trained and it usually takes the form of footwork drills using cones and such.
I want you to be successful on Black Friday so I’ve set up a SAQ routine just for you.…Happy Shopping everyone!!
