Nike Sparq

So today's post is something that I've seen for a while, have some of but it's an entire program/line.  Some of you guys have seen stuff from Nike that's sold under the line "SPARQ".  I know I was initially drawn to the line because it's lime green (those who know me know that I love my bright colors), but turns out it's a lot more than just something that has a giant lime green typeface.

OOOOOO LIME GREEN

Turns out after some investigation into this, it's more than just a line that Nike has created much like Adidas has the Adistar stuff.  SPARQ actually had it's roots as a generalized rating system to allow for a measure of an athletes performance.  It's an acronym that stands for Speed, Power, Agility, Reaction and Quickness.  They even have a fancy picture to go with it.

Now the test is somewhat sport specific, they've got tests for football, baseball, soccer, basketball and fastpitch.  They've also got one that's just a general test for how athletic you are.  Cool thing about it, well I find it kinda cool is that all of this can be measured from just five functional tests.
1) 40 Yard Dash (Speed)
2) Kneeling Power Ball Toss (Power)
3) Agility Shuttle (Agility)
4) Yo-Yo intermittent recovery test (Reaction, Quickness and Endurance)
5) Vertical Jump (Power)
People who have done fitness testing before will probably have done some of these before.

Now the test is somewhat sport specific, they've got tests for football, baseball, soccer, basketball and fastpitch.  They've also got one that's just a general test for how athletic you are.  Cool thing about it, well I find it kinda cool is that all of this can be measured from just five functional tests.  Now it's actually a BRILLIANT marketing ploy/plan.  How you ask?  Well you get tested, and then you get given a score based on your ability.  It's actually broken down into the actual test categories, so if you do less good on a certain category they can recommend that you train with their products doing certain exercises.  That's the other thing about this SPARQ marketing relationship.  It's not an actual physical testing/training center rather it's a method somewhat similar to teaching.  And it's kinda a standardized certification where everybody follows the same measurement.  So if you get tested (at a certified center) chances are probably pretty decent that they'll have been coach certified and they'll also sell the products.  So there we go any training centers that can get you in for a testing, will probably get a little bit more out of you.

What to do to improve

There's lots of different things ranging from medicine balls, ladders, hurdles, reflex balls, parachutes, and all sorts of other things like resistance bands for training speed.

Stuff like this can all be found non-nike branded, but they've attempted to put a spin on it and then market to people like me (people who are drawn to bright neon colors).   I think at some point I'll probably get some of this stuff and run through some drills and see how effective it is. With that I shall leave you with an AWESOME picture, of somebody training with a parachute.

GIANT CHUTES