Meet Elliot Allen of Eight Six Speed

Today we’d like to introduce you to Elliot Allen

Hi Elliot, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
As a previous high school and college athlete, I have learned quite a lot over the years when it comes to training and getting ready for sports. Most of which I unfortunately learned through getting a lot of things wrong. Now, that’s not to say the coaches and mentors I’ve had throughout the years didn’t know what they were doing, we just used the best information we had at the time and made the most of it, and we sure had one heck of a ride! However, after a few years of research and some more mentoring from some of the biggest names in the athletic development industry, I’ve come to learn all the things I would have done differently back in my athletic career, which are the things I am devoted to bring to today’s athletes!

I have learned that there is still this big, old-school emphasis with training hard on one specific sport, or in some cases even 2-3 sports at one time, all year long! This has the potential to be pretty taxing on young athletes. The first being that they are so specifically trained on 1 sport, that their bodies never get the opportunity to diversify its capabilities and become more versatile across the board. This can cause some major imbalances possibly resulting in some serious issues and injuries down the road.
The second being that they are kept in many different sports at one time with the fear that they will lose their ability to play their different sports if they are not practicing them all the time. I can definitely see where this could be a fear, however we are simply setting our young athletes up for burn out and the potential to lose their love of sports when we make it this stressful and take away the FUN they should be having playing sports.

I am definitely a big advocate for multi-sport athletes. However, as parents, we need to trust that their bodies will be fine taking a break from other sports for a couple seasons while they focus on just one. Their bodies aren’t going to forget how to swing a bat or throw a football in just a few short months. Just make sure they are still having FUN and playing the sports THEY want to play!

Now, this is where Eight Six Speed comes into play. If there is any extra time, outside of a current sport an athlete is in, that a parent would like to take advantage of, it would greatly help being spent developing their general athletic abilities; Building speed, gaining strength, increasing stamina, becoming more flexible and mobile. All the things necessary for any sport they are going to play, but won’t have time for if they’re bouncing from practice to practice, tournament to tournament or camp to camp.

At Eight Six, our main focus is raising athlete’s general abilities that can be applied across the board. We place a huge emphasis on speed and making athletes faster first and foremost, because lets be honest, Speed Kills! While also helping build general strength and power that directly translates over to any sport, and the flexibility and mobility needed to stay injury free for as long as possible!

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Just like any sports career, there will always be challenges and obstacles. Nothing is ever a smooth road, and building Eight Six Speed was no different.

I have a family with 4 active boys of my own and a full time job I still show up for while building this dream. So, to say the road to where we are today has been a bit rocky is definitely an understatement!

However, it’s not the end goal or the level of success you reach at the top that makes you into the person you’re meant to be; It is the journey along the way that does that. Challenges and roadblocks are just part of the process.

We’ve been impressed with Eight Six Speed, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Eight Six Speed is an athletic development program that focuses on building general speed and strength to enhance any athlete’s athletic ability for any sport.

Since speed, and our ability to sprint fast, has a half life of only 3-5 days, meaning any progress we make with getting faster starts to wear of after just 3-5 days, it is very important that we create a huge emphasis around it. Sprinting, with 100% fresh legs, 2-3 times per week is extremely essential for any athlete to keep their speed gains, but also to keep from pulling or tearing any muscles while they’re playing. That’s why, at Eight Six, we make sure its a number 1 priority before moving on to strength training, which, by the way, has a half life of 3-5 weeks. So you can see why it is much more important to focus on training speed first and foremost.

How do we do this? WE TIME! And we time precise! Eight Six uses some of the best laser technology in the world to get the most precise time and speeds of your athletes.

Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
Connections are key, if not the most important aspect to building a brand and company. It is extremely hard to do this completely on your own. Networking and making connections gets you in the right room with the right people where you’re just one handshake away at that point to propelling yourself forward! Then, when it comes to mentors, always look for those who came from where you’re at now, and who are where you want to be down the road. They’ve done what it is you need to do, they’ve mad the mistakes and learned, and can teach you exactly how to do the same, but without as many mistakes.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.eightsixspeed.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coachallenfit/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eightsixspeed