The Future Of Speed and Agility Training With Twice The Speed
Back In July of this year we put together a new product called Trainer Bin, and in a little over 4 Months we are approaching 1,300 paying active Members. When we decided to do this we had one thing in mind…”How do we create a product FAST that offers 10x more value than it costs?”. Ryan and I spent an entire Morning White Boarding our plan. We wanted to avoid depending on crazy technology or having to hire developers (because we have done that in the past) and it hasn’t worked out. We simple wanted to create a way for us to take all of our Knowledge related to helping Athletes Ages 5+ to become Faster/the BEST Athlete they can possibly be.
After spending a few hours mapping this plan out, I hit the Green Screen and filmed a video explaining what exactly “Trainer Bin would be. In the beginning we called it: “TTS Resistance Labs” because Parents/Athletes had just ordered a set of our Resistance Bands so we figured – “What if we gave them at least a dozen extra Workouts related to the Bands?”.
We started to get instant feedback from the early Members who were consuming the Trainer Bin content. They LOVED IT! No longer did they have to worry about their kids using the Resistance Bands a few times and then getting bored. No longer did they have the worry of, “Will these Bands just collect dust like the rest of the things I buy my Kids?”. We were onto something!
So to take it a step further, I started to personally reach out to some of the Customers of Trainer Bin. I would ask them questions like,
“In a perfect World, what product exists?”
“What can we do with Trainer Bin next to instantly increase the value for you?”
“What would your ideal user experience be with Trainer Bin?”
We spent a few months asking these questions and getting some incredible answers! Answers like,
“it would be cool to have some Baseball specific training to help my kid with their hitting”
“Can you do Soccer Training or other Sports Training?”
“Partner Workouts I can do with my kids, or that my 2 kids can do together”
“For my Children to be able to practice other Sports skills like: Dribbling, Shooting, Defense, Hitting, Position Specific Training, etc”
These are just SOME OF THE THINGS that we heard back when we spoke with the early adopter Trainer Bin members! So we started to work!! And if anyone of you reading knows me or the Culture at Twice The Speed – we work FAST! We live by our motto of getting from point A to point B in the fastest and most efficient way possible…Whether that’s helping Parents teach their kids in the most efficient way “how to run faster and properly”, or that is us creating a new product or handling Customer Service.
By early August we had already uploaded 5-6 Baseball workouts (because the majority of our Customers had kids who played Baseball/Softball). We contacted Connor Powers of Dead Red Hitting to demonstrate some Baseball Hitting Workouts that he uses with his clients, and then I personally hit the diamond (with a torn ACL lol)…and showed some Infield drills, Ab Workouts for Baseball, and Forearm/Grip Strength).
So within a Month of launching this product that we didn’t know how Parents and Athletes would react…we started to get some GREAT FEEDBACK!
“I love your video on how to steal bases in Baseball, it definitely left me wanting more – Great work Coach!”
“The workouts are very easy to follow, my kids are LOVING this!”
“We originally purchased Twice The Speed to help my daughter’s running, but soon realized she was very interested in your Softball hitting content, she loves the training!”
“It’s great to see my kids motivated to Workout. Beats them playing video games!”
These are some of the things the Parents were sharing with us so again, we ACTED FAST! We immediately asked these Parents, “what other Sports do your kids play?” They answered Soccer, Basketball, and how about some Parent fitness workouts?”
So what did we do? I reached out to a Basketball Skills trainer who I know, a Soccer Coach, and a Women’s Fitness coach who we contracted out to film more Workouts for our users! Long story short by Labor Day Weekend we had over 40 Workouts in Trainer Bin!
In the past we sold workouts for $47-$297 depending on what you purchased, but now we were just adding it to the Membership! Again, the feedback was OUTSTANDING! Parents and Athletes were loving it and staying motivated to continue to get better!
THEN WE RAN INTO A PROBLEM!
With all of this momentum and everything going so great we started to have a little issue! As we added content to our “non techy” website where we didn’t hire a Developer to properly build out the Membership Area – Trainer Bin started to get busy!
Trainer Bin has about 60 Workouts in there at the time I’m writing this, and for us to add more we know we need to get it more organized. Now this is where we ran into our “problem”…Ryan and I actually do NOT have the skill set to make this part happen. We have access to some of the smartest Training minds in the World across every single Sport, but we do NOT have the ability to build apps and make the User Experience one that could scale to an Enterprise Level product!
So instead of throwing in the towel, what did we do? We went back to the basics and started to reach out the the Customers and asked them how we can make the product better.
Here are some of the responses:
“If I could have a Parents portal, and my kids have their own login so they feel it’s more theirs’
“A way to track and measure their progress throughout their experience with Twice The Speed”
“For it to tell me/my Children what to do next based off of your Training knowledge and experience to help them reach their goals”.
“For my Workouts to dynamically change based on what TTS equipment we own, Bands, Stopwatch, Speed Ladders, Cones, Hurdles, etc”
“A mobile app would be nice so my kids can just download it on their phone and I can have it on mine!”
As we get further into this Product creation, you can see the amount of customization and technical ability we’re going to need to make this happen. I’ve spent most of my ACL recovery sitting in bed, researching, learning, and chatting with some of the Smartest “Tech Guys” I personally know. That being said, I am happy to announce we are building out our Technical team. As of Yesterday we started to build out the next version of “Trainer Bin”, what’re we’re now calling: TTS+
TTS+ will be a combination of TTS Academy, and Trainer Bin. TTS Academy was a product we released a few years back that customizes your Workouts and changes as you do. It tracks, measures, and makes real time iterations to Athlete’s Workouts based on their Sport, Position, Goals, Resources, and Schedule. As many of you already know, Trainer Bin is a combination of various Sport Specific Training and Skills Training Workouts.
On December 13, 2018, we will be sharing some BIG NEWS about the creation of this new product and inviting select Parents, Coaches, and Athletes to beta test both (a revamped version of TTS Academy and Trainer Bin)…If you already have Trainer Bin or TTS Academy (we have a surprise for you as well!).
To give you a brief overview of what we’re striving to accomplish with this next version of our product and how the Customer Experience will look: TTS+
Here is a brief overview of what we are striving to accomplish for the next version of our Product: TTS+. (March/April)
**I will give the example as if it is a Parent signing up for the App**
Once you become a Customer of TTS+ it will ask you to Create your Parent Account, once you answer basic information about yourself and the Application checks that you are indeed a TTS customer, it will ask you to send a private link to your Child or Children depending how many kids you have. They will use the link you send them to create their profile and answer a few questions about their Goals in Sports (if they are really young, you can help them with this step). Once they answer a few questions, they will “create their player” where it essentially tells “Me/The Algorithm” what their ideal athleticism is. For example, do they want to work on First Step Quickness, Acceleration, Agility, Form Running, Vertical Jump, Strength, etc…
Once the application knows what they want/need to work on, it will cross reference what TTS Equipment they currently have (Bands, Ladders, Stop Watch, Cones, Hurdles, etc…) Based on what products you/they have, our Algorithm will start to spit our Customized Speed And Agility Workouts. Once it generates your Workout plan it will show the user a Weekly and Monthly Calendar so you can easier schedule. Don’t worry, if you needed to change a Workout date, you can work with the application and it will automatically help you reorganize the training dates to assure you that you Child is getting enough rest between Workouts for optimal gains! It will also automatically change up the Workouts based on how much time your Child has that day, if they have access to a Track or an outdoor space (for those of you who live in the Midwest during the Winter like us!).
As your Children complete the Workouts, the application will get smarter, and will start to change up their Workouts as if I was personally training them.
The more the application is used, the smarter it gets. From the Parent portal account you will be able to monitor your kids progress and check in on their Workouts. Now, you may be saying to yourself “this sounds completely different than what Trainer Bin which is what I purchased”…
And the application described above is just the core of TTS+. All of the Workouts we already filmed, edited, and launched in Trainer Bin, as well as all the Workouts we have in the Pipeline from the BEST Trainers in the World, are ALSO INCLUDED in TTS+.
So here’s how that works.
Once your Child is logged into their TTS+ account, one of the questions the app will ask to get to know them is: “What Sport(s) do you play? Position? Etc). We will be tagging these responses and delivering the “Trainer Bin Style” Workouts on their days off.
I.e. – They do customized Speed and Agility on Monday and Thursday. These leaves open 5 more days that your Children can be working on other things like: Hitting, Pitching, Defense – Dribbling, Shooting, Rebounding, – Soccer Footwork, Abs, Kicking Power, etc…(you should get the point).
So TTS+ will have the ability to eventually spit out a Training Regimen like this: (Baseball Shortstop Example):
Monday – Customized Baseball Speed And Agility
Tuesday – Hitting For Contact (Or Recommended Skill Of Choice)
Wednesday – Throwing Velocity (Or Recommended Skill Of Choice)
Thursday – Customized Baseball Speed And Agility
Friday – Shortstop Defensive Work (Or Recommended Skill Of Choice)
Saturday/Sunday (Increasing Baseball Knowledge – Learn The Secrets Of Top Players And Coaches To Mentally Set Yourself Apart From The Rest! – This Can Also Be Done Any Day Of The Week Considering It Is Not Taxing On The Body).
**Note: This is an example of a Full Training Schedule and this will not be the case for every player. Some kids will not have a full schedule open, so the App will work with them to find their Happy Medium!**
This schedule would also change depending on other variables, (are they in season or out of season, how old is the Athlete, Goals, etc…)
So as you can see we are creating a customized Training Experience for Athletes (regardless of Sport) to become the Faster, Most Agile, Most Explosive they can possibly be! The days of having to pay $50-$100 per training session (not to mention the time it takes to go to and from the gym for you) are over!
Some of the other features we will be looking to add:
Nutriton Tracking
Interactive Surveys/Games to educate your Children on and off the Field (so they can login to the application and learn new things that will help them excel in Sports in their free time)
So there you have it! I just spewed out literally everything that has been on my Mind for the last few Months as I piece together this project. I am 1,000% invested into the future of Twice The Speed and am truly working towards creating a product that gives every Athlete an equal shot regardless of how much they/their Parents can pay Coaches, Trainers, and Mentors.
If you enjoyed this post and are excited for what’s to come, or if you just have feedback related to anything I discussed in this post, I would LOVE to hear from you. Please, shoot me an email at: [email protected] (and make the Subject: TTS+) – I can promise you I will read every single email I get! It would mean a ton to hear form those of you who read this Post! Let’s build something great together!
P.S.
This nice testimonial to our current product actually came in while I was writing this:
