“When you’re training professional athletes and Olympians, you need products that can withstand the most rigorous athletic demands without diminishing in effectiveness or compromising the safety of athletes. In my fifteenth year of coaching, and after having been a professional speed skater myself for 13 years, I’ve found that TurfCordz® resistance training products meet and exceed those requirements.
Our speed skaters use the Modular Sprint & Speed Belt, a TurfCordz product that allows them to build muscle in their hips and legs while honing the technical points of their turn mechanics. We use three cables in the black resistance level (25-24 pounds) attached to the belts between skaters five to six days every week during training. If we’re not utilizing the product for training, then we’re using it to warm up.
Under that kind of daily strain, the cables still last anywhere between 3-5 years, and it’s very rare that we have a cable break on us. If we do, TurfCordz has implemented safety features within the rubber tubes to lessen the chance of injuries, including Safety Cord, which prevents a broken cable from snapping forward and hitting the user.
The Sprint & Speed Belt also functions as a teaching tool because if skaters aren’t leaning forward in the proper position, the cables pull their hips out of position, preventing them from delivering as much power to the ground. The consistency of the elastic within the product is another major advantage of TurfCordz. It doesn’t break down quickly, allowing skaters to rely on that stretch within the tubes to learn how to control their balance.
That level of quality is clearly noticeable. When traveling abroad to compete, we’ve had some European teams approach us to ask what we’re using. After seeing the products, I’ve even been asked to place orders for the same products for them, and I am more than happy to do it! As a skater and as a coach, the quality of the product is what keeps bringing me back to it after 20 years. It was top notch then, and it’s top notch now.”
Editor’s Note: Ryan Shimabukuro is the National Long Track Team Coach for US Speedskating. He was a member of the National Sprint Team in 1991, 1995 and 1997. He’s coached two Olympic Gold Medalists and one Bronze Medalist.
