By Lucas Wiester and Jon Gold
We are football and strength and conditioning coaches at a 4A high school in southwest Missouri. We are long time followers, readers, and users of EliteFTS and their products. When we had the opportunity to purchase three Prowlers from EliteFTS in May 2008, we jumped at the chance. Once the Prowlers arrived, we wasted no time breaking them in. We assembled our athletes in the parking lot, loaded up about one to three plates a horn, and had the groups off and running—or off and puking is more like it actually. That first day, we had 83 percent of the kids throw up. Yes, we are that sick and did the math.
We had no idea how hard it was to push a Prowler with three or more plates on each horn for a high school kid. So there we were having our kids going nuts over the new Prowlers. The kids flat out loved them and hated them at the same time. This simple device is a beast. Never before have we had kids reach this level of physical exhaustion so quickly, recover, and then do it again. We had the kids start off with 10 trips for 30 yards with the Prowler. Then, we went into some kind of medley of body weight work or flipping tires. We lined our kids up and sent them on their way.
The Prowler wasn’t only incredibly effective in raising our conditioning level, but it was a huge team builder as well. It was inspiring to watch all of the athletes cheer each other on while they each took their turn through hell. Combine this with some tire flipping and you have a brutal conditioning session that doesn’t kill the body but will teach the athletes to play through the pain and exhaustion. We used them so much we wore the skids down to nubs within a few
months. That’s not bad considering we had an average of two groups of 60 kids using the three Prowlers at a time. It’s tough and will hold up to any abuse you can give it. We have new skids on them and are off and running again.
Coaches, do yourself a favor. Run the Prowler a few times before the kids get a hold of them so you can appreciate what they’ll be going through. Buy the Prowlers and learn to love and hate them. The Prowler is the real deal. It’s worth every penny! It’s also great to use as a punishment for the pranks the kids pull. Have them push the Prowler around the school a few times on the low handles. They won’t ever act up again.
Elite Fitness Systems strives to be a recognized leader in the strength training industry by providing the highest quality strength training products and services while providing the highest level of customer service in the industry. For the best training equipment, information, and accessories, visit us at www.EliteFTS.com