I recently did a photo and video shoot for Gary Carlson, owner, designer and maker of goCore.
goCore is an amazing product for athletes, fitness enthusiasts and those that need rehabilitation. Training on goCore enables athletes to replicate sport specific movements to increase performance and decrease the risk of injury.
He shares his story with us today. Oh, and if you’re interested in seeing more of goCore and how you can use it to train, get fit or recover from an injury, click the link to goCore_fit.
Now, over to Gary…
2020 marks 30 years of my involvement with slide training. I was introduced in 1990, when I was a program director at Snohomish County YMCA in Washington USA. I recognised its sport specific, closed chain, multi linear benefits right away, and became one of its biggest advocates. Slide was WAY ahead of its time, and it remains very viable to this day.
The first slide to enter the market was called kneedspeed. Kneedspeed was started in 1989 by then retired Pittsburgh Steelers tight end Jeff Markland. Jeff injured his knee in his first NFL season and rehabbed on a homemade slide at a Cleveland physiotherapy clinic. Jeff was so impressed with the concept that he quickly went home to Gresham Oregon and convinced his father to sell the family business and begin making kneedspeed.
I contacted Max and Jeff within a year of them starting kneedspeed. I wanted to be a part of something I really believed could impact sport conditioning, prehabilitation (injury prevention), and rehabilitation.
Kneedspeed provided me opportunities I otherwise wouldn't have had. I introduced Kneedspeed to the Seattle Seahawks head trainer Jim Whitesel. I participated in a video with Seahawk linebackers Terry Wooden and Rufus Porter. But one of my favourite experiences was so, because it was also one of my grandfather’s most memorable experiences. Having introduced Kneedspeed to the University of Washington’s strength and conditioning coach Rick Huegli, I was able to take my grandfather to Hec Edmondson Pavilion to meet the legendary University of Washington football coach, Don James. Gramps couldn't believe it - he sat in Coach James' office with just Coach James and Peggy Watson(his assistant) for 30 minutes while I was fetching a football for a YMCA auction.
Very early on I recognised that something needed changing - the endstops. Kneedspeed used well cushioned bumpers to stop at each the end of Kneedspeed. They provided excellent cushioning for the sides of your feet as you abruptly came to a stop. But it just didn't feel right. I asked “Which sport has a bumper on the court or in the field of play that allows you to change direction?” We need to stop and start just like in real world sport. To Max and Jeff's credit, they sent me prototypes of endstops similar to my vision. However, we never quite landed on what I had envisioned. Too steep, wrong materials, etc.
By this time, Max and Jeff had also been in negotiations with Reebok. In 1995, Kneedspeed sold marketing rights to Reebok, while maintaining control over manufacturing. I did provide some transitional training for Reebok instructors re slide. I traveled to NYC and Chicago where slide classes were introduced to fitness instructors that were looking for the next thing after step Reebok. Slide Reebok had a short 6 month life in the group training environment. Instructor/participant ratios were insufficient to safely monitor participants. This short episode of slideReebok classes proved an advantage years later because few remember it.
Fast forward to 2000. While still in Seattle, and planning a trip to Australia within the next year, I decided to resurrect my vision for a slideboard. R & D might have more closely resembled ridiculous and delusional. I glued crumbled tyre rubber to timber wedges – too messy, and not easily repeatable. I tried a variety of roll-on products that I thought might provide grip – I survived without injury, but didn't stop when I reached the end. I tried various grits of sandpaper, but quickly realised that booties that go over shoes wouldn't survive even one training session without wearing holes. My trip to Australia arrived before my endstop solution.
After arriving in Australia, my good friend Mandy Eyles introduced me to her brother, Paul. Paul knows LOTS. Paul introduced me to what remains to this day, the material I use for goCore endstops. He also taught me the value of repeatability in the build process. It's these endstops that prove goCore to be an ideal sport specific training tool for athletes of all sporting codes. AFL, NRL, NBL, and Tennis Australia and many top physios use goCore with their athletes, as well as many people in their home as a versatile tool to improve overall fitness including balance, coordination, upper/ lower body strength, and of course, as the goCore name suggests, core strength.
