A Letter from Our Founder

Zig Ziegler, The Sports Kinesiologist™
Founder & CEO, Z Athlete Group, Inc.

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To anyone who’s ever felt overlooked, misunderstood, or underestimated

—this letter is for you!  Let me tell you how we got here…

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They told my mom I might have trouble walking. Said I might not run or play like the other kids!

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I was knock-kneed. I wore braces on my legs at a young age.   And counted out before I even reached the starting line.

But I ran.  I hurdled. I long-jumped over 24 feet.  Threw the javelin over 175 feet.  Ran sub-14 in the 110s. Consistently ran ~53 seconds in the 400 hurdles. And earned collegiate all-American honors in each event at least once while competing on a full college scholarship all 5 years by doing exactly what they said I never would.  A torn ACL slowed and later ended my career.

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And in the process, I asked a deeper question:  Why do some people move well… and others don’t?

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Every person moves in a way that reflects their own history or herstory - strengths, weaknesses, past injuries, and even the coaching cues and thoughts they carry.  Because no two people move the same.

Every athlete develops unique patterns — not just from how they train, but from how they’ve been shaped.

• Movement is compensation.

• Movement is adaptation.

• Movement is potential — all at once.

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That question became my obsession — not just as an athlete, but as a student of human movement, a coach, a therapist, a creator, and a builder. It’s taken me across three decades, through thousands of athletes, and into a mission that goes way beyond sports:

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To decode how the body works — and why so many athletes fall short, get injured, or go overlooked because no one ever measured what actually matters.

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Let's start with The Name "Zig"

It wasn't on my birth certificate.  My 8th-grade football coach — also my history teacher — was the first to call me Zig. I wasn’t even playing football yet. Just soccer and then track. But the name stuck. In high school, I wore it on my shirts. It felt natural — more me than the name I was born with. So natural, people didn’t realize it wasn’t my real name. One day someone said, “I saw your brother’s name in the track meet results, but not yours.”  They didn’t know I was the one running — just under the legal name I hadn’t yet outgrown.

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In 1999, after my daughter was born and while going through a divorce, I made it official. I legally became Zig Ziegler.

Not to hide. Not to rebrand. But to claim my identity — fully, freely, and forever.

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On the Air with "Fitness From the Ground Up"

That was the name of my radio show. But it was more than a show — it was a philosophy. Whether I was behind a mic, on the track, or in the lab, I’ve always believed: You don’t build greatness by polishing the surface — you build it by strengthening the foundation. Every system I’ve created — Pure Sport, Motion DNA, RunRite, FitFeet and the World Indoor Track & Field League — has been designed to help people address and celebrate their weaknesses, not just ride their strengths. Because the truth is this: Your body is only as strong as the link you’ve been avoiding.

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I’ve never been in this to make strong athletes stronger. I’ve been here to make unseen athletes unshakable.

 

👧🏽 I'm a Girl-Dad.

My daughter changed everything. Z Athlete Village is for everyone — boys, girls, men, women. But Z Athlete Academy? That’s for the girls. Intentionally.Because I’ve seen how often girls are underestimated. Told to wait their turn. Given less. Believed in less. As a father — in particular, a girl-dad — I couldn’t accept that. So I've chosen to build a space that not only accepts their potential — it develops it.

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That’s what Z Athlete Village stands for:

• Performance without bias.

• Development without limits.

• Truth without compromise.​

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🛠 The Hard Part

Years after starting the concept that has lead us here today, someone I once trusted and brought onto my team tried to take what I was building. After we parted ways over their actions, they continued to use my name — my product and my story — to raise money without my consent. They started a company under false pretenses, using my reputation even while I wasn’t in the room.

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And when it all collapsed? People didn’t know we weren’t partners. So I got pulled into the legal nightmare. I take responsibility for letting him in.  I didn’t lie. I didn’t steal. Still — and still I carried the consequences. I chose not to let it define me. I rebuilt. I refined. I created systems no one could ever steal again. Because when your name, your movement, and your purpose are aligned — you don’t need approval. You just need space and freedom.

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🏟️ Where the idea for Z Athlete Village Began

In 1993, during a graduate school facilities design class, we were asked: “If you had a magic wand, what would your dream facility look like?” While most students designed gyms or multipurpose spaces, I designed an indoor 400-meter track.

Because I was a 400-meter hurdler. And we had nowhere to train. Sprinters could work on starts. Jumpers had space. Distance runners just ran outside, rain or snow.  But 400-meter hurdlers? We were stuck. So I imagined putting a roof over a high school stadium — Full 400-meter oval. Indoor seating. Weather-proof. Windless.  It was just a class project. And still it never left me.

 

And now, 30+ years later,  We're building it. Z Athlete Village is that project — finally real. Not because it’s sexy.   Not because investors asked for it.  But because it solves a problem I lived through — and that thousands of athletes still face today.

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🌱 What People Feel

People walk up to me — strangers. They talk to me like they’ve known me for years. Kids open up. Dogs walk straight to me.
People feel safe. Seen. Heard. My daughter feels it too. It’s something we share.  It used to be strange.  Now I get it.  When I live aligned — when my story, name, body, energy, and message are all speaking the same truth — people feel it. 

 

And they trust it. That’s not charisma. That’s safety. That’s alignment. And that’s the foundation of everything we're building.

 

⚡ The Power of Z

People ask me: Why “Z”? Because Z is the last letter. The finisher. The one that comes after everything else — and still stands alone. Z is clarity. Z is closure. Z is what happens when you’ve been through enough to know what matters.

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It’s not just the first letter of my name — It’s a declaration: I’m not who I was born as. I’m who I chose to become.

I’m not here to fit into the system. I’m here to finish what the system didn't build.  Z means this is the end of the excuses — and the beginning of the truth. That’s what Z Athlete Village is.

 

Z is where the game changes — And I’m proud to wear it.

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If you’ve ever felt overlooked… If you’ve ever had to fight just to be heard… If you know there’s something inside you no one’s ever measured…

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Welcome to Z Athlete Village.

Let’s move with purpose.
Let’s build from the ground up.
Let’s change the game.!

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Zig Ziegler
Founder & CEO, - Z Athlete Group, Inc.
The Sports Kinesiologist

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