Designing an Effective Speed Training Program - Part III

Last time I talked about identifying the demands
of your sport in order to effectively design an training
plan that will help your athletes achieve those goals.

I got a lot of questions about that over the past
two weeks so I want to go into more detail about that
before continuing on with the specific details of actually
putting that program together.

As far as demands of a speed training program I think
it is important to first look at your sport and where
the focus is during the preseason and regular season.

We can simply break this down into two categories:

1. Team sports
2. 'Individual' sports

Team sports like football, basketball and soccer are
going to have to focus the majority of speed and
conditioning development in the preseason. Once the
season starts the focus is likely going to be more on
maintenance of the improvements made during the
off season and preseason as opposed to specifically
trying to make significant speed gains during the
competitive season.

Don't forget that competitions must be factored into
the overall conditioning plan as well.

The problem I see with most coaches of team sports is
that there is no organized periodization or progression
of conditioning in the preseason or regular season.

This is why there is often a rash of burnout, mid season
performance regression (due to overtraining)
and late season injuries.

Even worse, I can't count the number of times I've
gotten athletes from other sports in their next season
who needed excessive rest and modified training to
help them recover from the beatings their unorganized
coaches gave them during the previous season.

The techniques you'll learn here should prevent that
from happening ever again.

On the flip side you have 'individual' sports, which
we'll basically consider track and field. Here we often
train through early season competitions with the goal
being to have athletes run their fastest at the end
of the season, instead of the beginning of the season
like in team sports.

The training principles for both categories are the same,
it is just the structure that is going to be different.

Now, before you can begin creating a specific training
plan you have to get organized. Early in my career I
chose to skip this part because I was lazy and ignorant
(by ignorant I mean uninformed, unaware) but invariably
it would come back to bite me when circumstances forced
me to be more flexible in amending the plan.

And believe me, even the best plans have to be modified
for a variety of reasons.

Here is a list of 7 steps that must be followed before you
sit down to write out the specific details of youroverall
plan.

Some of you will groan at the amount of time and thought
that goes into a well crafted speed program, but that's
why your athletes aren't fast and mine are. If you take
the time to learn this process it gets faster and easier.

I also suggest you start taking notes on the answers
to these questions as it will make your life much easier
as we break them down further as we progress through
this series.

*******
1. Establish a clear, specific goal for the training
plan.

This is the same whether designing a plan for an individual
person or a team.

Is the goal to improve your 40 by .3 seconds by the
start of the season or improve the team's average 40
time by .2 before the first game?

Do you want to win a State Title in the 100 or place
3 athletes in the finals at the League Championship
this spring?

If you set generic goals like 'make the team faster'
then you won't accomplish them. You have to set your
intention on a specific goal by focusing on the end
result and then working backwards.

As you'll see later this is one of the most overlooked
and also difficult components of the training plan.
But if you don't start with the end goal and end date
and work backwards, you can't get a true understanding
of how to progress your training.

2. Make a detailed analysis of the demands of
your sport.

A football player and a soccer player aren't going
to be on the same speed training program.

Is there a significant aerobic demand to your sport?

How about agility and change of direction skills?

Does your sport focus on acceleration or top end speed?

Do your athletes hold, swing or carry an implement in
their sport?

3. Establish a list of qualities and abilities needed
to succeed in the specific speed applications of your
sport. This should be based upon your analysis of
demands.

For example:

- Absorb impact and then accelerate.
- accelerate while in a state of extreme fatigue
- develop consistent acceleration pattern out of blocks
- hit a moving ball while running at top speed

4. Create a list of specific training activities. This
list should be designed to address and develop the
identified list of qualities and abilities.

For example:

- specific drills teaching athletes how to take a hit
and effectively accelerate
- fartlek runs and whistle workouts where athletes
simulate the types of starting and stopping while fatigued
that they'll experience in a game
- drive phase development and block work session to teach
a consistent, explosive sprint start
- drills teaching athletes techniques for striking, kicking or
dribbling the ball while running at full speed

5. Create a list of general training activities. These
should be designed to prepare the body to undertake
more specific training, when specific training is
considered too advanced for the learning athlete.

For example:

- an athlete must learn how to separately absorb
contact and learn to accelerate before the actions
can effectively be combined
- athletes must develop their aerobic power, lactic
capacity and acceleration ability before they can
succeed at combining those three elements successfully.
- athletes must develop a consistent acceleration pattern,
understand the drive phase and perfect running mechanics
before successfully developing a fast start
- athletes must learn how to kick, strike or dribble the ball,
as well as learn acceleration and top speed mechanics before
they can combine these skills

6. The list of both general and specific training
activities must be organized in a logical fashion into
a valid training program.

With any speed program, skills must go from general
to specific, basic to complex.

Athletes must establish general conditioning before
doing complex lactic acid workouts.

They must develop the ability to accelerate before
doing speed endurance.

And beyond that these skills must be broken down further
as well as addressing other biomotor abilitiesthat we will get
into shortly.

7. The training program must actually be administered
and should undergo constant evaluation.

Even the best plans must be modified. Weather, injuries,
and a myriad of other situations and circumstances
will arise that force you to change what you are doing.

Sometimes something you plan just plain doesn't work.

That is why a detailed plan, as well as note taking
and testing, will give you a good idea if your planis
progressing as expected.

So start going through these 7 steps and taking specific
notes on how they can be specifically applied
to your team, sport or training.

Because even these 7 topics are just a general overview
of the pre-planning behind the training plan.

Once you've established your lists and have gotten
more focused on the general areas that must be developed
you can start to get more specific.

But first you must understand where the specificity
comes from and why it is applied.

In developing the speed of any athletes in any sport there
are 5 biomotor abilities that must be developed, regardless
of the perceived differences between thesport/s being trained,
age, gender and skill level ofthe athletes.

These 5 biomotor abilities are:

1. Speed (of course)
2. Strength
3. Coordination
4. Flexibility
5. Conditioning

In Part IV of the series, we'll examine the 5 biomotor
abilities in detail and look more directly at specific
principles for applying the results you came up within
the 7 steps we covered today in relation to those
biomotor abilities, so far as it pertains to designing an
effective speed training program.

Of course, if you have any questions about the topics
I covered today or anything related to speed training
or program design, feel free to email me at:

info@athletesacceleration.com

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8 days doesn't seem like much time to transform your bodyand I'm more concerned about how different informationcan be applied to athletes.

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The course starts with three consecutive onlinequestionnaires, which I thought was a pretty cool wayof setting it up. Plus, they got right to the point calling you out on some of your weaknesses and offeringreasonable solutions. Just going over the questionsexposed some of my bad habits and I know this stuff!

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Plus I really like that he goes beyond advice about foodto talk about how to make sure you actually stick to the plan.

I find that athletes are great at starting to eat healthybut it often doesn't last. Now you'll know exactly whatto say to them so they know what will lead to failureand what will lead to success.

His 10 Rules cover everything from what to eat to whento eat it which, truthfully, is more than I expected in such a short course.

Of course, it's not perfect. I wish there were some moredetails on meal planning, maybe a few meals thrown inthere as examples. Also, like I said, I wish it was a little bit more directed at athletes.

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The bottom line is that if your athletes and clients (notto mention friends and family) come to you for nutritionadvice half as often as they come to me, and you wantto be able to offer them advice that works, I highly recommend that you check the course out for yourself.

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Regards,
Patrick Beith

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Designing an Effective Speed Training Program - Part II

At the collegiate level, most coaches have every aspect of their seasons planned out in advanced. Most college coaches couldn't imagine 'winging' it.

The idea of running, to quote my friend John Doherty, 'Junction Boys' style training would never realistically occur to them.

In case you don't know what Junction Boys training is, watch theend of most football practices. It's when coaches run athletes into the ground just because it's what they did when they were in high school. It pretty much consists of running wind sprints until you can't run anymore.
This, of course, is an inferior way to develop athletes. However,this style of coaching is unfortunately less the exception and more the rule.

I am sure that you have heard of or even know coaches thatdecide what they are doing for practice that day, on their driveover to the practice facility. Now don't get me wrong, I have lived in New England most of my life so I know that you need to be able to make changes on the fly. Weather can cause problems to your ideal practice for that day so you need to be able to make adjustments. Even the way your athletes feel on that given day is going to change what you can do for practice. You can make adjustments to your training plan but you must know what the goal or theme of the workouts are and what you want to get accomplished in order for you to reach your end and desired result.

The key is to actually have a plan set-up in advance. Volumes, intensities and the entire program should be set-up and in place before you ever set foot on the practice field.
Over the course of this series, you'll understand exactly howto do that.

But before you can begin creating a program for yourself or your athletes, there are certain questions you have to answer.

Let's examine a few of those questions now:

1. What are the demands of your sport and, thus, the speed, strength and conditioning requirements of your athletes?

Without having a clear understanding of this foundational question, you can't possibly design an effective program for anyone.

Let's break this question down a little bit further so that there is no confusion. You shouldn't read any more of this series(or conduct a practice session or workout) until you have clearly outlined these parameters.

The following questions will help you understand the mindset you must bring to planning and organizing your sport's practice and training activities.

1. How long does a game/competition take?
The training plan for a 55 meter sprinter and a soccer playercan not be the same. One athlete may be competing for up to 90 minutes, the other for less than 7 seconds.

2. What is the rest period between plays/events?
Would the rest intervals for a track sprinter who may have anhour or more off between events be the same as a football playerwho only has 30-40 seconds between plays?

3. What is the ratio between sprinting, jogging and walking during a competition?
Your soccer and field hockey players need to be able to sprint at short bursts then go into a jog, repeatedly, for an extendedperiod of time. Would interval training be more useful for your athletes or continuous slow distance training? Generally I see these coaches focusing on the latter.

How about speed development? Acceleration is critical to the success of these athletes. But how often do coaches specificallybuild this necessary skill into their programs? In my experience,not often.

4. What type of 'speed' do your athletes need to succeed at their sport?
There is a difference between just doing some speed work and actual speed development. The former is what is occasionally done insome programs. The latter is specifically designed to foster adaptations that improve the skill of sprinting over time.

This is why I advocate a 'short to long' program with speed development, a topic that will be discussed in a future edition of this series.

Back to the question:
Do the demands of your sport focus on acceleration like soccer, football, lacrosse and basketball? Or does the ability to maintainnear top speeds determine success, like for a 200 meter sprinter?
Acceleration development and maximum velocity training must be addressed differently.
What about speed versus speed endurance?

Faster top speeds can only be developed when there is no presence of fatigue. While both skills need to be trained, some sports require athletes to be able to quickly accelerate or change directions while under a state of fatigue.

After all, there is a world of difference between these two seemingly similar workouts:
A.) 10x30m @ 100% intensity with 3 minutes rest
B.) 10x30m @ 100% intensity with 30 seconds rest
One will improve an athlete's ability to get from point A to Point B in the shortest period of time possible.

The other will improve an athlete's ability to repeatedly get from Point A to Point B in the shortest *average* time possible,with decreasing difference between the fastest and slowest times.

5. What sport specific and speed specific skills must be factored into your training plan?
We'll go into this in much more detail when discussing training inventories, but it is worth mentioning here.

How many times in a game do your basketball players or volleyball players have to jump? How many times in a row will they have tojump in most situations?

Many coaches will have these athletes do sustained vertical jumps for periods of 30+ seconds as the sole means of improving specific 'jumping' or 'vertical leaping' ability.

But how many times do these athletes have to jump in a row?
Two, three *maybe* four if they are a Dennis Rodman style rebounder?
Wouldn't they make better improvements to their maximum verticalleap height by practicing a few jumps at full intensity, then resting?
How does jumping endurance help an athlete outrebound their opponent or spike the ball in a single effort situation?

If my team does Workout A and yours does Workout B, whose athletes are going to succeed in getting more rebounds, blocks or kills over time?

A. 4 sets of 5 jump squats with 3-4 minutes rest.
B. 3 sets of 30 seconds sustained jump squats with one minute rest.

From here we can keep adding details to the training demands such as looking at the energy system and metabolic demands (we'll get into all of that later).

But when you use common sense, it really isn't that complicated.

Now that you are beginning to understand the specific demands ofyour sport, we have to look at two things in order to identifywhy this process is so important to athletic success:

1. Why we train in the first place2. What organized training actually does for the body
While conclusions made during a discussion of these two issues may seem painfully obvious once explained, one only has to look at the lack of organization and forethought behind most strengthand conditioning programs to understand that such issues are hardly being taken into consideration when most plans are being created.

That is why, when in doubt, we go back to the basics.

So, why do we train?

At its most basic level, we train to overcome fatigue.

During the course of any competition, athletes are going to get tired. By using certain specific training modalities, athletes can learn to overcome that fatigue, or at least delay it long enough to succeed.

Here is an analogy that fits.

The 100 meter dash.
Many people think (or are taught) that you will experience the greatest success in this race by running the entire distance as hard and as fast as humanly possible.

However, that is just not possible. (You'll understand why when we discuss energy systems)
In an nutshell, a sprinter must 'rest' or 'float' during the race to conserve energy. This is a subtle skill that takes patience and experience, but is nonetheless true. By the midpoint of the race, most athletes are, in fact, slowing down.

When you step back and look at the entire picture, the 100 meter dash, like most competitions, is won by the athlete who*decelerates the slowest*.

By using certain specific training modalities, the 100 meter runner can learn to overcome some of the fatigue that sets inby training him/herself to decelerate slower than the competition.
Now, it is the job of the 100 meter coach to factor in this fact to the athlete's training by understanding the demands of the event. Of course slowing down slowing down is just one of manyelements of the 100 meter dash. But without specifically addressing this fact, athletes can not reach their potential.

So the coach must consider what methods he/she can use to address this issue, one of many limiting factors that must be understood and dealt with in order to develop the fastest possible athletes.

Another reason we train is to perfect technique.

Repetition of a *properly* executed skill will train the athlete to perform automatically, a critical skill when considering the amount of information athletes must process during the course of any competitive situation.

This too must be addressed in a specific fashion worked into the framework of the overall training plan.

But the main reason we train, above all else, is to improve performance. Often, to improve so that we are competing atour best at the end of the season for the state championship, playoff tournament, Super Bowl, etc.

But other times, especially in team based sports like football and basketball, athletes must be in top shape at the start of the regular season. The season is all about maintaining all the improvements that were made in the preseason.

This difference, however, in no way changes the approach that should be taken to creating the speed development program.

Regardless of the sport there are clearly many factors that go into a season. Your job is to ensure that your training program allows athletes to be at their best when the time comes.
The best way to maximize the likelihood of this occuring is to organize your training by carefully following the framework that is being laid out in this series.

The next issue of importance deals with what organized training techniques actually do to the body, especially in comparison to the generally unorganized training that most coaches employ.
This will go far in helping to understand just how significant the level of improvement can be when incorporating organized skill development into each microcycle, mesocycle and macrocycle.

In next week's Complete Speed Training Newsletter we'll explore this issue and look more specifically at the most important principles and components to designing an effective training program.

But consider this:
Once you commit to planning and organizing training, you'll need to have an encyclopedia of drills, exercises, training aids, tools and technical instruction to make all the pieces fit together.
The blueprint of a new building is of no value if you don't have the tools, supplies and resources to raise the structure.

I'm giving you the blueprint, but *you* need to take action if you expect your construction to be up to code.

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Believe me when I tell you, as we get deeper into this subject you're going to realize just how critical an inventory of training exercises and drills are for all the elements of speed development.

Many of the topics I will discuss here are simplified, explained and organized for you in the Complete Speed Training forum.

You've heard the saying:
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Here I'm teaching you to fish, so you'll have the knowledge to construct every detail of a program.

But Complete Speed Training just gives you the fish, so you don't have to commit as much of your valuable time to program design.

When you have both, your athletes will be unstoppable.

Order today and you'll have your copy of Complete Speed Training in hand before the next piece of this series is published.
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