Sports Training for Speed Sports

Importance of speed training for football

2008-07-23T15:21:00.000-07:00

With football training camps about to start, one thing that many coaches are going to be working on is speed training. Sure they will make sure that conditioning is going to be a major aspect and strength is being developed, but speed and agility training are going to be on point.

Here is a quote from an athlete on the Deer Creek football team:

“We’ve learned how to run faster,” Gower said. “Coach Smith and Coach Laverty have done a great job with these guys in their workouts. Coach Laverty will be running a speed training program over the summer. There are two areas that are tougher in 5A than 4A. In our district last season, there haven’t been too many weeks that were easy, but its even tougher in 5A, and then the speed level of the game.”

No More Speed Training

2008-07-07T08:01:00.000-07:00

Tyson Gay will not be performing any speed training workouts for at least 2 weeks. Gay who suffered a left hamstring strain as he tumbled to the track during the US Olympic Track and Field Trials.

"He's making preparations for the call in Beijing. I'm very confident he's going to be in place when they say, 'On your marks,'" said US men's Olympic athletics coach Bubba Thornton.

Gay will be resting for about 14 days than will head out to Europe to get a couple of meets in and tune up before heading to the Olympics. His rest will be more of an active recovery before starting up his full training where he will continue his top speed training.

With world record holder Usain Bolt and previous world record holder Asafa Powell already running fast, Gay needs to be 100% to be able to contend for the gold or even the bronze. the question is right now, how much did the muscle strain set Tyson Gay back?

Speed Training and Acceleration Development

2008-06-23T09:48:00.000-07:00

Use the speed drills for acceleration running development makes sure that your athletes are getting the most out of them by not sacrificing form in any of the drills.

Ground contact times (the amount of time each foot spends on the ground) are another important factor to consider during acceleration. During the earliest parts of acceleration, especially the first two steps, you are trying to overcome (inertia) the weight of your body by moving it forward as quickly as possible. This takes a great deal of strength and power. The stronger and more efficient you are, the more you can extend your acceleration phase.

An example workout would be hill running. Hill work is perfect for acceleration development as it puts the athlete in proper acceleration mechanics naturally without any tools or cues. You are bringing the ground up to them as they will be driving out and running in the 45 degree angle to the ground.

Since high intensity sprint work involves recruiting specific groups of muscle fibers improves the efficiency of neuromuscular firing patterns, sprinting is taxing to the central nervous system. Once the CNS becomes fatigued, workouts quickly lose their effectiveness. Any type of speed work must be done with full recovery. Generally speaking, that means approximately one minute of rest for every 10 yards that you run. Sprinting is a highly technical activity. Without full recovery, both your muscles and your central nervous system will begin to fatigue quickly, reducing the short and long term effectiveness of your training. For this reason, acceleration should not be trained with fatigue present. To optimize your success, full recovery must be adhered to both in your individual workouts as well as your weekly plan. It takes roughly 36-48 hours to fully recover from a speed workout.

Speed training drills give us an opportunity to teach cues. We use speed drills to break down certain aspects or parts of the whole body of sprinting. For example, I use cue like: 'drive down' during a speed drill in practice. This gives the athlete a frame of reference to use when I need them to make adjustments to their form while sprinting. This will help the athletes carry over the theory of what needs to be done so they can apply it when performing high speed sprinting.

Lateral Speed and Agility Training

2008-06-18T20:04:00.000-07:00

Today we're going to talk about agility training.

'Agility' is one of those words that cover a variety of skills. When people talk about agility, most often they are talking about an athlete'sability to make cuts and quickly change directions.
The way I see it, the primary component to improved agility is through the development of COORDINATION.

Before you start putting team through complicated drills that have them going in ten different directions over the course of a 30-second time period, you must take a step back and address their level of coordination.

In my experience, even the best athletes have coordination problems that are so bad that it even makes me blush just to think about it.

The thing about coordination and agility is this:

The earlier you address it, the better the long-term results. If your football players don't begin developing their coordination until their mid-teens, they will be limited in the amount of progress they can make.

That's why I like to get kids started as early as possible, preferably before they hit puberty.
I'm not saying a 17 year old can't improve her agility and coordination to a significant degree, but then if she started when she was 8, she'd be much better off.

Just something to think about for those of you working at the youth levels.

OK, here is what to do...

STEP 1: Improve your teams coordination

My favorite way to both expose an athlete's lack of coordination and also develop it is through the use of an agility ladder.

You can do an infinite number of drills that focus on single leg movement, double leg, linear, lateral, backward movement, change of direction - The list goes on and on.

All of these movements will help address the types of movement they may see in their competition.

As we get those down, we implement the traditional cone drills that allow for more instruction on movement patterns that are more applicable to game situations.

But like everything else, technique is the most important skill to both teach and learn.

As I've said before, I even use agility work with my field (straight ahead speed training) athletes during the preseason as well.

Why?

When players are uncoordinated, in order to maintain balance and keep the athlete from falling down or getting hurt, the brain has to work harder.

In order to compensate for all the extra math that the brain must do instantaneously and on the fly in order to coordinate the movements of all the active muscles in the body, the body must slow way down.

This is why players often look like they are stuck in the mud during agility drills.

Well, sprinting is a highly technical activity as well. So if your players don't improve coordination and agility, their brains will have to slow the limbsdown during sprinting to compensate.

So, like with flexibility, athletes aren't being held back because of some innate lack of ability, but simply because they are only operating at 50%of their true ability.

By applying these (and all the other skills we've gone over so far) they can operate at a much higher percentage of their true ability.

Rule 144 Specialist

2008-06-18T09:11:00.000-07:00

In wealth management, a Rule 144 Specialist is someone who knows what the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for sales on securities.

Rule 144 was adopted in 1972 by the SEC. Rule 144 is an important federal securities law which dictates when, and under what conditions, a person or entity may sell shares of restricted stock into the public marketplace.

Security sales must meet a series of conditions, including filing paperwork with the SEC and compliance with regulations that address when, how and how much restricted or control stock may be sold. Failure to comply with Rule 144 can lead to sanctions by the SEC.

You need to find a Rule 144 Specialist to help you navigate your sale of restricted or control stock under the Securities and Exchange Commission Rule 144.

With so many restrictions, regulations and rules regarding certain sales of securities, it is always safer to just find a Rule 144 Specialist.

Secrets of Power Training and Plyos

2008-06-03T05:09:00.000-07:00

Here is a video that goes over and discusses power and plyometric training that you should be using with your athletes:

For more information on plyometrics and to discover how power training should be used in your sports training program for your athletes go now to Complete Speed Training

Lacrosse Training - Running Drills to Improve Speed

2008-05-25T08:29:00.000-07:00

Speed training is important, and some players are naturally faster than others, but you can improve your speed through conditioning and strength training.

For conditioning, set a goal of running one to two miles three times a week, ideally throughout the year but definitely three months before the start of your season. If you haven't been running frequently, I wouldn't try to make a time in this range the first time out, but it is a good milestone to gradually work toward.

Sprinting drills are extremely important for developing quickness, agility and fast feet. Set two cones or pick two landmarks 10 yards apart, and sprint back and forth between them as many times as you can in 30 seconds. Rest 30 seconds and repeat.

Lateral drills, such as pushing side to side off one foot to another while running forward, will help develop muscles needed to execute a good dodge or maintain good positioning as a defender.
To strengthen your legs, deep-lunge walk for 15 yards.

As for dodging defenders, practice split or face dodges using a trash can as an imaginary defender.

For the rest of the article on Lacrosse Speed Training click here

Allyson Felix Runs Faster Than You

2008-05-23T12:44:00.000-07:00

Eyes On The Olympics: Allyson Felix

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be the fastest person in the world?

What would it be like to be able to say that you could out run any other person?

There are a lot of fast people in the world, but only one person is the fastest. Could you imagine being that person? Imagine what that would feel like: You’d crouch down, get your stance ready, and then with a burst of energy propel yourself forward. The wind would fly across your face so forcefully that tears would begin to run down the side of your face - your legs dancing across the ground. Bystanders would surely stand with jaw-dropping expressions, as you raced by, an indistinguishable blur.

Of course I’ve never felt this incredible speed (I was a mediocre high school track athlete)… the closest I’ve come to experiencing such a rush came when I decided to drive with my head stuck outside my car window.

While most people, like me, can only envision what it would be like to have that raw explosive ability, one recently graduated college student, Allyson Felix, need not imagine. In a few months Felix will be able to say that she is the best, the fastest in the world. She’s competing at the upcoming Beijing Olympics; her eye is on the gold.

Tons of college students are heading to Beijing to compete in the Olympics this year. Allyson Felix, a 22-year-old USC alum and world class sprinter, is one of them. Look for her to score the gold in August!

For the rest of the Allyson Felix sprint training article Click Here

Plyometric and Power Training Guidelines

2008-05-08T21:06:00.000-07:00

So let's get into how to effectively introduce plyometric training in a way that will result in positive growth in the area of strength, power, coordination, body awareness and, of course, speed...

The underlying principle behind teaching plyos is simple. The concept is something that you've heard me preach over and over again:

Start with simple movements and progress to more complex movements ONLY when players have mastered the basic ones.

With my teams and groups, I let athletes 'graduate' to the next drill in our progression once they meet the criteria required for advancement.

In fact, players get pretty intense when it comes to 'graduation'. They all want to be the first to move on, but more importantly they don't want to be the last.

So using 'graduation' as a reward is a great way to get players to focus on the task at hand.

Remember, only do plyos on your speed days. They tax the same energy system as speed work and the weight room. So don't have your players do explosive plyos on your recovery days.

Here are the principles to follow when doing your plyos:

STEP 1: Start with basic stabilization exercises that begin and end using both feet.

Athletes must learn to control movements off of both feet before advancing to the more demanding drills.

Additionally, be sure to keep the number of ground contacts (total number of times the feet hit the ground) low until player learn to handle the increased load.

You can see the specific plyo progressions that we've found to generate the best results by getting your own copy of Complete Speed Training.

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Step 2: Emphasize soft landings.

When doing plyos, players must learn to land softly. Cue them to absorb each landing with the muscles in the legs, not with joints, bones, ligaments, and tendons.

Each foot strike or impact should make a minimal amount of noise. Athletes can't graduate to the more 'fun' drills until they can learn to land softly.

If you cave in and let them graduate early, before they have acquired the necessary skills, then their ability to learn the new drills and avoid injury will be greatly reduced.

Here are some tell-tale signs that your players are not performing the drills correctly:

* Loud slapping sound with the feet upon landing
* Landing on the balls of the feet, with the weight forward and heels
off the ground
* Taking off with one foot instead of both feet
* Landing on one foot instead of both feet
* Inability to maintain/loss of balance upon landing

Once basic drills are mastered, and these common mistakes have been eliminated, players can start the bounding drills that people traditionally equate with plyometric training.

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Step 3: Use medicine balls.

When athletes have a tough time with 'regular' plyos, I'll often back off and use medicine ball throws.

This will teach them many of the same explosive elements, but can be easier to master the movements. It also takes some of the pressure off of trying to succeed in the more difficult drills.

Of course, I use medicine ball throws for the more skilled football players as well. As always, make sure that the football players are doing the drills with perfect form.

The main flaw that I see with these drills is that athletes will throw the ball with their arms. The arms are a guide for the weight and shouldn't be the primary mover.

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Plyometric workouts require a coach's close attention.

Hopefully I've given you some useful ideas on introducing these valuable exercises into your program. The temptation to skip the basic elements will be great, but I implore you to force your football players to be patient.

Get started today...

Power Training and Plyometrics - What not to do

2008-05-05T07:28:00.000-07:00

Today we need to address how to develop the explosive power of your players by using plyometrics.

Now, plyos are one of those touchy subjects that some people don't have a very good understanding of.

So, the first thing we have to do is get a working definition of what plyos actually are. Otherwise, we can't be sure we're doing them correctly, if at all.

Plyometrics are defined as movements that cause a rapid change from eccentric contraction (lengthening a muscle) to concentric contraction (shortening a muscle).

In fact, the very act of running fast is a plyometric activity, as it trains for the storage and release of elastic energy. And elastic energy is required for faster running.

You can develop the ability to store and release this elastic energy by having your team engage in a variety of activities such as hopping and bounding drills, box jumps, hurdle hops, medicine ball throws, etc.

But there's a catch.

These movements require a healthy degree of strength, coordination and balance.

My point?

You can't just decide that tomorrow you want to do hurdle hops or single leg bounds with your team.

Plyometrics are a SKILL that take a great deal of practice if your expectation is that players are going to do them correctly and actually get something out of it.

Ok, it's story time...

Last year I was at an area high school gymnasium helping a friend of mine while he conducted practice for the team that he coached.

On the far end of this gymnasium a football team was lined up in front of a row of 8 plyo boxes that were of various heights between 24" - 48".

So I decided to watch, hoping that I was going to see an impressive display of athleticism brought about by some coaches who had taken the time and effort to learn how and why certain activities are performed before having their football teams perform them.

Well it turns out that my wish went unfulfilled.

These football players started doing their box jumps (jumping up onto the box), then went right into depth jumps (dropping down off of the box) trying to negotiate 8 boxes of different heights.

So, like clockwork, the line of kids began to lose focus. Their form, this was already terrible, began to fall apart. This was not geared to improve their speed training at all.

Then it happened.

One young athlete, during a depth jump, landed awkwardly and began to fall forward. But instead of stopping or bailing out of the drill, he tried to jump up onto the next box.

For a number of reasons, that didn't work. He clipped the front of his toot on the box, fell over the box, and landed on the floor in a heap, clutching his leg.

The result?

The kid broke his ankle in three places.

Needless to say it wasn't pretty.

Don't let this happen to your athletes.

Strength Training for Speed and Power Athletes Cont.

2008-04-29T15:01:00.000-07:00

Strength Training for Speed Athletes continued from the other day.

Rule #3: Stronger = Faster

Seems obvious right?

As you already know, greater speeds are determined, in large part, by an athlete's ability to apply greater amounts of force to the ground with each stride.

It makes sense that if an athlete wants to move faster, they must increase their physical strength.

At the same time, it is also dependent on increasing physical strength without significant increases in bodyweight.

Otherwise those gains in strength are neutralized by the fact that the athlete now has to carry that extra mass around with her.

The bottom line is this:

If you want your players to become faster they must lift in a way that maximizes strength gains without gaining a lot of extra mass.

You should have seen the other coaches when we maxed out in the weight room and I had a 17-year-old girl squat a legitimate 225 pounds.

By legit I mean she stayed back on her heels, kept her back flat and squatted BEYOND PARALLEL.

Anything else isn't a squat.

OK the truth is I was surprised too. But that is a true story.

By lifting this way, players will recruit and activate more motor units within the muscle with each rep. This develops greater degrees of applicable strength and power, making it much easier for players to move and control their bodies while competing.

Weight training isn't as complicated as it is made out to be. Simply follow the same teaching protocols, as far as technique and progressions that you do for every other speed training skill.

If you want to see exactly how we set up a strength-training program, the core lifts that we use and the specific rules we follow for creating huge gains in single rep max lifts in no time, you need to get your own copy of Complete Speed Training now...

Strength Training for Athletes

2008-04-27T12:17:00.000-07:00

So, what are the rules of the weight room as it relates to speed athletes?

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Rule #1: Learn right....Start light

I know that it is very difficult, especially for boys, to go into the
weight room and put anything less than 45-pound plates on the bar.

That's why I have a motto that I have to repeat over and over and
over again: No Egos in the Weight room.

Most players' strength training technique is so bad in the weight room that they are rarely
more than a lapse in focus away from a career ending injury.

I can't stress how important it is, especially with football players brand new to weight training, that they start with very light weights and master the technique of the lift first.

At the beginning, complete forget about 'heavy' or 'light' and just go for good form. With your 'veteran' lifters, back them up and reteach them how to lift with perfect form.

As you'll see in a minute, effective weight training for sports is dependent on a player's ability to get the most out of the precious few reps they will be doing. So if their form is crap, then that's just what their workouts will be.

In this instance, I apply the 'graduation' game with their weights. I allow them to gradually increase the number of pounds on the bar once they prove to me that they can do it with good form.

I suggest you do the same. Of course, I'm assuming that you have learned how to teach, correct, and identify perfect form with the fundamental lifts.

And no, your experience as a high school or college athlete 15+ years
ago does not qualify you.

If you'd be 100% comfortable correcting and instructing your football team
in front of me, then you qualify.

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Rule #2: Speed athletes are not bodybuilders

With very few exceptions, it isn't going to help an athlete's speed if
they are in the weight room doing lifts that are going to add useless
bulk to their bodies.

Players should only be doing multi-joint movements that address multiple muscle groups at once and can have a positive impact on athletic performance.

For example, there are certain core lifts that we use in all of our strength
training programs.

None of them involve a machine.

There are supplemental exercises that can be added to these core lifts, step-ups for example, but they must follow the multi-joint movement
philosophy.

Now, here are some popular weight room exercises that are great for getting players to look good at the beach, but have no athletic value:

Bicep curls
Hamstring curls
Leg extensions
Chest flies
Tricep extensions
Most machine exercises

On top of that, Smith Machine squats and leg press are what I consider leg exercises for athletes too lazy to do squats and dead lifts and coaches too lazy to teach them.

If you want to learn how to teach and perform explosive weight training lifts that will make faster athletes go to:

Complete Olympic Lifting

How to Run a 4.2 40 Yard Dash

2008-04-25T07:03:00.000-07:00

In the NFL Draft, where potential is prized above all, objective measurements like 40-yard dash times can count as much as stacks of game tapes. Times like East Carolina's Chris Johnson's have a special power because they were taken at the combine, the annual gathering where NFL teams put top college prospects through their paces -- and where 40-yard times are measured indoors with an automated system. (The legendary 4.17-second 40 Deion Sanders ran at Florida State in 1989 was measured by stopwatch.) Jeffrey Foster of National Invitational Camp Inc., the firm that runs the combine, says Mr. Johnson's mark is the fastest at the combine since records have been kept.

Despite being one of the NCAA's active leaders in career all-purpose yardage and the MVP of the Hawaii Bowl, Mr. Johnson knew pro scouts were wary of him because he hadn't played at a powerhouse school. He figured his only chance to crack the draft's upper echelon was to run a scorching 40. "If I had run a 4.30, I would have been upset," he says. It all comes down to speed training.

Only days after his college career ended, Mr. Johnson packed his bags to spend eight weeks with NFL speed guru Tom Shaw, who runs an independent combine-preparation camp near Orlando, Fla. Mr. Shaw's clinics consist of two-a-day training sessions and cost about $750 a week, plus room and board. He has trained 94 first-round NFL picks, and in 2007, his trainees ran four of the top five 40 times at the combine.

Click here for the rest of the story>>

Strength Training for Speed and Power Athletes

2008-04-24T06:45:00.000-07:00

Today I'm going to talk to you about the importance of strength training.

For some reason, the majority of programs simply do not consider this important enough to make it a regular part of their preseason and in season training.

The only sport that I see using weight training with any regularity is American football and most of the time they're not doing it right.

It's true.

For some reason, in the United States, we have adopted a 'bodybuilder' mentality when it comes to strength training for sport.

Let me give you another example:

I used to coach at a high school. Whenever I'd be in the weight room with my athletes, I would obviously watch all the athletes lift.

OK, the only other athletes in the weight room besides mine were the football team. Literally no other team in the school used the weight room.

Shameful, but not surprising.

Anyway, it became a running joke with my athletes because whenever we'd be in the weight room, the football players would be doing some crazy stuff!

What do I mean?

I can count the number of times on one hand that I saw a workout that consisted primarily of leg exercises and contained rep schemes that were less than 8-10 reps.

On top of that, coaches didn't instruct anyone on how to do the lifts correctly (the football team started coming to me for that - and their coaches would just give me dirty looks).

Plus, many of the lifts they did were, well, useless for sports.

Next time I will go into some weight room rules.

Warm-up Drills and Protocols for Athletes

2008-04-22T20:31:00.000-07:00

OK, let's get to the basic principles behind the warm up. But I will warn you - once you read this you have no excuse for using static stretching or a sloppy, unorganized dynamic warm up with your team. Your warm-up should be done before you perform and speed or agility drills.

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1. Progress from slow, simple movements to faster, more complex movements.

Think back to my 'cold car' analogy. Your players have to start with movements that aren't going to put muscles in a position to pull or tear because they aren't fully warmed up.

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2. A good warm-up will have your players slightly out of breath and lightly sweating.

Anything less than this and they aren't ready to go at full speed. This means that on a speed day, the warmup should take a good 20 minutes.

Remember, our goal is to make your team faster. You can't cheat the warm up and expect your team to achieve their goals.

How you decide those numbers depends, again, on your training goals for that day.

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3. Make sure your players do the drills with perfect form every time!

You'd think this was a no-brainer, but in my experience that couldn't be further from the truth. The majority of the time, even in programs that claim to use a dynamic warm-up, the player's technique is so sloppy that it is almost counter-productive.

I'm serious!

In addition to being a great warmup, these drills also work on running mechanics, coordination, and flexibility. If your team just goes through the motions by doing the drills half-assed, then they're only setting themselves up to become injured.

Show your team how to do each drill correctly and get on them when they're not putting in the effort. I've kicked kids out of practice on more than one occasion because they didn't focus on their drills. If that takes too much effort to do correctly, then how can I expect them to properly execute in the workout or the competition?

There is no excuse for telling your athletes to do a certain type of drill if they don't know how to do it right and you can't tell them how to fix any mechanical problems.

I can't emphasize the importance of this fact strongly enough!

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4. Don't do the same warm-up every single day.

Your team will quickly get bored doing the same old warmup. That means the drills will be sloppy, they won't be warmed up correctly, and they set themselves up for injury. Variety is one of the keys to getting the most out of your team.

If the warmup gets monotonous, kids will go through the motions. So you should switch up your warm up routines a few times every season so that athletes don't get bored and lazy before practice even starts.

If they're lethargic from a warmup they've been doing every day for the past two months, what do you really expect to get out of them in their speed workout?

My experience tells me not a whole lot.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I hope this gives you some ideas on how, where and when to modify your warmup. You can't get more out of your players without making this the first issue you address.

If you are looking for more warm-up exercises to go along with your speed training drills you can see more at Warm up Drills for Athletes

Warm-up for Sports

2008-04-20T07:59:00.000-07:00

Many coaches claim to use a dynamic warm-up, but in fact, it's just a series of poorly taught, poorly executed drills that aren't set up with any rhyme or reason. Although better than only using the static stretch warm-up, this is still a terrible way to prepare your team to run as hard and fast as they can.

Here are some of the many benefits to the athletes I train, that I attribute to our implementation of a dynamic warm up:

- Muscle strains and pulls have been almost completely eliminated because entire muscle groups have been activated through various progressive movements.

- More points and better marks are being scored earlier in competitions because the players aren't spending the early part of the game or meet trying to get loose.

- Players are running at faster speeds, making sharper cuts and exploding off the line with ease, again, because they're fully warmed up before they have to start moving at full speed.

- Late-season and post-season productivity has increased significantly. Players aren't getting burnt out at the end of the season because, among other things, they're avoiding the muscular and cellular trauma that comes with forcing cold muscles to move at speeds they aren't ready for.

Here's a quick analogy to prove my point...

When you start your vehicle on a cold morning, what do you do?

You let it warm up for a few minutes before trying to drive it. Otherwise, acceleration is terrible and you risk seriously damaging your engine because oil and other fluids haven't had the chance to heat up parts that make your car run efficiently.

Well, think of your football players like a car.

If you try to get them to run at full speed before they are properly warmed up, their acceleration will be terrible and you risk a serious muscle pull or tears because blood hasn't had a chance to heat up the muscles that allow the athlete to run quickly and efficiently.

Does that make sense?

The most glaring evidence I have in support of a good warmup is the behavior of the athletes that I coach.

They'll come to me from their sports having primarily used static stretching to warm up. If they did do some type of movement based, dynamic warm up, it was sloppy and followed no particular pattern.

After working with me, not only do they run much faster and feel better, but they couldn't imagine warming up any other way! When I go watch their competitions, I see them out there with their teammates using my warm-up!

Listen, the warm up doesn't have to be complicated. It just has to follow a few basic premises.

But before I list them I will say this...

In my experience, if you've been using static stretching at the beginning of practice, you shouldn't just stop cold turkey. Most players have been doing this at the start of every practice, for their entire lives.

It's hardwired into their heads that they need to do it to warmup properly, even though it is not true. Therefore, I don't cut it out completely. Instead, I'll give them 5 minutes to stretch out alone before own before we start our full warm up. This way they feel like they got a 'pre-stretch' and it gives them a chance to see what their tight spots are.

For more sports training information, on audio, go now to:

Sports Training Interviews

Sports Training - Warm-up Speed Drills

2008-04-17T12:57:00.000-07:00

If you really want to make your team faster, the first step you must take concerns the very first thing that they do each day at practice - The Warm Up!

I know it doesn't sound too glorious, but if you don't show your athletes an effective dynamic warm-up, you're asking for some serious problems!

What do I mean?

I still know A LOT of programs that are using static stretching as the primary form of warming up. You know what I'm talking about. Players will jog a lap or two around the field, get together in a circle and do those stretches where you hold one position for 8 or 10 counts.

I know YOU wouldn't use that as your primary method of warming up, but sadly some of your colleagues and competitors still do it.

So let me ask you a couple of questions...

How many sports can you think of that involve, at any point, holding a stretch for 10 seconds in order to be successful?

That's right, none. So is that an effective way to get ready to compete or practice?

In fact, studies show that static stretching can reduce power output by up to 20%. Don't you think that might have a negative effect on the speed and performance of your players?

Here is a quick warm-up presentation:

Complete Speed Training is a great source for speed drills for warming-up and more importantly how all these exercises go together.

Static stretching impairs sprint performance in collegiate track and field athletes

2008-04-13T10:53:00.000-07:00

The purpose of this study was to establish whether the deleterious effects of static stretching (SS) would wash out the performance enhancements obtained from the dynamic warm-up (DW). Eleven males and 11 females, who were athletes of a NCAA Division I track team, performed a DW followed with either a SS or rest (NS) condition. After warm-up was completed, speed training was performed, three 40 m sprints were performed to investigate the effects of the SS condition on sprint performance when preceded by DW. Time for the NS versus the SS group was significantly faster.

The results of this study suggest that performing a static stretching protocol following a dynamic warm-up will inhibit sprint performance in collegiate athletes.

Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2008, 22(1), 13-9

Winchester JB, Nelson AG, Landin D, Young MA, Schexnayder IC

Click Here for the rest of the study >>

Athletic Speed Formula Seminar

2008-04-11T09:34:00.000-07:00

Have you been looking for a speed training seminar that will tell you everything you want to know about developing athletes and making them faster?

If you answered yes, then you must attend Lee Taft's Athletic Speed Formula.

The Athletic Speed Formula is set up to be a tell-all seminar that will give you a proven system to help your athletes succeed. Coach Taft is going to spill the beans about everything he have learned on developing better athletes over the past twenty years.

In the seminar Lee Taft will take you through:

The real goal of any program is to set your athletes up for success. I have a proven system that will do just that.
How to assess athletes in order to gain an optimal training environment.
An efficient warm-up system to prepare athletes for performance and reduce injury potential.
How to develop proper landing and foot placements through repeating balance and stability training.
How to properly teach, as well as, not over teach deceleration and acceleration.
How to correctly teach lateral acceleration and quickness skills.
How to teach cutting techniques to instantly improve your athletes' speed and quickness.
How to teach jumping and landing skills to protect from injury and achieve an explosive body position.
A fool-proof way to evaluate your athletes' agility and movement instinct.
How to analyze and beak down faulty sprinting mechanics.
Teaching progressions and cues to produce great multi-directional speed athletes.
How to trick athletes into proper movement patterns that will be engrained into their motor programs.
How athletes strength train at Lee Taft Speed Academy.
Believe it or not, much more!

For more information on the seminar and a personal video of Lee Taft letting you all about what's happening at the seminar go to:

Lee Taft Athletic Speed Formula Seminar

Nike SPARQ Training Promos

2008-04-09T18:57:00.000-07:00

Nike Sparq campaign broke on American Idol and started gaining traction during the NCAA Final Four men's basketball tournament; two new TV spots will debut this week. The current commercials begin with a taunt, a bully haiku, really: "My better is better than your better."

In partnering with Sparq, Nike is selling the weird-looking tools, too, like hurdles and a ladder. A slew of "better"-talkin' Nike pro athletes -- soccer stars Landon Donovan, Hope Solo and Abby Wambach; lacrosse players Kyle Harrison and Ryan Powell; basketballers Kevin Durant, Steve Nash, Brandon Roy and Diana Taurasi; major leaguer Matt Holliday; NFL running back Adrian Peterson -- populate the spots. They're captured at practice, and sometimes in slow motion, using the tools and doing the drills, which do indeed look strange. The weirdest is the parachute, which comes in sizes M, L and XL. ("What size is your parachute?" would seem to be the resulting question.) Apparently, running with it increases resistance for strength and speed training, and allows some kind of unique brain connection to the body that also boosts speed.

Continue to news story >>

The greatest speed training drill

2008-03-14T08:06:00.000-07:00

When it comes to speed development, speed training drills are important. Speed drills train the athlete to move in an efficient and powerful way to take advantage of the single most important factor in speed development.

Force application.

One of the best speed training drills to use is the A-skip ( Gerard Mach - Mach Drill).

Here are some cues for the A-skip:

cue 'chin up, chest up, toe up, heel up
cue athletes to repeat 'hop, hop...hop, hop' in their heads to help coordinate the double hop movement
recover the active heel underneath the hips while hopping with the support leg
step over the support knee
drive the active leg down into the ground as soon as the heel clears the knee while hopping on the support leg
initial foot strike should be with the ball of the foot, not the heel
active foot should strike directly beneath the hips
active foot should land no farther than ½ footlength in front of support foot
deceleration of active thigh ('drive down') should be noticeably faster and more forceful than the initial recovery of that active leg

The A-march is a great speed training drill to use first to help the athlete understand the motion before the A-skip is used. Since it is a 'complicated' movement for some athletes, you can have your athletes start with their hands on their hips, so it takes their arms out of the movement, until they have mastered the skill.

For speed training information and resources, make sure you check out http://www.AthletesAcceleration.com

Speed Training Podcast

2008-03-11T12:12:00.000-07:00

If you are interested in interviews from the top coaches in speed training and strength & conditioning, then I have a site for you. Latif and I put together our interviews that we have done throughout the year and added them to our new website. The site has those podcasts up now and we will continue to add to the site so make sure that you check back often or sign up for the RSS feed.

Here is Athletes Acceleration's Speed Training Podcast site:
http://athletesacceleration.libsyn.com/

If you are looking for speed training information for speed and power sports on audio and podcasts, make sure you go to:

http://athletesacceleration.libsyn.com/

How to Run a Faster 40-yard dash

2008-03-07T13:24:00.000-08:00

Perfecting your starting position

Getting stuck on your 40-yard dash time can be frustrating, especially when you're doing everything you can think of to get faster. You're running harder and longer, but it seems like you've hit a wall. Running a faster 40-yard dash is often a key to unlocking your athletic future. For this very reason, it can be very daunting when it seems like the clock is ticking faster than it normally does. However, you can improve your 40-yard dash time without setting one toe in the gym. You won't need to log more miles during your work outs either. The key to running your fastest 40-yard dash lays before you even take your first step. The starting position for the 40-yard dash is tremendously important to the final time, yet it is often overlooked in the name of strength training and speed drills. While those things are important, proper starting form will cause you to shoot off the line and help you rack up those precious hundredths or even tenths of a second. Here are a few tips to perfecting your starting position that save you time in the end.

Before you start working on the details of your form for your starting position, be sure you're starting out on the right foot, or what's known as your strong foot. If you're not sure which leg is your strong leg, stand with both feet together and have a friend push you forward slightly, but hard enough that you have to step out of your stance to recover. The leg you step onto first is your strong leg and should be in front in your starting position. The strong leg is in front because it can provide the greatest force against the ground and thus the best speed in your initial burst off the line. This is crucial, as your speed in the first ten yards can greatly affect your overall time for the 40-yard dash.

To start building your stance, place your strong foot slightly behind the starting line. The strong leg should be bent at about a ninety degree angle. The other leg, or the quick leg, is bent and the knee should practically touch the ground. Your quick foot should be placed about one and a half feet behind your strong foot.

Next, your hips should be slightly higher than your shoulders. The positioning of the hips is tricky: if they are positioned too high above your shoulders, this can cause you to slightly lose balance after exploding off the line. This lack of balance can cost you your fastest 40-yard dash time. If your hips are positioned too low, this can affect your initial speed off the line as well, as too much body weight distributed to the back of your stance will make it more difficult to send your body into motion. Perfectly positioned hips will lend you the greatest balance and power when you first explode off the line.

Your hands should be shoulder width apart. Your quick side hand should touch the ground in front of you but only with your fingertips, this should prevent you from unconsciously shifting too much of your body weight onto your hand. The strong side arm is by your side at a ninety degree angle. Your head and neck should be aligned with your spine. Also, focus will prevent you from being too relaxed as well as too tense in your stance. Being too relaxed could affect your response time. If you're too tense, your muscles will have to work extra hard to set you into motion. A balance between the two states will help you achieve your fastest 40-yard dash.

If you've paused your reading to create this stance with your own body, it might feel a bit unnatural. Feeling uncomfortable and cramped is normal when you first begin implementing this form. In fact, if it does not feel cramped, carefully analyze your form to ensure you are correctly positioned. The idea is for your body to create a sense of being compressed so it can explode off the line to run a faster 40-yard dash. The more you practice it, the more natural it will feel. In the meantime, when you are first starting out, try not to adjust the dimensions of the stance so that it feels more natural or comfortable, no matter how miniscule the variation may seem. In doing so, you may compromise form and thus your potential for improving your time for the 40-yard dash.

Practice this stance during your workouts so that it begins to feel more natural. If you aren't distracted by the discomfort and awkwardness of your stance, you're able to be more clear-headed and focused on the task ahead, which is, of course, running the 40-yard dash in your fastest time ever. To feel confident that you are using the best form, have a friend or coach watch you practice it. This can help create consistency even as you become more comfortable with your stance. You can also video tape your stance and evaluate yourself. Consistency and technique is crucial when your training goal is to shave time off your 40-yard dash.

Once you've incorporated great form and technique for your starting position, you are bound to have a breakthrough on your overall time and run a faster 40-yard dash. The greatest part about this approach to a faster 40-yard dash is that you can see a change in your time very soon, if done right. It cannot replace conditioning and strength training. However, when it seems as if doing more of the same thing is not getting you the results you want, making a few slight adjustments to your existing technique can make a tremendous difference in your performance. Combining power and form is sure to set you on the path to running your fastest 40-yard dash.

For more football speed training tips and to learn more about how to run a faster 40 yard dash, go to:
Sports Training Articles

Why 'sport specific' training is a myth

2007-07-08T19:25:00.000-07:00

That's right, it's not real.

You see people are always asking for (insert your sport)
specific drills, workouts, programs, whatever.

And everytime I get one of these emails I sigh deeply.

Why?

Because unless you're working with elite collegiate or
professional athletes, you shouldn't fool yourself into
believing your athletes need 'special' training, drills,
etc. specific to their sport.

But Latif, you always say that you don't train a football
player the same as a soccer player.

Yes, of course there are going to be differences in approach
based on the energy system demands of a sport.

But that doesn't make those differences a whole different
'sport specific' program.

It's called using common sense.

Let's say I'm doing some agility ladder drills and I have
a soccer player and a football player.

They both need speed, coordination, agility, timing,
body awareness, etc..

Do those drills require a 'Soccer Agility' product and a
'Football agility' product?

No. It's the exact same thing: Developing better athletes
who *happen* to play soccer or football.

The only difference is that for the soccer player I'm going
to have them dribble or kick a soccer ball after going
through the ladder.

And I'll throw a football to the football player and have
him cut and run a pattern.

That's not 'sport specific'. It's training athletes using
common sense.

Another example.

It's an acceleration day for my 15 year old 100m runner and
my 15 year old field hockey player.

Better break out my sport specific track and field training
manual *and* my sport specific field hockey manual right?

No, both of these athletes likely have the exact same
weaknesses in their running mechanics and skill. So I can
train them the same way with the primary differences
being based solely on individual strengths and weaknesses.

At some point my sprinter will have to come out of blocks and
my field hockey player will have to run with her stick.

That distinction is not based on some 'sport specific' guide.
It's based on developing better overall athletes using a
common sense approach to training. Not some fictitious need
for 'specialization'.

It doesn't matter what sport/s you coach or play, the training
plan you use has to be based on the same fundamental goal
for all athletes, ages and genders:

Improve the speed, strength, flexibility, coordination and
endurance of every athlete.

The only program specifically designed to cover each of those
topics is Complete Speed Training. It's called 'Complete' for
a reason.

If you don't already have this program then there are huge
gaps in the way you develop your athletes.

If you haven't purchased a copy because you're looking for
a program specific to your 'sport' then you've been doing the
coaching or training equivalent of beating your head against
the wall.

And I hope this article helped you change your mind.

As the saying goes: 'When you change the way you look at
things, the things you look at change'.

So get your copy of the *only* Complete Speed Training program
that's going to develop *all* the skills required for success
in any sport:

Complete Speed Training

In speed,

Latif Thomas

P.S. Still not convinced I'm on to something?

It's OK to be skeptical.

Listen to my recent conversation on the topic with Strength
and Conditioning Hall of Famer Al Vermeil. Al is the only
Strength and Conditioning Coach to work for the NFL, NBA
*and* MLB. He's also the only coach ever to earn a World
Championship ring in both the NFL (49ers) and the NBA (BUlls).

Listen to Al Vermeil

Now, here's how to develop your athletes' ability to get
faster for any sport.

Complete Speed Training

To listen to the rest of this 60 minute interview, log into
your account at The Speed Training Report.

Lessons from World Champion Head Coach Tony Dungy - Part V

2007-07-07T11:34:00.000-07:00

We're finally to the last part of my series of Leadership
Lessons I learned from World Champion Tony Dungy.

This is arguably the most important of the 5 lessons, but it
is also dependent on the understanding and application of the
first 4, which are:

1. Direction
2. Perseverence - Staying the course
3. Develop a Thick Skin
4: Discernment

Coach Dungy's final Leadership Lesson is one, in my opinion,
that gets overlooked by many people in every aspect of life:

5. Be yourself

To be a great coach and/or leader, we have to pull knowledge
and experience from other people whose opinions and actions
we respect and admire.

But it can be easy sometimes to go too far in emulating a
particular coach's demeanor or style because we respect their
accomplishments.

However, that isn't being true to yourself and your athletes
or children or even peers will see through that.

Coach Dungy's quote during his talk was "A genuine Tony Dungy
is always better than an imitation Vince Lombardi."

And the same is true for you. Learn as much as you can from
others, but be yourself and develop your own coaching style,
method of implementation, tools and techniques.

Of course you're going to borrow other peoples' information
as you establish the foundation you will build off of in
the coming years.

It's critical that you first establish that foundation so you
can assess where your results are coming from not only on
a year to year basis, but month to month, week to week and
day by day.

If you don't follow a specific system and repeat the process
over and over until you obtain enough data to start making
your own changes, your athletes will *always* get inconsistent
results.

So make Complete Speed Training your foundation for athletic
development.

Follow the advice of World Champion Head Coach Tony Dungy.

You can't really go wrong if you follow that path, can you?

In speed,

Latif Thomas

P.S. Listen to what just one satisfied Complete Speed Training
Customer had to say.