Archive for “Youth Speed Training” Category

Acceleration Mechanics – Jim Kielbaso

Posted on: March 19th, 2017 by Sara Beth No Comments

Acceleration mechanics are incredibly important to address with athletes who need to improve their speed. This is a “behind-the-scenes” video of Jim Kielbaso teaching acceleration mechanics to a group of athletes preparing for the NFL Combine.

Jim has done other videos and written articles on acceleration mechanics, but rather than just talking about it, this video shows him actually teaching athletes so you get to see exactly how he explains things.

Some of the main points covered in this video include what Jim calls the Power Position, stride length, body lean, knee drive, head position and an explanation about WHY all of these things will increase an athlete’s speed.

Being able to teach these concepts in a cohesive way is important for any coach responsible for speed and agility training with athletes. While this video shows how acceleration mechanics are explained to experienced athletes, the same mechanics also need to be addressed with younger athletes using different language and teaching cues.

Of course, you don’t have to use the same exact language and cues in your teaching, but this video will give you plenty of ideas for how you can teach your own athletes about acceleration mechanics. Take the words and video demonstrations that Jim uses in the video and create your own system of teaching athletes this important concept.

We also encourage you to share this video with other coaches and even use it when teaching athletes.

The IYCA Certified Speed & Agility Specialist course and certification go into depth on acceleration mechanics, top end speed, agility mechanics & drills, programming for speed, and programming for different ages. It includes 69 videos, several done-for-you programs and a 249-page manual that is the most comprehensive written material on speed development in the industry.

Click on the image below to learn more about the IYCA CSAS

6 Speed & Agility Tips for Coaches – Jim Kielbaso

Posted on: March 12th, 2017 by Sara Beth No Comments

Coaches are constantly asking me for speed & agility tips to make their programs more effective. After talking with hundreds of coaches and looking at what is happening all over the country, I have come up with six keys to increasing the effectiveness of any speed & agility program. Here are the 6 simple speed & agility tips:

1. Educate the athletes. If your athletes don’t have an understanding of why they are doing a drill, there is a good chance they are thinking of it as torture or punishment. It is up to you to explain the purpose of a drill so the athletes fully understand how it impacts performance. Typically, this will motivate an athlete to work harder because they will understand how their hard work will pay off in the game. It also helps you, the coach, to choose drills that will actually benefit the athletes. If you don’t have a clear understanding of the purpose of a drill, you’re probably missing something.

I can’t tell you how often I see coaches lining up cones, ladders and boxes in the name of speed and agility training, but the movements used in the drills have absolutely nothing to do with the movements used in the sport. If you have to explain how it will help the athlete, you are more likely to choose appropriate drills.

2. Focus on mechanics. Allowing your athletes to do drills with faulty movement patterns is speed & agility tips jim kielbaso like a golf pro watching his student hit ball
after ball with terrible flaws in his swing, and never providing any corrective feedback. Athletes practice sport skills and play games all the time, but they are rarely taught how to move properly; they are just expected to know how. But, if a kid has never been shown how to do something, how can you expect him/her to do it correctly?

Of all the speed & agility tips listed in this article, this may be the most important.

It is up to you to teach your athletes some of the most basic movement concepts in sports – running, cutting, shuffling, pivoting, jumping, etc. Athletes are not learning this anywhere else, so it is up to us to teach them these valuable movement skills. This is exactly what the IYCA Certified Speed & Agility Specialist (CSAS) course teaches, which is why it is such an important course for anyone working with athletes.

Begin by teaching them like they have never performed these movements in their lives. In my writing and seminars, I refer to this as Movement Training, and by implementing Movement Training concepts into your speed training program your athletes will always end up farther ahead.

3. Quality not quantity. Too often, SAQ workouts turn into conditioning sessions. Remember, the goal is improving speed and agility, not aerobic fitness. Keep the work periods short and the rest periods long so the athletes can give 100% effort on each drill. You are trying to teach the nervous system how to work more efficiently, so the athletes need to be fresh. If the rest periods are too short, the work periods too long, or the athletes are simply fatigued from previous work, mechanics will disintegrate and the same old faulty movement patterns will ultimately be reinforced.

For optimal speed development results, keep the work periods to 2-10 seconds and the rest periods as long as 20-60 seconds or even longer if the intensity is extremely high. Explain that you will be giving long rest periods so the drills can be done with maximum intensity, and stick to your word.

4. Sport specificity. As long as you are trying to teach your athletes to move more efficiently, it makes sense to practice movements that will actually be used in a game. Sprinting and cutting are used in just about every sport, but don’t forget about the very specific skills your athletes need to perform on the field or court. These movements include shuffling, stopping, pivoting, faking, spinning, cross-over running, backpedaling, etc.

As much as possible, include these movements into your SAQ sessions. Baseball and softball players should practice starting sprints like they are stealing a base. Volleyball players should incorporate lunging, approach steps and jumps into their drills. Football receivers should practice their routes. Quarterbacks should incorporate drop steps and linemen should start drills from 2-, 3-, or 4-point starting positions. Use your imagination to create drills that mimic competition.

Ladder drills and plyos are great general training methods, but if you don’t make your athletes practice their most important movements you should never wonder why they don’t perform them well in a game.

5. Consistency. As I stated earlier, SAQ programs are meant to train the nervous system. The best way to make this happen is to consistently practice sport specific skills so the nervous system learns the optimal movement patterns. 5-20 minutes, 2-3 days per week is all it takes.

You can make this happen by adding two short drills to your warm-up routine, or including one or two sport-specific drills into the beginning of each strength training session. This does not mean strength movements that “resemble” the sport movements – I’m talking about actually doing a couple of sprints or agility drills before each workout. As long as technique is emphasized, this brief, consistent practice will add up and allow your athletes to perform these skills perfectly on the field or court without any thought. You basically have to take the other five speed & agility tips listed here, and apply them consistently to get the best results.

6. Long-term development. Another major problem I see in a lot of SAQ programs is implementing them a few weeks before the season, hoping for a miracle. Starting these drills 2-3 weeks before your first game is simply too late for major benefits to be seen. Unfortunately, many coaches hope that a few simple speed & agility tips will work like magic. That’s not how athletic development works, so make sure you have enough time to make a real impact.

You will certainly see benefits from doing SAQ drills during your pre-season, but working the drills into your year-round training program will elicit maximum results. Pre-season training should focus on technical/tactical skills and conditioning. Too often, though, I see coaches conditioning the athletes during the off-season; this is a waste of time and energy. If you have contact with your athletes during the off-season, work on strength, movement training and technical skill development for the greatest long-term results.

If you can teach your freshmen how to move, and include a few minutes of practice before every strength training session, imagine what a difference that will make by the time they are juniors and seniors. It’s never too early to teach kids how to move. Don’t wait until it’s too late.

Introduce changes gradually, and continually attempt to make improvements. Speed and agility training will have a positive impact on any team, and incorporating these six keys will help you run the most effective program possible.

I hope these 6 speed & agility tips help you create more effective programs that will make a bigger impact on them.

Click on the image below to learn more about the IYCA Certified Speed & Agility Specialist course, the most comprehensive, and scientifically sound speed & agility certification in the industry.

Speed vs Conditioning – Quality vs Quantity

Posted on: February 19th, 2017 by Sara Beth No Comments

Recently, I’ve had several conversations with both parents and athletes about the difference between training for speed/power vs conditioning/fitness work. These are two very different training methods that have very different goals and elicit very different results, but there seems to be a lot of confusion about this.

Think of it as QUALITY vs. QUANTITY.

I often hear parents & coaches wanting athletes to be constantly moving (QUANTITY) and feeling extremely tired from a workout. Athletes who are used to practicing like this often feel like the quality of a training session is based on their level of exhaustion.

While I am certainly never opposed to high-intensity training and conditioning, this is VERY different than speed/power/technique training (QUALITY), so you first need to understand the goal, then match the training to get the effect you’re looking for.

To begin, we need to understand the role fatigue plays in a training session, and we need to understand that training the nervous system and the cardiovascular system are very different.

Whenever an athlete is learning a new skill, practicing technique on a skill or displaying maximum speed or power, they are predominantly using their nervous system and that training must be done when an athlete is fresh. Maximum power output or speed can only be displayed briefly, and fatigue impacts these qualities quickly.

For example, an athlete can jump as high as possible 4-6 times before their jump height starts to drop. After that, the nervous system can’t maintain that level of intensity, and performance drops off dramatically. If you rest for a minute or two, you can recover and perform another 4-6 maximal jumps again. But, if you only rest 15-20 seconds, you won’t be able to fully recover and you won’t jump nearly as high. In other words, you won’t be able to maintain QUALITY because of fatigue.

The same goes for maximal sprinting speed. Let’s say you’re working to improve your ability to accelerate (which is all about training the nervous system). You’ll need to perform short sprints with long rest periods so you can give 100% on each rep.

This is focusing on the QUALITY of work.

Unfortunately, if you do your conditioning work BEFORE your acceleration work, you’ll be so tired that you won’t be able to perform at 100%. You can give it your best effort, but you won’t be able to perform optimally like you can when you’re fresh.

This is why it’s an absolute MUST to take long rest periods when working on speed or power and do this work while you’re fresh. The goal is to train the nervous system (QUALITY), not the cardiovascular system (QUANTITY).

Of course, I often hear comments like “we need to be able to perform when we’re tired.” While I agree with that wholeheartedly, you first need to fully develop the nervous system (speed, power and skill), THEN you condition the cardiovascular system to the point where you can demonstrate those qualities over and over again.

If you skip right to the conditioning, you’ll never fully develop those important nervous system traits, and you’ll never reach your potential for speed/power. You’ll be in great cardiovascular shape, but you won’t be as fast, powerful or technically proficient as you could be if you took the time to develop those traits first.

If the goal is simply to get in shape or do conditioning work, the training will be relatively high-paced, with short rest periods. Athletes will feel like it’s a “hard” workout because their heart rate will be up and it will be metabolically demanding. This will train the cardiovascular system and metabolic pathways necessary to play sports at a high level, but this is the QUANTITY work.

Don’t get caught in the trap of only doing QUANTITY work and not recognizing that QUALITY work, or nervous system training, simply has to be done differently. Always do the QUALITY work BEFORE the QUANTITY work.

Both are very important parts of developing a complete athlete, and it’s critical to combine these methods appropriately.

If you want to go deeper on how to develop speed effectively, check our our Free Speed Mastery Mini-Course

Acceleration and Strength: The Physical Attributes We Truly Covet

Posted on: January 8th, 2017 by IYCA No Comments

JC Moreau, Founder and Director, Strength U

Perhaps the most common question I get from coaches and parents is “how do I get my son or daughter faster/quicker/jump higher?” They are often surprised by my response, as well as what I am about to discuss in today’s article. My answer is typically “get them stronger” and that is usually met with a look of confusion, so I elaborate. In the past, I’ve written about the values of squatting through a larger range of motion than simply to 90 degrees, I explained in greater detail how strength is undeniably effective at developing speed, quickness and vertical jump height in athletes, especially young ones. What I did not discuss was the next part of my answer to that question.

I typically answer that my primary concern is typically more about developing the athlete’s ability to accelerate and decelerate and that this is largely accomplished with strength work in addition to drills that focus specifically on these skills, rather than top end speed. The reason for this is quite simple. Nearly every sport requires quick bursts of speed over 1 to 15 yards or the ability to stop on a dime and then change direction and accelerate again. In other words, the world’s greatest 400-meter sprinter will be quite average at soccer, football, baseball, basketball, volleyball, lacrosse, or any other running sport if he or she cannot stop quickly, change direction, and quickly accelerate. If you are having a difficult time envisioning this, simply think of the great running backs in the NFL or point guards in the NBA. Many of them do not run a 4.4 40 yard dash (VERY few do). However, most can hit top speed in a few steps, stop, cut, and hit top speed again very quickly and efficiently. acceleration

So how do you develop these things? By training acceleration and deceleration mechanics, and strengthening the movements and positions that maximize the athlete’s ability to perform these skills.

Strength is a big part of this for a couple of reasons. First, acceleration and top-end speed are both a result of how much force can be produced through the foot at foot strike and how efficiently the body can utilize that force. There are many factors that play into this, but strength, posture, and body position are the most critical. What I want to focus on in this article are the acceleration drills we like to work on in order to maximize the force that is created and ideally learn how to create more and/or waste less. Assuming two athletes are the same size and exhibit similar strength and muscle fiber composition (ratio of fast to slow twitch), there are a few mechanical and structural factors that will impact the ability to accelerate and/or decelerate. Those we tend to focus on are body position/posture, knee drive, foot position, and arm swing.

When elite level sprinters run to 100-meter dash they are typically not upright until at least 35+ meters into the race. The reason is simple: in order to accelerate, the body has to be in a position that allows the athlete to apply force into the ground in both vertical (downward) and horizontal (backward) directions. This is a simple concept because most athletes will quickly understand that if you push straight down you will go straight up.

One of the first things all athletes must be taught is the correct body position required for ideal acceleration. To do this there are several drills and training aides that can be used and the most simple and readily available is a wall. By simply leaning forward at somewhere between 45 and 60 degrees, and keeping the body tight (as if doing a plank) from head to heel the athlete is now in a great position. From this position we have the athlete work on basic leg drive with the knee up and heel under the glute of the raised leg, all with a dorsiflexed foot. We want maximum knee and foot lift and tell the athlete to envision a rod coming out of the opposite knee. We want the foot to be above this rod while maintaining posture.

From here we do individual ground strikes and then progress to alternating strikes and eventually to multiples of 3, 5, 7, 9 etc…, or for times of 5-15 seconds. Remember we are not training for conditioning we are training to develop the ability to produce violent, powerful ground strikes while maintaining ideal postural integrity and a dorsiflexed foot, since the more force we put into the ground the more we will get back. So far so good, right?

Hopefully, but I am regularly reminded just how hard it is for most young athletes to maintain this position for more than a few seconds without beginning to move their feet forward (thus changing the angle we established), sticking their butt back (breaking at the hips which leads to tremendous energy leaks), or tilting the head forward and looking down, which also tends to lead to several postural issues. Since this position is critical, it is important to both stress the correct form and ALWAYS correct these flaws and also identify if the issues taking place are due to either a lack of postural control (strength/stability) or a lack of mental focus. In most youth athletes, the cause can be rooted in both. As such, postural strength issues must be addressed since a lack of correct body positioning and alignment will compromise full acceleration potential. Also, the inability to focus long enough to complete this mundane yet vital task may make speed the least of their concerns, but this is another topic altogether……
To develop the athlete’s ability to maintain perfect posture over extended periods of time we must focus on this area in all phases of training. We can develop the musculature required to hold many of these positions by performing simple glute bridges and planks (done properly with the core gently braced at all times). I have found too often that athletes plank incorrectly and just hold their bodies up. In order to improve activation, the coach may palpate the athlete’s entire core (low back, obliques, glutes, hip flexors etc…) to be sure all muscle groups are activated.

In addition to these, I have found that focusing on postural integrity during everything from warm-up to cool down also makes a huge difference. As a result, anytime the athlete is standing is a good time to drive home the importance of standing tall with the shoulders back, core braced, head in a neutral position, and other aspects of good posture expressed.

Once the acceleration position has been refined and the athlete understands the basic reasoning and concepts that necessitate it, we move to starts. The tricky thing about having the body in the required position is that the only way to get it there is by leaning into or against something such as a sled or thick resistance band or by starting from positions that put you into a forward lean. The most common way we do this is with a traditional 3-point “40 yard dash” start, a falling start, or a single leg falling start. The point of emphasis must always be to explode out and to stay low. In the 3-point stance start, the trailing leg does very little other than cycle through (and ideally does so quickly in order to be in optimal position to take the next step). However, the lead leg is the one that must explosively push the athlete out because it is ultimately a series of strong, powerful, efficient “pushes” that lead to impressive acceleration. In his latest book Coach Mike Boyle describes a start drill he coaches that uses a large crash mat for his athletes to literally jump out and land on to teach the aggressive drive required to fully grasp this concept¹. The athlete simply gets into a starting position and explodes out of the position so aggressively that he or she will essentially dive onto the ground. This is where the mat comes in handy!

If you can get your athletes to correctly perform these drills while maintaining postural integrity and slowly develop the habits of correct arm drive and foot position, dramatic improvement in 10 or 20 yard dash times will result. These times are what separate the 4.6 athlete from the 5.0 athlete, but more importantly will have far greater carry over than performing “top-end speed drills” such as those taught by many speed camps and used by track athletes such as B-skips, etc. Over the years, I have found that developing proper arm swing and dorsiflexing the foot takes a tremendous amount of repetition in those who do not naturally do these well. For this reason I recommend incorporating some very short drills to work on these during warm ups as a way to get almost daily exposure to them in a college or in-season competitive club sports athletes.

Every quality that coaches and parents desire for their athletes is rooted in strength—either the ability to produce force or the ability to maintain postural integrity. So when a parent or coaches preaches first-step quickness, speed, and agility remind them that each of these is largely dependent on getting stronger AND learning how to transfer that new found “horsepower” into more explosive, deliberate, and efficient movements. How fast an athlete steps has little to do with the step and almost everything to do with the drive leg’s ability to produce force and do so quickly. That is what results in a fast and explosive start.

The same principles hold true for developing the ability to pull away from a defender or close the gap on a player ahead of you. So whether you are a coach or parent, the next time you are looking for “speed development,” remember that it is actually strength and movement development that you desire because perfect running form without these traits is like a beautiful race car with a golf cart engine. It may look sleek and fast, but will take three days to reach full speed!

¹Advances in Functional Training p. 173, Boyle, Mike 2010

The mechanics discussed in this article, as well as dozens of additional drills and coaching cues, are covered in great detail in our Certified Speed & Agility Specialist materials. The CSAS has been recognized as the most thorough speed certification in the industry. Learn more about the CSAS by clicking the image below.

Acceleration Correlates Highly to On-field Performance

Posted on: December 13th, 2016 by Sara Beth No Comments

In the late 90’s, the strength coaches at the University of Nebraska did some internal research to determine which physical tests had the highest correlation to the ability to play the game of football. They put their athletes through a large battery of tests including the 40-yard dash, pro-agility shuttle, vertical jump, several strength tests and numerous other drills.

Next, they had the football coaches rate each player’s on-field ability. They wanted to find out which athletes were the most effective on the field.

They ran a statistical analysis on all of the data figure out which tests had the highest correlation to on-field success.

They figured that, if any of the tests correlated highly to on-field success, they would be able to create programs to improve those tests.

The test that had the highest correlation to on-field ability was the 10-yard sprint. In other words, the ability to accelerate allows an athlete to perform at a higher level on the field.

I’d be willing to bet that the ability to accelerate also has a high correlation to the ability to many sports. Soccer, basketball, baseball, softball, lacrosse, field hockey, track sprints, etc. are all heavily dependent on an athlete’s ability to accelerate over and over again.

The ability to cover ground faster than an opponent will put an athlete in position to make plays throughout a game, and having just one step on that opponent can be the difference between making a play or not.

So, when you’re training athletes, keep in mind what’s important, and be sure to spend plenty of time addressing the ability to accelerate.

To truly improve acceleration, mechanics MUST be addressed early and often. The athlete must learn how to produce horizontal force, and this doesn’t always feel natural. It also requires a lot of rest between sets in order to maintain a high level of intensity. Acceleration work should occur relatively early in a workout, and you should stick to distances under 20 yards.

The volume of work doesn’t necessarily need to be high, but this needs to be worked on frequently in order for the nervous system to retain changes in mechanics.

A sample workout may look like this:

Warm-up
Acceleration instruction
5 x 10-yard sprints
5 x 10-yard sprints with a weighted sled at 15% of body-weight
2 x 10-yard sprints (contrast training)
2 x 20-yard sprints

This could be done in 20 minutes, leaving plenty of time to work on other things like conditioning, agility or strength development.

It is recommended to work on acceleration 2-4 days/week, and it can even be inserted into your warm-up routine. It doesn’t have to be lumped together like the sample program above. You can insert a few short sprints into a warm-up routine that is done every day.

I realize that this is just scratching the surface on acceleration training, but it is covered in much greater depth in the Ultimate Speed Mechanics materials. I will be bringing you more tips and videos on how to help your athletes accelerate with maximum power and speed, so stay tuned.

Jim Kielbaso

How Resistance Band Training Can Impact a Strength & Conditioning Program – Part 3

Posted on: September 23rd, 2016 by IYCA No Comments

Using Bands to Conveniently Impact a Strength & Conditioning Program

Resistance bands are easily the most convenient and effective way to work on first step speed mechanics as it relates to acceleration and deceleration.

Not only are bands easy to attach to the body but their ascending resistance allows athletes to load both acceleration and deceleration phases of running.

7. First Step Acceleration

It’s a well known fact that if an athlete can win the first 3 steps during a play in a game, they are probably going to experience good success continually throughout the game and probably win the event.

Resistance bands make it very easy to train large groups of athletes to increase first step speed and reaction. As a coach, partner-based first step speed training requires minimal setup or space to implement and is relatively easy for athletes to quickly learn.

As for the athlete, they are able to instantly feel the difference it makes on their quickness and agility within only a couple of training sessions. These two factors alone instantly make it successful.

These drills are typically done in a partner attached setup with athletes alternating while performing 3 or 4 sets of 5 reps. Because these drills will emphasize acceleration, the athlete only has to focus on getting out quickly against the band resistance.

Once learned, coaches can build in reaction starts through the use of whistle start hand signals.

Shuffle Acceleration Drill

8. First Step Deceleration

Once acceleration training is mastered, athletes can begin to work on deceleration by training under what is called a pre-loaded band setup. Performing the same drills, athletes now focus on learning how to decelerate under band-driven momentum.

Just like applying weight to increase strength, the band applies a resistance that the body has to overcome in order to become stronger at decelerating or slowing down momentum.

Shuffle Deceleration Drill

9. Partner Resisted Running

Once first step acceleration and deceleration speed drills are mastered, longer amplitude linear speed training can be implemented using a training approach called partner resisted running.

With partner resisted running, partners work together to challenge each other to run under a controlled resistance for 15 to 20 yards.

Partner resisted running allows athletes to now take their first step speed training through longer amplitudes of movement.

Here Is An Example of Partner-Based Forward Running

10. Implementing Non-Traditional Strength Training

The final way that resistance bands can be implemented into an off-season strength program is by using them to simulate non-traditional strength training drills like resisted crawling, towing, pushing or lunging.

In many cases these types of drills are used with specially designed equipment that increases cost and the need for greater training space. With a flat band’s ability to attach onto the body in multiple ways, it allows them to provide resistance to non-traditional movements that, in turn, challenges total body strength and coordination.

Non-Traditional Speed-Strength Training

Flat continuously looped layered bands, like the Quantum Band, provides coaches and their athletes with the ability to train all aspects of performance. They also allow them to simulate specific exercises and unique training approaches that historically required specialized equipment and additional resources.

Resistance band versatility makes it very easy and convenient to implement key aspects of an off-season training program without the need for added equipment, space or resources.

Dave Schmitz – The Band Man

About the Author: Dave Schmitz

Dave Schmitz (aka…The Band Man) is the Co-Owner of Resistance Band Training Systems, LLC and the creator of https://resistancebandtraining.com, the only website exclusively devoted to training with large continuously looped resistance bands.

Dave has a unique professional background and vast experience as an orthopedic physical therapist, performance enhancement specialist, certified strength and conditioning specialist along with 27 plus years of living fitness and performance training.

All of this has allowed him to turn a simple 41-inch resistance band into an incredibly multi-faceted total training experience for 1000’s of athletes and fitness enthusiasts around the world—while helping 100’s of fitness professionals and coaches get their clients or athletes BETTER with BANDS.

Killer In-Season Speed Training for Football

Posted on: July 15th, 2016 by IYCA No Comments

Football In-Season Speed Training

It’s summer which means there are 1000’s of athletes preparing for fall football. That also means there are 100’s of coaches and trainers working to put together in-season practice plans. For most of these coaches, working on first step speed training is probably not part of those practice plans for various reasons.

They don’t want to take away from fundamental skills training.
They are concerned it will take away for game planning.
They feel it will decrease game day performance.

Not performing some level of speed training during the season has never made sense considering all the time that is devoted to speed during the off-season. Obviously athletes are simulating football specific running activities in every practice. This is continually retraining the movement patterns but not actually creating a strengthening effect. Therefore, as the season moves along, speed (like strength) will decrease.

Resistance Band In-Season Football First Step Speed Training

A resistance band’s portability and versatility makes it easy to quickly set up and implement multi-directional speed training drills on the field or in the weight room. In most cases these drills can be performed in partnerships using a relatively small area. As a result, it becomes very similar to how most weight room in-season programs are designed.

By linking two similarly-sized bands together two athletes can perform a series of first step drills that include:

Quick Forward Starts
Lateral Shuffles
Turn & Goes
Backpedals
Partner Resisted Running

Each of these drills can emphasize acceleration or deceleration while requiring no additional equipment, set-up or programming changes. Strategically implemented, any of these drills can also be used for metabolic conditioning thus eliminating the need to schedule additional conditioning during practice.

Ways to Implement First Step Speed Drills

Here are 4 ways to implement first step speed drills into a typical high school football season when games are played on Friday night.

Monday

Perform primary lifts of bench and squat. As auxiliary drills, athletes partner up to perform 5 sets of 5 reps alternating partners on every set while performing 3-step lateral shuffles.

Shuffles Acceleration

Tuesday

During Indy period all groups work on first step acceleration using various starting positions based on football position. These are typically 8-minute Indy sessions.

First Step Acceleration

Wednesday

Implement partner resisted running for metabolic conditioning post practice.

Partner Resisted Forward Running

These are all very time efficient ways to strategically implement speed strength training directly into your in-season football practice schedule. By combining it with traditional skills training or weight room work you don’t have to find additional time away from actual practice time.

Dave Schmitz – The Band Man

About the Author: Dave Schmitz

Got Bands?

Get 15% off bands by using code: rbtiyca15

Why Your Speed Program Isn’t Working

Posted on: June 9th, 2016 by IYCA No Comments

Is Your Speed Training Program Working?

There are two reasons that Coach and Speed Expert Jim Kielbaso says your speed training programs are NOT working!

This 3 minute video can change your programs forever!

Become Speed & Agility Certified

Coach Kielbaso has used this “speed equation” to become the leader in Speed Training, working with athletes from youth to collegiate, olympic, NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL.

You can learn from him today. Check out the Speed & Agility Specialist Certification to get started!!

The Ultimate Speed Training Equation

Posted on: May 26th, 2016 by IYCA 1 Comment

3 Essential Principles of Speed Training

Speed Expert Jim Kielbaso’s equation for speed training success is very simple:

Force + Power + Mechanics = Speed

Check out this short video and learn how these 3 principles can super-charge athletic performance!

Become Speed & Agility Certified

Coach Kielbaso has used this “speed equation” to become the leader in Speed Training, working with athletes from youth to collegiate, olympic, NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL.

You can learn from him today. Check out the Speed & Agility Specialist Certification to get started!!

Looking for some fresh ideas to develop speed?

Download our FREE Youth Speed Training E-book and try these proven speed workouts to make your next training session a breeze.

2 Secret Speed Training Weapons For Teams and Camps

Posted on: April 28th, 2016 by IYCA No Comments

Secret Speed Training Weapons

How would you like to be able to train over 100 kids at a lower rate and get the same results?

Resistance Band Training President, Dave Schmitz, has been known to train more than 120 athletes for Speed, Agility & Quickness…all at once!

Secret Weapon #1: Resistance Bands

Resistance bands allow coaches to train all aspects of performance, flexibility, foot quickness, agility, linear or lateral speed, stability, power, strength, endurance and first step explosiveness…to name a few.

Secret Weapon #2: Tennis Courts

This quick and easy location to do training with bands is essential for many reasons, some listed below:

The surface on a tennis court provides optimal traction for deceleration training.
It allows quick set up of partner band stations.
Using the court lines for speed training allows optimization of the space.
Poles and “doubles” lines allow for ideal strength & core training locations.
Maximizing both sides of the court with 24 athletes or 12 groups of 2 makes coaching and monitoring movement quality much easier.
Once band training is complete, doing simple 5-10-5 shuttles or some other shuttle variation for neuromuscular retraining is already set up by using the center line and the inside singles line.

Great Sideline Activities

Squat jumps, lunges, frog jumps, power skipping, mountain climbers, core work, etc.

Here is a quick video on how to use the local high school tennis courts for lateral speed day. Keep in mind that the goal of this camp on this day was first step speed training.

Dave Schmitz

Like this blog?

Check out the blog 5 Reasons Performance Coaches LOVE Resistance Band Training.

Monitoring Part 2- Monitoring Tools That Every Coach Needs

Posted on: March 1st, 2016 by IYCA No Comments

In Part 1 of this blog I discussed why we monitor and considerations for monitoring your athletes. Part 2 is going to deal with how we monitor at the high school level.

Monitoring can be an expensive venture, but there are also less expensive ways that can be implemented by virtually anyone at any level.

This blog will detail two practical and inexpensive ways in which, monitoring can be implemented to help you make decisions, allowing you to meet your athletes where they are at on any given day.

#1 Surveys

Having your athletes take quick daily surveys can help create awareness regarding their habits. These surveys can be simple and ask as few or as many questions as you would like. Keeping it simple is best. Here is an example of some of the questions to ask:

How many hours did you sleep?
Did you eat breakfast?
How many bottles of water did you drink?
How tough was practice yesterday on a 1-5 scale with 5 being the hardest?
How tough was your workout yesterday on a 1-5 scale with 5 being the hardest?
How do you feel overall 1-5 scale with 5 being the hardest?

You could make a survey through excel pretty quickly and log your information there to keep track of long term trends with your athletes. There are a couple of ways in which this can be beneficial for you.

Make educated adjustments to your plan dependent upon feedback from the athlete
Identify, where you feel they are at from a readiness standpoint that day.
Look at long-term trends both individually and globally to make better decisions in programming for your athletes.

Individually, you may find that your athletes do not get enough sleep on Monday nights due to practice and academic obligations. Globally, you may find that the football team’s toughest day is on Tuesday every week. Knowing that your athletes average 6 hours of sleep on Monday nights and also have their toughest day on Tuesday allows you to adjust and make the best decision for your athletes that day.

It is very important that you use the data that you collect!

Pro Tip: Collecting data for the sake of collecting data is counter-productive. The adjustments you make off of the data collections is what is of real significance.

You can also up the ante and implement technology to take surveys. There are programs that exist where athletes can enter survey information into their phones, and it collects and organizes the data. This is a real time saver for busy trainers.

Here is an example of a survey:

Monitoring Part 2 Image- Fred Eaves

#2 Autoregulation (APRE-RPE Scales)

A second cost-effective way to monitor your athletes is by using an APRE/RPE scale in their strength training programming. APRE is defined by Dr. Bryan Mann as Autoregulatory Progressive Resistance Exercise. APRE is a method that takes the daily readiness of the athlete into account through adjustment protocols that dictate working sets.

There are two warm up sets, and then the third set is a set to failure at a prescribed rep max (RM). The results of the third set dictate the weight used on the fourth and final set.

As a coach, this can be used to help the athlete train to the highest level possible for that specific training session according to the physical state of the athlete.

We do not use strict percentages in our program but rather we use them as a guide.

Use this auto-regulation method to dictate our training loads for the day.

Pro Example:

I always use the example of the athlete who slept 3 hours the night before a hard training session that is under tremendous personal and academic stress when describing the need for this type of training. This athlete may have a prescription to hit 2 reps at 95% that day, but due to his physiological state that 95% is really more like 105% that day. This is why autoregulation can play such a key factor in the development of your athletes.

Dr. Mann from the University of Missouri has done a tremendous amount of work in this area, and has written an E-book specifically on APRE methods. 1

Mann’s Example:

Here is what typical APRE protocol according would look like:

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SET 4 ADJUSTMENTS- REFER to this chart after set 3

2016-02-29_1611

An RPE scale in conjunction with APRE methods is another effective manner in which to implement RPE. RPE stand for rate of perceived exertion. Athletes use this rating scale to rank the difficulty of a set in training.

Pro Example: Sample RPE rating scale

Pro Example:

An example would be an athlete does 155lbs. for 10 reps. When he finishes this set on set three, he rates whether or not he had one rep, two reps, or multiple reps left in the tank. Then picks an appropriate weight to finish his fourth set, using the adjustment chart below.

Here is an example of what this looks like:

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SET 4 ADJUSTMENTS- REFER To This Chart after set 3

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Look at long term trends when recording their numbers to make sure there is consistent progress. Do not worry about disp as this is common due to the variable nature of the high school athlete.

Conclusion

Two simple and cost-effective measures in which to monitor and adjust for your athletes have been outlined. Use these tools to tremendously impact your athletes in way that is both feasible and practical.

Are your athletes prepared to perform?

Download our free PDF and Overview video on the long term athletic development model.

About the Author: Fred Eaves

Fred Eaves, Ed.S, M.Ed, CSCS, RSCC, IYCA, USAW, USATF, BIOFORCE Conditioning Coach Certified, 2015 NSCA H.S. Strength Coach of the Year, 2013 Samson Equipment & AFM H.S. Strength Coach of The Year
References

Mann, B. (2011). THE APRE: The scientifically proven fastest way to get strong.

5 Easy-to-Remember Aspects of Program Design

Posted on: January 21st, 2016 by IYCA No Comments

The best youth coaches are always looking for ideas, tips and tricks to improve their program development. Maybe it’s because they are the “never settle for anything less than perfection” type personalities, or just because they are getting bored with their current programming.

Either way, we have found some great techniques for how to approach program development, that will help you improve your programming, mix up the mundane, and continue to get great results with your athletes.

Pro Tip: When developing a program or improving an existing program, think of the acronym P.L.A.C.E. to make sure that you are delivering an extraordinary experience.

Plan & Prepare

Every program needs a good amount of planning and preparing. It is no secret that the best performance coaches in the industry have a tried & true system when it comes to planning and prepping their sessions.

What is your plan? How do you prepare?

Quality planning and preparation will take your training to the next level

Learn how to prepare your athletes to perform and to design programs that fit within a model of long term athlete development.

Watch Video

Lifelong Lessons

You have an amazing opportunity to simulate and help athletes overcome many barriers and obstacles. Find ways to relate training back to life and make it a part of each program.

Overcoming barriers, fears, weakness and obstacles can easily be brought into a training program in a non-threatening, manageable way. It is a great moment for you to impact that athlete for life.

On a similar note, when you program from the long term athlete development model and principles, not only do you get to spend many years with a single athlete, you also get to implement a rock-solid foundation in movement that will change their life.

Never lose site of the bigger picture: lifelong health & happiness.

Application to sport

It is an unfortunate reality that many athletes are defined by the sports that they play. Educating them on the need to be well-rounded, foundationally sound and the concepts of long term athlete development is essential.

But the reality is still there. That is why “application to sport” is still an important part of your program. Don’t over-emphasize this topic, but give your sport-athletes as much as they they need when it comes to relating components of your program to their sport.

Confidence Building

Confidence building should be an integral part of each and every session when working with athletes. Providing a platform for confidence building will allow your athletes to achieve goals and perform at a higher level.

How will you help your athlete(s) mentally? Whether it’s in the confidence that you have in them, or the way that you play to their strengths and build their weaknesses.

There are many ways to instill confidence as a coach, so make it a priority.

Evaluate

There are two pieces to the evaluation part of your program:

Evaluate the athletes
Evaluated by the athletes

Every time you see an athlete, there should be a constant evaluation process that takes place. How are they feeling, how is school, how busy are they, how do they look when they move?

Much of this evaluation should occur in your warm ups and before they start working.

Secondly, they evaluate you. At the end of each session, you can ask for feedback. How did they rank the session? How did they rank their performance? (I use a # system, 1-10)

Summary:

The good news is that the acronym PLACE is easy to remember, and will help you think through the basics of what to include in your program design.

What others tips, tricks and recommendations do you use? We’d love to hear!

Want to help make sure your athletes are prepared to perform for the long-run and not just for next week’s big game?

Download our FREE Prepared to Perform Video to hear youth coaching expert Wil Fleming break down critical aspects of the long-term athlete model.

Author: Julie Hatfield

Julie is the Executive Director of the International Youth Conditioning Association (IYCA). She grew up as an athlete and played collegiate softball at Juniata College. She currently owns and operates her own youth fitness business pouring into young athletes. Her areas of expertise are youth sport performance, youth fitness business and softball training/instruction. Julie grew up on a dairy farm and can challenge the best of the best in a cow-milking contest. 😉

Running Your Own Coaches’ Speed & Agility Clinic

Posted on: January 30th, 2015 by IYCA No Comments

As a coach and trainer, I spent years looking for ways to educate more athletes, more coaches and more parents. As my business grew, so did my reputation for being a softball coach and youth fitness specialist. Proof came in the results: athletes running faster and quicker and ultimately feeling stronger and confident.

It wasn’t long before I knew that I had to take my game to the next level and start educating the coaches of my athletes. After all, their athletes were only with me one or two times per week, but were with their coaches for 3-5 times per week. Sport coaches spend hours with their athletes, so why not join forces?

I found that my annual coaches’ clinic became a great forum to do this. Not only was it my direct link to hundreds of athletes (for every one coach there are 10-20 athletes connected to them) but it was also a way to bridge the gap between coaches and trainers.

We now work together for one common purpose: to give the most and the best for the athletes that walk into our programs.

Types of Speed Clinics

In this post, I want to talk about the two different kinds of speed clinics that you can host as well as when, where and how to go about getting your first coaches’ clinic underway. Essentially, I want to give you my coaches’ clinic template.

High school summer conditioning program - Coaches' Clinic There are many different kinds of clinics beyond these, but this is what I will touch on today.

1. Speed & Agility Clinic
2. Speed & Skills (Combination Clinic)

Personally, #2 has always been my choice, but #1 is effective as well. If you do know skills of a particular sport, you can usually play to that strength and draw more coaches. Here are some steps when setting up your own coaches’ clinic:

Determine What Kind of Clinic You Will Have

What Will You Cover in Your Clinic?

– Speed? Skills? Drills?
– Sport Specific? General?
– Olympic Lifting? Lifting Mechanics, etc?

Figure out where your strengths and knowledge are, and play to those. If you are an excellent baseball coach and know how to teach skills and speed, build your clinic around those two aspects. Coaches love sport specificity.

Naming Your Coaches’ Clinic

When marketing your clinic, you want to be able to relate the name of your clinic to your market. When naming your own coaches’ clinic, think simple. Here are some suggestions:

1. Game Speed Coaches’ Clinic
2. [Insert Sport] Coaches’ Clinic
3. Speed & Agility Coaches’ Clinic
4. Making Athletes Faster Coaches’ Clinic
5. Strength, Power and Quicker [Insert Sport] Coaches’ Clinic

Try to include a few things that play on the “needs” of your target market. For example, if you have softball athletes – “Increasing your athletes’ hitting power” plays to an aspect of the sport that all coaches want to coach to. Ask yourself, what does your target market want?

Picking a Date/Time for Your Coaches’ Clinic

When setting the specifics of your coaches’ clinic, remember that these are adults, not kids.

Many meetings for them occur between 7pm-9pm M-Th, so focus on those times. Providing a two or three week-long clinic is also valuable and can allow you to cover topics each session.

Be sure that you pick a day of the week that is not a holiday. Plan for at least two months of marketing for this clinic.

Duration of Your Coaches’ Clinic

2 hours. Again, if you have more content to cover, do it over a couple weeks, rather than a 4 hour clinic.

Rate of Your Coaches’ Clinic

Generally $10-$20 per hour for clinics is a good rate.

Example Details for Flyer/Email

So, you have decided on all of these things, here is an example of what it would look like:

Sport Specific Flyer/Email

Title: Softball Speed, Skills & Drills Coaches’ Clinic

Time: 7-9pm, Mondays in February (4 Days, 8 Hours of Coaching Instruction)

Location: Add your facility location name

Rate: $80.00 per coach/parent

Student Rate: (14+ athletes): $15.00 per athlete

Speed Only Flyer/Email

Title: Game Speed Coaches’ Clinic

Time: 7-9pm Tuesday January 13th

Location: Add your facility location name

Rate: $30.00 per coach/parent

Student Rate: (14+ athletes): $15.00 per athlete

Marketing Your Own Coaches’ Clinic

Now that you have the details of your clinic, it is time to start marketing your clinic. There are a number of ways to market your own coaches’ clinic:

Work With Multiple Local Recreation Teams

In this situation, if you connect with the president or director of the organization, you can offer organizational rates. In many cases, different leagues promote learning and education, so if that director feels that their coaches can benefit from your clinic, they may just do the marketing for you.

If you have a parent of an athlete that plays in an organization, this is one of the best ways to leverage your efforts.

Email Your List

Allow all customers 14+ to join, this includes parents. Many parents just want education on this, so do not limit your clinics to coaches only. Open the door to athletes, parents, and coaches. Again, this helps bridge the gap.

Create a Press Release

Reach out to your local media channels, including local newspapers, television stations, and any other outlets that can possibly grab this story and run with it.

Offer Group & Early Bird Discounts

The great thing about this is that there are a number of ways to offer discounts. If a league brings multiple coaches, they can get a discount. Early bird discounts are possible, too. This will help you determine your baseline, as well.

Be creative here. Give incentives (especially for your first clinic). Once you get them in the door, then you can work your magic.

Structuring Your Coaches’ Clinic

clipboard They walked through your door.

Whatever way it happened, you now have coaches sitting in front of you, waiting and willing to learn.

What do you teach them?

Well, that is up to you, but this is the template that I suggest.

Remember to keep it interactive. Get them up and get them moving. Coaches need to “feel it” to “get it,” too.

Template 1: Speed-Focused

1. Introduction and Overview of Clinic and Your Business (10 Minutes)

2. Prepare to Move by Moving to Prepare (10-20 Minutes)

Perform and teach a thorough team warm-up (let coaches participate).
Allow for Q & A during this time.

3. Foundations of Speed (10 Minutes)

Discuss the importance of mobility, range of motion, etc.

4. Mechanics of Speed (10 Minutes)

Break the mechanics of speed down in this section. Take them through drills, as if you are first teaching your athletes about the mechanics.
Have attendees do it/feel it.

5. Speed Drills (Pick your #) (60 Minutes of Content)

Name it.
Demonstrate it.
Break it down and teach it.
Have attendees perform it.
Show 1 or 2 variations.
Indicate application to different sports (or specific sport that you are doing the clinic for).

Repeat this process for as many speed drills that you would like to cover.

6. Q&A (10 Minutes)

Template 2: Sport/Skills-Focused

1. Introduction and Overview of Your Business (5 Minutes)

2. Prepare to Move by Moving to Prepare (10-20 Minutes)

Perform and teach a thorough team warm-up (let coaches participate).
Allow for Q & A during this time.

3. Teaching Speed (10 Minutes)

Briefly discuss the mechanical breakdown of speed (have attendees do it/feel it). This is foundational to any sport, so allowing your coaches to learn HOW to teach it (focus on cue words and form) is key.

4. Drills & Skills (Pick your #) (75-90 Minutes of Content)

Name it.
Demonstrate it.
Break it down and teach it.
Have attendees perform it.
Show 1 or 2 variations.
Indicate application to different sports (or specific sport that you are doing the clinic for).

Repeat this process for as many speed drills that you would like to cover. Allow for Q&A during this time.

5. Q&A (10 Minutes)

These templates can work with almost any coaches’ clinic. Be sure to fill in the blanks with activities, skills and drills that are unique to your facility and business. Give the coaches and parents a “taste of your culture” and I would highly recommend giving them an offer at the end.

In our businesses, it is important to get kids through the door. Offering a team training session, a discount and/or something specific to that clinic will allow you to successfully get more athletes through the doors.

Tips/Tricks

Be sure to collect all contact information for your list.
Extend a “Thank You for Attending” email after your first clinic.
Plan an annual clinic to add consistency and enable time for growth (I have little league directors that expect coaches’ clinics annually).
Have your “plan”.
Have opportunities for their athletes (make the offer at the clinic).
Find what works for you in terms of duration: one day or multi-day clinics are effective.
Elicit the help of your young athletes to help demonstrate in real-time.
Bring your “A” game to every clinic.

Good luck,
Julie Hatfield

About the Author: Julie Hatfield

Want to Develop Speed and Agility in Your Athletes?

If you want to develop speed in your young athletes there is no better resource than the 15 Free Agility Drills. Learn Jim Kielbaso’s secrets to improving your athlete’s coordination, balance and speed.

Conditioning vs. Speed Training

Posted on: July 21st, 2014 by IYCA 1 Comment

The Debate Over Conditioning Vs. Speed Training Continues

Much confusion abounds as to the differences between conditioning vs. speed training.

Track and field coaches generally classify speed training as many short, repetitive bouts of sprinting followed by ample periods of rest to allow for full recovery.

Repeated high-intensity efforts may, in fact, be the purest form of linear speed training.

On the other hand, football or soccer coaches often believe training for speed involves performing as many high-intensity repetitions as possible in a given amount of time.

So which type of coach is truly training athletes for speed?

Recently, I had the pleasure of attending a seminar featuring one of the premiere strength coaches in the country, Joe Kenn.

As head strength and conditioning coach for the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League, Kenn routinely takes his players through 66 work sets in only 90 to 120 minutes.

That’s a lot of work in a short period of time.

Kenn has a strong case to apply this method. Because football players must operate under a fatigued state during a game, they will highly benefit from practicing with little rest between sets. While performing a high volume of repetitions in a relatively short period of time isn’t ideal for building speed, football players never perform in ideal conditions.

Nearly all athletes must learn to perform when their bodies are worn.

At my facility in Madison, WI, we train our high school athletes with a similar philosophy, although we often have access to them only once or twice per week. So, it’s important we incorporate both speed training and conditioning into each workout.

Because we deal with a wide range of athletic abilities and developmental ranges with high school athletes, we approach each individual’s plan a bit differently. We integrate speed training following a thorough warm-up and dynamic movement.

For the developmentally younger athletes, we focus on technique and practice deceleration patterns, sprint mechanics and footwork. Our developmentally older athletes work on sprinting, cutting, changing directions and building top-end speed.

Our highly developed athletes focus on reactive speed and potentially combine-based drills to prepare for a camp or tryout. All of these athletes work diligently to master the basics and fix any flaws in their movement patterns to help them remain injury-free and avoid plateaus.

Following the speed training portion of the workout, our athletes begin their strength exercises such as a squat, deadlift and Turkish get-up. Each compound movement is paired with another exercise even if it’s just low-level core work to reset an athlete’s autonomic nervous system.

If you look at time-motion studies for field- and court-sport athletes, they work intensely for brief periods of time and recover actively with low-level activity.

In a game, an athlete must always be mentally active, so the job of a strength and conditioning coach is to prepare athletes in a way that makes a game easier than a training session. Athletes must remain active through an entire workout. After our athletes complete the strength portion of the workout, they begin their focused conditioning. Here’s where we have the most fun.

Thanks to advancements in research of the anaerobic and aerobic energy systems, we are able to be much more efficient and systematic with how we condition our athletes. Athletes play different sports and have different schedules, so we must have a broad array of conditioning sequences to address each situation.

Ultimately, we are looking to provide a bigger aerobic base for our athletes.

While we don’t want to run them into the ground all year long, we must systematically build a bigger aerobic base to develop greater potential for performance. Then, athletes are able to tap into that potential during the most important part of a season. They’ll peak while athletes from other teams feel fatigued.

So, should we run our athletes through many short, repetitive bouts with ample rest to allow for full recovery or perform repeated high-intensity efforts without much rest for best results? In short, both have a place in a strength and conditioning program. The debate will continue, though—and that’s a great thing.

If more great coaches publicize their philosophies, we will continue to advance our methods and improve the performance of our athletes. If we continue to look out for the best interests of our athletes, they will perform better than they ever thought possible.

ADAPT and Conquer,
Coach Jared

About the Author: Jared Markiewicz

Jared is founder of Functional Integrated Training (F.I.T.). F.I.T. is a performance-based training facility located in Madison, WI. They specialize in training athletes of all levels: everyday adults, competitive adults and youth ages 5-20+.

The long-term vision for F.I.T. is recognition as the training facility for those desiring to compete at the collegiate level in the state of Wisconsin. Alongside that, to also develop a platform to educate those in our industry looking to make strides towards improving the future for our young athletes.

Find out more about Jared’s gym by visiting F.I.T.

Career Highlights

2014 Fitness Entrepreneur of the Year – Fitness Business Insiders
2014 IYCA Coach of the Year Finalist
Volunteer Strength Coach for West Madison Boys Hockey and Westside Boys Lacrosse
Helped develop dozens of scholarship athletes in 3 years of business
Instructed Kinesiology Lab at UW-Madison
Houses an internship program at F.I.T. that started in 2013
Member of Elite Mastermind Group of Nationwide Fitness Business Owners

How to ‘Hack’ the Broad Jump

Posted on: April 4th, 2014 by IYCA 3 Comments

CJ Easter

By CJ Easter

In the hierarchy of performance testing, the vertical jump is much more glorious than the broad jump. Every kid wants that elusive “40 inch vert.” However, in most sports, even in jumping sports like basketball and volleyball, power in the transverse plane (i.e. explosive first step) is more important than power in the saggital plane (i.e. vertical jump).

The broad jump also has a high correlation to an athlete’s sprinting ability because of the similarity in force angles. You’ll see a lot similarities between this article and my breakdown of the 40 yard dash start from last week.

Grab your free Athletic Development Playbook by clicking on the image below.

Load

Broad Jump Load

Feet are hip width
Athlete extends at the knee, hip, ankle, and reaches overhead to create momentum for the counter movement.

Counter Movement

Counter Movement

Athlete will rip the arms down and slam the heels down to initiate the counter movement
Arms continue to load back. Torso leans forward as hips and arms load back. Weight shifts forward to midfoot and ball of foot as center of gravity shifts forward with torso.
Shins should be at 45° and the angle of the shins should intersect the shoulder. These angles will maximize the athlete’s forward propulsion.

Launch

Broad Jump Launch

Athlete throws arms violently forward and triple extends at the knee, hip, and ankle, pushing the ground back as powerfully as possible.
Launch angle should match shin angle of 45°.
Athlete should be patient and push into the ground as long as possible because once the feet leave the ground no more force can be produced.

Leg Cycle

Broad Jump Leg Cycle

Once athlete leaves the ground, they should quickly cycle the heals to the butt to maximize hang time.

Extension and Landing

Broad Jump Extension and Landing

After peak of jump, athlete should extend their legs to stick landing. Arms will pull back to counterbalance the legs.
Athlete should extend legs as far forward as they can while still sticking the landing. Lower body will absorb the force while the upper body continues with its forward momentum until the center of gravity is back over the base.

Slow Motion Video

If you want a video library of over 100 jump training drills broken down step-by-step and a complete 6-week system to implement these drills today, check out Ultimate Jump Training.

How Do You Assess Student Fitness Levels?

Posted on: March 31st, 2014 by IYCA No Comments

fitness levels

Alex Slezak – M.Ed, YFS, YSAS, HSSCS

Often I see physical education programs comparing student data to norms or standards and then inferring if a student is healthy or not. I have no problem with comparing data to norms; however, I think it can be a bit of a stretch to classify a child as “healthy” or “unhealthy” based only on a few tests. In my experience sometimes children score low not because they are unfit, but because the test is inappropriate or involves a novel movement pattern. I also wonder what effect labeling a young child as healthy or unhealthy has on them? My point with all of this is that I personally think we are missing the boat on the real value of assessments. Assessments are not about being able to tell someone if they are healthy or not but rather should be used to drive instruction and provide critical feedback to the effectiveness of the instruction to both the teacher and student.

There are so many test batteries available to physical educators. Many professionals heatedly debate over which is better than the other. The truth is, none are inherently “better.” A test is only clearly better when it meets unique needs. Selecting a test begins with knowing what you want to asses and how you are going to use the results. For example, I may do a heart rate mile test with seniors in high school just to see where conditioning levels are at the beginning of the year. By doing this, I know which students need a more intense training stimulus to elicit adaptation and which do not.

In this class, one of my goals would be to improve conditioning regardless of the level they enter with. It would make no sense to hold those back who need an intense and focal stimulus, nor does it make sense to punish those with ridiculously hard workouts when they do not need them to improve. This assessment allows me to individualize my instruction. I can then run this same test again to see if there is an improvement. This will allow me to assess the effectiveness of my program and adjust or modify as necessary. The assessment allows me to create better-designed lessons and provides both teacher and student with critical feedback. For students, few things are more motivating than actually seeing results.

I also select tests according to age-appropriateness for the population with which I am working. For example, in elementary school I do not focus on tests of strength and conditioning like I would for high school students. I say that because oftentimes these aspects improve simply because children are maturing and growing. It is obvious that if a student’s heart and lungs grows bigger, so too will conditioning capacity.

Instead, my goal in elementary school is to develop general athletic ability and coordination. It is easy to see that using a mile run is not going to provide me much useful information to design lessons or see if instruction is working. In this case, I am more likely to select a qualitative assessment like the Functional Movement Screen (FMS). This helps me identify the students who have good fundamental movement patterns and those who do not. This also provides a basis for designing instruction. When I assess the athletes again later, subsequent FMSs tell me if the instruction I am delivering is meeting my goal of making the athletes better movers.

In summary, no test is better than any other. In fact, I think any coach or fitness professional working with young athletes should be familiar with a wide variety of both quantitative and qualitative assessments. The wider the array of tools in the toolbox, the better equipped a professional will be at employing tests that are appropriate and that provide the necessary feedback to design and deliver the best instruction possible. Anyone who is truly a teacher at heart should want to do the best possible job, and appropriate assessments can help do just that.

Alex is a Physical Education teacher and operates a tennis & fitness training business in Pittsburgh, PA. You can learn more by visiting his website at www.AlexSlezak.com.

IYCA Member Spotlight: Jim Kielbaso

Posted on: September 2nd, 2013 by IYCA No Comments

Jim Kielbaso MS, CSCS is the Director of the Total Performance Training Center and author of Utlimate Speed & Agiity as well as creator of the IYCA’s Ultimate Speed Drills and Ultimate Speed Mechanics resources. He is a former college strength coach and has trained thousands of athletes at every level of competition.

Q: What’s your background?

A: I am a former college strength coach and the author of the book Ultimate Speed & Agility. I have a BS in Exercise Science from Michigan State and an MS in Kinesiology from the University of Michigan. I have been in the industry for 20 years, have multiple certifications and have spoken at many conferences and clinics.

Q: What do you do in your career today?

A: I’m currently the Director of the Total Performance Training Centers in Wixom and Rochester Hills, MI. I work with multiple high schools and run an NFL Combine Prep program every year. I also enjoy the educational aspect of this profession which is why I helped create both www.FootballTrainingPros.com and www.UltimateStrengthAndConditioning.com to spread quality training information to coaches and trainers around the world.

Q: What does the IYCA mean to you?

A: I discovered the IYCA about three years ago and was instantly impressed with the organization, mission and professionalism of the group. There were no egos, just genuine people wanting to grow the profession and learn from each other. It was a refreshing attitude, and I knew I wanted to be more involved. Since then, I’ve been able to speak at two of their events and I’ve created two speed & agility products with them. Every interaction I’ve had with the IYCA has been positive and the people, both members and staff, have been incredible.

Q: Can you share why you created the IYCA Ultimate Speed Mechanics & IYCA Ultimate Speed Drills resources?

A: When I talk to other trainers and watch their speed & agility training sessions, I often notice a couple of issues. The first is that many coaches just run athletes through drills with very little instruction or feedback on proper movement mechanics. I see coaches using speed training tools like sleds and bands, but they aren’t correcting faulty movement patterns.

The second thing I notice is that coaches get stuck in a rut and use the same old drills all the time. Not only is this boring, there are often more appropriate drills available.

With these two things in mind, I helped the IYCA create two products that address these issues. The first is called Ultimate Speed Mechanics where I break down many common sport movements so that we can teach athletes how to move properly. I include simple and effective coaching cues so that you can make immediate changes with just about any athletes.

The second product is called Ultimate Speed Drills. This product includes dozens of drills and variations that will allow you to expand your toolbox. You’ll never have to worry about having the right drills for every situation.

When I shared my idea with the IYCA leadership, they agreed that these products would help plenty of their members, so we put together two fantastic resources that include both video and written portions.

You can learn more about IYCA Ultimate Speed Mechanics & IYCA Ultimate Speed Drills at the links below:

IYCA Ultimate Speed Mechanics:

http://ultimatespeedmechanics.com/

IYCA Ultimate Speed Drills:

http://ultimatespeeddrills.com/

Speed & Agility Training to Improve Sport Performance

Posted on: May 17th, 2013 by IYCA 5 Comments

Speed and Agility Training To Improve Sports Performance

by Todd Durkin

Speed kills. Speed and agility training in sport gives an athlete an edge on his/her competition. And the great news is that it can all be learned through technique training, proper drills, and hard work. If you’re wanting and willing to get faster, let’s dive (or sprint!) into the action.

In this article, you will learn all about improving your speed and agility training. You will learn about stride rate, stride length, and proper running mechanics. You will learn several different speed improvement training drills, exercises, and programs that will enable you to reach new levels in your sport.

And you will learn:

Best strength exercises for speed development
Top technique tips for speed performance
Power and plyometrics to develop fast-twitch muscle fiber
Nutrition for optimal fueling
Top recovery strategies

So don’t be left in the dust. Dive into the article and find out all the in’s and out’s of improving your speed and agility.

SPEED TRAINING

First off, let’s understand speed training and its components. Here are the phases of Speed Training:

Dynamic Warm-Up (see below; not really a phase of speed training but essential to include prior to speed training)
Mechanics
Acceleration (reaching maximum speed in the shortest amount of time possible)
Top-End Speed
Deceleration
Change of Direction (Agility & Quickness)

As we talk about speed training, it is necessary to understand the following principles:

“Stride Frequency”: The number of strides taken in a given amount of time or distance. This is improved via technique drills, cycling, towing, sprinting and bungee work.
“Stride Length”: The distance covered from one stride when sprinting. Strength and flexibility are the most important factors to improve stride length.

All great speed and agility training programs should be preceded by a great General Warm-up and Dynamic Warm-up. A general warm-up is 5-10 minutes of exercise to begin elevating core tissue temperature, increase heart rate, and prepare the body for a workout or competition. Examples will include running, treadmill, jumping rope, elliptical, or bike.

One would then proceed into the Dynamic Warm-Up

Speed and Agility Training Dynamic Warm-Up:

Should be performed before every workout, practice or competition, and should take approximately 5-25 minutes.

The purpose of the Dynamic Warm-Up is to: Increase tissue temperature, improve flexibility, activate the nervous system, and help coordination and develop body awareness. It also lengthens fascia.

What is Fascia? Fascia is a specialized system of the body (connective tissue) which plays an important role in the support of our bodies. Fascia is a very dense connective tissue which envelops every muscle, bone, nerve, artery, and vein as well as our internal organs including the heart, lungs, brain and spinal cord. When fascia becomes constricted, it becomes tight, creates great pressure on its structures and becomes a great source of tension to the body.

The methods utilized to perform a dynamic warm-up are:

Movement in Space: (10-20 yards)

High knees
Butt-kicks
Cariocas
Exagerated Cariocas
A-Skips
B-Skips
Frankenstein Walks (& skips)
Lunge with rotation
Reverse lunge with reach over top
Side-lunges

Stationary:

Jumping jacks
Gate swings
Pogo hops
Seal jacks
Arm circles
Trunk rotations
Cats & Dogs
Downard Dog
Scorpion Kicks
1 Legged Windshield wipers
Bodyweight Squats

Perform each movement approx. 10-20 seconds.

Before a workout or competition, the emphasis is on a dynamic warm-up.

After a workout, the emphasis should be on static stretching and myofascial release.

Speed and Agility Training Flexibility:

Every time after you workout, practice or compete, there should be stretching that involves holding each stretch 20 seconds to 1 minute, and it should take 10 minutes minimally. Using a stretch rope, you should concentrate on your hip flexors, hamstrings, quads, calves, trunk and opening the chest and shoulders. The methods utilized to stretch are rope chest stretch, standing rotator cuff stretch, kneeling hip flexor stretch, cats & dogs, downward dog, lying rope hamstring stretch, lying rope lower back stretch, lying rope groin stretch, side-lying rope quad stretch, walking soldiers. Foam rolling (ie. The Grid or a foam roller) & a massage stick are essential to do on your own to promote fascia lengthening and recovery. This can be performed both before and after the workout.

When assessing speed, one of the most critical aspects is acceleration. Acceleration is defined as the ability and time it takes for the body to reach Top End Speed.

Mechanics and technique for acceleration include:

Foot Contact behind hip
Body angle at 45 degrees/Straight line from heel to neck
Chin to chest
Head down

Some of the best technique acceleration drills include:

Marches along wall
Wall Runs
3, 5, 7, 9 step wall sprints

STRENGTH, SPEED & ACCELERATION

A huge part of speed and agility training is acceleration, it is important to train and strengthen the posterior chain of the body—glutes, hamstrings, lower back, mid-back, and even the calves & feet. Some of the most effective methods and strength exercises to improve acceleration include:

Sled Drags & Sled Pulls
Resisted Towing
Tire Flips
Plate Pushes
Keiser Air Runner
Bullet Belt
Super Band Leap Frogs
Form running in place & move out
Legged Romanian Deadlifts
Calf Raises (Double & Single Leg)
Swiss Ball Leg Curls
TRX Hip Extensions/Bicycles, Leg Curls
Hyperextensions (Glute/Ham)
Barefoot Balance Touches (on airex pad)
Planks
Pullups

Once one achieves top-end speed (T.E.S.), the mechanics then change. Now, technique is a bit different:

Foot Contact now under hip
Body is upright
Upper body relaxed
Arms swinging 90-120 degrees from waist to chin; drive elbows back!
T.E.S. typically reached at approximately 20-30 yards on a linear sprint

Some drills to reinforce Top End Speed Mechanics/Technique Drills include:

Arm swing drills
Fast Claw Drill
Marches
Skipping

Some of the best exercises and methods to improve acceleration and T.E.S. include:

Uphill running
Stadium Steps
Resisted Speed Drills (bungees)
Assisted Over-speed training with bungee
High speed treadmill

Best Strength Exercises to Improve Overall Speed (& acceleration):

Squats (2 legged & 1 legged)
Step-ups
Lunges (variations)
Bulgarian Split Squats
Deadlifts
Plate Pushes
Sled Drags
Plyometrics (squat jumps, lunge hops, Box jumps, leap frogs, vertimax, etc.)
Olympic Lifts (snatch, clean & jerk, clean, power shrugs) (power development)
Core Conditioning (ie. hyperextensions, Glute/Ham Raise, Russian twists, Bosu Core, med ball standing twists, med ball standing windmills, med ball seated sidewinders, med ball side-tosses into wall, med ball throws (straight up), etc…
Pullups
Weighted arm swings

3 Tips for Speed Performance: (credit to Patrick Beith)

Tip 1 – Drive Phase – Don’t force yourself to “stay low”

The drive phase happens right after you react to the starting gun. Your initial 8 -10 steps is considered your drive phase. The biggest problem seen with athletes in the drive phase is that athletes are ‘trying’ to stay too low. Keep the body angle at about 45 degrees and keep the heel of the recovery leg low to the ground during the first 8 strides. Drive the foot into the ground and explode powerfully backwards to create maximum ground reaction force. Drive your elbows backwards and keep your head down. You should be in a straight line from your heels to your head.

Tip 2 – Acceleration Phase
In this phase, you want to think “powerful.” Since the acceleration phase (0-30 yards) is associated with a higher stride frequency then at maximum speed, focus on leg drive. You want to keep the feet behind your center of mass so that you can maximize leg drive. “Head down and drive.”

Tip 3 – Relaxation
One of the most challenging things to do is to stay relaxed while sprinting full speed. I often look at my athlete’s cheeks to see if they are running with “puppy dog” cheeks. If an athlete is too tense, their jaw will be tight and they will be tensing their entire body.

If you see an athlete with a tight face, eyes squinting, teeth clenched, elevated shoulders, and tight fists, they are actually slowing themselves down. You have to let your muscles work for you and not against to maximize your speed potential. This is a tough concept to learn and MUST be practiced if you want get the most out of our speed.

Relax and let your speed come to you!

There is an often forgot about third component to speed and agility training – and it is quickness. Let’s look at the difference.

Agility is the ability to accelerate, decelerate, and change directions as quickly as possible in the shortest amount of time possible

Closely related to balance
Should be able to move forward, backwards, left, & right all very well

Quickness is the ability to react to a stimulus in the environment in the shortest amount of time possible (a whistle, clap, defender, etc.)

Closely related to reaction time
Could be foot quickness or hand-eye quickness

Factors affecting Agility & Quickness:

Ground Reaction Forces
Reaction Time
Acceleration & Deceleration
Starting quickness (1st step quickness)
Cutting
Cross-over ability

Drills/Methodologies to Influence Agility & Quickness:

Line Drills—runs back & forth, jumping jack feet, front hops, side hops, Ali shuffles, 1-legged lateral hops, 1-legged front hops
5 dot drill
Mirror Drill
Tag Drill
Cone Drills (cone circles, box drill)
Bag Drills (shuffles, figure 8’s, shuffle & figure 8’s)
Agility Ladder drills (1 foot in each rung, sideways 2 feet in each rung, Ali shuffles, Icky Shuffles, NFL crossover drills)
BOSU foot Quickness Drills
Deceleration Drills
- Sprint & stop
- Sprint & stop and repeat
Super Band overspeed/resisted speed drills (running forward & backward or left & right with Super Band; works acceleration & deceleration)

* Incorporate hand-eye coordination into any of these drills for additional quickness/reaction time.

To include hand-eye coordination and reaction time, you can include drills such as:

Reaction ball drills (drops, rolls, into rebounder)
Card Catch drills
BOLA catches

Furthermore, if you are needing to increase your agility and quickness, you can use the same aforementioned exercises to improve your speed. Due to the fact that agility often is lateral quickness or involves cutting, it is imperative that the groins & hips are adequately worked also. The following exercises will augment the strength exercises found in the speed & acceleration section:

Diagonal Lunges
Slide Board
Lateral Band Walks
Side Lunges
Dirty Dogs
Horse-Back Riding

POWER for Speed and Agility Training

If an athlete really wants to reach full potential, they must be able to convert their strength into power. Power is defined as the ability of the neuro-muscular system to create a force rapidly. In its simplest term, power = strength + speed

Strength– the maximal amount of force a muscle can generate under a given set of conditions
Speed– the ability to move from one point to another point as fast as possible

Methodologies to improve power:

Olympic lifting
Plyometrics
Strength training with speed component

For the sake of this discussion, I am going to concentrate on plyometrics to improve power (along with strength). Plyometrics is a system of hopping, skipping, jumping, or running that works on developing explosive power and maximally recruiting fast-twitch muscle fiber by eccentrically loading a muscle and quickly producing a concentric force. Plyometrics are exercises that enable a muscle to reach maximum strength in as short a time as possible. The faster the eccentric movement (the loading phase), the more stored elastic energy will be released, resulting in a more explosive jump.

Benefits of plyometrics:

Improves power & elasticity
Trains the nervous system
Improves anaerobic conditioning
Transformation of muscle strength into power
Recruitment of most motor units and their corresponding muscle fibers
Develops fast twitch muscle fiber!!!

Rules of plyometrics:

Perform on soft surface
Do early in your routine
Land softly
Have adequate strength base before introducing advanced levels of plyometrics (approx. 10 weeks of resistance training)
No pain should be experienced in joints
Be attentive to form & technique
Be sure to stretch & work on strength & flexibility when using plyometrics as part of program
Use a 1:3 work/rest ratio for most plyometric exercises
Can be performed in many ways:
- immediately after dynamic warm-up
- Infuse it during your workout and perform immediately after a strength exercise (complex training)
- Can be performed on speed days also performed as separate sessions

3 Basic Categories of Lower Body Plyometric Exercises:

Jumping—taking off on one or two feet; landing on 2 feet (jumping jacks, leap frogs)
Hopping—taking off on one foot and landing on same foot (single leg hopping over line)
Bounding—taking off on one foot and landing on other foot (alternate leg bounds)

3 Stages of Plyometric Program Design:

Off-Season (General Conditioning)—2 to 3 times per week; 80-100 foot contacts

Pre-Season (Sport Specific)—2 to 3 times per week; 100-150 foot contacts

In-Season (Sport Specific Maintenance)—1 to 2 times per week; 80-100 foot contacts

3 Levels of Plyometrics

Beginning

Jumping Rope
Jumping Jacks
Line jumps & hops
Squat jumps
Tuck jumps
Skater plyos
Overhead Medicine Ball Tosses
Med Ball Chest Passes
Plyo Pushups on floor
Medicine Ball rotational ab twists into wall

Moderate

Box jumps
Lateral box jumps
1 legged jumps (front & lateral)
Supine medicine ball push presses (to partner)
1-legged lateral bounds
Plyo situps
Med ball throws into ground (with twist)
Explosive pushups onto 2 steppers
Explosive pushups onto 1 stepper
Med ball push press to partner into plyo pushup & repeat
Abdominal leg throws
Med ball overhead tosses, sprint, and retrieve

Advanced

Depth Jumps
Depth Jump with multiple repeats
Single leg triple jumps
Smith Machine Bench Press Throws to partner
Add another exercise to upper & lower body
Keiser Air Runner or double leap frongs
Increase height of box
Incorporate single leg movements
Use weighted vests

Recovery for Speed and Agility Training

With all this focus on proper training to improve overall athleticism, it is necessary to address one critical aspect to an athlete receiving maximum benefits from their training. It is called RECOVERY & REGENERATION. The following components play a critical role in determining how quickly an athlete can recover. The quicker the athlete can recover, the quicker they can train or perform again. Let’s take a look at a couple key components of recovery:

1) Nutrition is step one

Protein is step one; we want to increase protein synthesis. One should consume approximately 1 g per lb. of body weight.
A protein and carb drink promotes glycogen recovery faster than a carb drink alone following a workout. This helps stimulate protein synthesis.
Good nutrition controls insulin, glucagon, leptin, and other very important hormones.

insulin—stores nutrients into cells
leptin—follows insulin & caloric intake/deposition
glucagon—releases fat
Nutrient Timing does play a role in overall nutrition

2) Flexibility (see beginning of article)

Static Stretching
Yoga

3) Foam Roller or Massage Stick (Self-Myofascial Release)

4) Bodywork (massage, Rolfing, Optimal Performance Bodywork, etc.)

5) Infrared Saunas

6) Supplementation

Fish oils & Omega 3 Fatty Acids
Glucosamine, Chondroitin, MSM
Multi-vitamin & mineral Complex
B12

7) Sleep

During sleep, the production of growth hormone, testosterone, and IGF-1 are at their peak. Growth hormone speeds the absorption of nutrients and amino acids into your cells and aids the healing of tissues throughout the body. Testosterone and IGF-1 are anabolic hormones that are important in muscle growth and assist in recovery also. It is recommended that you get at least 8 hours of sleep when trying to optimize hormone-release and recovery.

Now that you have the tools, it’s time to implement the game-plan and begin working towards improving performance and designing a great speed and agility program. If you combine training hard, the correct methodologies, along with ample recovery & regeneration techniques, it is then that you can maximize your strength, speed, and power development. GO GET IT!!!

What to learn how to teach speed mechanics like the pros?

Check out Ultimate Speed Mechanics

About the Author

Todd Durkin is an internationally-recognized strength and conditioning coach who works with numerous NFL, MLB, and NBA athletes. He is the owner of Fitness Quest 10 in San Diego, CA, and the author of The IMPACT! Body Plan. For more information, visit www.ToddDurkin.com or follow him on Twitter at @ToddDurkin.

Misuse Of Speed and Agility Drills

Posted on: March 27th, 2013 by IYCA No Comments

Coaching Mistakes With Speed And Agility For Athletes Training

Alot of people in this field call themselves Strength & Conditioning Coaches. I don’t have a problem with the “Strength” part of the title, but the “Conditioning” part could use a little work.

As a former college S & C Coach, I fully understand the time constraints of the collegiate or high school environment. Running a private facility for athletes, I also understand the limitations of this situation. In both cases, it is very difficult to give every athlete the time and instruction they need. Still, there is one area of our profession that I feel is in desperate need of some attention. That area is what I call Movement Training.

Recently, I was asked by a college coach what mistakes I have made in the past and what I would do differently if I could re-live the past 6-10 years of my career. At first, like many coaches, my ego didn’t want to admit to any mistakes, especially to another coach. But, after some thought, I realized that the area in which I have the greatest impact on athletes today, I simply did not understand when I was younger.

A few years ago, I thought the best S & C Coach was the one who most fully brutalized his/her athletes. I thought I was supposed to lift my athletes until they puked and condition them until they couldn’t see straight. Don’t get me wrong, I still think that stuff has its place. I love putting athletes through brutally hard workouts, and I think that kind of hard work can have amazing benefits (it also has terrific entertainment value). But, through time, I have gained a better understanding of how to maximize the “Conditioning” or “Speed and Agility Training” part of my job title.

Conditioning via Speed and Agility For Athletes?

To a lot of coaches, conditioning means creating running programs that enhance the physiological processes involved in aerobic or anaerobic metabolism. You may not think of it this way, but that is essentially what many conditioning programs are designed to do. I have no problem with this. Conditioning sport-specific energy systems is a vital part of athletic success.

Many coaches also implement speed, agility, and plyometric routines into their programs, and I think it’s great to see coaches making an effort to improve the physical abilities of their athletes. Unfortunately, I see way too many mistakes being made in this area, and I think many coaches are doing their athletes an injustice.

Over the years, we have read articles by some great coaches about specificity, but the full message of these wise men is often lost in an effort to use their message to support our own views. I’m sure you’ve done it. You’ve read an article, and thought to yourself “That’s what I’m talkin’ about. That’s why I do what I do. I’m going to use this article to support my training philosophy.”

The articles have been great. They have helped a generation of S & C Coaches formulate their strength training philosophies….strength training philosophies. Why didn’t we see that the same information we’ve applied to strength training can also be used to develop effective programs when it comes to speed and agility for athletes?

In my opinion, a lot of S & C Coaches approach speed and agility for athletes the same way they approach strength training. They find out what other coaches are doing (through reading summer manuals, watching workouts, etc.), and duplicate it in their environments. This has worked out pretty well for strength training because there are a lot of good Strength and Conditioning Coaches to learn from.

Unfortunately, there are a few problems with learning about speed and agility or athletes this way. First, there are not nearly as many quality speed and agility coaches to learn from. Second, most of us didn’t learn anything about effective movement patterns in school. Third, proper coaching of speed and agility is highly dependent on coaching prowess, movement analysis, and the ability to understand proper movement patterns. It is more like teaching a sport skill; instructor knowledge is vital, and you can’t just apply a cookie-cutter approach like many coaches do with strength training. Nonetheless, we’ve learned our speed and agility drills from Strength Coaches not Speedand Agility coaches. The best case scenario for many of us was to learn a few drills from a track coach or catch an article outlining a couple of exercises. This kind of coaching just doesn’t cut it. I believe that movement training falls under the “Conditioning” part of our job title, and it’s time we take full responsibility for this important part of our jobs.

I like to call speed and agility work “movement training” because the goal is to train athletes how to move more efficiently. The problem with most movement training is the assumption that if we put some cones or hurdles out in a cool design and have our athletes run through them, we are making an impact on their movement patterns. The truth is, we’re not. All we’re doing is helping them reinforce whatever movement patterns they are using to get through the drill. Take a few minutes to re-read some of those specificity articles, and I think you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about.

I have had the good fortune of working with, observing, and learning from a lot of good sport coaches and instructors. I have never seen a good basketball coach allow players to take hundreds of jump shots with poor shooting technique, and I have never seen a good baseball coach let players pitch and hit with poor mechanics. Unfortunately, I have seen a lot of Strength Coaches allow athletes to perform hours of agility drills using horrible technique. A lot of coaches assume that if the athletes are going through the drills, their athleticism will improve. But, the benefits of performing speed and agility drills are dramatically reduced if the athletes are not executing them with sound mechanics and learning proper technique. If the coach is unable to analyze the movement and give corrective feedback, what good is he/she doing for the athletes?

There are still a lot of questions about movement training, but there are certainly some answers and a lot of room for us to improve. I look forward to examining this misunderstood aspect of our profession in more detail with you in the future.

If you want to learn how I coach speed and agility for athletes in my programs check out Ultimate Speed Drills.

3 Lessons From The NFL Combine

Posted on: February 25th, 2013 by IYCA No Comments

By Jim Herrick

This upcoming weekend, most of the nation’s top pro football prospects will gather in Indianapolis for the 2013 NFL Combine. It is what the league refers to as a ‘4 day job interview’, where participants are subjected to a battery of physcial tests, position drills, interviews, and aptitude tests to determine how likely they are to succeed in the league.

Millions of dollars can be earned by top performers, and jobs are on the line for the team’s talent evaluators. Everyone has a huge stake in making sure this event truly measures what it takes to be successful.

And these days, you’ll find combine events for college and pro prospects in just about every other sport, as well.

There are some critical lessons we, as youth coaches and parents, can all take away from these high-stakes events. As you watch the incredible athletic feats demonstrated this weekend, remember that what you see is a product of the thousands of hours these college kids put in since they were very young. And remember too that there is a correct path to reaching the heights of athletic development. When followed correctly, it can add up to serious success in the long run.

LESSON 1 – Do Everything You Can To Build Speed & Agility

3 of the 6 main physical tests (40 yd dash, 5-10-5 shuttle and 3 cone drill) measure pure speed and cutting ability. Why? Athletes who can get from Point A to Point B in the least amount of time – whether in a straight line or with some stops along the way – make more plays. This is not exclusive to football, it is true for almost all sports.

How should young athletes begin working on speed?

As early in possible as life, encourage your kids to move and move often. It doesn’t have to be a formal event or practice, in fact that may be detrimental in earlier years, so have some fun with them. Their nervous system will figure things out far better than our coaching cues anyways.

Put them in a coordination and balance rich environment often. Create engaging but challenging activities that enhance their ability to move better while building an early base of stability, which will help even further.

Develop healthy eating habits early on, as well. A large part of being fast involves maximizing your strength while minimizing your body mass. Poor eating habits will not only drain your energy but will also hamper your ability to stay both lean and strong simultaneously.

Get strong, and keep getting stronger at an age appropriate level. In your earlier years jumping, running and other basic bodyweight activities will do plenty. As time goes on resistance will need to increase. Band and free weight exercises, along with advanced bodyweight strength will achieve great results when implemented properly.

Refine speed and agility technique once your kids are mature enough where they can internalize specific coaching. In my experience I’ve seen kids as young as 9 years old learn and improve from specific technique tips, but this is rare. Usually it’s not until 12 years old or later, but the earlier the better as poor habits will be easier to break. Coaches will need to be a commanding force when technique drills are covered, since so much of speed development is about repeating and perfecting movements. Balance the seriousness of technique work with some game-based drills where kids can be kids and have some fun, but be sure to make clear your expectations for focus and effort when you transition back to skill work.

LESSON 2 – If Speed is the #1 Most Coveted Physical Ability, Explosive Power Is Clearly #1A

The NFL also has 2 separate explosive power tests, the vertical jump and broad jump. With the understanding that speed is a byproduct of power output, then 5 of the 6 performance tests this weekend will measure power in one form or another.

Power is highly sport-specific. The NFL uses the vertical jump and broad jump because the evaluate a prospect’s ability to tackle and block well. A soccer combine may be more concerned with kicking power, hockey combines may measure slap shot power, and all other sports may have their own variations of power tests too.

For youth performance coaches and parents looking to build sport-speicifc power, you should be focusing on two skills that form the foundation of almost all power movements – hip hinging and hip rotation.
By learning to hinge at the hip joint correctly, you can maximize power output while jumping, skating and sprinting. Young athletes sometimes incorporate too much knee or even lower back flexion and avoid using the more powerful hip muscles. Re-teaching this pattern will unlock their true power potential, and allow them to further improve their explosiveness by properly executing advanced exercises like Olympic lifting and plyometrics as they get older.

Hip rotation is critical to power output in sports like baseball, softball, ice hockey, field hockey, tennis, golf, and lacrosse. Done properly, you will be able to explode through the entire trail side of your movement, from the foot all the way through the shoulders. Being able to maximize total-body rotational power will once again unlock your current potential and make better use of development exercises using tools like medicine balls and functional training machines.

LESSON 3 – Elite Athletes Come In All Shapes And Sizes

This weekend you will see both 5’8″, 170 lb and 6’8″, 350 lb prospects, along with many others at just about every size in between. Extended beyond pro football, there is a much wider range of male and female athletic frames, skill sets and abilities.

The lesson? Kids should never focus on what they cannot become, and instead seek inspiration in all the things they can become some day with dedication, effort, and perseverance. No matter what your current size or skill level may be, there are doors of opportunity somewhere for you if you truly want to achieve excellence.

To increase a young athlete’s chances of success, the younger years should be dedicated to taking part in a wide range of activities, and developing basic physcial skills. Pigeonholing them into one sport or activity too early will make it much harder to create the large ‘toolbox’ of athleticism needed to excel later on.

The undersized and lightning quick 8 year old may grow to be the tallest person in his or her 9th grade class. Younger kids whose parents may see as being too stocky could find an active sport they love and completely transform themselves in their teenage years. Not knowing where a child will actually end up, by focusing on variety and foundational skills over a sport-specific track you will maximize their chance of long-term success.

If you do watch any of the testing this weekend keep in mind that it took a lot of hard work for each of them to get where they are right now. And also remember that although every kid will not become a professional athlete some day, there are certain traits that all elite athletes need to reach the top that are trainable and can be greatly enhanced over time.