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AFM Magazine


The Speed Report: Increasing Your Lineman\'s Speed

by: Dale Baskett
Football Speed Specialist
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Each month I will be writing an article on football speed and guidelines for each position. Every position has unique speed characteristics that we can focus on for improving effective speed and quickness traits that are germane to football speed. When coaching linemen for speed and quickness we must take into account that they are large, unique people compared to other athletes. It is important to coaches to utilize training applications that are most effective for helping athletes to move fast. Linemen need to be trained within the physical and mental parameters that are relative to their size and mentality! Providing technically sound and specific speed skills for their position is critical. Linemen are not the same physically as their counterparts; therefore, we must utilize training applications that benefit the large people. Volume amounts of running is not a prescription that I would write for maximizing linemen speed. It's correct application that counts; mass volume is incorrect. This is not always a popular notion among football coaches. Many feel that if some is good, more must be better.

    Speed training linemen physically and mentally for the best results is totally Dependant on a specifically designed program. It's possible to make big linemen change old habits and erase programmed concepts that are flawed. The change overcomes from applying new visual concepts which trigger better spontaneous characteristics physically and mentally. Through scientifically proven methods we can produce amazing performance results.

Linemen Mentality - "I'm Fast, I'm Slow?"

    Linemen are a breed apart and I don't mean that in a negative sense. They are big fellas who by in large have always been big growing up, which means in regards to speed they have a one dimensional mentally. I happen to understand big people athletically, I have a son who is 295 lbs. and is quick as a cat. I have trained many big people who possess the same qualities. Not all large lads are blessed naturally with inordinate fast twitch capacity; linemen who grow up big and slow believe they are big and slow. (It's a mental perspective derived by genetic gifts.) The majority of big boys growing up are not blessed with fast twitch fiber overload. Only a small percent of big humans have elite physiological capacities.

    The mentality of a linemen is either super confident about quickness or he believes that being a Clydesdale is a genetic inheritance so why fight it ?

    Coaches at the high school level can’t recruit talent. However, what can be done is to develop a mind set for velocity and quickness recognition. The mind records everything that we feel kinetically (the science that deals with all aspects of motion). This is an important criteria when dealing with the big linemen. Stick a lineman with a needle in the fingertip and he’ll recall the feeling, as soon as he sees you moving toward him again with a needle in your hand. The mind doesn’t forget imprints that are implanted by feel. Our job is help them know what to feel.

    We start by shortening sprint distances in order to increase high frequency muscle contraction rates. This will create a new mental stimulus that will be recorded, which will form new motor pattern behaviors week to week. All your speed work should be performed at distances of 5, 10, 15 yds. Anything beyond 20 yds. is a waste of time and energy. Linemen function in short space, they need to train in short space with high frequencies.

Administer Skill Applications

    I'm going to make a crystal clear statement: "linemen don't like to run" (until they learn how)! I can't begin to list the number of big people that I've trained who hated running; high school, college, and pros. Once again, as in previous articles, I am stressing the mechanical aspects of technical application which is always the most important function for speed and quickness. When linemen learn to run properly, mechanical relationships provide functional effectiveness. Refer back to past articles on core principles of mechanics. Apply the functional principles outlined to develop good motor pattern skills. Once mechanics are secured the mind set for running will change. Your big boys will gain an appreciation for movement harmony. They'll begin to feel quick movement weight displacement control in short spaces.

Scientific Prescriptions

    When we train athletes it's useful to know a certain amount about physiology and biomechanical applications. They should be used to validate our reasoning for movement methods. We don't have to become rocket scientists but a general understanding helps us stay on track for creating and teaching effective applications. In the case of linemen we need to know only a few key things that can provide quality changes.         When I suggest specific applications for skill progressions it should make my reasoning more understandable. When developing speed, especially for linemen, we need to train the nervous system by engaging high contractional movement stimulation. This is a neural mechanism called motor unit recruitment. It's a key factor for regulating the amount of fiber being recruited during intense movement demands. When moving fast, rate coding (rate of electrical impulses to the motor unit resulting in contraction) is taking place. Different recruitment patterns within muscle structure are related to commands from high order central nervous system centers. When we apply high frequency contraction for linemen movements we are taping the neural system for maximum muscle fiber recruitment. Fast muscle contraction fatigues fast twitch fibers rapidly. This is why we must utilize high recovery rates during high frequency workouts. This will allow for the neural system to recruit high threshold motor units over a longer period of time. A muscle will only fire contractionally (at high frequencies) a certain amount before neural capability is diminished. Retarded frequency will not induce enough high frequency neural transmission for positive rate coding. Effectiveness for taping the neural system properly is dependent upon the design and application of the speed development process applied.

Practical Applications and Drill for Linemen Speed

    The school of Human Movement and Sport Sciences University of Ballarat, Victoria Australia indicated that analysis for maximum velocity sprints have been well researched. Contrary to this, information indicates that relatively little analysis has been conducted on short sprint training. Their studies indicate that maximum velocity work versus short speed work is comparably different biomechanically. As indicated earlier in this article linemen should be working on shorter speed training distances with high frequency limb speed drills. Interior linemen are accelerating in short space and mechanical applications should be specific to their speed movements. “The arm rotation is the key focus for all leg cycle activity.” In the last article, AFM’s September issue on linebackers, I mentioned Transition Movement Procedures. Go back and re-read the section. The applications indicated fit the bill especially well for linemen.

Note: The following represents insightful applications for linemen for speed and quickness:

1. All cyclic limb speed should be sustained for 6 - 8 second periods of time – taping the nervous system.

2. Ask your players to focus on the shoulder joint; it never stops during any fast movement drill.

3. Teach your linemen to engage quick arm cycle rotation from a static arm position. Example: Stand facing forward with arms extended forward – assuming hand contact position on an opponent. On command, see how quickly they can activate to a short arm rotation (90 degree angle) for 6-8 cycles.

4. Always do your quickness work when your athletes are fresh. The mechanical applications will be more effective which grooves in a better motor pattern habit. This also taps the neural system for physiological enhancement.

5. Work with your linemen on 3 - 5 yd. sprints. Activating the quick cycle rotations for short distance, then decelerate arm activity for short distances and then crank it up again. You really want to spend time and be creative with on again, off again fast cycle limb movement in short spaces.

6. If you use a ladder or dot drills etc., I would suggest that there are better ways to train leg cycle quickness which relates better to short space movement for linemen. First of all, never use an apparatus that requires an athlete to look at the ground. Linemen don’t move with their eyes down to the ground, focusing on their feet. Eyes stay level – eye position is key to all athletic movement, balance, and center of mass stabilization. In addition we should not focus on placing our foot on a specific target. We need to have foot strike placed in alignment with our center of mass body displaced movements (These facts by themselves would have me folding up the ladder and putting it back in the trunk). 
    The same scenario is true for dot drills, only they have a double fault: they’re not a cyclic activity which is key for force application and hopping is not biomechanically applicable to cycle force quickness. To move 300 lbs. quickly in 1 - 5 yds. in a short space is not a hop-scotch activity. Force application to the surface with intense cyclic movement should be your goal and not hopping from spot to spot. If you spend more time with specifics that generate greater results you will develop linemen speed in a shorter period of time.

7. Quick Feet: one of my pet peeves – the term influences a coaches’ mindsets to focus on foot movement which is not where our focus should be. The term is emphasized because we see the feet move quickly because the leg cycle action is quick. The knee must lift upward to initiate the foot to come off of the ground. Then the leg action is directed down again allowing foot strike contact. The knee joint is the focus point and not the feet. The feet are at the end of the leg which is a platform that catches, supports, and balances body weight activity, one step at a time. So focus on quick knee lift up and downs and you will see distinct changes in quickness.     Remember the feet aren't trained; rather, the knee, hip cycle pattern moving at high frequency levels is being trained to respond quickly, one rotation at a time. A great litmus test for this is to lock out the knee joint and now try to move the feet fast while the knee joint remains locked. (Can’t do it – Right?) The joint speed is the key to cyclic quickness, not the foot. Its job is to absorb force, support and stabilize. Concentrate on what makes the tip of the whip crack. p






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