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AFM Magazine


EXTENSION PLANTS The Key to Football Speed Transition

by: Dale Baskett
Football Speed Specialist
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All movement requires force application but transition speed is what makes plays happen fast. The key to playing the game fast is due in part to the ability to plant well when directionally displacing momentum. Pure speed lineally is useful in smaller dimensions than we think when evaluating speed traits. The forty-yard dash as a measurement that forecasts speed is the wrong tool. Playing speed should not rely on the forty as a pure indication for playing fast. The game is played on your feet with the upper and lower body working together. This is the real test.

What we do know is that football requires fast multiple movements to be effective. We must rely on ground force, strike placement and power collectively to be speed efficient during specific movement transitions. We will discuss and analyze effective ways and reasons why every player on your team can be better at applying the technical requirements that create successful movement traits. Plant capability is one of the important techniques for movement speed capability.

The Uncommon Extension Plant

What’s an extension plant? I will take credit for the term as being heard here first. The term extension plant is a learned skill application technically applied. I continue to teach coaches nationally how to apply the technique to their players. I must say that I have come across a couple of coaches who want to take me to task on the application until it’s demonstrated. If you do what you’ve always done, it’s because you’re used to it and have heard that everyone else does it, including college programs. It’s not going to improve your athletes skill level. It only puts it on hold. Let me shed some serious light on the subject. There’s an old saying, “if you don’t know, just fake it.” I’m not implying that coaches are faking it. I believe they’re doing what they’re heard for years and just keep on applying the same routine. This, again, is where the problems begin.

Coaches need to be open to learning new ideas as long as they are valid and proven. This is where I’ve bumped into some coaches who want to stand firm on the argument of how to plant and move well in short spaces. In my 33 years of teaching movement, nothing has progressed or changed technically for speed training. Track and hand-me down techniques in football are safe because they’re in place, which makes them easy to use. You don’t have to learn anything new. That turns into the “don’t fix it if it’s not broken” mentality. What’s even worse is that, as coaches, we may not realize it’s broken for the reasons mentioned. As a case in point, track techniques do not work on plants or change of pace or multi-directional changes. However, the same technical applications based on straight track speed techniques still prevail in the world of football. They are far off base for setting up sound movement results. What is an extension plant? How does it work and what does it do that we’re not presently doing?

An extension plant refers to the leg extending quickly downward to the foot strike after the leg has come forward to the front side of the run. The key is the fact that the hips don’t drop at the same time this takes place. The hips remain at a level plane during the quick down phase plant. This action will put the foot strike to the surface rapidly and with minimal loss in velocity. This creates displacement of velocity without losing transition speed at the point of surface contact.

Traditional teaching at every school or program I’ve witnessed is to administer dropping the hips to plant. My point is simple, “if you drop, you stop.” Velocity cannot be continued when the hips drop significantly because when the hips are low, leg cycle frequency is briefly interrupted. Dropping the hips creates opportunity for greater force but stifles leg cycle frequency. Velocity is lost. We want velocity to maintain maximally while displacing momentum to the new direction. We do that with extension plants. If you will try this technique, you will see enormous speed changes with your players. Everyone on the field needs to understand this valuable technique.

The following drills will help you teach the technique of extension planting:

Diagram #1: Run straight down a line with a jogging pace that remains rhythmical before and after the plants. Plants are done quickly and then go right back to rhythm pace. Eyes stay level at all times. Line length is 30 yards.



Diagram #2: Straight jog pace to a quick plant and then to a new direction. Repeat this throughout until the last sprint. Maintain rhythm, not accelerating off of the plant but merely placing the cycle quickly to the extension placement.



Diagram #3: Face the same direction for this entire phase of running. Then, alternate from straight to lateral. Your speed should be about 50% and kept in a rhythm. You cannot accelerate off of the plants.This is a drill for rhythm and execution of extension function and motor pattern development.



Diagram #4: Now you can step up the pace. Run at 70% and again maintain rhythm and this percentage on both straight and lateral movement. Eyes are always level throughout.



Note:  Leg, body, and head must stay in alignment at all times. Eyes looking forward will help control this factor. Additionally, arms never stop or come out of rhythm during every plant on the entire series.

If it’s football speed you want, you must learn how angles and forces operate collectively when acceleration and velocity are in play. This technique will allow your athletes to play fast and get from point a to point b much more effectively.

Coach Baskett began his career as a football speed coach in 1979. During the last 33 years he’s consulted and trained hundreds of coaches and thousands of athletes nationwide. In the last year he has worked directly with high schools in California, Texas, Minnesota, Kansas, and Pennsylvania. Over the last few years he has also consulted with Texas Tech, Ohio State, USC, University of Washington, and the University of Mount Union. You can reach him directly for more information or if you have specific questions on your training program. Coach Baskett is at dbspeedt@hotmail.com and 858-568-3751.






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