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AFM Magazine

AFM Magazine


The Speed Report: Increasing your Linebacker Speed

by: Dale Baskett
Football Speed Specialist
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Every coach in America selects athletes year to year to play linebacker and must determine various characteristics needed to make the wisest choice. LB’s are the heart of the defense and a player must be multi-dimentional athletically able to hit, run, move quickly, and have the mental tenacity of a lightening bolt on a mission. Finding players each year with these skills sometimes is easier said then done.

Lead with Speed
    Speed should never take a backseat when selecting a linebacker. Coaches are not always able to choose the fastest athletes, especially if he happens to be a good player with marginal speed. In these situations one must realize that speed, quickness, and athletic movement capability can be developed by having a good speed development system for your program. Revert back to our article in September (Maximizing Football Speed Potential) to the Technicial Applications – The Maximizer section, note that the three core principles for sound technicial control were line, synchronization of the arm-leg cycle, and footstrike postion relative to center of the body mass during every stride cycle of running (See Diagram 1).

Diagram 1. The Three Core Principles

  Reinforce these principles during all of your speed training and you will see noteable mechanical changes, allowing your athletes to sprint much better in short order. Once mechanical effectiveness transforms you, then you can begin to focus in on position specific movement development.

Movement Dynamics
    Our monthly articles on position specific speed and movement for football will address particular technical keys that will help your players enhance burst, acceleration, effective angle changes which will afford each player the skill to move faster than ever before at the individual positions they play. It's what you do right that counts for effective speed enhancement results. When velocity of body mass is re-directed from one angle of movement to another angle while running that movement procedure is referred to as a transition. That very instant body weight is displaced to a new direction. Linebackers go through many transitional velocity changes during the course of a game, (See Diagram 2) a sample of possible LB movements.

Diagram 2. Types of LB Activity

Multi-change transitions of body mass during intense speed efforts affect velocity control which in turn impedes football speed effectiveness on the field of play. The skill to controlling transitional velocity changes can be taught to every linebacker on your team, using the technical info and drills that I will share with you. Refining the drills you already use by applying these sound technicial applications will astound you as your athletes begin to program good motor habit responses. When I was with the Seattle Seahawks in the mid-80’s and hired by the legendary NFL coach, Chuck Knox, he was concerned with a need for overall team speed. In that era there were perhaps three speed coaches nationwide. Long story short, my work in the speed world came to his attention and I was locally a resident of Seattle. I was a pioneer at the time for athletic speed development.

    Chuck Knox was a very astute coach and towards the end of my off-season work with the players he asked me to present my videos and training senarios to his entire coaching staff, which was a three hour presentation. Following this educational expo he pulled me aside afterwards and said, “I want you to meet with each of my position coaches individually one on one and refine all of their position movement drills mechanically.” He was bright enough to see that body control was the key for sound technical transitions.

    I can’t come to each of your programs everyday and do what I was able to do with the Seahawks staff, although through this article on linebacking I can lend some nuggets of speed and quickness tangibles to you as a coach to take and implement for productive results. You'll be able to use the position agility drills you already have which fit the time sequences you are allowed during your in season schedule. I will be giving you technical insertions for your exisiting drills and will splice in some suggested drills for LB’s that will enhance transition effectiveness.

Trust Your Trained Instincts
    In last month’s article we indicated that coaches must teach players to execute mechanical control to make them more confident on their feet when running fast during angle changes. Here are some comments from a divison one linebacker, whom I’ve trained, is a sophomore, and I feel will play on Sunday’s soon. He has trained to be mechanically sound which has benefited the carryover for his position instinctively. He runs low 4.5’s and weighs 235 lbs. at 6’3”. His linear speed is intact for his size and experience. However he realizes that the movement ability he has developed is what makes him a player! As he says, “when I move under pressure to make a play I see the situation in front of me and move instinctively. As a player I have to perform sudden changes in a short space, burst when needed, run laterally and at the same time stay square to the line of scrimage with shoulders and hips. My footstrike positioning and arm control makes my movement respones deadly. Everything I do is 5-6 steps in most directional movements unless I take a long sprint pursuit angle. In short space movements I cannot waste steps. Being mechanically sound with the transition training that has affored me the ability to read and take less steps, trust what I see and move quickly. Sometimes I get caught in situations where I must recover on a play. My ability to recover and re-develop angles to make the play or assist is due to the transition capability from my training.” Much like martial arts, you practice for functional accuracy when under fire. Movement on the football field should be the same.

Transition Movement Procedures
    All movement whether linear, lateral or redirected sprint angles must contain the core principles each and every step, as indicated earlier. These principles never fade away and are the key to successful movement performance. Good positions allow increased force production, more force, and more velocity. More velocity in short distances of space is the essence of football speed. The most important factor for speed control is the arm angle and rotational activity. The leg carries the body weight and generates force down and back to the ground to produce movement. The arm has total freedom to move in varying angles and rotational positions and is not dealing with weight bearing issues. Therefore the arm-leg synchronization could suffer unless the arm is trained to remain in a 90 degree angle throughout all front to back arm swing activity. Once trained to function in this manner both leg and arm activity will match up rotationally. The focus must always be placed on the arm because the control of the arm function controls the cycle activity of the leg movement, which is the power derivative for velocity and control.

LB Drills that Work
(See Diagrams 3, 4 and 5)


Diagram 3. Lateral Run to Quick Sprint - Good Line/Arms continuously active at shoulder

Diagram 4. Shuffle to Quick Start - Quick arm rotation off the shuffle

Diagram 5. 6-Sides Scramble - Not allowed to circle from wall to wall. Good plants at each line.


The following represents refinement applications for your LB drills you’re currently using:

1. Teach each player to short plant - Down leg extends quickly to the ground applying force to move to a new direction. Quickness of movement change requires short plant ability.

2. Never drop the hips during transitions - impedes leg cycle quickness and velocity potential.

3. Keep elbows in on every transitional move and the arms continuously active as body weight displaced to new directions. The arm should stay in a 90 degree angle throughout rotational activity.


Over the last 25 years, Dale Baskett has trained over 100 NFL players representing every NFL team. This includes 21 All-Pros and two members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Additionally, he has worked with both high school and college football programs at all levels and resides in San Diego. He can be reached at dbspeedt@hotmail.com.





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