The Speed Report: Pure Plyometrics or Just Exercises?

by: Dale Baskett
Football Speed Specialist
by: Mike Johnson
Sports Science Consultant
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As coaches and trainers attempt to find ways to increase performance characteristics for football players, methods and techniques to enhance speed and movement capabilities are always at the top of their shopping list. Successful procedures have been cultivated from sources outside football, such as track and field, sports medicine rehabilitation and others. A prominent example is plyometric exercise.

During the 39 years that I’ve been coaching I have seen many types of training methods applied for athletic development in football. Some faded away and some remain today. Very often methods that were applied and tried by coaches were experimental and not scientifically verified. Over time that has changed significantly due to the continuous current research available. Plyometrics is one example of the process of ongoing research.

What Research Tells Us

As far back as the 1950’s, Russian and East German researchers and coaches were working on means to bridge the gap between conventional strength training and maximal speed movements such as sprinting and throwing. The idea was to find some overload protocol at the fast end of the power continuum that would improve an athlete’s ability to produce force at high speeds. Researchers had long known that a pre-stretched muscle produced greater force than a muscle at resting length. Using this knowledge and working with coaches and trainers, they began experimenting with exercises designed to impose a quick, forceful pre-stretch on muscles prior to the shortening phase of contraction. The term they gave to this type of exercise is plyometric, which means 'measured increase.’

Soon, track and field athletes were doing exercises such as jumps off boxes (depth jumps), speed bounding, fast hopping and others. When done correctly, plyometric exercises provide measurable increases in power production. So began a trend that continues to this day. Plyometric exercises are used by coaches and trainers in most sports, including football.

Plyometrics: athlete performing a speed power bound









Speed is Always The Objective

As covered in previous articles, we need to again focus on two important characteristics of accelerational speed, force application and mechanical effectiveness. Power enhancement plays a relative role for generating force. Proper mechanical execution allows force to be applied more effectively.

Pure plyometrics allow for a measurable power increase when running cycle forces are being applied. When ground contact occurs with each running stride, forces must be maximal to generate the greatest velocity. This should always be a steadfast objective in design and thoughts when formulating a training plan for speed. Plyometrics can enhance this aspect for football speed significantly, provided the plyos are pure plyometrics and not just athletic exercises. Mechanical effectiveness must also be of major emphasis during all sprint speed training.

Pure Plyometrics

In recent years, researchers, coaches and trainers have started using the phrase ‘stretch shortening cycle' (SSC) to refer to plyometric exercises or movements that invoke a pre-stretch on a muscle prior to its shortening contraction. The problem with this is that almost all athletic movement brings into play the stretch shortening cycle in muscles. And many coaches and trainers call all sorts of exercises plyometric when, in fact, they are not.

In order for an exercise or movement to be a pure plyometric, and thus enhance the ability to produce greater force at high speeds, it must have these specific characteristics:

1. The muscle pre-stretch must be short and very quick.

2. The pre-stretch must reach a threshold rate of force production (very high).

3. The shortening phase must invoke maximal or near maximal force.

Exercises and movements that don’t meet these criteria may be good exercises but they do not produce the benefits of pure plyometric exercise. It’s easy to see that pure plyometric exercises are intense. Football coaches and trainers must be vigilant and insure that pure plyometric exercises are done correctly and at proper time sequences. Always keep in mind with most types of training, more is not better.

Bringing it All Together

I would recommend that training be no more than two days per week. Winter and spring training are suggested with phasing into pure speed training during the summer months. Be mindful that sprinting is bringing into play the muscle pre-stretch, very rapidly, a necessary characteristic for pure plyometrics as earlier discussed. Sprinting is producing forces at very high speeds. Therefore sprinting is the fastest activity for pure plyometric exercise. This is why I recommend sprint speed work be done just prior to the season. Once off season, plyo work has effectively developed the necessary power needed. The last phase should be intense speed work.

The other benefit is that your athletes will come into the season running very fast. Volume plyo work should be completed during the off-season. Speed is the objective for the beginning of the season. Last but not least, use long recovery periods between efforts while doing both plyos and speed training. The significance will be enhanced muscle contraction for greater force and speed for each repetition that’s applied. Again the focus is developing greater forces at high speeds. Remember: more is not better – apply quality over quantity.

In conclusion, I must state that the design of your plyometric drill work should include the three specific characteristics of pure plyometrics if power production and football speed are to be maximized.

Plyometrics: athlete performing lateral power hop

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