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AFM Magazine


The Speed Report: Variables For In-Season Speed Training (Part I)

by: Dale Baskett
Football Speed Specialist
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When the season starts coaches become so focused on football that speed development is often the last thing they are concerned with. Speed erosion is greatest during the season. We must be mindful that football is a game of collisions and moving fast to make plays. If speed enhancement is ignored during the season, the off-season becomes a point of diminished return. There is a lot one can do in-season to preserve off-season development and actually improve speed. Time is never your friend during the season but a minimum of two days per week is mandatory. The emphasis should be specific applications that center negative degradation that football brings about. The following information should be useful and will provide a positive outcome for your in-season production.

Train Fresh - Train Fast

Quality is the focus for in-season speed work. Long recovery is of key importance if you desire quality results. Training fresh and fast is one of the most important training modes during the in-season. When a muscle is spent it will not contract rapidly. It’s important to enhance the neural system and equally important is mechanical execution. Short but electric practices are the best for in-season. Volume work is neither fresh nor electric. When you go beyond the quick contraction mode with overload, you dull the nervous system circuits. Intense muscle contraction must be kept alive throughout the season. Just like water stimulates a plant, fast contraction when fresh stimulates the physical nervous system to enhance metabolic synergy.

Train Light - Train Right

So many coaches over the years have taken me to task on this phrase. To be fast you must run fast. The weighted bat mentality in baseball is brain dead. Coaches with close to zero knowledge come up with concepts that are based on ideas and not scientific facts. The ideas created seem reasonable, however they fail just like the weighted bat. The heavy bat retards contraction which is the opposite of what’s needed for fast contraction. Coaches’ ideas become standard procedures, which are often beyond scientific validation. Training light means strip down the helmet and shoulder pads during the speed sessions. Now you will be able to move fast and gain from the enhanced contraction. What I’ve learned over time is that we energize our passions and faculties to a level that a lot of times is more emotional that scientific.

When I was with the Seattle Seahawks as a speed coach I remember Chuck Knox, the head coach, saying many times that football is not an exact science. That may be the case for football, but it doesn’t apply to speed training; it’s all science. I do know that the comment doesn’t relate especially when we design speed training for football. I also remember Chuck Knox saying you can’t teach speed. So much for the old days; he was a believer after the off-season concluded. Proof in the pudding solves all kinds of mythical conjectures.

Well let’s get to the train light method during the season that’s beneficial and unique. The heavy bat theory correlates with carrying heavy gear and doing speed work. Train light because the mind records the kinetic dynamics that the athlete goes through. When you gear up again, your athletes will think speed and activate fast, even with the equipment on.

Progressive Applications a Must

About every two weeks you should change your speed drill work to keep it fresh and challenging. When the athletes line up day after day they have a tendency to start to go through the motions. Keeping the mind involved provides thought processing and parallels the activity of the way we play fast.

Collaborate Weight and Speed

This applies directly if you control the weight training and speed development. If not, then coordinate with your strength coach. The days that legwork is done will affect your ‘train fresh and fast’ theory. A wise plan would encompass staying clear of squat days. The biggest hurdle I have to deal with is squat days. I just design my cycles to avoid the issue. Keep in mind the athletes are on their feet and running in practice with games weekly. The legs go through a lot of work as a unit during the course of a week. Adding squat work to the process definitely has an effect and again, in-season should be fresh and fast.

Relax, You Can’t Force Speed!

So often football players try to drag the weight room on to the field mentally. I stress constantly that there is a weight room mentality and a sprint speed mentality. Football demands intensity; however, spinning limbs rapidly leans more towards relaxed intensity. The term dynamic relaxation fits football speed for one simple reason: the contraction of a muscle is more apt to contract rapidly if not pre-tensed. That leads to better frequency in short distances.

Quick frequency and force applied accelerates the athlete much better. If the contraction rate is inhibited, the frequency potential is diminished. This concept must be worked on daily with your players. The mantra should be ‘relax and turn the limbs fast.’ A good illustration for the players is to stand them in a hit position, arms in a 90-degree angle. Have them pre-tense, and then upon command clap hands once. The second time have them stand totally relaxed and key on the voice command to clap quickly. The results will sell the dynamic relaxation theory instantly – try it!

Staff Reinforcement - Elevates Team Speed

When doing your speed work in season it’s advisable to require all your coaches to participate in the drills and running sessions. They don’t have to direct the sessions but listening and watching what you are trying to instill will be valuable. Coaching is so much of word pictures that require certain descriptive terminology. Your terminology used with the players for speed and movement should be cloned and reproduced daily during every coach’s session. The key buzz words that trigger correct effectiveness for movement can’t be used enough. Football teams all have their own terminology that integrates into the overall system of every program for communicational expedition.

Your speed program should also contain specific terminology. Your coaches should make an effort to apply the mainstay theoreticals that lead to consistent skill performance reinforcement. Running is a skill as I have so often indicated. Certain technical fundamentals preserve good execution. In-season pounding tears at the fabric of skill execution. As a staff it would be important to identify the specific principles and terminology. At that point your coaches should preach them throughout all the practice sessions they are involved with.

Keep in mind that football is a game of running and even though strength and power are essential, we must get to point B fast. The constant mechanical breakdown that takes place during the season needs everyone’s assistance if you wish to play fast from week to week. What is really amazing is that when this attention is displayed, the players will get faster during the season. The coaches that practice this theory are always blown away by the results. They also comment on the end of the season that the kids are still electric when the playoffs roll around. Total team speed should be your quest and this bit of information will pay huge dividends.

Hopefully the principles and thoughts I’ve shared will be of value to your endeavor for in-season speed. Look for part two on this in-season topic next month.


Over the last 28 years, Dale Baskett has trained over 100 NFL players representing every NFL team. This includes 21 All Pro’s 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. His in-depth line of videos, available at www.AFMvideos.com, shows position-by-position drills, coaching points and on-field demonstrations. For further information, contact him at 858-829-5599 or DBSpeedt@hotmail.com.





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