Complete Coach

As a coach some things are out of your control. After all, athletes are born—not made, right? The biggest players always have the biggest heart. And you can't teach someone how to be fast, right? Wrong.

If the perfect football player were a recipe, the ingredients would be actually quite simple: strength, speed, agility and quickness. Stir with a healthy dash of mental capabilities, and you have an all-star in the making.

Speed is often a byproduct of genetics; speed enhancement is not. Like strength conditioning, speed enhancement takes motivation, hard work, skill specific training and the right equipment. With this installment of Complete Coach, we will focus on equipment to assist you in developing faster, more agile and quicker athletes. We have also taken the time to speak with Tom Shaw, former Florida State track coach and head of Shaw Performance Enhancement. The products in this article and companies that provide them are dedicated to helping you develop speed, agility and quickness.

Understanding the Differences

Directing the speed portion of the Nike summer camps and running his own speed enhancement business since 1995, Tom Shaw has had the luxury of working with some of the game's most talented athletes. That's why we asked him to help us distinguish between each of the three components: speed, agility and quickness.

"Speed is what an athlete is trying to achieve by going from point A to point B as fast as he can," said Shaw. "Agility is the ability to make someone miss . . . being able to cut and make moves. Quickness is a form of both agility and speed together."

In order to improve speed, you must work on two components: stride length and stride frequency. According to Shaw, once you increase both of these without offsetting the other, you will begin to see some speed gains.

There are some similar keys to remember about agility training. "Agility training shouldn't be used as endurance training," Shaw said. "Agility work is short, quick and to the point. Imagine Barry Sanders running; how long it takes him to get the ball, make two moves and get up field. It may be three to five seconds at the most. You never want to go for a long period of time, because you're teaching the body to move at that rate of speed; it's pace specific."

Understanding even the subtlest differences between speed, agility and quickness can help you to design drills that will develop all three.

Weighty Dedication

While speed can be developed, agility can be improved, and quickness can be heightened, none of this is possible without a fundamental foundation which stems from core strength. Proper use of the weight room can develop not only bigger and stronger athletes but faster ones as well. The key lies in how you use your weight room. "You have to lift . . . you have to be strong," said Shaw, who prefers exercises such as step-ups, lunges and quick squats. "You can get faster and quicker by working on those muscles that increase speed, agility and quickness. But you don't always have to do heavy, heavy weight to become faster. The muscles that you are using have to be strong enough to push your body through the proper range of motion."

According to Shaw, some of the fastest, most talented athletes he has worked with have never lifted weights. While this disclosure could spark a debate concerning the significance of lifting, athletes who excel in the weight room will have a better chance of staying healthy—and as a result, remain on the field and stay fast. "Football is a vicious game," said Shaw, who works with a number of professional athletes, "And that's what you're trying to work on—staying in (the game) for a long period of time. When athletes understand that they begin to buy into what we are doing."

Develop Explosive Power

Once you get your players into the weight room, you will want them to do more than just push heavy amounts of weight. The goal should be for them to develop explosive power. Exercises such as the squats, lunges and step-ups work hip, knee and ankle flexion—the same multiple-joint movement players use when they fire off the ball. Working multiple-joint movements increases explosive power.

Just as you can do periodic tests to see if your players are getting stronger, there are other simple tests you can conduct to determine if your players are developing more explosion. According to Shaw, two of the primary check marks are the vertical jump and standing long jump. "If you look at the (NFL's) combine results from the last 10 years, at any position from running back to defensive lineman, whoever has the best vertical jump and best standing long jump will always run the fastest 40-yard split."

While players can improve their vertical and horizontal jump performance by simply practicing each drill, you may wish to diversify their training regimen by using a light-load explosive trainer. Such a trainer bridges the gap between a player's absolute strength gains and any plyometric training he may be doing.

One example of an explosive trainer is the Vertimax from Genetic Potential. Unlike other similar light-load machines, the Vertimax provides consistent resistance, produces zero inertia, and allows for three-dimensional movement. Resistance bands strap to a waist belt and retract under a shock absorbing platform, allowing for levels are variable through the full range of the jumping motion. Weight resistance levels are variable, making the Vertimax an adaptable piece of equipment for athletes of all ages and sizes.

Two other tools that can enhance speed through the overload principle are resistance parachutes and weighted jump ropes. One example is Kytec's Power Fitness Chute. Designed for multi-sport usage, Kytec has developed an innovative system for adjusting resistance using a patented cord kick on its shroud lines. Unlike other chutes that employ eight lines, the Power Fitness Chute uses only four lines to keep the lines from becoming tangled. Another innovative addition to the Power Fitness Chute is its "parabolic cup- shaped" canopy. This parabolic shape gives the chute instant lift and stability. Moreover, each comes with a quick release belt and instructions, allowing the athlete to train correctly and to work overspeed training as well as resistance training.

A player who has solid body mechanics and coordination is more likely to possess speed. Jumping rope can improve both mechanics and coordination, especially in younger athletes. In addition to improving coordination, jumping rope can be a powerful means of increasing agility and cardiovascular conditioning. A weighted jump rope can simply heighten the experience. One example of a weighted jump rope is the Lifeline Power Jump Rope by Mueller Sports Medicine. Evenly weighted and balanced, this rope is designed with handles that feature adjustable non-slip rubber and ball-bearing-like movement to allow for safe, efficient usage by athletes of all ages and abilities.

Jump into Plyometrics

To develop further explosive power, incorporate plyometric drills into your weight room workouts. Plyometrics cover a variety of jumping movements, including bounding, hops and depth jumps and can be easily included in your weight room agenda on upper body lifting days. The goal of plyometrics is to shock the athlete's neuromuscular system so that it will react more quickly.

One key to proper plyometric execution is thinking about rebounding quickly. When doing the jumping drills, the athlete must concentrate on rebounding off the ground as soon as he lands, as if he were a rubber bouncy ball.

Outside of a few jump boxes and, perhaps, a stop-watch, plyometric workouts require no special equipment. However, that does not mean you can't employ some. One way you can enhance your athletes' plyometric performance is with a plyometric training shoe. An example is Strength Systems' patented Strength Shoe. The pioneer in plyometric training shoes, Strength Systems has manufactured its version for 13 years. These frontal platform trainers force the calf muscles to support 100 percent of the athlete's body weight. Upon impact this overload stretches both the calf muscles and Achilles tendon with a force equal to six times the body's natural weight. The combination of overload and stretching increases the athlete's explosive power. Each pair of shoes comes with a specifically designed plyometrics training video and manual.

Work on the Specifics

Once you have developed a weight room regimen and plyometrics program that emphasize and develop the explosive power necessary to improve speed, agility and quickness, it's time to take the same philosophy to the practice field. Shaw believes that if you train slowly, you will be slow. "If you train the body at half-speed, you'll be real good at going half-speed," Shaw said. "You have to be able to get the (fundamental) movements down at that half speed, and then, when you're really training the body to move fast, you have to go at 100 percent."

It is essential that you teach your players not only to train at full speed, but also to train specificity. Take, for example, one specific skill: getting off the ball. Players can develop the strength to explode off the ball in the weight room. And if they practice listening to the cadence and anticipating the quarterback's call, players can further shorten their reaction time. But how do you teach players to explode off the ball every time? One tool you can use to teach consistent explosion and power off the ball is a breakaway resistance belt.

One explosion developer is the Bullet Belt by Lane Gainer Sports. Originally designed for track starts, the Bullet Belt comes in three models—Pop, Pop &Rip, and Triple Pop—that provide a variety of resistance levels and a wide range of versatility—not to mention several price points. Basic in design, the Pop model was developed for team workouts. Adjustable Velcro resistance teaches the player unconsciously to explode off the ball. If the player doesn't power off the ball, the belt will not release.

"The Bullet Belts are the only tools on the market that address starts and transition moves with force and timing specificity," said Lane Gainer's Craig Askins. "Explosive starts and transition skills are improved by increasing the (players') ability to apply force through multi-joint actions. The force must be applied in real-time so proper muscular recruitment patterns occur."

To Motivate is the Key

Setting the foundation in the weight room and developing the appropriate practice plan are just two parts of the speed enhancement equation. The final ingredients rest with you—the coach, the implementation of your philosophy and the correct equipment.

According to Bruno Pauletto, the president of Power Systems, Inc., motivation starts with the coach. "Ten percent of the athletes have god-given talent, fast-twitch fibers and great neuromuscular patterns that are going to be fast regardless," said Pauletto, who spent 15 years as the head strength and conditioning coordinator at the University of Tennessee. "Ninety percent are not as genetically gifted."

It is these athletes who Pauletto says can benefit most from speed, agility and quickness training. And will, if their coach gives them the right opportunity. "Some coaches are not totally convinced (that speed can be enhanced). They say, 'Well . . . he's just a slow guy. He's got lead feet.' That is the wrong mentality for a coach to have.

"You have to have the tools and you have to have the program. You can't just go out and say, 'OK, today we're going to run sprints.' Running sprints will not make you faster if you don't go beyond the limit that you were a week ago. If you run 80 or 90 percent all the time, you're not going to get faster because you're not going beyond where you are now. Working under 100 percent is never going to work."

Using speed enhancement tools not only pushes athletes beyond their normal limits but also gives them immediate, positive reinforcement and allows coaches to easily diversify their workout regimens. What frustrates Pauletto is seeing a coach spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on weight room equipment but totally ignore the speed, agility and quickness products. "You need to have the same concept when it comes to speed, agility and quickness. You need to have some products that are going to motivate the athlete, make (training) fun for the athlete, and make them do more than they will do on their own.

"Would you go in (the weight room) and just lift rocks? You can get strong by lifting rocks and moving logs. But would that be exciting?"