The Speed Report: In Season Conditioning: Specificity is Key for Game Endurance

by: Dale Baskett
Football Speed Specialist
by: Mike Johnson
Sports Science Consultant
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Well, we’ve developed off season speed. Now how does it hold up during the season demands? Put on the pads and let’s go through the physical parameters of the body busting hell. Will he endure with the same speed and efficiency that off season was developed in shirts and shorts and no physical pounding? No! Why do you think that the world-class sprinters have not made a great impact in the NFL over the years? The demands of football’s pounding nature doesn't lend itself to the infinite precision that the world class sprinter experiences daily!

Football requires absorbing bruises, blows and joint pain constantly. If a thoroughbred track sprinter absorbs that kind of abuse, he wouldn’t be very fast.

Speed is Key But Suffers During the Season

High contraction effectiveness relies on high intensity speed work with long recoveries between efforts. During two-a-days, muscle contraction is dulled because of work fatigue. The nervous system is not being utilized properly so the mind and nervous system are receiving below par input. For most football coaches, their concerns are overloading the athlete early in the season.Whatever happened to off season readiness? The transition and type of training during the season is vastly under-observed. My intent is not to be negative but better yet bring some focus to advances of scientific training and utilizing the advantages of its diploma and potential gain if done right! It’s important to continue speed work at least two days per week when the athletes are fresh.

Factors For In Season Conditioning

Conditioning during the football season can be a critical factor determining the overall physical and mental fitness of your team. Improper conditioning causes a myriad of problems including fatigue, over-training, loss of focus, detrimental conditions for skill development, incorrect energy system preparations, and an environment that will not allow your players to reach their athletic potential. Done properly, in season conditioning can change the physical and mental abilities of your athletes throughout this time of year.

Conditioning occurs all the time: during practice, in the weight room, during games, and even when the athlete is at home. Because players are juggling so many physical and mental tasks, it is essential that the conditioning program is well thought out. This article will concentrate on the time when players are not actually playing in a game or working on X’s and O’s during practice. However, it is imperative to remember that the effort of playing football, whether in practice or during a game, must be factored in when designing a conditioning program! I would suggest that conditioning is conducted before practice for quality and aerobic development.

Attributes That Develop A Well-Planned Conditioning Program

Speed, power, coordination, body control skills, flexibility, mental focus, football movement skills, and football game endurance! Several studies have shown the superiority of sport specific types of training. This specificity can occur with respect to metabolic demands, force-velocity requirements, movement necessities, neuromuscular intricacies, and mental focus factors such as strategic anticipation, alertness, and visualization. Athletes reach their potential when they are taught correct movements. Their skills are given the opportunity to participate in a variety of physical and mental situations, develop proper energy systems, and set goals that are challenging, yet attainable. Football is a complex team sport that poses many unique teaching/training demands for coaches and trainers. In season conditioning is one of those distinctive challenges. Physically and mentally, the game is characterized by short bouts of intense activity interspersed with brief rest intervals. The intermittent nature of great intensity/active rest creates metabolic demands on the body for appropriate energy resources combined with the requirement for quick recovery. The in season conditioning program should address these metabolic needs with exercises, drills, and movements that are specific with respect to work-to-rest intervals.

Football is an anaerobic activity. To play the sport well, it demands that players are anaerobically fit – the body must be able to produce the energy needed for intense activity and then it must be able to quickly replenish those energy resources. Quality, not quantity, is the key for anaerobic development. Quality preserves speed capabilities. Over-training delineates muscle contraction efficiency which is critical for quickness, burst and acceleration skills. As the competitive football season begins, your players should be in very good shape from the pre season training they have completed. The purpose of in season conditioning is to maintain fitness levels and, if done correctly, continue to enhance the attributes listed previously. Let’s look at each attribute in some detail and describe several key points about each:

1. Speed - Acceleration (force, fast contraction, synchronization.) Maximal force creates velocity. High contraction moves fast. Limb sync creates rhythmic efficiency for maximal leverages.

2. Short distances/time - Maximal force to the ground produces maximal velocity in a short time frame. The foot is on and off the ground rapidly as velocity increases.

3. Rest (a four letter word that must be part of your training vocabulary).

4. The key for football speed effectiveness - Power; that is, Power = (force x distance) / time. Because distance / time equals speed, power is simply the speed at which an athlete applies force.

A. Every movement we do in sports involves some type of power.

B. Power is force manifested along a speed continuum. An athlete can apply force at very slow speeds, very high speeds, or at any speed between these extremes.

C. Strength is actually slow power. Quick, dynamic efforts are examples of fast power.

5. Lifting - Slow power (strength) first, then fast power/slow power combined.

6. Coordination - Position specific drills during the season; teaching the athletes how to move biometrically correct.

7. Agility - Position specific movements during the season. Athletes must go through similar football speed activities with correct mechanical control and speed ( don’t use ladders, dots, tires, etc.).

8. Flexibility - Dynamic warm-up before practices and games, static stretching after workouts/games.

9. Mental Focus - self-explanatory.

10. Football skills - Must be practiced as close to game speed as possible. More is not better; quality not quantity.

11. Football endurance - Anaerobic endurance energy mechanisms; these systems are used to produce ATP, the energy source for muscle contraction. The extent to which these systems are used is based primarily on the intensity and, secondarily, on the duration of the activity.

A. Phosphogen System (anaerobic) - uses CP to provide ATP for high intensity, short term efforts, one to eight seconds.

B. Glycolysis (anaerobic/aerobic) - breakdown of muscle glucose to produce ATP, one second to two minutes. Lactic acid is a byproduct of fast glycolysis.

C. Oxidative (aerobic) - primary source of ATP during rest and low intensity work, one second to exhaustion. Running/drills must reflect game situations (e.g., time on and off the field, time in huddle and duration of the play, distances each player typically moves, etc.)

Set up all of your conditioning by emphasizing these factors. Eliminate gassers – they are purely aerobic work. Mixed energy cycles are advised (i.e., change of pace/high intensities with high recovery).

In Season Conditioning (See Chart)

Just as progressive weight overload is a key to effective weight training, so is progressive speed overload to dynamic movement training. In season conditioning should be short and to the point each time it is done. In addition to working on the X’s and O’s, there should be a small amount of additional conditioning. Here is an example of a well planned week of in season conditioning.

Monday:
• Team dynamic warm-up
• Position specific speed/movement drills
• Anaerobic intensity conditioning (Short duration)
• Football practice
• Static stretch-end of practice
• Fast power lifting

Tuesday:
• Team dynamic warm-up
• Anaerobic intensity conditioning (long duration)
• Football practice
• Static stretch-end of practice

Wednesday:
• Team dynamic warm-up
• Position specific speed/movement drills
• Anaerobic intensity conditioning (moderate duration)
• Football practice
• Static stretch-end of practice

Thursday:
• Team dynamic warm-up
• Game walk through

Friday:
• Team dynamic warm-up
• Football game

Saturday:
• Team dynamic warm-up
• Position specific running (light intensity)
• Static stretch
• Rest

Sunday:
• Rest

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