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The Off-Season: Preparing for Advanced Level Training (Part II)

by: Dale Baskett
Football Speed Specialist
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This is part II in Dale Baskett’s column on eight elements of speed training in the off-season. In part I, Dale presented four of the eight elements starting with periodization, foundation principles, load work and assisted speed training (to read last month’s column, please visit www.AmericanFootballMonthly.com). This month Dale discusses elements five through eight.

5. Tighten Your Focus
Be specific when deciding what’s important for football speed. Specificity of football activity has many complexities when physical athletic movement is required. Football requires that an athlete move without altering velocity as movement changes are presented. Design your training to address these needs for each position and figure out how you can schedule time over time to implement the concerns of position training into your routine of periodization. No two programs in America are identical and if I suggest that one way is the only way then I would be subjecting you to a false belief system for development. We all have situations that vary depending on many factors. It isn’t a synonymous blueprint collectively followed by every program nationwide. That being said, look at the next Sub-Topic.

6. Look Outside the Box Why are you doing what you do?
Coaches are notorious for following what the other guy is doing and not researching what is accurate according to proven studied methods that are scientifically irrefutable and available to the general public. We have a tendency to revere the messenger and not research the creator. If a program is successful then we should tap into why they are successful and scrutinize what is good and what could be better and how they derived their theories. No one blueprint works for all, as indicated earlier. It’s easier to follow without creating for most, than it is to spend time to be sure you’re using the right goods. The success by other football programs often leads many to buying into what they are doing without overview thinking. It would appear to most that it would be safe to go with what someone else has already succeeded with. Be careful of this thinking when you borrow speed-training ideas from a program because they win football games. The truth of the matter is that football success is not totally derived from the weight room or the speed development program.

There are many things involved in a football program. Speed is a piece of the puzzle that completes the picture. As much as I would like to think that the greatest speed program in America would create wins automatically on the scoreboard, I know better. I’ve been with winning programs and with losing programs. The unique distinction wasn’t that the winner was fast and the loser was slow. Not having stud players and a staff that wasn’t football sharp was apparent. That will always be out of your control. Just maximize the talent you have and you’ve accomplished your piece of the puzzle. There are many involved to make the win/loss column look good. Lastly, be careful of taking the view that if everyone is doing it, it must be right. You must look beyond the crowd and investigate why it is or isn’t right. Unfortunately, the speed world is copying each other. I say that from experience because I can – 29 years ago I became, by claim, the first speed coach in America. When I started there was no such title as a Speed Coach. There were track and field coaches and coaches from other sports were asking them what they could do to develop speed for their athletes. That’s a crude attempt to take linear sprint speed and make it fit all sports. Almost thirty years later I still see much of the same mentality. We’re told to measure linear speed and then calculate that they are fast and prepared to play fast at any sport. Other than track and field, every other sport is played in sections of speed; that is, various speed increments, mostly in short distances of acceleration. Design your training with this in mind and you’ll be way ahead of the curve.

7. Specificity – Quality: More is Less when Speed is the Issue
As you embark on a new season this year, reflect on what you feel is your greatest achievement for speed development and where you could be better. The answer that will always come to the forefront is that you'll always want more of it. That requires several things. Also, evaluating what speed characteristics are in need of development, both team speed and specificity development. What type of kids you have coming back? It is important to calculate and know what you think you can do with the athletes you have according to their apparent skills. Where is the greatest emphasis for improvement need to be placed for team speed progression? Do not look at natural speed in-house but embrace the fact that you have the ability to change the course of negative speed and make an impact on your kids by selling the idea that speed development is a specialized part of your football program. The fast ones tend to have a little of the dog in them and can be somewhat lazy and the freight train types are of the belief that they are supposed to be slow. Your job will be to change the viewpoint for all. Quality will be the key, you’ll need to teach it to all involved as a unique characteristic that is adapted through mental focus on finite execution with lower repetitions involved.

8. Final Fact of the Matter
The fast kids are often lazy because they can already run competitively fast. They think they can boogie with the best of them, so why try to get better. That's a narrow mindset; don't allow it to permeate your program design. Sit them down and inspirationally communicate SPEED GOAL objectives. The dynamics of mental viewpoints toward speed are multi-mixed. Some are flat lazy and will become a cancer cell to your program. I don’t allow anyone a free pass for lack of focus and effort or I’ll jump start their life in front of their peers. They’ll get the message that my training sessions are serious business and not fun and games at the family picnic. The group dynamics of speed training is not always appealing to all involved. Some try to hide in the crowd and just get through it with limited effort. Others try to position themselves in the back of the lines to hope that after you look at mass repetitions before it’s their turn and somehow you won’t be as critical.

A point to remember when grouping kids in lines as indicated is you have to watch the ones in the rear because they will always be the worst performers on the team. It always shakes out that way, so I let them position themselves in their lines. Then I move the last three depths in the back to the front to lead the series of drills. It’s a great technique because they can’t hide and they must focus or be exposed for lack of effort. This is one method for curing that dilemma. However, the key to your team success relies on participation mentally and physically. If you lose the mental, the physical follows suit and not much more is accomplished but mere exercise. You can get that in a PE class.

In closing, take time to see what you plan to do with introspective eyes and thoughts. Tried and true is always a good measure as long as you know what's true.






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