Speed Report: Refining Peak Speed For Fall Camp

Theoretically, maximum speed should be the goal for your team heading into fall camp. Once football starts and the banging begins, football isn’t kind to speed. Olympic world class sprinters would not train in pads to perfect or refine their peak speed potential. The only referral to track speed that parallels football is the beginning of fall camp, contusion free and speed ready.

Summer Time is the Right Time

Pre-summer is over and you’re entering into the last step before the real deal starts. Your kids should be strong and off-season ready to begin summer training. This is the time that I recommend you spend attacking the high end of the nervous system development. If you’ve been concentrating on volume work, plyos and mechanical refinement, you’re ready to begin. All of your designed workout applications should be focused on intense high contraction sprints at shorter distances that are specific to football.

If you have failed to establish a base of training that has not prepared you for high speed training physiologically, you should move to a different periodization for the summer that would combine foundation with intensity in the time period you have remaining. If this is you and you’re not sure you prepared correctly or have doubts, call or e-mail me and I will inform you of options to salvage the specific situation. If you’re ready for the transition, then let’s move on and finish the summer up fast.

MORE IS LESS - The Misunderstood Truth

If your athletes are to maximize their speed over the summer they must have sprint workouts designed for high intense frequencies and long recoveries between sprint efforts. The preferred time would be one and a half to two minutes between efforts. Your pulse probably just spiked two-fold when I said that.

History tells you that it’s impossible to rest that long between sprint efforts. But history is a recording of past experiences. Leave the old in the past and move on to the new world of science. Your yellow notes from your old head coach when you played football are most likely outdated when it comes to speed training for football. Current research points to “more is less” and “less is more” when tapping the nervous system with high twitch contraction. The longer recovery bouts, when linked with shorter workloads, allows the metabolic system to restore enough so contraction is at near maximal rates of efficiency for each sprint repetition. Limited recovery for the sake of volume is not going to produce enough high contraction to enhance nervous system facilitation. What you wind up with is more volume and more reps but less quality. It’s inappropriate training for gaining maximal development. It appears that you are not doing enough work when you utilize the correct system; however, volume is counterproductive to speed. Another aspect of training correctly is that you will be able to concentrate on technical execution because your athlete is fresh and is able to control the variables that are important to control when they reach intense speeds.

Motor Skill Processing - The Other Factor Not to Be Overlooked

Effective motor skill processing is critical. Quality execution prevents what I term contraction fatigue, which is an enemy to speed. You don’t need high numbers of reps to process motor learning when you break down speed training essentials. The essence of low reps is supported by the fact that each cycle taken is being recorded. The execution of each cycle is what I term cyclic compounding. During a sprint repetition, at whatever distance chosen, contraction is intense and the frequency of limb movement is rapid. All of this is being recorded but the interesting thing about running is that limbs are continuing with the same rotational movements. Therefore, each stride taken is an individual execution that must be technically accurate or inaccurate. Whether accurate or inaccurate, the same number of cycles are taken during your sprint application on each repetition and are being recorded. This allows high level effectiveness or low level efficiency for each rotation taken. You have to secure the control for results as a coach and/or athlete.

When I teach mechanical processing, the first thing I point out is the importance of accurately executing each cycle taken. Mechanically synchronized and rhythmical strides with high intensity contraction provide the exact emulation necessary to maximize skill processing. One must be aware of this phenomenon because limbs are moving at such high rates of speed that execution becomes critical for synchronized harmony. This is the key to each sprint being maximally fast. This can only be perfected if the freshness of contraction is sustained for a period of training time. It would be easy to fatigue the contraction function in a short period of time with high intensity and limited recovery. In this situation, the nervous system is being trained at sub-par levels contrary to the activity required.

Always keep in mind that the recording is on at all phases of any movement taken. Whether it’s good or bad will be controlled by the feel that the athletes have during the course of a sprint repetition taken. As a coach, you need to monitor efficiency and relay the information to steer the ship and at the same time pour on the intensity.

Summer Peak Speed and the Weight Room - Let’s Talk !

If you wish to come into fall fast, you must strongly consider what is going on with weight training in relation to the speed workout scheduled. If you are lighting up the turf for nervous system work then you must train fresh. Training in the weight room the same day as speed training is not advisable. If that’s not possible, then lifting after the speed work is a must and not before. Ideally opposite days work best.

Speed training days are never more than three days per week. Quite frankly, I question whether most programs realize what speed tactics and methods are sound or useful and how often to use them. The weight room is far ahead of speed training because lifting was introduced much earlier than football speed. Speed training coaches who want to have a good speed program give way to using expedient toys to facilitate quick fixes. Coaches need to look beyond the sleds, shuts and bungees. They’re not the answer for football speed development. Proven scientific study and applications will deliver measurable results.

We must run fast to be fast and that simply requires speed workouts with high intensity and accurate mechanical attainment. Follow this theory and watch your athletes run fast and confidently. Make sure that the weight room and speed training don’t collide.

Useful Drills for Summer Advancement to Fall

The following drills for speed intensity are not all-inclusive. They’re a portion of what can be done that will deliver some returns to your efforts before fall practice. All of these drills, with the exception of one drill, require different gears and changes to the cycle patterns used. This is the distinct difference that has football speed training for lineal speed different from track training sprint workouts. On certain days, you could do straight sprint work as well over short distances with low reps and high intensity. A mix of the two will tap into both worlds, giving you a favorable result. Remember, your sprints lineally without velocity breaks must be short and different than track work for the transformation to the field where it becomes more productive.

Diagram # 1 - Burst sprint with maximum intensity for 20 yards utilizing good mechanics with high volume energy. Decel second zone slowly and be mentally ready to burst sprint again at beginning of the third zone. Maintain limb intensity throughout the entire zone. Watch for overactive energy misplaced mechanically.

Diagram # 2 - Set a 70% rhythmical stride pace within the first five yards. Maintain the rhythm until arriving at the second zone, and immediately burst to 100% sprint rapidly. Then a short zone decel for zone three. Last zone requires a full impact burst sprint for the remaining 20 yards. This will parallel the type of lineal speed work that fits football requirements. This includes change of pace and intensity bursts that will help improve football speed.

Diagram # 3 - This application is sheer speed from point A to point B. Start at 45 yards maximum speed and acceleration. We are merely over running the test distance by a short amount so as to get used to sprinting through the normal test distance required.