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Speed Report: Teaching Drills Properly – the KEY to Playing Fastby: Dale BaskettFootball Speed Specialist © More from this issue We all like drills. The correct speed drills are the KEY for the best player development. When we arrange drills weekly and monthly for a speed development program, we must have a plan. That is, a plan that puts drills in an arranged order. This is a must for progressive skill development. Without it, you are working in vain. All learning skills and especially running movement skills must be taught in a progressive order. This is because the skill applications for running are constantly active at all times. The limb activity of running varies in terms of body velocity and limb frequency but, the control of limb synchronicity must not breakdown as speeds vary. Unfortunately, they will breakdown whenever frequency changes occur. This is a cold fact which leads us to the teaching process of progression training. In most cases, it is work for works sake that leans toward conditioning, not true speed training. What is amazing is that 99.9 % of coaches are using the same drills. Obviously they have been circulated through speed ‘coaches’ speaking at clinics or college coaches using the wrong drills. But they are being listened to anyway. But the bottom line is to know what science says about what you use. Next, use procedures only if they are valid and arranged in an order of advancing skill function from slower to faster. Mechanically sound drills for motor imprints processing have to be right before being fed into the wiring system. The spontaneity of fast movements relies on it. Results for speed of movement can be devastating in two ways, negatively or positively. Training must be focused on knowledge accuracy, order, and minimal drills that process health responses by way of mechanical execution. Reactions are always going to be spontaneous. The secret is fast reactions that deliver power, quickness and forces in a rapid, yet controlled fashion. That will only happen if this is scrutinized for sound data. Last, but certainly not least, don’t overload your training schedule with ten million items. This is usually the way it goes with the majority of most programs. By overloading the system with too much volume and too many drills, you are jamming circuits for clear and precise movement control learning. The following drills are simple speed and movement combo drills. They all have coaching points. Each point will illustrate the common breakdowns such as the loss of velocity during the transition phase of a drill. Remember this important fact. If you want players to play faster, you must coach the athletes to execute transitions properly. Whenever you displace momentum, the natural tendency is to slow the limb speed slightly. It happens automatically. It’s a human safeguard built into our wiring system. The computer on your shoulders telegraphs the rest of your body that there is a balancing issue. As indicated earlier, this is an automatic reaction. We have to override the system by consciously controlling this technical function and supercede the automatic reaction before it happens. That’s where you, the coach, come in. You teach the athlete technically how to control the situation mechanically. Body position relation to footstrike and limb activity are the collective factors involved for maintaining frequency. The position of the body and control of the limbs is the ticket to controlling speed during velocity changes and momentum displacement when running at higher speeds.
Diagram 3 Diagram 4 If you are serious about learning more about speed and movement insights for faster play, e-mail me or call. I challenge you to dig deeper and get away from just plugging gaps and filling a time slot called speed training. Hope to hear from you. |
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