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AFM Magazine


Speed Report: Teaching Drills Properly – the KEY to Playing Fast

by: Dale Baskett
Football Speed Specialist
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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.  

Why Does the Order of the Drill Series Matter?  

    Training speed and movement is purely a designed system and requires some knowledge to reach perfection beyond the usual drills that are in circulation today. The majority of the football world practices methods without understanding what motor processing means. Whatever movement is taking place while training is being recorded and stored for function reactions when competitive movements are called on. The aspect of speed when playing fast happens so quickly that the conscious control of movements cannot be totally relied on for the best results. There is too much processing for the small moment of need required to make a move quickly. This is when the order of training must be scripted for correct reactions at higher speeds. The order requires the athlete to move accurately and slower for control of movement execution. As days move forward, the speed of the technical movements are faster, little by little. We need the meat and potatoes of the scientific procedures to round out the production results you are striving for, which is moving fast without conscious processing.  
 
What Should you be Doing that You’re not Doing to Play Fast 
 
    Movements required for perfecting sports performance must be arranged not only in an order of speed progression, but also in a skill advancement mode. I am constantly visiting with coaches about what they are doing with speed training and it is always the same. What I am indicating, as I have mentioned in the past, is that the list of drills and activities they usually use is not speed work.

    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 1
Coaching Point: Locate (switch to lateral) on the diagram. Transition to lateral is done without losing velocity. This will happen if you follow the techniques required. The following errors are what will need to be fixed if you wish to maintain speed. 
Common Errors: 
1. Athlete will begin to decel two steps early before making the switch.
2. Athlete will drop hips during the switch phase.


 
Diagram 2 
Coaching Point: Locate (transition to sprint) on the diagram. Athlete comes off of the lateral run with impact. 
Common Errors: 
1. Bending at waist slightly on the switch phase. 
2. Not keeping eyes level coming into the sprint phase.
3. Not being aggressive with the limb rotation during the first three cycles of the sprint phase.


Diagram 3 
Coaching Point: Locate (planting to lateral) on the diagram. Sprinting to a plant from one angle to the next and changing running styles at the same time in itself will demand deceleration if you aren’t focused on techniques.
Common Errors:
1.Not remaining tall over the footstrike with the center of the body and leaning back. 
2. Not keeping the limb rotation active during the plant phase. 
 


Diagram 4 
Coaching Points: Locate (downhill lateral to sprint) on the diagram creating a burst off of the lateral run.
Common Errors: 
1. Dropping hips on plant.
2. Bending waist at the point of transition.
3. Not applying enough force to the ground on the plant to sprint phase.
 
    You can see that using drills are only as good as the technical applications of mechanical functions which are critical to playing fast.
A drill is only as good as the skill control challenge you put into it. Memorizing drill movement is not challenging. Put down some new wrinkles in the same patterns and have them technically respond to what they see. 

    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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