Speed Report – Bring Your ‘A’ Game Each Day

Many coaches do not consider speed and movement training to have a critical impact on their players on a daily basis. As a result, they fail to give it the same attention and focus that they give to other areas of practice and training.

Most great coaches would consider attention to detail and good time management as cornerstones of their success. Why, then, do so many coaches fall short when it comes to using speed training to develop their athletes? Why do they not apply the same purpose and understanding to speed and movement development as they do to other areas of practice and training?

For whatever reason, coaches who don’t bring focus to speed training are doing themselves a disservice. I travel throughout the country teaching football speed development. In my opinion, the methods and focus needed for successful speed training are not there in many programs I visit.

Time is Critical to Motor Processing

Simply put, minor details make speed happen. This is because the movement of the limbs and torso requires a great deal of concentration during high frequency and high velocity movements. Running fast naturally is a genetic gift, but there is a shortage of genetically-gifted, fast athletes that can fill football rosters throughout the country. Speed training can fill the gap between a program’s need for faster athletes and the availability of naturally-fast players.

Why is time critical for speed training? Every coach has a clock ticking daily and monthly and you can ill afford to waste time. Speed development is no different. Motor processing is the key to skill development in any sport at any level. Coaches can’t afford to waste time on sloppy, inaccurate motor processing daily. Time management is critical. We’ve got limited moments and, if done the wrong way, training can hinder productive growth. 

Quality Sessions vs. Wasted Reps

As I have often said, football speed is not totally linear. It is multi-movement oriented. Although there are linear moments needed for the game, most of the action involves more complex movements. Control and concentration are the keys to truly maximizing your time and producing results.

The tough part of training football speed is maintaining the focus by each athlete in the group during a session. The mental aspect of every motion should be critical for each player as they train. Waste is created when athletes mindlessly perform, without clear mental focus, during a speed training session.

Great athletes never achieve greatness without focus and concentration. They know that it’s just as important to have focus and concentration in practice and training as it is during a game. Speed training is difficult because it’s not about running hard but having focus and concentration during each stride taken. Wasting repetitions simply decreases motor processing which is mechanically detrimental for locking in the proper positions and angles that are responsible for speed control. 

The Daily Deal and Minor Major Results

The bottom line for daily speed training is to get your players to learn to feel what they are doing so each one can begin to control changes each time they run through a drill. The keys are concentration and quality function. This is difficult to achieve since when an athlete goes through a drill with maximum energy they will often not recall what they just felt.

Mechanical function is what delivers improved speed performance. Attention to minor details of cyclic movement for an athlete is only accomplished by intense focus applied consistently over time. A minor mechanical change can make a major impact to power delivery and limb speed efficiency. I call this a minor/major, meaning a minor correction change which creates a major result.
Each practice is an opportunity to achieve progress. But your athletes must focus on the feeling of the mechanical functions you’re teaching or their efforts will be wasted.

Drills for Enhancing Focus Concepts

Here’s an assortment of drills designed to help your athletes handle multiple changes of movement at high rates of velocity. I start with very difficult procedures and then the drills become less intense for mental multi-tasking and heightening visual acuity. As your athletes run through the drills, take note of the first step of each movement change. You’ll see a change in the running action mechanically.

Either the limb action will slow up, or the elbows will come out wide from the torso, or the hips will drop slightly, or the player will bend at the waist. Just a few tips to watch for as the athletes run through the schematic direction drills. Note that drill one and two are challenging, then three and four become much easier to handle. You’ll see significantly less errors and greater velocity in drills three and four. The easier the movement challenges, the more confidence the athlete develops. As the movement becomes easier, the intensity becomes greater because there’s less to negotiate with each stride. More confidence is developed by each player because the movements are easier to execute.

The goal is to increase skill difficulty over time. Focus will deliver growth daily, weekly, and even seasonally.
 
Diagram # 1

Burst release from static position (straight). Plant at the first cone to a lateral run. Then plant from lateral to straight sprint again. Continue to plant from straight to lateral to straight until you switch to a lateral on the second to last cone set up on an angle. At that point, plant once again to a sprint finish. (If this seems hard for the entire team or most players, don’t be surprised. Mechanics and focus will be the reason).

Diagram # 2

Lateral weave to a switch created by a plant to a straight sprint weave. At the next cone, decelerate for five yards. Then, lateral left, plant to a right lateral, plant to a burst sprint to finish. These changes are made on the fly and not at half speed. Grab your note pad and add up the flaws at the transition points.

Diagram # 3

Now the heat dissipates by providing minimal changes per stride. This is not simple, but definitely less complicated and less to focus on per step. To start, burst to a straight sprint, plant to a lateral, plant to a burst straight again, decelerate, and then plant to a burst straight to the finish. (This should not be as difficult as diagrams #1 and #2 ).

Diagram # 4

Burst straight at 100% from static position. Then, switch hips and line to a lateral run and then decel laterally to the next cone. At this point, plant to a full sprint finish.

This drill is somewhat easier and your athletes should aggressively attack this drill. That’s not the case with the first two until they’re confident based on the fact that movement skill is mechanically controlled. Only the rare athlete can do it well without proper training. 

Visit my new web site to learn more about football sped training. A member-based organization, the web site includes many resources you can use to train your athletes – www.speedtrainingforfootball.com.