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SPECIFICITY TRAINING The Key Factor for Optimizing Football Speedby: Dale BaskettFootball Speed Specialist © More from this issue Football speed training is too often confused between what should be correctly conceived versus what is incorrectly believed. This is relevant to you if you have a desire to make changes that will benefit the quality of each player’s speed capability. Change that will maximize results drastically. The majority of football coaches use training applications that are not processing their athletes’ football speed by the rule of specificity. That is, specific applications that offer pure value and are not diluted with variations of different training methods that will counter maximal speed gain. The simple fact is that time doesn’t allow for you to cram things into speed development and process quality results. You must have the correct theory in place in order to optimize the training. Finding what’s specifically relevant and what’s wasteful for quality production is the secret. Somewhere along the trail of multiple training programs available, speed training garners the least focused attention. The terms explosion and explosive are the most overused words today in athletic performance training. It’s the closest term on the list of training in the weightroom that has some connotation toward being a value to speed. The problem, however, is that “explosion” as a term suggests a synergized one-time impact of concussion. Running fast is a series of cyclic rotations that must apply force each step taken. Many steps are required with force continuously being applied so the athlete can accelerate body mass to point B. This cannot be duplicated in the weightroom. The closest methods are speed resistance or ground speed plyometrics. It’s difficult to apply the methods called “explosion” to each stride taken. Power and force application is the key, not explosion. When teaching players where impact is utilized, use the word “burst” when running is involved. It doesn’t infer that the forces for dynamic ballistic movement are a single explosion visualization. In the weightroom, you want power and force, not slow strength. If you have a periodization phase for power training, it should be closer to in-season when you enter it into your practice plan. You want your players coming to camp fast and moving at their best. The speed of muscle contraction can’t be duplicated in a weightroom, nor can mechanical running application, which is one of the most misunderstood applications in America. This is where strength coaches sometimes lose sight of the difference between strength and power when running fast is required. Running is pure power, force, leverage and impulse application. Force moves objects and force applied to an object moves the object. The greater the force the faster and farther the object can travel. Body mass has a certain weight. When force is applied to the ground, it gives back to the body mass and moves it. The greater the force applied, the farther and faster the object (body mass) will move. However, while applying force, we must realize in the end that power is the agent of force that is applied in a fast manner. Strength is applied that has no required measurement for time or how fast the object being forced upon must move to point B. Power is the ability to apply force to an object and creates fast movement of the object to point B. Power, speaking from a standpoint of speed and movement, is the most important aspect to speed. Remember, the weight of your mass is moved by fast strength (power) which is applied to the ground each step. Therefore, your training plan must include training forces faster with measured resistances. High recovery should be a 1-6 ratio with 3 reps per drill. That is, high intensity movement with zero resistance. |
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