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The Speed Report: Football Speed and Movement Training – Making it Relative to practices and Games

by: Dale Baskett
Football Speed Specialist
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Speed on the football field is every coach’s desire. The good news is that speed and movement can be developed. When I started developing football speed 36 years ago, no one believed it could be taught. How it was developed back then and even today, is still an issue that concerns me. Far too many programs are using inferior fundamental principles and, in most cases, they’re principles that fall short of the mark for maximizing results.

Incorporating sound teaching fundamentals starts with the person setting and directing the training system. To best illustrate this, I’m calling on a colleague of mine, Coach Paul Gomes, the head coach at Rancho Buena High School in Vista, California. He will lend his input from hands on experience. Coach Gomes is a successful high school football coach of more than 30 years winning many regional titles and a state championship. Coach Gomes will discuss how he uses speed training the way it should be conducted.
 
First Hand Perspective

“Speed isn’t how fast you can run but how fast your efficiency of movement transitions can be on the field. All movement in football should mirror what you are teaching in your speed and movement program. The technical foundation of movement principles must be an interwoven focal point for your training. Your players must understand the movement principles learned and apply them to all that they do. As a coach, you should always stress correct motor patterns and movement control. A technically sound foundational movement premise that’s utilized weekly will produce speed and proper movement on the field.”

Player Knowledge – Sound Understanding

“All of our players have a sound understanding of the foundations involved.  All of our coaches are expected to communicate and apply our movement principles in everything that we do.  That must come from leadership and direction. We have coaches meetings for position specific movement updates as the year progresses. To truly produce football speed, you must have your technical movement principles as the identifying premise for your speed program. You can’t expect your players to move faster on the field if the movement principles are not behind all that you do. They must be ingrained weekly. The illustrations that Dale Baskett has provided in this article gives you the foundational principals for proper movement and pure football speed training.”

Accurate Foundational Principles – the Primary Key

“In looking at the first diagram, line, synchronization, and foot strike are not just terms. Rather, they are the main movement principles that we use in our football program. Remember, force on the ground is being produced by each leg cycle as it comes downward to the point of surface contact. The moment force applies to the surface, it gives an immediate impulse back to the body from the ground up. Keeping your line connected, synchronizing your arms and legs efficiently, and knowing that power comes from the ground up through the line with proper foot strike placement are the movement techniques that we teach. Players are taught to keep their line connected as force is applied from the ground up through the connected line (Diagram 1).


“Synchronization accompanies the line with proper arm-leg movement gaining a collective force that maximizes power as they work together harmoniously. Foot strike from the downward leg action which descends quickly to the ground so your players can initiate immediate movement without losing velocity. As shown in diagram #2, integrating the proper force through foot strike allows a player to change the line of direction they want to go. This will give them control to move up the field as quickly as possible. As coaches, we all can agree that every drill and technique used in football requires proper movement principles so that players can move successfully. Repetitive, quality practice of the principles prescribed ensures technical accuracy by players. To maximize player learning, incorporating proper movement must be continuously taught. The optimum word here is taught.


“As a coaching staff, we teach our  players how to properly move which should be your  number one objective.  In addition, players can’t learn if they are not articulate about what you’re teaching. They must use the learned methods in practice at all times. Proper speed training and movement requires proper teaching. Looking at diagram #3, we constantly are coaching our players to keep moving their upper and lower limbs in a cyclical continuous rotation so they can create rhythmic cycle movement, at all speed levels. 


“When you apply diagram #4, it becomes critical that you teach your players to keep their elbows close to their body allowing this activity to become their normal movement on the field. Looking at diagram #5, we see that the eyes are always forward and the hip level must be up, not low. This gives the players a chance to increase leg speed because the angles will allow the hip to turn faster. Too many athletes have low hip positioning and are not aware of it, losing valuable frequency. 


“Consistently using these five foundational principles presented by coach Baskett will give you the tools to become dramatically faster on the football field. Other lineal applications of this sort will not solve the problem of speed loss during movement transitions. All changes to speeds while playing will challenge technical control that is necessary for purifying football speed and movement.” 

Logical Conclusions

“I’ve used Coach Baskett’s diagrammed foundation principles and much deeper material that connects relative principles for the past ten years. It’s consistently impacted our success for league, regional and state championship performances. It is the only speed system in the country that uses technically sound football speed training methods specifically designed for football movement.

“Every coach in the country should adhere to his special bio-mechanical system. Other techniques fall short for football movement technique and control for playing fast. Coach Baskett has numerous packages that progress technically as you continue forward. That is, training packages that are not designed to be learned in their entirety through these short articles. All training systems stem from unified foundation facts. Investigate what his methods can do for your program. They’re not to be found elsewhere. Start today by making speed and movement training relative to your practices and games.” 






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