Hey everybody, back from the beach and settled in to start knocking out some more great content for you.
After a busy summer schedule of training, it was great to get away for a week and enjoy our time together as a family. The vacation fulfilled a lot of purposes for us. Like I said, it was a nice breather after summer full of hot mornings and afternoons in the training center working to help my athletes reach their goals.
But, this vacation also signaled the transition into our new lifestyle as last week was the opening week of school for our system and the first time in 9 years that I wasn’t part of it. But, don’t worry, I was still connected with the education process as I poured through hours of training videos during some of my spare time at the beach, all in an effort to provide you more great content.
Another special part of the trip was initiating the celebration of my baby boy’s first birthday, which actually occurred last week. It’s hard to believe little Chase has already been with us a year. He is such an amazing blessing in our lives and I can’t imagine life without him now. He’s “walking” now, although not consistently since he seems to prefer the fast pace of his speed crawling instead of the wobbly stagger of walking. He even seems to be taking a liking to the Red Sox . . .
Getting back to where I left off with my Introduction to Speed Training. In my previous post I wrote about how to coach movement efficiency with regard to acceleration training. I identified Arm action, Posture, and Leg action (A.P.L.) as the 3 variables to train for economical movement.
I also finished the post by saying that it would take a lot more than “pretty” running to start and accelerate like a championship athlete. The efficiency only ensures that the force the athlete produces is transferred rather than wasted. So, today I’ll let you in on the drills I use with my athletes to train force production with regard to starting speed and acceleration.
The fundamental concept here is to get the athlete to put as much force as possible into the ground by pushing. The more force you put in, the more force you get out. That’s why strength training is such a necessary part of acceleration training.
So, again, the key is to get the athletes to “push” the ground away rather than “pull” it toward them. This is dictated by the foot position relative to the knee. If the foot gets ahead of the knee, the athlete can’t help but pull, so you must make sure the athlete doesn’t overstride early in the process.
I incorporate a drill in which the athlete is standing and, on cue, coordinates arm action with a single leg piston action, similar to the wall drill in my Introduction post, except the athlete is standing vertically. I cue the athlete to “crack the egg” as if there is an egg sitting at the base of his butt, and he has to crack it with his heel. This promotes great hip flexion and ensures that the athlete keeps the foot behind the knee and doesn’t reach and consequently pull. After cracking the egg, the foot should aggresively drive down directly under the hips while synchronizing with arm action.
From there, I take the athlete to resisted pushing drills using power bands (pictured at right) and sleds. The concept is to place res
istance on the athlete so he is trained to push down and back hard in order to move forward. If you don’t have these pieces of equipment you can still execute the drill by using something like a karate belt. Make sure that the belt goes around the athlete’s hips and not his mid-section because there will be some pressure created because of the resistance.
The video below shows examples of sled running to improve acceleration . . .
I cue my athletes to “push back” and “leave your feet behind you”.
As the athlete trains to push down and back harder, the hope is that he can gradually begin to cover more ground in less steps because of the harder push, NOT BECAUSE HE’S OVERSTRIDING!! I’m very careful to not let the athlete know what I’m doing when counting steps in a 10-yard sprint early in training because I don’t want him to start reaching to take longer strides, which would compromise his force production.
The goal would be to achieve, “3 for 5 and 5 for 10″, which means 3 strides for the first 5 yards and 5 strides for the first 10 yards, since the stride lengthens with each progressive step. Less strides from A to B because of greater force production translates into an athlete that is starting and accelerating better.
I would usually chase these drills with a single leg start drill in which I had the athlete in a single leg half-squat stance with his arms loaded in a cheek and pocket position. The trail leg would be elevated behind him. Almost all athletes think of initial movement as their “first step”. I want to break this mentality and get them thinking “first push”. In this drill I make sure that the arms and down leg initiate movement with a hard push followed by the up leg swinging through. If the swing leg moves first, you have “step” action instead of “push” action and aren’t going to be as explosive as you should. Another key is watching to see if the down leg gets completely extended through the hip, knee, and ankle. A “pusher” will, while a “stepper” won’t.
One last consideration are “high knee” drills. I put it in quotes because I hate the name. I call them “piston” drills instead because I don’t want my athletes thinking about lifting their knees. Knees coming up have nothing to do with force going down, which is what moves and accelerates the athlete. Here’s a video with a high knee run, so you can visualize what I’m talking about . . .
Physics tell us that for every action there is an equal an opposite reaction, so the harder 1 leg pushes down, the higher the other knee will come up as an opposite action. In other words, get the athlete focused on the right thing and cue him to push down. The high knee action will take care of itself.
So, there you have. An introduction to movement efficiency relative to starting speed and acceleration and some basic force production drills to ensure that your athletes aren’t just pretty runners.
There’s far more to acceleration training than this, but the last couple posts should serve as a great foundation.
Your Coach,
Brian Utley
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