Archive for August, 2007
Any training programme designed for young athletes should take into account speed development.
When designing programmes, good coaches will ask: When should I implement speed training during training sessions? and when should I schedule speed training in the context of long term athlete development?
The answer to the first question is, immediately after a dynamic warm-up.
The answer to the second question is slightly more complicated. Young athletes speed development is governed by their physical maturity.
Consequently, there are periods in maturation when athletes will adapt less to speed training and more to other variables such as strength, flexibility etc. and vice versa.
These periods have been termed sensitive periods. It is important that coaches working with young athletes are aware of these periods and how manipulating training variables to coincide with sensitive periods can produce favourable adaptations.
In my opinion speed development, that is not just pure speed but all aspects of speed, should be taught/trained in each training session.
So, rather than eliminating speed training from sessions when athletes are in a strength training sensitive period, tone down the amount of speed work in order to focus more on strength training.
When athletes are in a speed training sensitive period, increase the amount of speed work and tone down strength work, but never completely eliminate a variable from training.
Always develop speed and emphasise speed development when in the sensitive period.
More on sensitive periods in part 2.
Congratulations goes to Tyson Gay who yesterday won the IAAF World Athletics Championships 100-m in 9.85-s.
As discussed in an earlier post, Gay had to get by his standards a decent start – and he did. His reaction time of 0.143 was faster than Asafa Powell’s 0.145, yet due to Gays poor technique Powell had maybe 1.5-m lead on Gay up until 60-m.
However, thanks to Gay’s superb top speed and slower rate of deceleration he was able to claw back Powell’s lead and actually beat Powell by 2-2.5-m. Obviously Gay’s training programme is a closely guarded secret however he attributes his top speed and slower rate of deceleration to a lot of over-distance running. Rumour has it his favourite distance in training is 250-m. With such an emphasis on over-distance it is not illogical to understand why his start is slightly off the pace of his rivals. When John Drummond (who is tutoring Gay) gets Gays starts up to standard – watch out for 9.75-s!
The buzz word within sports performance these days is “plyometric” training and the use plyometric training has become widespread in many sports performance programmes.
When implemented in the correct manner plyometric training is effective for improving explosive power (impulse is the correct term).
The aim of plyometric training is to reduce the time the foot is in contact with the ground which allows for a more efficient transfer of energy in the direction of movement.
To be considered plyometric the exercise must have a ground contact time of less than 0.2-s. Unfortunately many “plyometric” drills prescribed by coaches do not fulfil this criteria.
However, sprinting does. When running at high speed ground contact times are between 0.08 – 0.20-s with ground reaction forces around 3 times body weight.
A recently published study by researchers from the University of Zagreb, Croatia looked at the effects of sprint and plyometric training on muscle function and athletic performance.
Ninety three male physical education students were assigned to a plyometric group (PG), sprint group (SG) or combined plyometric and sprint group (CG).
The plyometric group undertook the following training three times per week for 10 weeks.
Week – Exercise – Sets x Reps
1 40-cm hurdle jumps 5 x 10
2 40-cm hurdle jumps 7 x 10
3 40-cm hurdle jumps 10 x 10
4 60-cm hurdle jumps 5 x 10
5 60-cm hurdle jumps 7 x 10
6 Unloading week (rest)
7 60-cm hurdle jumps 10 x 10
8 40-cm drop jumps 4 x 10
9 40-cm drop jumps 4 x 10
10 40-cm drop jumps 4 x 10
11 40-cm drop jumps 4 x 10
The sprint group training undertook the following training three times per week for 10 weeks.
Week – Exercise – Sets x Reps
1 10-m sprint 3 x 3
2 10-m sprint 4 x 3
3 20-m sprint 3 x 3
4 20-m sprint 4 x 3
5 30-m sprint 3 x 3
6 Unloading week (rest)
7 30-m sprint 4 x 3
8 40-m sprint 3 x 3
9 40-m sprint 4 x 3
10 50-m sprint 3 x 3
11 50-m sprint 4 x 3
The researchers found that isometric squat strength, squat jump power and counter movement jump power was significantly improved in the sprint group only.
Both plyometric training and sprint training groups significantly improved performance in the squat jump countermovement jump and drop jump index.
So what does this tell us? If we want to improve performance in pretty much any sport improving explosive power is the key. This piece of research indicates that sprint training may be more advantageous than plyometric training alone when aiming to improve explosive power.
Reference
Markovic, G., Jukic,I., Milanovic, D. and Metikos, D. (2007). Effects of sprint and plyometric training on muscle function and athletic performance. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 21, 543 – 549.
Following on from
The answer is obvious!………….Attack!
Yes, we hear all the time that your game should be built on solid defence, but it’s the speed and agility of Robinson and Rockocoko that wins the game and excites the crowd.
So how can we develop speed and agility to win the world cup?
Speed and agility drills? Yes. Endless ladder drills? No. Game specific speed and agility drills. Yes. Straight line sprints? No.
The fact that I could roll off several different methods ranging from box squats to uphill sprints only adds to the confusion as to which is the most effective way to develop speed and agility. So then let’s not even start on the theories behind the methods! Not yet at least.
Unlike the pro’s we don’t have time to devote training to all the contributing factors of speed and agility. So what do we do? Choose the most specific and time efficient methods that will get us results.
In most cases these are speed and agility drills. Running in between poles, cones and markers? Exactly, keep it simple and effective. But let’s get smart about it.
When your running towards a marker and you know what change in direction you have to make, you can plan/map the route out in your head. In a game would you be able to map out the direction of an opponent in your head? Unlikely.
Ok, so you have to make the movements random, allow players to make split decisions. In other words make the drills random and call them “Random multi-directional agility drills”.
So that’s easy, when you get to a cone the coach shouts out a colour of the next cone and you change direction and sprint towards it. Wrong.
How often is there somebody on the pitch telling you which way to run? Never.
So instead of a verbal reaction make it visual. Have players sprint through agility drills where they have to make changes of direction based upon random movements of other players.
Shadowing/mirroring – where players mimic the movements of other players is another excellent way of developing random multi-direction quickness.
So winning the world cup is easy. Just do lots of random multi-directional speed and agility drills!
In the Norwich Union London Grand Prix tomorrow evening Tyson Gay will attempt to break the World 100-m record jointly held by Asafa Powell and Justin Gatlin of 9.77-s.
Certainly he has the ability, and the top speed and has already run faster than the world record this season, albeit a wind assisted 9.76-s.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=V5s8DgXRjGQ
But as the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Osaka draws closer what will limit Gay in achieving the WR?
Well, this would definitely be the start of the 100-m. Gay has been inconsistent this season but has been working with former US sprinter John Drummond in an attempt to correct his starting technique.
If we look closely at Gays body angle following the initial push out of the blocks this looks to set up his poor starts. Rather than his torso being at an angle of around 40-50 deg and back being straight, his torso is slightly bent and crumpled.
What this means is that the unbelievable force he generates is not optimally transferred to horizontal speed because of his crumpled and therefore weaker core musculature.
If Tyson Gay nails the start on Friday night, floods or no floods, there will be a new world record holder. All comments welcome.
