Coaches in sports such as golf, tennis and swimming recognise the gains in performance that can be achieved through specifically targeting skill. As most sports are based around using bats, racquets, and/or balls of some description the control of these objects is often the focus when it comes to skill development.

What coaches and teachers also recognise is the importance of controlling where your body is in relation to the object you are trying to hit, catch, pass or kick; and the opposition who might be trying to do the same thing. You must get your body near the ball or in some space before you can apply any of sports specific skills. Training time must be committed to the speed, agility, reactions, or elevation that will get you in the right place faster

Explosive speed and agility are huge game breaking performance skills that must be specifically trained. Speed and agility will determine the attacker’s ability to evade or beat the defender to find space. Conversely the defenders ability to react with speed and agility will determine how effective they are in closing down attacking space. In an individual court sport the level of success may be primarily determined by your ability to get the ball quickly and with balance.

Most coaches have adopted the “train the way we play” philosophy for skill development in terms of intensity, specific sports skills and technique. However the same philosophy is rarely applied when considering speed and agility development. A common mistake is to implement only conventional track and field straight line speed development techniques.

Unfortunately track and field as a sport has very little physical similarities to the requirements of team and ball sports and as such a sole focus on track sprinting techniques will limit the development of multidirectional movement skills. Although straight line speed (linear speed) is a crucial skill, training only for linear speed does not fit with the “train the way we play” philosophy as for a number of reasons.

Maximum velocity is widely accepted as being achieved around 6-7 seconds / 60-70m at elite levels and contrary to many beliefs non elite athletes will reach their top speeds faster due to the potential being lower. To take a more critical approach, according to Tom Tellez, Carl Lewis’ track coach, we could break down the 100m into the following stages:

Perhaps of most significance is the deceleration, as it is often the athlete that slows down the least that will win the race.

When we look at this in the context of sport, it is very rare that athletes will reach maximum velocity and in essence could range from 40-100% of maximum velocity based on field based sports and position. Both time in motion and GPS studies have allowed sport scientist to better understand the demands of sport. In 2004 a study published by the Department of Physiology, Australian Institute of Sport and School of Human Movement Studies, The University of Queensland (Grant Duthie, David Pyne and Sue Hooper) for Journal of Sports Sciences, (May 2005; 23(5): 523 – 530) focused its attention to Rugby Union. They found the ability to accelerate appears to be the most critical factor in performance for forwards given that the mean duration of sprints is less than 3 secs and the maximal sprint duration are less than 5 secs. From a standing start this would allow a player to cover approximately 30–40 m. Conversely, backs had sprint durations of 6 secs, which permits the attainment of maximal velocity. For the backs, in particular the outside backs; the distance from the opposition requires longer sprints. Training should reflect these requirements, with forwards undertaking short sprints (0-20m) and backs performing both short and long (0-50 m) sprints to mimic the demands of the game.

Speed Training in your Season:

In the pre season many teams aim for 3-4 sessions of 30-60 minutes per week. This then becomes less practical as the season starts. It is important however that teams continue a maintenance program that generally consists of shorter blocks but the same number of sessions per week. 10-15 minutes may not be ideal, but it provides a very good window to facilitate speed acquisition as part of the warm up. The theme of each session will be determined by the sports requirements and we also be directed by the coaches plans for the team. Have a plan and this will also facilitate variety in your sessions. As an example of an in season plan of training modalities, consider:

1. Linear mechanics, quickness / footspeed and linear speed.

2. Lateral quickness, lateral speed transition to linear speed.

3. Reactive speed / power and decision making games.

4. Loaded agility and unloaded multi directional changes.

I personally advocate a component of plyometrics within all speed programs regardless of the training phase. Unfortunately due to misuse and misunderstanding, plyometrics has become a 4 letter word in many trainers vocabulary. Even at a young age, we hop, skip and jump. All of which are plyometric exercises. Perhaps so not to open a can of worms, we leave this for another article to discuss. But just to say that its my experience that many injuries caused in training attributed to plyometrics can just as easily be put down to the volume of maximum velocity running. Look at your athletes training age and not their chronological age to determine where they should enter the programme and build loads accordingly.

Technique Basics:

There is always more than one way and the great Michael Johnson in the context of running provides no better example of how a ‘different’ technique can still be very effective.

Some basic form points for acceleration:

• Body lean - aiming at 45 degrees. A lower centre of gravity retains stability. Straight Line from ankles, knees, hips and shoulders.
• Aggressive arms. We can’t underestimate how much these affect our propulsion. Relax the hands as if you held potato crisps.
• High knee drive with Triple extension – toe up, heel up and knee up.
• 100% effort. Intensity less than 70% has been shown to affect neurological transfer.

© Speed Power Stability Systems Ltd 2006 www.xlr8.co.nz