Vertical Jump, “Become a Freak” Review

Posted on August 30, 2011 by TRUTH

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Vertical Jump Become a Freak Review

Vertical jumping is one of the greatest assets in playing many sports. For sports basketball and volleyball the vertical jump is probably the most sought after aspect. To be able to dunk a ball or spike a volley requires an advanced vertical jump. Many average players could transform their game by learning how to increase their vertical jump.

However, if you are like most people, who cannot jump beyond the minimum height, then you can improve your vertical jump greatly with the targeted training provided by Become a Freak, Improve your vertical jump!

This book is written by a top level athlete who at the beginning couldn’t even get close to the rim. His vertical jump training has enabled him and thousands of other people dramatically improve their vertical jump. In some cases their vertical jump has almost doubled in height! He can now easily dunk the ball! His self-taught techniques allowed him to go from just another guy on the court to the best dunker in the game!

Vertical Jump

The techniques provided in this book will boost your confidence and height to a new level, and will lead to improvement of your vertical jump ability. His vertical jump techniques clear up many misconceptions like you need to be tall to dunk a basketball. The truth is any vertical jump is based upon the conditioning and muscle strength of the leg muscles.

Stretching exercises and conditioning help provide the muscles with the proper ability to elevate your vertical jump. Another misconception is that vertical jumping is a natural talent and you were born to jump.

The truth is Become a Freak dispels this myth by establishing the fact that almost anyone can improve their vertical jump by following the techniques and guidelines provided by Become a Freak. And vastly improved vertical jump skills can be obtained rather quickly. Get your copy of  Become a Freak  today and become that annoying guy who is always dunking the ball!

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Truth About Quickness

Posted on July 17, 2011 by TRUTH

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speed training

speed training


Speed Training

Truth About Quickness – Single Leg Box Jumps

“Truth About Quickness 2.0″ System Secrets w/ Alex Maroko

Product creators: Alex Maroko and Kelly Baggett.
Program Price: $97– shipped to your home (hard copy)
& $77 for digital copy (downloadable)

What you get:

1. The Truth About Quickness Insider’s DVD.
2. The Truth About Quickness Insider’s Action Program Manual.
3. The Truth About Quickness Insider’s Action Workbook.
4. The Truth About Quickness Ultimate Insider’s Warm-Up.

Guarantee:

1. 60-day “no-questions-asked” Money Back Guarantee.
2. You get to keep the bonuses even if you claim a refund.

Truth About Quickness Program

The program was created by two of the world’s leading speed training experts:
Kelly Baggett & Alex Maroko.

Effective Ball Handling Program is one of Alex’s books.


Vertical Jump Bible is one of Kelly’s books.


Kelly has a large amount of speed training knowledge.


Alex simplifies it so everyone can understand.


The program has 4 parts:


Module 1:
Truth About Quickness Insider’s DVD.

Everything is in this DVD, speed training concepts, all the information and videos.

Module 2:
The Truth About Quickness Insider’s Action Program Manual.

It contains the 48 week training schedule

Module 3:
The Truth About Quickness Insider’s Action Workbook.

The Workbook that you use to track and chart your progress.

Module 4:
The Truth About Quickness Ultimate Insider’s Warm-Up.

In this module, Alex’s secret warm-up and the warm-up that he makes each of his elite athletes go through before workouts.

The whole program was easy to understand, and easy to follow. It only takes a few minutes to complete the training exercises,

Video is good but not HD quality

Conclusion


We highly recommend Truth About Quickness.

It is a great speed training program and will dramatically improve your quickness, no matter what sport you play.


More Speed Training Products



Developing Youth Speed

Speed Training

Explosive Football Training Manual

Speed Training

Ultimate Speed Development

Speed Training

Hockey Speed Training

Speed Training

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Planning Strength and Speed Training For American Football

Posted on July 17, 2011 by TRUTH

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Speed Training

American Football, like many other sports, has a history of coaches with a poor understanding of the sport’s demands inflicting upon players the necessity to run laps of the pitch, and engage in other forms of speed training at odds with the sport’s unique demands. With a constant stop start style to the play, with the average play lasting no longer than ten seconds, followed by a much longer rest period, its demands are closer to traditional speed training and strength training methods, than sports such as Rugby or Boxing, where there is a much greater endurance element required. At the same time, the sport has a big element of lateral mobility and technical considerations to consider, absent from pure speed training or strength training sports.

This article will look at ways to incorporate speed training and strength training methods to assist a player looking to improve his speed training or  strength training during the football off-season. Each element will be considered individually. Given the wide range of requirements for the different positions in football, this article will focus on  speed training planning for a typical week for Linebackers, Backs and Strong Safeties, although the advice is applicable to most positions except Kickers and Offensive/Defensive Linemen. Even then, many of the elements would remain broadly similar for these positions.

Strength Training

Most American Football players today will already place a large emphasis on speed training and strength training as this has been emphasized for a comparatively longer time in the sport due to the ever increasing demand for larger and stronger athletes. This does not mean that players should automatically follow speed training and strength training advice handed out in bodybuilding magazines, or follow a generic college speed training and strength training program. Unfortunately, most college programs suffer from being overly simplistic due to the need to try to train 40 or 50 athletes at once in a facility. This type of speed training and strength training training leads to the most simple, easy to administer programs being handed out to athletes, rather than the most effective. Similarly, athletes who believe bodybuilding programs can enhance sports performance may potentially gain some muscle size but at the expense often of relative strength and speed going down, as well as a decrease in joint mobility if emphasising single joint exercises. Additionally, bodybuilding programs’ emphasis on training to failure and exhaustive work on individual muscle groups will lead to less energy being available for the high intensity, explosive work which football demands.

Split Training vs Whole Body Training

Most players will often follow a typical bodybuilding protocol where individual muscle groups are trained once per week with very high volume. Unfortunately, while this may work under certain circumstances for bodybuilders, football players cannot afford to adopt this method. Most significantly, this method of speed training and strength training makes it very difficult to integrate training with the demands of improving other elements vital to success in football. For example, many bodybuilders will train back, quadriceps, hamstrings on separate days. This will mean for most of the time players will have insufficient energy to perform their other drills, sprint work etc due to excess muscular fatigue. Furthermore, speed training and strength training and split training will mean the central nervous system is always under stress from constantly performing high intensity activity leading to impaired recovery and ability to perform other drills outside the gym with the required intensity.

This leaves two options. The first is to adopt a lower/upper body split and the second is to adopt a full body speed training and strength training program. Both options have their advocates. Splitting the body into lower/upper will mean legs get trained twice a week meaning five days are left for rest. By only training legs on those two days, a greater volume of work can be performed on training days compared to a typical whole body approach consisting of hitting the weights on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday basis, where because of the increased frequency and need to train upper body as well, leg speed training and strength training volume would need to be reduced.

Depending on the athlete’s needs an upper/lower split is usually more useful for speed training, strength training and muscle size as many will struggle to maintain the intensity needed for a long, whole body training workout. A sample lower/upper body split would be as follows:

Sample Strength Training Split

Monday

Squats 4 x 4-6

Romanian Deadlifts 4 x 4-6

Step Ups 2 x 8

Pullthroughs 2 x 8

Ab Rollouts 2 x 8

Tuesday

Incline Bench Press 4 x 4

Hang Cleans 3 x 3

Shoulder Press 2 x 6

Pullups 2 x 6

Tricep Extensions 2 x 8

Barbell Curls 2 x 8

Thursday

Power Cleans 5 x 3

Snatch Grip Deadlifts 3 x 5

One Legged Squats 2 x 6

Glute Ham Raise 2 x 8

Hanging Leg Raises 2 x 10

Friday

Close Grip Bench Press 3 x 5

Pullups 3 x 5

Incline Dumbell Press 2 x 8

Seated Row Machine 2 x 8

Tricep Extensions 2 x 12

Dumbell Curls 2 x 12

Speed Training

Speed training for football players needs to consider the fact that football sprints are usually of much shorter duration than sprinting in track and field events. At the same time the body mechanics of football players will be different to those you see in top class sprinters.

Having said that, a speed training program for football players will have a large degree of overlap with that of Olympic athletes but with a limited requirement for the type of speed training endurance work performed by sprinters during the summer track season. Instead a football program should primarily emphasise acceleration techniques with a smaller component of top speed training work so that for the rare occasions that a full sprint is required, the player is able to maintain his top speed for longer.

Although there are many differing views on speed training, the approach used by Charlie Francis[i] is one which works well for integrating the other aspects of football training.

Speed Training Template for Off-Season

Monday

Speed Training Warmup – 5 min general warmup

Speed Training Mobility Exercises – 10 min

Speed Training Running Drills – 10 min

Start Work – 6 x 10m (Practise a 3 point or 2 point stance and perform a maximal 10m sprint)

Speed Training Acceleration Work – 6 x 20m (2 or 3 point stance and accelerate through to 20m)

Speed Training Acceleration Work – 2 x 30m (Run from standing start to 30m)

Speed Training Rest times between sprints should be 2-3 mins for 10m work, 3-5 min for 20m work, and 4-6 min for 30m work to ensure full recovery is attained.

The astute reader will notice the sprints are combined on a day where the weights pushed will be heavy. Depending on the athletes needs, they could sprint in the AM and do the weights in the evening or vice versa. Both approaches will work. The main factor behind placing sprints on the same day as weight training the legs is to allow for greater CNS and muscular recovery. Trying to sprint on separate days (e.g. on Tue) would mean the legs still being fatigued from the day before and then having less rest before the next weight session for legs. By contrast, combining weight training with leg work on the same day is something sprint coaches usually recommend.

Tuesday

Speed Training Warmup – 5 min general warmup

Speed Training Mobility Exercises – 10 min

Speed Training Running Drills – 10 min

Tempo speed training Work 8-10 x 100m @60-70% speed

Tempo speed training  is running the distance at a sub-maximal speed and walking the next 100m. It is very important both for active recovery (recovering from the previous day’s exertions), learning to run in a relaxed manner (many athletes strain too much when sprinting maximally), and for overall conditioning and fat loss (the intervals being approximately similar when running/walking, as the work/rest time in football and in fat loss protocols such as Tabata).

Wednesday

With another high intensity day scheduled for Thursday, Wednesday is a time to rest and recuperate. Some mobility and drill work is okay for those who need it though.

Thursday

Speed Training Warm-up – 5 min general warm-up

Speed Training Mobility Exercises – 10 min

Speed Training Running Drills – 10 min

Speed Training Start Work – 6 x 10m (Practice a 3 point or 2 point stance and perform a maximal 10m sprint)

Speed Training Acceleration – 3 x 20m

Speed Training Acceleration – 3 x 30m

Speed Training Top Speed – 3 x 50m

Thursday’s speed training session is partnered with a relatively low load, explosive lifting weight training day. The sprint distances complement the weights by being of a greater distance and speed. This is the day when the football player will work his maximum speed but we keep acceleration work in, albeit at a reduced volume, as acceleration is a very important factor for football as well as helping to warmup the body for the top Speed Training work. Rest times can be up to 10min long for the top Speed Training sprints. The work conducted has to be of a high quality with full muscular and CNS recovery between sprints the aim of the athlete.

Friday

Speed Training Tempo Work – 8-10 x 100m

This day is a repeat of Tuesday

Saturday

Warm-up – 5 min general warm-up

Speed Training Mobility Exercises – 10 min

Speed Training Running Drills – 10 min

Start Work – 4 x 10m (Practice a 3 point or 2 point stance and perform a maximal 10m sprint)

Speed Training Acceleration – 3 x 20m

Speed Training Acceleration – 2 x 30m

Speed Training Top Speed – 2 x 50m

Speed Training Top Speed – 2 x 60m

Saturday is the day when we should be at our freshest. There is no weight training prior to speed training and we are furthest removed from the draining effects of the heavy strength training conducted on Monday and Tuesday. There is a greater emphasis on top Speed Training work this time with an increase in the distance up to 60m. This should be the time the athlete is setting his best times.

Sunday

Rest

Going Past a Week

At this point it should be pointed out that the approach given is for a sample training week in the off-season. Strength and speed training should still be periodized as normal. A favored approach of many programs is to gradually increase training volume and intensity before incorporating a week of reduced volume and intensity to allow for supercompensation and CNS recovery to take place. A 3/1 split of hard speed training followed by an easier “unloading” week will help promote continued improvements rather than trying to constantly add weight/sets/sprints to the program which will only lead to stagnation.

At the same time, other exercises and techniques will usually be incorporated to provide the athlete’s body with new challenges but the overall goal should remain the same which is to increase strength and speed training over the long haul. Although it will be easy for a beginner to make rapid improvements in both strength and speed following a structure such as that outlined, at some point it is likely that either the weights or the speed training work will have to be reduced in volume (although not intensity) and maintained so that the other quality being work can be emphasized.

Most 100m sprinters will usually go from a program where strength increases are emphasized in winter to one where weight training is restricted to maintenance only so that full attention can be devoted to maximal speed training work during the summer months.

Of course, for American Football players, they may have a differing view on which element needs emphasizing but the fact remains that given that neither strength training or speed training improvements in-season are realistic, the player should look at his off-season training program and consider which variable he needs to work on the most. Then, he can perform a greater or lesser amount of speed training or strength training work as deemed appropriate by him and his coaching staff. For a strong athlete with limited speed this would mean reducing the volume of his weight work on his training days and speed training first in the training day, when the CNS and muscular system is freshest. On the other hand, a weak, fast athlete may wish to perform a limited amount of speed training work and increase his weight training volume so that he can bring up his strength levels quicker.

Other Factors

Many other factors beyond how the athlete structures his speed training are important including mobility drills, nutritional support, supplementation, recovery and regeneration techniques, and technical work. Although these are beyond the scope of this article, each speed training element should be implemented carefully. Please check the other speed training articles at this site for further reading.

[i] The Charlie Francis speed Training System (1992)

Reggie Johal – http://www.Predatornutrition.com and Driven Sports

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Triple Threat Speed Training

Posted on July 16, 2011 by TRUTH

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Speed Training

If you’re an athlete, you already know how much speed kills. Lots of athletes out there are speed training year around but many train wrong.

I want to talk about three different important components of speed training I like to call “Triple Threat Speed Training.”

The three components of Triple Threat Speed Training are:

1. Power Acceleration Training

2. Over Speed Training

3. Strength Speed Training

If you train all of these different components together, the right way, in the right amounts, you’ll get more explosive, athletic, and faster for sure.

I’ll go ahead and explain the different type of training that’s involved with Triple Thread Speed Training. I will warn you now, I HATE science and so I will spare you the boring scientific mumbo-jumbo that goes along with a lot of this stuff. I want to get right to the point so you can use these techniques to start getting fast now! Not sit around and study it all day long.

Instead, I will talk strictly about what each component is and how you can train it. Leave all the geek science talk to your in-depth books.

Power Acceleration Training

Let’s get into the first component which is Power Acceleration Training.

One of the most important aspects of speed training  is being fast is the ability to go from a stopped position to full speed in the least amount of time possible. When you are able to do this fast and efficiently, you have a lot of power and acceleration.

There are many speed training ways to train for power and acceleration. The best ways to train for these two components are with explosive type movements such as plyometrics and light resisted running. Let me explain the two.

First, you have explosive type plyometric movements such as broad jumps, bounding, lunge jumps, squat jumps, power skips, box jumps, single leg hops, and drop jumps. You can even add in your Olympic lifts as well but with younger and new athletes, I stick to the basic plyos.

All of these movements force the body to use a high rate of force development. All this really means is that you force the body to explosively accelerate through the movements.

Now the important thing about plyometric and explosive type speed training movements like these are that you force the body to move at full speed. It’s essential you move at full speed.

The best way for speed training and improving plyometric type movements is to perform them when your body is fresh. I prefer to have my athletes do plyos and other explosive type movements at the beginning of a training session with close to complete recovery times.

So for example, we would perform a set of lightly weighted squat jumps x 5 reps. After you are finished, you would rest for 60 secs up to 120 secs. You want to be fresh so you can be as explosive as you can when performing the speed training exercise. It does us no good to perform an explosive exercise as tired as this will only train us to be half as explosive.

As far as reps go, you want to keep the reps low per set and stick around 20-30 reps per workout with explosive type movements. The goal isn’t to get totally fatigued out where a lot of athletes tend to think. It’s to have high quality, all out effort reps.

Now let’s talk about the other type of speed training within this first component, which is acceleration training.

In  acceleration speed training, you want to work on going from zero to full speed as fast as possible.

Great ways to train for this is with hill sprints and resisted running drills such as sled runs, prowler pushes, and partner harness sprints.

Now, this is where a lot of athletes go completely wrong. Many athletes try to perform resisted sprints speed training with too much resistance. When there’s too much resistance, the running form is altered which does us no good, and our running speed isn’t near the top.

Instead, we want just enough resistance to give us a challenge but not much more. If you really want to break it down, you do not want to have so much resistance that you slow your running speed down over 10%. You still want to be able to run near top speed.

So for hill sprints, the perfect angle or incline of hill to work at would be about a 15-20 degrees. I know I was wrong when I was younger running up hills over 45 degree which forced me to run a ton slower than full speed.

Now for speed training sled sprints and other forms of resisted sprints, the same concept applies. You do not want to go too heavy and make it into a strength exercise. I see kids still running with tons of weight on the sled and they are barely moving. This is great for strength development but bad for acceleration speed training . You want to again be able to go near top speed so go light with the weight used on the sled sprints and when you do partner harness drills, the resistance should be just enough to force the runner to explode full speed.

Over Speed Training

Let’s move onto the next component of Triple Threat Speed Training which is Over Speed Training.

I would have to say this is by far my most favorite type of speed training as there are multiple ways to do it and its fun.

The main purpose of Over Speed training is to force the body to actually run faster than its normally able to run. Doing Over Speed training will train the body to actually be able to run faster by adaptation over time. It helps to increase your stride frequency to a higher degree.

A few examples of how to do Over Speed Training are by running downhill and partner towing drills with a bungee cord.

First, let’s talk about downhill running. When you run downhill, gravitational pull will force you to run faster than you’re normally able to do. This can be super effective but also dangerous at the same time if you do it wrong.

Just like with uphill running, we want to make sure the hill isn’t too steep. We want just enough slope to force us to run faster. If the slope is too steep, we risk running too fast and actually getting too out of control and possibly causing a potential injury. Running form still needs to be taken into effect.

Partner towing drills work great as well to force us to run faster than normal BUT there needs to be close attention to the ability of the athlete and form. Partner drills can potentially be dangerous if done incorrectly.

What you do is get into a 10ft – 15ft bungee cord with a partner. The partner takes off at about 3 quarters speed as the other person stays put. As tension builds up in the bungee, the person standing there takes off full speed. What happens in the bungee cord acts as a sling shot, pulling the person attached to it fast ahead which then forced that person to run faster than usual. This works great if you do it right!

Speed Training & Strength Training 

The final component of Triple Threat Speed Training is Speed Strength.

This is the most important component and serves as the base of all speed and athletics. All athletes need to have a base level of speed training strength. Without it, we will not be able to produce enough force or power to efficiently run fast.

I can guarantee that if I train a young athlete that is extremely weak and slow to get stronger, he will automatically get faster at the same time, even if I don’t do any sort of speed training work.

The more advanced you get, the lesser role strength actually plays as those athletes already usually posses a large amount of strength. In these instances, technique and specific running speed training drills become way more important.

But for the most part, strength plays such a huge roll! The types of strength I speak about are all full body, functional strength types. Being able to perform all different types of bodyweight movements with ease is a requirement. Performing movements such as your squats, box squats, sumo squats, deadlifts, push presses, rdl’s, cleans, snatches, jerks, and lunges are very important.

The Olympic lifts are not essential but do help with explosive type speed more so than anything.

Now it’s not necessary that you must be able to deadlift a small semi truck or squat a house. What’s important is that you have very high relative strength to your body weight. An example would be for an athlete to weight 150lbs to have a 250-300lb squat. That’s exceptional and very strong. While that may not seem like much, it is for a 150lb athlete! Numbers aren’t important. Relative body strength is!

It’s important to always have a strong base of strength no matter what sport you play. The stronger you are, the better your other attributes will be.

Athletes need not be afraid of heavy weights. Getting stronger will help to build important muscle mass needed to improve explosive and accelerative speed training type qualities as well.

The important thing to remember and keep close watch on is lifting form and technique. If the form is good and technique is sound, things will be great. It’s it the opposite, then lifting can be detrimental to the athletes speed training qualities, so pay attention to the basics and stick to good form and technique!

Those that are really fast, are usually also very strong as well.

So, to become as fast as you possibly can be, you need to focus on all three components – power and acceleration, over speed training, and strength!

Get Fast and Strong!

Travis is a highly unconventional hardcore strength and conditioning specialist that focuses in on serious athletes and trainees to help them improve their overall performance and physique.

He specializes training athletes specifically in aggressive sports such as football, wrestling, and MMA. Travis does this with “underground” type training methods including strongman, kettlebell, ropes, chains, bodyweight, Olympic lifting, sandbags, sleds, and tires.

He own a small hardcore gym in Omaha NE, called The Forged Athlete where he helps athletes and serious trainees alike accomplish their performance and physique enhancement goals.

For more information on Travis, go to his personal blog at http://www.travisstoetzel.com and look into all of the other articles, posts, and videos available.

His Omaha NE Gym website is located at http://www.theforgedathlete.com

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Speed Training Myths

Posted on July 15, 2011 by TRUTH

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1. Static stretching prepares you to compete/practice

Static stretching actually reduces power output. Athletes should prepare for practice by doing a dynamic warm up that moves from basic, low intensity movements to faster, more explosive movements as the muscles loosen up. You want to simulate movements that athletes will go through in practice or a game. What happens when you try and stretch a cold rubber band? In a way, you can think about your muscles the same way.

2. Strength training makes females too bulky

This is a popular mindset with many female athletes that we have worked with. Simply look at some elite female athletes like Mia Hamm, Lisa Leslie, etc. These athletes certainly train with weights and no one would accuse them of having manly physiques. Strength training and speed training will improve performance and reduce injury if done correctly.

3. speed training

For some reason it is a popular belief that you are born with a certain amount of ‘speed’ and you can’t improve it. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Most young athletes are so physically weak and mechanically out of tune that significant improvements in speed can be made often just by working on speed training technique and form. Athletes at any age and any level can improve speed when implementing a complete speed training program designed to improve and develop the entire athlete.

4. Training slow makes you fast

I don’t think coaches directly think this way, but their training implies otherwise. This is especially true in sports that involve a higher aerobic element such as soccer, field hockey, lacrosse, etc. I see kids out running mileage and doing long slow intervals of several minutes of continuous speed training. And this will get them in shape. But in games I see kids jogging, jogging and then sprinting at full speed for 20-30 yards, run, jog, sprint for 20-30 yards. If you want kids to improve their acceleration and top speed so they can get to the ball faster or get back on defense, then you have to train by running at full speed in practice.

5. You can train hard every day

The workout itself is only a piece of the speed training puzzle. It is the time between intense workouts, the recovery, where athletes make their improvements. And generally it takes 36-48 hours to recover from high intensity speed training. If athletes are doing too much, too often they become over trained. Coaches can expect to see an increase in injuries, kids complaining that they are sore more often, decreased performance, higher levels of fatigue earlier in games. It’s always better to under train an athlete than over train. Err on the side of caution to get maximal results.

6. Strength training will stunt a young athlete’s growth

This is another myth held over from a different time. On a daily basis, kids as young as 7 years old are playing organized sports year round, tackling, getting tackled, sliding, falling etc.. These loads on the body can have a much greater physical impact than a well designed strength training and speed training program. Though we don’t usually begin training with weights with pre pubescent athletes, they can benefit from body weight exercises such as push ups, lunges, sit ups, etc. This will increase muscular efficiency, speed up recovery, improve coordination and overall speed.

7. The harder the workout, the better the result

Some athletes (and coaches) have this mentality that if a workout doesn’t reduce them to complete exhaustion and/or make them vomit, that it wasn’t an effective workout. I can tell you that those who have this mentality probably see a lot of injuries and frustrating performances. The purpose of a workout is to stimulate an adaptation by the body. If the body is forced to do too much work in a given time period, it will break down. The skill in coaching is to stimulate the adaptation in the body, without reaching a point of diminishing returns.

8. Interval training is the same as speed training

Running repeat 100s, 200s, etc will not improve top speeds. Even running repeat 40s with short recovery will not improve acceleration and top speeds. Speed training is defined at 2-8 seconds of maximal intensity running with full recovery. That means at least 2 minutes of light dynamic movement between each effort. This goes against the experience of some coaches, but simply put, is the only way to improve speed. An athlete must be able to focus on proper speed training form and maintain intensity in order to get faster. If they do not recover properly from each interval, they will not be able to replicate proper mechanics with consistency and they can not improve.

9. Flexibility won’t help you get faster

Both coaches and athletes spend so much time on the skills of their sport, speed training and conditioning that they often forget a fundamental component of success: flexibility. After practice or a game, the muscles are warm and loose. Now is the time to work on increasing flexibility. So many athletes suffer injuries or compete below their capacity because poor flexibility inhibits their range of motion and speed. We see this often in the hips and hip flexors where athletes’ stride length appears conspicuously short. Most often we see this in male athletes who will lift weights, train hard and then skip out on their cool down and flexibility work.

10. Lift your knees

I hear so many parents and coaches yelling to their kids when they want them to run faster or when they are beginning to fatigue, “Lift your knees, Get your knees up”. This is one of the most backwards cues we can give to athletes. The way to run faster is to apply more force to the ground. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, so the more force you apply to the ground, the more the ground will give back. So when we cue athletes to lift their knees we’re doing two things incorrectly.

One, we’re telling them to use their hip flexors to lift instead of their glutes and hamstrings to drive down. Just think about the size of your hip flexor versus the size of the glutes and hamstrings. Now which muscles do you think can create more force and therefore more speed?

Second, we’re cueing them to do learn a movement that is in opposition to what generates speed. If an athlete learns at age 7, to lift their knees when they need a burst of speed, that improper cue will be hardwired into their brain. To unlearn that as a teen and try to do the opposite and drive down, that athlete will have a difficult time coordinating an entirely new way of running and will potentially have to take a step or two backwards. That’s why it is critical to learn proper speed training form early and get an advantage over those who still aren’t getting the best instruction. So cue athletes to step over the opposite knee and drive the foot down into the ground, with the foot landing underneath the hip.

Patrick Beith, CSCS, PES, USATF Lv. II To learn more about Coach Beith and his speed training programs go to http://www.athletesacceleration.com or to discover how to dramatically increase your speed in only 7 days go to http://www.completespeedtraining.com

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Speed Training For Combat Athletes

Posted on July 15, 2011 by TRUTH

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We all know that conditioning can make or break an MMA competitor and be the determining factor in any fight. If you get gassed early on, you have essentially no shot at victory, no matter how skilled you may be. Another component, however, that is often overlooked in the training of combat athletes is speed. While speed training may not be as important as conditioning is to the mixed martial artist, it is still an incredibly valuable commodity to have in your arsenal. If you are faster than your opponent you will be at an advantage in many situations and may be able to administer strikes or takedowns faster than he can defend against them. So, if you have been neglecting speed training, I highly recommend that you read on and start employing some of these ideas right away.

Before we discuss the most effective speed training methods we need to go over a brief explanation of how someone actually gets faster. Inducing improvements with speed training comes through proper training of the nervous system. It is actually your nervous system, and its ability to fire efficiently, not your muscles, that is responsible for making you faster. Getting stronger will improve speed but strength alone is not enough. To develop lethal speed and quickness requires dedicated speed training which focuses on improving the firing rate of the central nervous system.

Since speed training taxes the central nervous system and can be very demanding it should always be done first in your workouts when you are freshest. Doing speed training in a weakened or exhausted state does nothing to improve speed and only leads to bad habits being formed. If you combine many methods of lifting in one workout, speed training should always come first followed by heavy, max effort work, then repetition work and finally conditioning work at the very end. Also, since we are targeting the central nervous system with speed training and since the CNS takes 5-6 times longer than the muscles to recover you want to be sure to always use an adequate rest period between sets. This will usually be in the range of 2-5 minutes depending on the exercise and intensity level.

Another important thing to remember when implementing your speed training is that you should always limit your sets to six reps or less. Speed training must always be of the highest quality with no levels of residual fatigue allowed. When you do sets of more than six reps the quality of the work will start to suffer and your speed will begin to decrease. What you do in training transfers over to your performance in the cage or on the mat. Therefore, speed training slowly leads to performing slowly. This is the last thing you want. For this reason, keep your sets of speed training short and sweet. In most cases, 1-3 reps are actually best. With that out of the way let’s get to some of the most effective speed training methods for combat athletes.

Speed Training – Jump Training

Various forms of jumps, also known as plyometrics, are my favorite and most often utilized form of speed training. I prefer to limit the use of jumps to an average of 15-25 ground contacts per week and no more. Therefore you could do 3 sets of 5 reps all the way up to 6 sets of 4 reps if you train jumps once per week, or somewhere between 2 sets of 4 and 4 sets of 3 if you train jumps speed training twice per week. The most effective forms of jumps are listed below:

o Box Jump

o Hurdle Jump

o Depth Jump

o Altitude Landing

o Standing Broad Jump

o Vertical Jump

o Jump Squat

Note: You should always cycle four weeks of high intensity jump training like depth jumps or altitude landings, with four weeks of lower intensity jump speed training like low hurdles or box jumps.

Olympic Lifts

Olympic lifting has long been used by strength and conditioning coaches to improve speed training in their athletes. While Olympic lifting can sometimes be over rated it is still very effective in the training of combat athletes. Olympic lifts should be performed one to two times per week for 3-6 sets of 1-5 reps. The most effective Olympic lift variations for combat athletes are listed below:

o High Pull

o Hang Clean

o Hang Snatch

o Hang Clean and Push Press

o Keg Clean

o Keg Snatch

o Keg Clean and Press

Sprints

When it comes to getting faster there is no more basic method of speed training than sprinting. However, you may be wondering how speed training developed on a track or field carries over to your performance on the mat. When you do a proper sprint speed training workout which includes a low volume of work consisting of short distance sprints of 50 yards or less and adequate rest periods of 2-5 minutes, you develop explosive speed and power. The speed you develop from such a workout is transferable to anything you do. By working on improving your starts and focusing on short distance sprints you can dramatically improve the speed at which you shoot in or your opponents for takedowns. Sprint speed training should be performed one or two days per week and should consist of 10-20 short sprints with sufficient rest intervals. Always be sure to perform a thorough warm up before commencing your sprint training workouts.

Throws

Any throwing type exercise will always do wonders for speed development. For throws you can use a wide variety of implements such as sandbags, medicine balls, kegs and sledgehammers. The key is to use an object that is not so light that it provides very little in the way of resistance but not so heavy that it slows you down and noticeably alters your throwing mechanics. Optimally, you should be able to throw the object no more than 100 feet and no less than ten feet. If you can throw the object further than 100 feet it is far too light to do anything for speed development. Conversely, if you can not throw the object more than ten feet it is too heavy for speed training development and would be closer to a strength exercise instead of a pure speed training. My best advice would be to stick with an implement that you can throw somewhere between 20 and 50 feet. Throws should be done once or twice per week for 3-8 sets of 1-5 reps. Some of the most effective throwing exercises are listed below.

o Medicine Ball Forward Scoop Throw

o Medicine Ball Overhead Backward Scoop Throw

o Medicine Ball Rotational Throw

o Medicine Ball Soccer Throw

o Medicine Ball Chest Pass

o Overhead Sandbag Throw

o Rotational Sandbag Throw

o Overhead Keg Throw

o Rotational Hammer Throw

If you have been making conditioning the focus of your training while hardly giving speed training a second thought, it’s time for a change. Prioritize speed training for the next few months and watch the difference it can make in your performance. It could just be the one ingredient that was missing from your arsenal and what helps you break through to the next level. Like the old saying goes, “speed kills.”

Jason Ferruggia is a highly sought after, world renowned strength and conditioning specialist who has worked with more than 700 high school, college and professional athletes. For more information about performance enhancement for combat athletes please visit http://www.relentless-athletics.com/

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Soccer Speed Training

Posted on July 14, 2011 by TRUTH

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Quite often I get emails from readers regarding the whole concept on when to perform speed training, and how often it should be implemented in the season schedule.

A rather common phrase I get from readers is something like “we are planning on starting with the speed training later this Spring”.

To me, this is not a good way of doing it.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to criticize you for the way you currently are doing things. I admire that you guys have a plan to follow, but I simply don’t agree with the plan.

And I am very well aware that other factors are involved, such as the number of days you train, time on the field, etc, but in a lot of cases I believe that with a slightly better plan, you can solve this problem.

The philosophy (at least in Sweden), has been that you should build an aerobic base at the beginning of pre-season, and when the real season approaches, you start going into more of high-intensity runs with shorter rest period. Here’s where a lot of coaches believe that soccer speed training should be added as well.

Today, we know there are better ways of doing it.

Since soccer speed is a lot about reaction, it means that the central nervous system is highly involved when it comes to improving soccer speed (or in any other sport for that matter).

In order to train this together with stimulating your fast twitch muscle fibers, you simply can’t perform speed training only during 1/4 of the year.

The solution: Soccer Speed Training should be performed year round!

However, that doesn’t mean you should perform 12 sets of acceleration drills – 3 times/week – year round. Not at all!

You could increase the volume during some parts of the year, and decrease the volume during other parts of the year, but no matter what, speed training should be included almost during the whole year.

During season, speed training should be performed 2-3 times/week, and it doesn’t have to take more than 5-10 minutes to perform. And after that, you could take a break after the season, and then start again after a few weeks.

A pretty good rule of thumb to follow is to perform speed training regularly for 3-5 weeks, and after that you take 1 week off from just the speed training portion (you train soccer just like you normally do during this week). After 1 week off from the speed training, you start again for another 3-5 weeks, take 1 week off, and continue like that.

By following that setup you make sure to train your body for speed and reaction, without overtraining or wearing yourself out.

With younger players, speed training can, according to my philosophy, include coordination drills performed in the agility ladder, line drills, short acceleration contests, etc.

Speed and movement training should just like any other quality in soccer (technical skills, passing, receiving, shooting, etc) be trained regularly. Training for speed and reaction only during March or April is not going to improve your players speed very much.

Speed during soccer today is a critical factor for how long a player will go in his career.

But remember, soccer speed is not about straight ahead speed for 60 meters. Soccer speed is about reaction, 10-20 meters accelerations, deceleration, change of direction, etc. Therefore you need to expose your players to that type of training if you want them to improve their speed and performance on the soccer field.

If you enjoyed this article and want more tips on how to improve your players soccer specific speed without making it too complicated, then sign up for Jonas Forsberg’s mini-course Truth About Soccer Speed over at YouthSoccerSpeed.com

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Speed Training Workouts

Posted on July 13, 2011 by TRUTH

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Every coach and athlete wants to experience faster speeds, but that does not mean they are doing effective speed training workouts at their practices. Somewhere along the way, many coaches, at every level, began combining speed work and conditioning training as the foundation of their speed development. The result of this has been highly conditioned athletes who compete in sports where the demand of the sport does not require a significant percentage of the conditioning that has been developed.

That being said, the required changes likely only involve making minor modifications in your training philosophy. In this article I will cover acceleration development. Many programs neglect acceleration development even though it is the foundation of any program designed to improve speed. You can’t run at your true top speed if don’t have the ability to accelerate properly.

Success in most sports is based heavily on the ability to accelerate quickly and efficiently. This is because most sports primarily require short bursts of speed before the athlete stops, slows down or changes direction. The exception is track and field sprinters, where the acceleration portion of speed development is critical because it sets up the rest of the race. But even sports like soccer, traditionally trained using long slow runs and intervals, require a shift in emphasis to acceleration development. Success in these ‘endurance’ sports still depend on short periods of acceleration in order to get to a loose ball, breakaway from an opponent and get back on defense.

So there’s little point in doing speed training workouts if you haven’t first mastered the ability to accelerate. Here are some basic speed training workouts that you can do in order to improve the ability to accelerate. For our purposes we are talking about runs from 0 – 30 yards.

But before you begin, regardless of your sport or beliefs about training speed, there are some things you need to remember when it comes to acceleration development.

1). Full recovery between repetitions is required.

2). Full recovery means rest approximately one minute for every 10 yards that you run.

3). ‘Don’t train speed every day.

4). The more force you apply to the ground, the faster you’ll pick up speed

5). Make sure that your feet land beneath the hips.

6). The heels should never touch the ground when doing speed work.

7). You run faster when you stay relaxed then when you strain.

I like to start the training season with short runs up hill because this forces athletes to really drive the foot down into the ground in order to gain momentum. The ability to apply force into the ground with each stride is the driving force (pun intended) behind getting faster. I like to use fairly steep hills, that way the requirements in steps 4-7 above really become more pronounced. When you don’t follow those criteria, it becomes extremely difficult to accelerate quickly.

1). 10 x 20y uphill or on a flat surface from standing start. 2 minute rest.

2). 10 x 30y uphill or on a flat surface from (push up down position, 3 point stance or seated). 3 minutes rest.

As you can see, speed training workouts themselves aren’t especially complicated or fancy. The results come from following the 7 rules I mentioned earlier, mastering technique by using speed drills and improving strength by lifting weights. In all, the key is to follow a comprehensive and complete speed training program that will not only teach you the types of workouts that improve speed but also the many other elements of training that compliment your speed work and develop overall athletic ability. By looking for short cuts and quick answers, you’ll see inconsistent and frustrating results. But when your speed training workouts fit into a well designed training plan, you’ll get results that you didn’t realize could occur so quickly and easily.

For more speed training articles from Athletes’ Acceleration and to get the 7 tips to superior speed go now to http://www.athletesacceleration.com/articles.html

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What You Should Know About Speed Training

Posted on July 13, 2011 by TRUTH

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One of the most critical aspects of any training program for an athlete is how they approach developing speed. There are many misconceptions out there that may be interfering with how to best approach improving this vital sport skill.

In an effort to cut through some of the confusion associated with getting faster, we present the following eight concepts to help clarify how to best approach building speed:

1. Distance Running Is Counterproductive to Developing Speed

Much like strength training involves using heavy weights to get strong, speed training involves moving quickly to get fast. You can bench press 100 lbs for a million repetitions, but it won’t do much for you when its time to go for that 300 lb lift. Running a mile or more at a jogging pace is a great way to get in better shape, but it will never make you faster.

In fact, it will actually make it more difficult. Your body constantly adapts to the stresses imposed on it, but it can only adapt to so much at once. Long-distance runs send the message that its time to focus on building lung capacity, strengthening the heart, etc. This takes away from your body’s ability increase the rate at which muscles fire, and all of the other adaptations that make you faster.

Simply put, trying to do two things at once will only make you 1/2 as good at both. Unless conditioning work is an immediate need, it’s best to limit the time spent on it while you are focused on building speed.

2. There Is A Lot More To Being Fast In Sports Than Lowering Your Sprint Times

Athletes in many sports, football players mostly, obsess over 40 yd dash times. Baseball players do the same for the 60, but there is a lot more to playing fast in sports than sprint times.

For all the hype around the top 40 times at the NFL combine, they actually include two short distance agility tests (L Drill and Pro-I) to assess draft picks. Although that is just one example in one sport, it signals the more universal reality that change of direction and first-step quickness are both more valued commodities in sports than the over-glorified skill of straight-ahead speed.

A quality speed development program combines sprint work with both cutting and reaction drills. To supplement this, athletes likely will also need to develop their balance, core strength, ability to absorb force, and flexibility, all of which can develop your ability to move better on the field.

3. It Requires Attention To Detail

Where should your toes point when sprinting? Which leg should you put your weight on when cutting? Where should you always take your first step to begin a sprint?

These all may seem like insignificant details, but they are some of the crucial elements that can make you a step or two faster than you already are. It is the finer points of running technique that should be your main focus while training. It can take months to add enough power to drop 0.2 of a second on an agility or sprint test, but you can get the same decrease (or better) in 10 minutes by fixing a flaw in your technique.

A trained coaching eye is an invaluable resource in developing great form, but athletes need to take responsibility as well. Once you are taught how to do things right, you should have a good feel for when a cut, first step. or other movement skill was done properly or not.

4. When Learning A New Skill, Begin By Practicing At Less Than Full Speed

Think back to when you first learned long division in (hopefully) elementary school. It likely was a tough concept to grasp in the beginning because there were so many concepts to combine all at the same time. Most of us had to take our time to get it right at first. Eventually, when the process became more automatic, we could speed up the skill to get it done faster.

Any time you are learning a new way to improve a technique related to speed, the best way to properly develop it is to train it at a pace which allows you to get a feel for what’s happening first. Then, you can gradually add speed. Eventually, like that division, with practice you will make the new skill automatic and be able to ratchet up the pace until you have mastered the skill at top speed.

5. Each Skill Needs To Become Automatic Before It Really Helps In Games

Any improved movement skill you develop in your workouts will not help much during the heat of competition if you have to think of how you are supposed to move. All sports require athletes to focus on other things instead, like team strategy and awareness of what’s going on around you.

After you master a more efficient technique during training, the next step is create a more random environment to perform it in.

Here’s a simple example of what that means. Let’s say you have learned the proper first step technique for moving laterally (to the side). When your coach tells you to go left, gives you a few seconds to process the information, and then says “GO!”, you have perfect technique and take off explosively. But then your coach takes away telling you which way to go beforehand, and now you have react quickly either left or right on their movement. Will you still be able to do everything perfectly, and just as fast, without thinking?

This is the random environment that defines sports, and it involves being ready to efficiently move left, right, forward, backward, and everywhere in between. After mastering all the details of movement training, the final step that will help transfer these skills in game conditions is to work on them in unpredictable environments.

6. How To Add Resisted And Assisted Training

Resisted training uses simply adds more weight to your frame while running. Weight sleds, vests, and other objects are commonly used, along with uphill running. Assisted training pulls you at higher speeds using tubing, or downhill running to teach your arms and legs to turn over at faster speeds.

Both are valuable additions to building straight-ahead speed, but are often misused to the point that they become counterproductive.

For resisted drills, running should still be done at full speed. If you are using too much resistance it will cause you to move slower, and interfere with your technique. More is not always better, and it would be wise to start light and gradually build up over time.

For assisted drills, these exercises should not interfere with proper technique either. To have your arms flailing all over the place while performing a tubing-assisted run will not help you in games. It may apply when running from a burning building, but that likely isn’t what you’re training for. Moderation is the key here, as well. Start with light pulls, and strive to keep quality form while progressing to higher speeds.

7. Getting Stronger Can Help Build Speed

Speed comes from power, which can loosely be defined as strength generated quickly. Adding strength does transfer to moving faster, and some exercises are particularly helpful.

One-leg strength drills are often overlooked, but are great for building speed. You are always pushing off of one leg when running, and supporting your body on one leg requires strength and stability in many different muscles that do not get challenged in two leg drills, like squats and deadlifts. There are many variations of squats and lunges that you can perform to build one-leg strength.

This is not to say that all two-leg drills are useless, because Olympic-style lifts like cleans can build tremendous amounts of power. Plyometrics are also good to use, when performed properly. Two-leg exercises like these that help you absorb force will get you off the ground quicker with every stride. One-leg versions of these drills can be problematic at first, because they can lead to overuse injuries (like tendonitis) fairly easily.

Lower body training is not the only way to build speed in the weight room. Core and upper body strength help to maintain proper torso alignment. They also help to generate faster arm action, which in turn forces the legs to turn over faster to increase stride frequency.

8. It Is A Long-Term Process, Requiring Dedication And Patience

It has been said that speed is a trait you build from year to year. More so than any other skill, it requires you to take the long view when it comes to seeing results. Impatient athletes who want to be faster overnight will quickly grow frustrated with the process. Unfortunately many give up too soon, not persevering to reap the vast benefits of proper movement training.

In any season when you are not playing a sport full time, you should dedicate at least three 30 minute workouts per week towards speed development. Unless you are already knowledgeable on the subject, find a quality coach in your area who can teach you how to move efficiently in your sport. Armed with the right information, and a stubborn desire to hang in for the long term, you will get that extra step or two you need to take your game to the next level.

James Herrick, Jr (CSCS, PES) has been training athletes and others who seek better health and performance for over 10 years. You can find more information about Jim’s speed, strength and other training programs at: http://www.powersourcetraining.com

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Football Speed Training

Posted on July 12, 2011 by TRUTH

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Football speed training is taking on more important role in football training; becoming king in football. It has become just as important as the weight lifting programs. Coaches and players alike recognize they need power to be faster and the need to incorporate football speed training in their football training regimens, whether it is in season or off season, learning how to run quicker and have explosive acceleration has become important to the game of football.

Coaches are recognizing offensive and defensive lineman need quick acceleration to explode on the LOS. Running backs need to accelerate to hit the holes and receivers to get that step on the defensive backs. Being fast is good, but colleges want more. They are looking for athletes with the most explosive acceleration from the starting position. This article will focus only on the acceleration aspects of speed training for football.

Successful speed training for football must include exercises that will focus on the fast twitch muscles. This muscle group determines your speed and reaction time. Most football speed training programs overlook this facet of training; instead they are focused on strength and power.

Fast Twitch Muscles

Fast twitch muscles are the muscle fibers responsible for speed and quickness and should be trained separately from the muscles you train for strength and power.

An example of fast twitch muscles is the thigh flexor muscles. Frequently this muscle group is overlooked in most football sped training programs. Yet the faster you can raise your thighs upward and forward, the quicker your muscles react and the faster you accelerate, hitting the open hole, getting that step, speeding past a defensive back or just exhibiting break-away speed from would be tacklers.

Exercising Fast Twitch Muscles

How do you effectively train this muscle group? Isometrics combined with resistance training.

Yes isometrics, they focus strictly on one specific muscle group. Resistance training gives them the strength needed for explosive reaction acceleration, whether you are a ball carrier looking for that break-away quickness or a lineman needing to move quickly side to side.

The resistance phase of the isometrics is applied using resistance bands, flexing the muscle fibers. Isometric resistance training develops important muscle memory for that explosive quickness, as you condition your muscles for speed and quickness: you will be training the muscle neuro pathways which create muscle memory.

In conclusion adding isometric resistance training allows you to focus on your fast twitch muscles for your football speed training. This will increase both your speed and reaction time. Fast twitch muscles train faster then the slow twitch muscles that build strength and power. When you are looking at sped training programs, make sure they include working the fast twitch muscles for your football speed training.

For your convenience we have separated our speed training DVDs from our speed training equipment.

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See our training for speed aids at http://www.scoretouchdowns.com/page/399699568

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