4 Ways I Made My Athletes Slower

Team speed is the undeniable difference maker in field (and even court) sports. Everything done in the off-season by athletes focuses on the development of sport-specific speed. From the sets and reps done in the weight room to the sprint work done of the track; speed enhancement by the individual athlete pays major dividends in athletic performance. The search for the holy grail of speed enhancement methodology is ongoing and diverse. Over my 15 years of coaching, I had the best intentions of putting by athletes in a position to improve on the field. My efforts, however, may have been incomplete or even misguided based on lack of experience and the fundamental knowledge of how athletes can get faster and why certain methods work better. Safe to say, I was closer to optimizing the training time I had my last year than my first year. I made a ton of mistakes and I will highlight the four major ones in this article. That being said, I did learn a ton from other coaches and my own mistakes. The most important lesson? The fastest way to improve team speed is to recruit faster players. As much as strength coaches cannot control genetics or what the athletes have done (or failed to do) up o the date they step on campus; they must find every means necessary to improve speed with the time they are allotted. If you have Chevettes instead of Corvettes, then you better make some supped up 4 cylinder cars. I wrote an article a few months back entitled

How Do You Get Athletes Fast? In the article I feature some back and forth on twitter with some very smart coaches. One thing we all realized it is more to do about context than anything else. Field and Court athletes are not track athletes. My conclusion was that above else, get athletes strong and they will be fast. That statement is way to broad and misinterpreted easily, but it took over a decade to conclude.

Does it Translate?

The following is a list of the drills I implemented that in hindsight, my have not had the reward in performance compared to the time spent doing them. My last few years, we all but eliminated these drills. Not saying they were a total waste of time, but if I could do it over again.... In addition, I will include the adaptations we made to these drills or the drills that replaced them. SEATED ARM SWINGS There are two reasons why I thought this exercise was dumb and neither of them downplay the importance of upper body mechanics in sprinting. The first was pretty simple and arguably not as big of a factor. A lot of the sports I trained at the time ran with a stick, racket, or glove in their hands when they ran on the field. I stuck with this drill even knowing that the role of arm action depended on the sport. I just felt that all athletes should know how to efficiently move their arms when sprinting. The main reason had nothing to do with athletes practicing arm action (even without the lower body simultaneously). It had everything to do with the fact the athlete was seated. Arm Swing drills wasn't the problem. Seated arm swings were. Upper body mechanics are imperative for linear speed. The problem with seated mechanics is that they do lot allow the athlete to move their arms the way they would when sprinting. We has non-track coaches usually start with the 90 degree elbow bend and reinforce movement from the shoulder joint. Some cues include saying the hands should go from "cheek to cheek or "lip to hip". The problem with teaching this is that the arms almost never stay at 90 degrees on the back end. The arm on the "back swing" will extend like hammering a nail. If the athlete is sitting on the ground, they are unable to do extend their arms because their hands will strike the ground. Another bid habit this can reinforce or even develop is the athlete elevating their shoulders during the drill. This is mostly unintentional but naturally happens in the seated position. What to do instead?

1. Standing arm swings. You can start with straight arms to reinforce movement at the shoulder joint using long lover-arms
2. One-sided mechanics. Stand in place and have the athlete drive the knee and position the hands simultaneously. Reset after checking the athletes position.
3. Backside arm swing targets. Stand behind the athlete and provide a target (tactile cue) for them to drive the elbows into. This will still allow the arms to straighten but emphasize the ever-so-important of driving the elbows back while relying on the stretch reflex for the arms coming forward.

A-SKIPS One major deterrent for continuing this drill is the simple fact that there was always a large percentage of athletes who couldn't perform these correctly in the first place. This drill is painful to watch when you have athletes skipping forward as fast as possible with the arm action and leg action out of sequence. One of the most eye-opening experiences I had has listening to Pete Bommarito speak at an NSCA Coaches Conference (back when they were still the Sports-Specific Conference) over a decade ago. One thing he did to teach his athletes to A-skip was to start with a bounce. Have the athlete bounce on their toes for a few reps before staring to A-skip. This bounce will create a rhythm which will generate a more forceful and realistic foot strike. A-skips that are performed too quickly negate this key component. Another issue with A-skips is the posture of the athlete is unrealistic. A-skips simulate the foot strike during the acceleration phase where the body position has a more forward lean. B-skips on he other hand, create a "pawing" action where top speed mechanics are performed with an upright position. So, without the forward lean, A-skips may neglect the correct positioning for the proper foot strike. What to do instead?

1. Resisted A-Skips with a Band. Have a partner hold a band wrapped around the athlete's chest so a forward lean can be simulated.
2. A beneficial prerequisite for this drill would be resisted A-marches.

WALL DRILLS This drill has gotten a lot of attention from coaches lately. Some put it in the same category as

speed ladders and some feel they are an important component in lower body sprint mechanics. Here's a little background on the formulation of my opinion of this drill. When I was at Denison, we would perform speed training for most sports in large groups. This was due more to the availability of facilities and not a personal preference. At this time, Wall Drills were a staple of our speed mechanics portion of training. We were consistent with the PAL mechanics formula and that was our main lower body front-side and backside mechanics drill. One day a coached asked if I really thought that drill translated to improved mechanics (and thus improved speed) on the field. After saying yes, I started to question myself and the drill. Do I feel it is important to teach knee-up, toe up on the front-side? absolutey. Do I feel it is imperative to develop full hip, knee, and ankle plantar-flexion on the backside? Yes sir. Did this drill help in initially working on that skill? I think so. So what's the issue? It is extremely important to incorporate a drill to reinforce how the athlete's foot should strike the ground during the acceleration phase of sprinting. This is what the wall drill is designed to do. The only problem is, when I am watching athletes perform this drill, that is not the way an athletes foot strikes the ground. Like

Joe DeFranco has spoken about previously, the foot strike during the wall drills happens evenly with the back foot. This foot contact is well behind the athlete's center of mass. If an athlete'foot struck the ground in this manner, they would fall on their face. So why try and replicate a movement that would never happen on the field? What to do instead?

1. 
   
   Prowler Marches. With the hands on the poles, you can simulate the same forward lean while the foot strikes the ground closer to the center of mass. Not only is it more realistic, but the forward movement while marching can develop strength in the posterior chain.
2. Resisted march with band. This is a precursor to the resisted A skip. Forward movement means foot contact closer to the center-of-mass.
3. Step-up on low box with jump. This one is hard to explain, but with the front leg bent and dorsi-flexed on a low box, Drive the knee up slightly and then strike the box with the foot propelling the athlete upward. Land with the same foot on top of the box and reset.

BOUNDS Alright I will have to admit, one of the major factors that influenced my decision as a coach NOT to incorporate bounds anymore was due to the simple fact they were difficult to teach. Specifically, they were extremely difficult to model and demonstrate. I would look like a walrus trying to show athletes what I wanted. I rarely had an assistant or intern who could demonstrate it with much proficiency. Every once in a while I would have an athlete that ran track in a decent program we could use to show others. The problem was, I had no progressions or regressions and due to coordination and/ or relative strength, we didn't get much out of the drill. Sometimes the drill looked like athletes were just running with giant steps or looked like Ace Ventura playing football in slow-motion. If the athletes feel stupid doing a drill, it will not be effective. They have to be confident in their skill acquisition or you will lose them as a coach. Everything from the arm action to the foot strike was not realistic to sprinting and inferior to jump training to develop explosive power... at least how I was teaching it. We cut it out of our progression all together and spend more time on other methods. What to do instead?

1. Power Skips. Our progression usually starting with power skips as it is the least amount of impact. Essentially you are jumping and landing on the same leg but cushioning he impact with the other foot. The only issue was teaching athletes proper arm action (and avoiding the awful layup simulation drill). You can also modify for height or distance.
2. Single Leg Broad Jumps. Any easy teaching cue is to have the athlete jump off the left leg and land on the right. Reset and repeat.
3. Skater Jumps. This has a lateral emphasis rather than linear but is usually more applicable to most field and court sports.
4. Bounds uphill or on stairs. The stair sprints where you skip a step (or two) do not always coincide with everyone's stride length and can develop worse habits. There is also a safety issue if the foot contact is not appropriate. Dave Agosta had suggested to me to have athletes bound uphill. One thing about sprinting uphill is that it is impossible to lean back. Also, because the surface is rising to the athletes next foot contact, there is less impact with the requirement of more concentric force. This is definitely one drill that coaches need to experiment with in terms of grade and distance.
5. Single leg sprints. I liked this drill but this can also be more advanced for most of the athletes I had. There was an easy progression for it and may have a better carryover than bounds depending on your intention.

One of the most critical developments in a coach's career is the confident humility to question every principle they believe and the relentless fortitude to prove them right (or wrong.) If your program looks the same as it did last year, you have some work to do. I know I did.

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TRAINING

MONDAY

SS Yoke Bar Squat (3 sec. Pause)

• 260 x 4
• 260x3
• 260x2
• 260x1

Glute-Ham Raise (3 sec Pause)

• 1 set of 12

TUESDAY

Fat Bar Bench Press (3 sec Pause)

• 225 x 4
• 225 x 3
• 225 x 2
• 225 x 1

supersetted with

Ring Circuit: Serrano Presses, Ext. Rotation, Scarecrows, Facepulls

THURSDAY

Conventional Deadlift

• 308 for 5 triples

Band TKEs

• 1x25

SATURDAY

Military Press (3 sec Pause)

• 175 x4
• 175 x3
• 175 x2
• 175 x1

FRIDAY

Log Press

• 170 for 3 sets of 5

MONDAY DE Circuit: 3 exercises for 5x3

SS Yoke Bar DE Squat

• 210 for 5 triples

Fat Bar DE Bench Press

• 205 for 5 triples

Neutral Grip Pull-Up

• Grip 1,0,1,2,1 for 5 sets of 3

Glute Ham Raise

• 1x15

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