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. Speed is the physical quality that separates you from the competition, literally. Although there is a certain genetic component to an athlete's running ability, speed is a highly trainable physical ability. The question then becomes, how? Below are the top things you should be doing (or not doing) if you want to improve your speed for nearly any sport.
Improve your relative strength. Speed is developed by pushing forcefully against the ground to propel your body forward. Newton's third law states "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." This means that the more force you can apply to the ground, the farther you will go with each step and the faster you will run. For this reason, strength training is essential if you want to become a faster athlete. When we speak of strength training to improve speed, what you need to do is train to improve your strength to body weight ratio, or relative strength. Mature athletes who are able to squat 2x their body weight have significantly faster 10 and 40 yd sprint times than weaker athletes. If you want to be fast, strength training must be part of your training year round. Improve your unilateral strength. Running takes place with one foot in contact with the ground at a time. Single leg, exercises develop hip strength, balance and intermuscular coordination specific to the running action. These exercises help you transfer weight room strength to the athletic field. If I take an athlete with good relative strength in the squat, but they are unable to balance to perform a single leg squat, then that athlete will not be able to express their weight room power as effectively during sprint performance. Single leg squats are a great exercise to develop unilateral strength and relative strength. Do speed and agility training during your off-season. The benefits of speed and agility training carry over to nearly every sport. The off-season is the perfect opportunity to work on speed and movement skills to improve athleticism. Young athletes can improve body control and more mature athletes will develop greater speed and ease of movement. Your body adapts to the specific demands placed on it. If you want to be fast, you need to sprint! Sprint training should include 10-20 yard sprints for acceleration and 40-60 yard sprints to work on top speed. Offseason speed and agility training is critical to achieving your athletic potential. Olympic Lift. The Olympic lifts are high speed exercises that allow athletes to generate some of the highest power outputs of any activity. These exercises train what we call "triple extension." Triple extension is the coordinated extension of the ankles, knees and hips. This action is the exact movement that occurs when you jump, run, or change direction. By performing Olympic lifts, we train the body to apply force against the ground in a very specific manner that provides great carryover to the athletic field. Focus on acceleration and deceleration. Rarely in team sport will an athlete run for 100M without having to stop, change direction or react to an opponent. What makes an athlete fast on the field is not their top speed, but their ability to accelerate and decelerate. The athlete who can build up and decrease their speed the fastest will display the most speed and quickness in game
situations. We like using sprints of 10-20 yards, and drills with sudden starts and stops in order to train reactive ability and game speed. Limit endurance training. We believe you have to "Train fast to be fast." When you endurance train, your top speed is limited due to the duration of the run. If athletes are not given enough time to recover between runs, they start to slow down. The result is your body adapts to develop endurance, not speed and power. This is why you never see a distance runner with a 30 inch vertical jump. True speed training takes place within 3-8 seconds, with long rest intervals. We use a 1:6 to 1:10 work to rest interval for most sprint work. This allows the athlete to give maximum effort at maximum speed with each run. This is the type of training stimulus required to develop speed. Decrease ground contact time. The ground contact phase in running requires athletes to create force against the ground in a very short timeframe. The faster you can apply force into the ground, the lower your ground contact time. This leads to improved stride frequency and running speed. Jumps off boxes, bounding, tuck jumps and hurdle hops are great exercises to train for decreased ground contact time. Improve your arm action. Athletes who utilize poor arm action end up with an inefficient running, stride, poor body control, and overall slower running speed. In order to be fast, the action of the arms must counter balance the drive of the opposite leg in order to maintain trunk control. With correct arm action, the arms should be bent at 90 degrees, and the movement should be straight forward and back. Take the time to learn and reinforce good upper body running mechanics and you will find yourself running faster today.
The details of your training program can have a big impact on its effectiveness. If you Work on getting stronger, do sprint and plyometric training regularly during your off-season and limit the amount of long distance endurance work and you WILL get faster.
Jake Moore is a physical therapist and performance coach for Performance Therapies and Performance Sport and Speed. His athletes accomplishments include; Olympic gold medalists, NCAA All-Americans, High School State Champions, and Professional athletes in MLB, NFL and NHL. He can be reached at http://www.performance4health.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jake_Moore,_DPT
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"How To Be The QUICKEST Player On Your Team.." http://tinyurl.com/7fr4n8x ==== ====