Would 30 days over several weeks be more accurate?
Most interscholastic and intercollegiate athletes also have a life, subjects to study, sports in which they participate, family obligations, girl or boy friends, jobs, vacations, illnesses, etc.
More importantly they have institutional strength and conditioning programs [ from this point training programs and strength and conditioning programs will be used interchangeably] that are mandatory, regardless of the time of the year, and they are very protective of their programs and how they train their athletes.
My experiences of their training programs include some plyometric and ladder or spot training [good for speed and agility] but typically their programs are focused on raw conditioning and strength! Check out the charts on their walls. Typically Olympic lifts and who can lift the most weight at certain body weights. The concentration is on strength training. Increases in strength gets the “juice” moving in most coaches!
I see over speed training as a component of speed training in many articles and books. A coach once told me that running down a 3 degree decline was a safe over speed training drill. Even if it is true, who has access to a large area and a transit to determine if the decline is 3 degrees. I beleive over speed training by Michael Gough at ProCombineTraining.com is called ”Overspeed Sling Shot Pulls”.
At first glance, over speed training sounds like a reasonable idea, but observe what happens. When an athlete is running/sprinting faster than he or she is physically capable, every time their foot hits the ground, for a fraction of a second he or she is “breaking”, hitting the brakes. What is occurring to their hips, the lumbar area of their low back and their knees?
What is happening is excessive forward rotation/pressure on the hips and lumbar vertebra and discs which already have a 30 degree anterior configuration. Not a good idea for younger athletes. The last growth plates to fuse are the upper rim, the crest if the ilium [hip bones], the medial and lateral epicondyles of the femur [upper leg bone] at the knee joint, and the the clavicles [collar bones] at the sternum.
Risk/reward? Overspeed training is not for younger athletes! Certainly it would be inaccurate to point a finger at athletic strength training and speed training as the reason for the epidemic of sore backs and hip problems. However, is it necessary to expose young athletes to those lifts and speed training drills that can lead to a life time of sore backs, hips and knees and later potential surgeries? No!
Several years ago I received a training manual titled The 40 Yd Dash, Advanced Speed and Strength Methods. The manual was written by Martin Rooney and Joe DeFranco. At the time it was a great teaching manual for me.
Rooney and DeFranco listed 10 commandments to a Faster 40. I think it is valuable to review again.
Thou shalt set up as close to the line as possible, stealing every inch.
Thou shalt take a huge first step.
Thou shalt take the least amount of steps through the first ten yards
Thou shalt not over stride
Thou shalt stay relaxed
Thou shalt master and use proper arm action
Though shalt get strong and then convert that strength to speed
Though shalt train the hamstrings as hip extensors, not knee flexors
Thou shalt develop proper flexibility.
Thou shalt plan ahead and be prepared for the big day.
This manual led me to the significance of what they labeled the “sprinting engine”, the hamstrings, [we have developed several training methods to do so], the glutes[butt] and spinea erectors [low back]. Training the “sprinting engine” has been one of the most valuable tips for me for increasing the speed of the athletes I train. Thanks Martin and Joe!
Several years ago the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs was in a featured article in a national weekly news magazine. In that article there were two quotes that should ”jump out” at any athlete, coach or trainer. Kevin Ebel, the USOC strength and conditioning coordinator said, “One of the biggest changes in strength training is that we are getting away from pure strength and emphasizing power, or “explosive strength”. “You can recruit more muscle fibers and get them to fire faster”. [Remember we have 2X and 2A fast twitch muscle fibers. 2X fast twitch muscle fibers contract five times faster than 2A fast twitch muscle fibers but are rarely recruited in traditional strength training].
James Walker of the Orthopedic Specialty Hospital in Utah, a USOC training site stated, “We’ve learned that the most effective training replicates the pattern of nerve firing and muscle movements that athletes use in their sport”. [Remember neuromuscular firing rates vary from .5 to 120 meters per second and muscle motor unit firing rates have a frequency of 5 to 50 impulses per second]. Some refer to Walker’s comments as sports specific training.
In the system of Dynamic Force Weight Training for speed, power, strength and flexibility, nueromuscular impusle rates and muscle motor unit firing rates, recruiting 2X fast twitch muscle fibers and not only sports specific but position and event specific training is the focus.
I too often see these issues being ignored and not applied. Either the athletes, coaches or trainers are not paying attention, do not know how to implement these “cutting edge” training methods and techniques, or simply are comfortable with what they were taught 10-20 years ago and are resistant to change. Optimum performance of every athlete requires the athlete, coach and trainer upgrade their weight training programs to focus on these issues.
The concept of power and the methods and techniques of training for power remains an elusive idea for most coaches and trainers. Strength and power are two separate characteristics of athleticism. How it came about that they are closely related or mean the same thing has become a mystery to me.
We are getting close when coaches and trainers refer to ”explosive strength”, but it is still power and developing power or “explosive strength” requires specific training methods and techniques. There are two methods that I am aware that target power as a training goal.
First, rapidly applied, significant force to recruit 2X fast twitch muscle fibers and with repeated repetitions convert 2A fast twitch to 2X fast twitch muscle fibers. 2X fast twitch fibers contract five times faster than 2A fast twitch muscle fibers. However, 2X fast twitch muscle fibers only have enough stored fuel, [ATP] and [CP] for 20-30 seconds during the training set. But if you want to train for and increase power, those 2X muscle fibers must be recruited and 2A muscle fibers converted to 2X.
The second method of training for power or “explosive strength” is incorporating what is called SSC or stretch-shortening cycles. Rapid, cyclic compression creates small changes in the stretch-length of muscle fibers and generates sharp increases in muscle contraction/tension and the resulting force, “explosive strength” or power. An example would be to assume the Russian sprint position, with about a 60-70 degree angle at the knee of the forward leg, and about 10-15 degrees on the rear leg and simply bounce of the balls of both feet until near failure or failure.