Skip to main content

Speed To Perform

SPEED TO PERFORM

       Most people believe speed is something you're born with and that you’re genetically inclined to be fast. But it has little to do with that – it’s a science. You can train your body to produce more force and the way you deliver force to the ground. And once that happens, it will completely change your perception of how fast or explosive you ever thought you could be. 

    Speed is an integral part of every sport and can be expressed as one of or a combination of Power(Elastic Strength) for acceleration, absolute speed and speed endurance. Speed is the quickness of movement of a limb generated by the athletes ability to apply force and generate it with great frequency. 

(Force X Frequency=Speed)  

    Maximizing stride length and stride frequency is mainly influenced by the athletes stability, mobility, strength and technique. Having good hamstring flexibility and hip mobility improves stride frequency (the ability to strike and recover) and stride length is improved by developing muscular strength and explosive power i.e. olympic Lifts and Plyometrics.  

     Developing speed is a rather complex process that is controlled by the nervous system, learning the movements needed to develop speed and learning how to perform them are equally important.  In order to move faster the muscles have to adapt and contract faster, The brain and the nervous system have to learn the motor skills to control these fast movements  efficiently. Practicing the basic fundamentals of running will not only improve your running ability but also improve your brains ability to adapt and perform the movements quickly. Complex coordination and timing of the motor units and muscle groups must be performed beginning with slow speeds transitioning to high speeds to improve patterns. Maintaining some form of speed training on a consistent basis will ensure that your movement patterns and nervous system will stay in sync. 

General Principles for speed development are:
•Work on your mobility to develop ROM, range of motion in your hips will drastically effect your speed and assist in preventing injuries.
•Improve flexibility to improve your turnover ability. 
•Perform explosive and plyometrics movements such as jumping, hopping and bounding to develop explosive power that translate to running.
•Implement skill development for sports specific speed. IT HAS TO TRANSLATE TO THE SPORT!!
•Train Energy System specifically to maintain and maximize endurance and speed over time. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Success is always rooted in the fundamentals

Train To Perform "Successful performance is always rooted in the fundamentals" ​ ​ Sports performance training can be misunderstood at times, most protocols are to develop the athlete to be big and strong primarily but there's so much more that goes into developing an athlete. Of course all coaches would love to have the prototype athlete, (big an d strong)  but with all the intangibles.  Fast  with great range of motion, strong with great endurance , Agile with great stability etc.   In order to develop an athlete in this manner it all comes down to  the type of program installed. On every level of sports it  is pivotal for the athlete to  understand the  fundamentals of movements and how those movements translates to higher performance levels.   Success is always rooted in the fundamentals, the quality over quality  approach quantity wins   every time.  Training with optimum posture and proper exerc...
Post a Comment
Read more

Movement Prep (Preparing the athlete to move)

Movement Preparation (Preparing the athlete to move) During Movement Prep the goal is to increase core body temperature, address key mobility and stability demands, and activate the nervous system. It should be done so using movements and speeds specific to the program for the day. Moving from an isolation focus to an movement integration focus, movements will begin simple and slowly move towards more complex patterns at a higher rate of speed. This  safely prepares the body physically and mentally for the training followed.  1.( GLUTE Activation)  I start by activating the glutes using mini-bands around the knees and/or the ankles. The client will perform one round of movements with the legs completely extended and one round of movements in an athletic base where they are flexed at the hip, knee and ankle. Movements will be linearly and/or laterally focused based on the training session that follows 2. (Dynamic Stretches)  Glute activation will be followed by...
Post a Comment
Read more

FS Train Summer Recap

We had an unbelievable summer!  My fitness and PERFORMANCE groups really progressed well; most of the credit goes to them for putting in all of the hard work and being dedicated. They really made my position easy each day.  I also did a few things to better myself and my craft... Over this summer, I gained my Performance Enhancement Specialist Certification from The National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM). Studying for this certification helped me better understand the body and how/why it reacts and moves in certain situations. Now I asses, critique and cue movements in a totally different fashion. Many of my athletes came to me with tight hamstrings and that was primarily due to improper running mechanics and the under use of the gluteus maximus or the overuse of the Quadriceps or vice versa. This was an interesting group for me; this was my first summer group and the majority of them were Junior College athletes. Not knowing what the future would hold for ...
Post a Comment
Read more