So I recently made a series on my YouTube Channel labeled Top 10 Acceleration Drills and I think it provided athletes with a plethora of new exercises to add to their training arsenal.
What I wanted to do here was provide in writing a little more about each movement and give my thoughts as to why each one is important and a little why I placed them in this order.
As a boy growing up in Florida and playing little league football it was a concensus that everyone wanted to play runningback. No matter what size or shape every kid coming out in August wished to shake an opponent out their socks and tote the rock to the endzone.
Juking was what we did, we played backyard football and everyone was trying to juke everyone. We didn’t think about how we did it, we just did.
As we got older and our bodies developed you could really tend to see the guys who became elusive had great body control. But sometimes it takes a little bit more for someone to possess this agility capacity and have great cutting skills.
This is a typical hip flexor test that I do to look for muscular imbalances, especially for sprinters. This is something you can eliminate automatically, and it will let you know if you are not getting full extension on your stride, in your sprint. Its really simple. All you need a bench and 30 seconds. If they cannot maintain this position for 30 seconds then they have tight hip flexors and it needs to be addressed. Addressing this issue will ensure that you are getting full extension in your sprint stride.
Speed Training for athletes can sometimes be controversial as to the way you train speed. Some gurus say it’s all hip extension and hip flexion. Some say you need to mimic game play and it’s all about an explosive first step.
I personally as a coach believe the best speed workouts are the ones that really translate to the particular sport or actual competition the athlete is participating in. There are many drills and different ways to train speed from form and technique, power drills, to good ol hardwork.
Many coaches have many different opinions but let’s apply these 6 in your training this week to start improving your SPEED. Which to me is linear and lateral because you need your body to respond in all planes because that is how competition is. Watch this video and then read how I break down the actual workout…