Speed, Agility, Endurance
The old adage that “you’re born fast” is far from reality. Speed is also a skill and all skills can be developed or altered. Conversely, speed can be lost if correct development stages are not applied to the young. We guarantee to improve anyone’s current speed, agility and speed endurance.
The fastest animals in the Animal Kingdom (antelopes, cheetahs, etc.) are all good jumpers. This applies equally to our fastest people so increased agility and power assists maximum speed. However, there are safe and unsafe practices that apply in the application of power activities. The ages when you can begin this work safely, and when certain rules and progressions are followed, may surprise you.
Two opposite principles also apply to speed production – the ‘long to short or the ’short to long‘ theory. These terms refer to the distances run and the associated intensities. Although different training squads and countries prefer to adopt one over the other, both can work successfully. There are various conditions, such as weather and facilities that need to apply in order to select the most appropriate method.
In team codes, it is common for professional players to become bigger and slower the further their career progresses, but the world’s top speedsters regularly get bigger and faster as they progress towards Olympic glory. The simple reason for the latter result lies in the appropriateness of the training regimes.
For speed endurance, ‘speed reserve’ is a vital asset. The faster you are the less work you need to put in to operate under lactate conditions which is considered speed endurance. For youth sprinters, however, speed endurance is vital as it is a bigger percentage of their performance yet Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) and science principles can advocate against employing heavy anaerobic work for the young. You should seek our clear advice on this vexed issue.
Technically, the fastest people spend less time on the ground, and also impart greater forces during that short time. This is both a technical and power issue. These factors can be influenced at a very young age, especially in the pre-puberty years which is the optimal time for skill development, and equally they are very important considerations later in careers where the Law of Diminishing Returns either slows or reverses progress.
In sports such as rugby, strength may be confused with size. Bigger players are not necessarily more powerful or stronger than their smaller counterparts. The body builder may not be as strong as an Olympic or power lifter, despite having larger muscles.
Strength & Power
Strength is the basis for speed, power, agility and the ability to generate force. The timing and synchronisation of the muscle contractions combine to give the muscle specific strength, so in order to improve this area you have to replicate similar types of movements during your strength training.
There are many age, gender or sport specific aspects to consider when designing strength and power programs. One example is that females are four to seven times more likely than males to suffer anterior cruciate ligament injury due to a lack of lower-limb strength. Some studies on female tennis players have shown they require specific strength routines in relation to their regular sudden stopping requirements.
Another is the development of strength for children which can be highly underrated by most sports. An exception would be gymnastics where strength is often highly developed and is why many young gymnasts readily adapt to other high level sports.
A very specific consideration for strength and power development for speed is in the area of the hamstrings which is so important we cover in a separate section.
The barbell squat is the king of all strength exercises bar none (excuse the pun). Developing maximal strength in the lower body is an essential prerequisite of developing power for speed and agility. Many overseas national governing bodies issue directives that all their funded athletes become proficient in the snatch and power clean.
Strength training develops the muscles’ ability to exert force, and power training develops the ability to exert this force in less time. Speedsters can generate forces of up to three and half times their body weight when at full speed, so having sufficient leg strength to generate this force without injury is crucial. This explains the commonly quoted guideline that a power athlete needs to be able to squat a weight equivalent to twice their body weight. Some coaches recommend that exercises such as squats should only be used after three years of general preparation.
We also offer weights room and field exercises that are of significant value to all participants seeking speed, multi-directional agility, power, and even endurance. Some of these effective exercises cannot be found in other texts. There is considerable new research on strength and you may find recent recommendations on chain squats and jump squats of good value to your programs.
Many sports require not just high levels of strength but excellent levels of speed endurance too. The problem is that humans have generally evolved to be either predominantly power or endurance based but not both. Recent science has shown us how to develop both concurrently without being detrimental to each other.
Endurance
There is ample evidence from countries whose distance runners now out-rank our own that intensity and strength endurance are vital components of endurance programs. Whilst Africans run fast, they also use resistance work by means of considerable mileage and intensity on hills as part of their processes.
Eastern Europe, renowned for developing middle distance women, adopts training methods that employ a greater number of bounding and plyometric activities than is common amongst many male jumpers in western countries. They recognize the value of such power work for developing maximum velocities. This level of top speed gives them a ‘speed reserve’ which is a massive advantage in distance running or even in long sprints and team codes.