ASS Manual 02 1 [PDF]

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MANUAL

Chris Barnard theathleticspeedsystem.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS Intro ...........................................................................3

Five Factors in Speed Development ........................6

Key Factors in Athletic Speed System ..................10

Training the Key Factors ........................................17

Periodization ...........................................................24

Principles of Program ............................................32

Conclusion ..............................................................37

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WELCOME TO THE ATHLETIC SPEED SYSTEM

Welcome to The Athletic Speed System, the simplest but scientifically sound and field-tested, speed program. This program was created as a follow up to my best-selling Elite Speed Academy, which helped athletes all over the world develop better mechanics, shave time off of their speed tests, and become all-around faster on the field. Although I love Elite Speed Academy, and it works wonders, it had a few glaring weaknesses. For one, Elite Speed Academy is cue heavy. In my years since creating Elite Speed Academy, I noticed that cues don’t always work when trying to get a technique to stick. Some athletes lack the body awareness to adjust to the cue on the fly, while other athletes just simply can’t execute the cue. That’s why, in this program, the motto is isolate and elevate. Instead of pounding you with cues, I isolate the component of the sprint that needs work, then elevate it with different drills, and eventually reintegrate that refined component into a full-on sprint. Second, I believe that the plyometric training needed an update. As one example, I’ve learned about the importance of vertical force production in relation to top speed, and have adjusted the plyometrics to reflect this importance. That’s not the only breakthrough I’ve made, but it’s an important one. Finally, I’ve developed an entirely new mindset for developing strength that transfers into speed. When I created ESA, I was fresh off reading Triphasic Training by Cal Dietz. It’s a great book, but I felt like an infant with a bazooka when writing ESA in that I went a little gung-ho applying Triphasic training to every aspect of the program. While Triphasic is still an important part of the strength methodology in this program, it’s not as dominated as before.

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With all those things in mind, I felt it was time for an update. Now, over the past few years, I noticed a series of trends among the athletes who were the most naturally gifted, versus those who struggled to develop speed. Athletes who produced the most force relative to their body weight, and moved the most efficiently, were typically my fastest athletes, and my best athletes overall. Thus, the goal of this program is to develop your relative force output while simultaneously increasing your movement efficiency to increase your linear speed. We’ll accomplish this by emphasizing three factors: The first is Relative Force Production, which again, is how much force you can produce relative to your bodyweight. I’ll go deeper into this, but at the most basic level, the way to increase your relative force production is to increase your power, and build absolute strength, while maintaining your bodyweight. The next factor is the efficiency of your Acceleration Mechanics. Most guys underestimate the importance of the first three steps of your sprint, but put simply, it sets the tone for your entire bout of running.

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For example, if your mechanics are faulty during your first three steps, you can’t adjust them mid sprint. You’re stuck with that inefficient running style until you stop and start again. This is just one example in a sea of them that display the significance of the start. The last factor is the efficiency of frontside and backside mechanics of the sprint cycle. This applies to the top speed or maximum velocity phase. This is where most guys become slow, because a lot of them tend to have an elongated “swoop” motion during recovery phase behind their center of gravity during the top speed phase, and sometimes even during the start. This is the biggest mistake I see, and a large reason why most athletes can’t increase their speed. Mechanics is all about getting in the most efficient positions to produce force and build, or maintain, speed. In turn, force output works congruently with producing efficient mechanics. Meaning some athletes simply can’t nail mechanics because they simply aren’t strong enough. That’s why developing efficient mechanics is one of the cornerstones of the program. In the following sections, I’ll dive deeper into each one of these factors and the methodologies we’ll use to elevate each one. For now, I’m going to remind you that just like everything, this program takes effort on your part in order for you to see results. When it comes to speed, you’ll have to be focused, intentful, and almost obsessed to fix your mechanics and consistently sprint in a manner that is efficient and effective. Something that will help you is getting a good understanding of what we’re working and WHY we’re working it. You’ll get that understanding from reading this manual. Remember speed is a skill and skills can be learned. Welcome to The Athletic Speed System.

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FIVE FACTORS IN SPEED DEVELOPMENT

In the last section, I touched on the three main factors in speed development. In the next three sections we’ll dive deep into each one. However, in this section, I wanted to touch on some other, but still critical factors in developing speed. Some are no-brainers. Others are things you may not have thought of. And while these things are key factors in speed development, they can also limit the amount of speed you possess if they aren’t brought up to standard. #1: ANTHROPOMETRIC This is just a fancy way of saying your height and weight, or your “build”. And, as you probably know, your build gives you an inclination towards certain sports For example, if you’re over 6 feet tall, you’re predisposed to be successful in sports like basketball, volleyball, or football. At least more so than someone who is 5 foot and change. As far as sprinting goes, men and women who are slightly taller than average, and have longer legs, are predisposed to be better sprinters. In addition, those individuals predisposed to being better sprinters are well developed muscularly. This makes sense, just think of the sprinters you see on TV. They’re lanky, have long legs to take long strides, and their physiques are pretty impressive. And while there isn’t much you can do about your height, you can take measures to develop yourself muscularly with weight lifting (something you’ll be shown in this program).

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#2: STRENGTH Put simply, it’s how much force you can produce. But, an athlete must be able to produce high amounts of force in three different scenarios. The first is static, which is your ability to produce force while your joints are stable, or moving at very low speeds. Just think about pushing against a wall, or pulling against pins. In these situations, the body is able to exert 100% of its force. The next scenario is dynamic, which is your ability to produce force while the body is moving at high velocities. As you may have guessed, this is a point of emphasis while sprinting. Especially because as the speed of contraction increases, the body’s ability to produce force significantly decreases. This fact signifies the importance of two things. First, it signifies the importance of getting our body in the most beneficial positions to produce the highest amount of force possible… AKA having sound mechanics. Two, it displays the importance of strength training for those who want to get faster. However, regular old strength training won’t do the trick here. We’ll have to utilize a combination of advanced methods if we want to elicit strength adaptations that help our sprinting ability. The last strength scenario is elastic. This is the ability to produce spring-like force in certain situations. You can see this in sprinters who seemingly “float” across the track. Currently, it’s believed that a lot of one’s elastic strength potential is purely based on genetics, but in my experience, dynamic lifting and plyometrics can develop one’s elastic strength. #3: ENDURANCE Endurance is the ability to sustain force throughout the sprint. Obviously endurance isn’t really a factor in short sprints, but since most of us are not track athletes, and are involved in hour long games, we need to develop our ability to maintain muscular contractions that allow us to move at high speeds.

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#4: FLEXIBILITY This is your ability to sustain force through deeper ranges of motion. And this may be one of the most limiting factors on this list. Because if rigid muscles prevent you from getting into certain positions, it could pull from your sprint speed. For example, if you don’t have the shoulder mobility needed to pump your arms effectively, or you are too tight to shift your hips, this will inhibit the amount of force you can produce during a sprint. Luckily, you don’t need to be as flexible as a gymnast to put yourself in proper sprinting position. With a few select stretches, mobility movements, and activation drills (plus a little consistency) we can break up muscle stiffness and get you in the right positions. #5: MECHANICS This is your ability to create the most efficient movement possible. This factor is the culmination of all the points I previously spoke about including anthropormetric potential, strength potential, and flexibility potential. It’s also the most important. In addition to the above limiting factors, postural distortions from pattern overload can impact your mechanics potential. For example, if you walk with your feet everted, that will likely carry over to the sprint and be hard to fix. Mechanics potential is the most critical role in speed development because it determines how strength, flexibility, and their anthropometric advantages (or disadvantages) are displayed. Mechanics potential is displayed in three ways: Expended force - the amount of force an athlete can deliver in a given situation. Effective Force - The portion of the Athletic Expended Force that is directed toward producing as much speed as possible.

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Impact force - The amount of force used, or lost, when making contact with the ground. If your mechanics are off, the amount of force lost when making contact with the ground will be sky high, and you’ll expend significantly more force than an athlete who’s spent time on honing their mechanics. In the long run this means you’ll be slower, and you’ll get gassed faster, than someone who’s got sound mechanics. On the other side, if your mechanics are honed in, you’ll be using impact force to propel yourself forward, and the majority of your expended force will come from your effective force. There’s a lot of forces in those last two paragraphs, but put simply, when you have good mechanics, you won’t waste any energy, and you’ll be able to use external forces to your advantage.

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KEY FACTORS IN ATHLETIC SPEED SYSTEM

Now, in the Athletic Speed System, I’ve decided to focus on the two speed development factors that have the highest ceiling or most potential in each athlete in my experience. By doing this, it simplifies our training and in turn, produces the fastest and best results. Remember as a performance coach who mainly deals with team sport athletes, I typically have anywhere from three to six months to make the largest impact on their speed development. As I hinted at in the last section, the two I’ve keyed on, that from my coaching experience produce the biggest changes in sprint speed, are strength potential and mechanics potential. In my years of doing this, I’ve been able to continually produce faster athletes by placing my focus on these. It doesn’t matter if they’re naturally gifted, or born at a severe disadvantage, I’ve seen relatively great improvements across the spectrum. In the following sections, you’ll learn the training modalities behind the elevation of these two factors. ATHLETIC SPEED SYSTEM - KEY FACTOR #1 Relative Force Production The biggest factor in increasing speed is producing a high amount of force relative to one’s body weight. The opposite of this is absolute force production, which is something we’ll develop in this program, but pales in comparison to the impact increased relative force production can have on your sprint speed. To display this difference, think of two athletes who can deadlift 500 pounds. One weighs 300 pounds, the other weighs 200 pounds. The one who weighs 200 pounds has better relative force production, and this being the case, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to assume that the 200 pound lifter is probably faster, can jump higher, and is probably overall more athletic than his 300 pound counterpart. In this program, we’ll focus on force production in the horizontal and vertical planes.

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Data has shown that horizontal force production is paramount during the start, or acceleration phase. An elite sprinter produces up to 245 pounds of horizontal force during the start, which doesn’t sound like much, but when you think about the precise body position he must get into to exert the maximum amount of force, and the fact that he must generate that force almost instantaneously, it’s pretty impressive. And this “elite” number isn’t unattainable for you. As for the top speed phase, or maximum velocity phase, you call upon your vertical force production. This is because you’re fighting against gravity as you project your body forward. During the maximum velocity phase, elite sprinters produce a vertical force of up to 370 pounds. To sum things up here, our goal with this key factor is to produce as much relative force as possible in both the horizontal and vertical plane through the use of plyometrics, relative strength training, absolute strength training, and movement progression to elicit a stimulus that supports speed development. ATHLETIC SPEED SYSTEM - KEY FACTOR #2 Acceleration Mechanics Acceleration Mechanics are the key factor in building our speed to maximum velocity as quickly as possible. As stated in the last section, the “start”, or acceleration phase of a sprint, calls upon a high amount of horizontal force production, as well as vertical force production, to reach maximum velocity as fast as possible. I approach and breakdown Acceleration Mechanics in three different phases: Stance, Start, and Steps. Just like anything else in training, these phases build upon each other. Below, I’m going to go deeper into each phase, and share each phase’s intricacies. The first phase is your stance. This is exactly how it sounds, it’s your set up. More specifically, it’s getting yourself in the proper body position to produce the highest amount of horizontal force efficiently. To do this, we want to position our bodies so that the torso and lower

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limbs (shins) are at a positive angle to drive out horizontally. By simply setting ourselves up in the best position we can start to drastically improve our first 10 yards. The next phase is the start. The start is simply generating maximum force to generate the most explosive movement out of the gate. This seems like common sense, but many athletes have bad habits that diminish the amount of force they can generate during the start. For instance, I always ask my athletes this question. If I had you perform a broad jump off one leg and then had you perform one off 2 legs which one would be further? It’s obvious the 2 legged jump would be much farther. So for any start we focus on, whether it be a 40 yard dash start, stealing 2nd base, or block starts in track we want to train the athlete to generate maximum force horizontally out of both legs. Finally we have the final, but most technical, phase which is the athlete’s steps. This deals with the athletes lower limb action during the first few meters of their sprint. The objective here is to eliminate the leg from cycling or creating knee flexion. This is a habit that many athletes have. When this happens, the leg action is inefficient by increasing the total distance the lower limb needs to travel, which produces a longer motion ultimately slowing down the stride frequency and shortening stride length which separates elite sprinters from those who are average at best. Instead, we want a “piston-like” motion. Think of how a piston pumps up and down, locked on a rail. We want this same effect, except instead of pumping up and down, you’re pumping with that forward shin angle, driving back into the ground, popping that thigh forward, and effectively propelling your body forward. So, to sum this up, to get better in your acceleration, you must focus on placing your body in the most efficient positions possible, while simultaneously exerting maximum force. Again, getting in the right positions creates the potential for maximum force production.

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From a physics standpoint, the best position to call upon your maximum horizontal force is with a forward body angle in which the shins are applying force back into the ground. Ideally, you’ll stay locked in this forward lean, positive shin angle, position for the entire duration of the acceleration phase until transition phase. In this program, we’re going to delve into drills that instill this motor pattern and set you up to place your body in the correct angles to effectively produce force back into the ground, allowing you to accelerate faster. ATHLETIC SPEED SYSTEM - KEY FACTOR #3 Frontside & Backside Mechanics Frontside/backside mechanics are another key factor in athletes being able to move efficiently and quickly. Traditionally, frontside/backside mechanics are thought of as touch down and take off, respectively during ground contact of the foot in maximum velocity phase. What this means is, if you were to split the body down the middle in the frontal plane, your touch down (making contact with the ground after a cycle) of the foot takes place on the front side of the body while your takeoff takes place on the backside of your body in this plane.

Now, according to The Mechanics of Sprinting’s author, Dr. Ralph Mann, the more an athlete can shift his touch down efforts to the front of his body, the faster the athlete will be. This is due to a higher amount of force created in the front side of ground contact than the back-

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side. Average force created in the backside is half of what is created when making contact with the ground on the front side (450 pounds of force in the frontside versus 225 pounds in the backside). With this understanding, in this program we’re going to refer to frontside/backside in terms of the entire leg’s action. This means that in addition to training where we touch down and takeoff from, we also want to include the leg’s action while it is not making contact with the ground. We can break this down into two phases: the drive phase and the recovery phase. The drive phase, which occurs in the front of the body, is when the knee drives forward to extend the lower limb to touch down. We’ll consider this action frontside mechanics.

The recovery phase begins at take off from the foot on the ground, and includes the flexion of the ankle, knee, and hip moving that prepares a sprinter to move into the drive phase. We’ll consider this action backside mechanics. Our goal with this program is to isolate these two leg actions, train them separately to increase the athlete’s ability to perform them optimally, then reintegrate them into the sprinting action as a whole. Hence the phrase I used earlier, “isolate and elevate”. So what are we trying to accomplish in each phase? While every athlete will be different based on anthropometric measures and force output, to be an elite sprinter there is a particular baseline technique we are trying to achieve when it comes to the

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athlete’s total leg cycle. During the drive phase, the athlete pops the thigh forward. At the thigh’s peak, the athlete extends the lower limb, creating a longer stride and making ground contact under the hip. Athletes who are inefficient in the drive phase typically make one of two errors. The first is they cut their drive phase short by extending the lower limb too early. This results in backside dominant leg action and decreased stride length. The second error is the athlete forces their knee higher in an unnatural way. This results in over-striding or “reaching”, which actually creates a braking mechanism when the athlete makes ground contact in front of the body. This braking mechanism is the athlete pushing against his own forward momentum. Alternatively, athletes with faulty sprinting mechanics extend the lower limb while the hamstring is still contracted, resulting in a hamstring tear. In the Athletic Speed System, we train the “popping of the thigh” and natural lower limb extension by drilling a series of motor patterns to produce an efficient sequence of actions in the frontside.

During the recovery phase, efficient athletes are able to initiate triple flexion of the hip, knee, and ankle (initiated by dorsiflexion) in a quick fashion. Again, this action takes place after take off, but before the drive phase talked about previously. The main error in the recovery phase occurs when an athlete has a leg action that “swoops” behind them. This usually occurs when their ground contact shifted toward the backside, which is usually

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due to a lack of force production. Again, this action can be trained. In the Athletic Speed System, our goal is to not only to raise the athlete’s ability to generate more force, which enhances take off, but also train the sequence of triple flexion after take off to be as fast, and efficient as possible in the recovery phase.

The key point is to remember that all of these mechanisms are working in a fast, synchronized manner to create an efficient leg cycle that produces optimal force. We are simply breaking down each phase of that cycle and teaching it from a technical standpoint in a digestible way for the athlete to elevate each phase, and transfer it into their sprinting.

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TRAINING THE KEY FACTORS

Now that you understand what we’re trying to accomplish in this program, the next piece is understanding how we are going to achieve this and get your results. As the saying goes, there are many ways to skin a cat. The same is true for training athletes. In fact, each athlete is unique and may need to be trained differently to get the desired outcome. I have met many coaches who have different opinions, experiences, and coaching techniques than myself, and still produce optimal athletes. But, my goal for the Athletic Speed System is to trim the fat of the traditional speed modalities we use in the weight room and focus on the principles that consistently delivered my athletes results. When I focus on training these modalities it has shown me improvement time and time again with athletes of different ages across multiple sports. And as I like to mention, “the stop watch doesn’t lie”. Below, I want to touch on the modalities you’ll be using in this system and the reason behind the use of them.

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SPEED TRAINING Speed Training, is the direct speed work you will be performing within Athletic Speed System. When it comes to your speed training I like to take the “isolate and elevate” approach. If you’ve watched any of my YouTube videos, you may be familiar with this term. Essentially, it means that I want to hone in on a single component of a larger movement, train that component, and elevate it to enhance that movement. In our case, we’re doing it with speed mechanics. Instead of having an athlete sprint, and yelling cues at them, hoping they’ll “change course” mid sprint, I let carefully selected drills do a lot of the work. This, again, means we create better mechanics by singling out particular motor patterns, repeating them over and over until they’re significantly improved, and transferring them back into the complete sprint. Remember, sprinting is a skill, and skills can be taught and developed. It’s in the same realm as learning to throw a baseball, or shoot a basketball. We want to break it down into simple drills to get better.

POWER TRAINING Power is the key to transition your strength into speed. As the program moves along, we need to focus on moving the athlete throughout the Speed-Strength Continuum in order to transfer absolute strength into relative strength so the athlete can produce more force from each step on the track. One big player in building relative force, and becoming a more efficient sprinter, is plyometrics. Plyometrics enhance the elastic strength we discussed prior and are the key to teaching the athlete how to absorb and produce force dynamically. During a sprint, you’re not just producing force, but you’re producing force at high velocities. Data shows that elite sprinters are able to produce more force at max velocities than the average sprinter.

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In order to improve this aspect of sprinting, we must build ourselves from the ground up. First, we place an emphasis on low level plyometrics to build a solid foundation. Next, we progress to teaching the athlete to properly absorb force. Once this ability is established, we place an emphasis on the transition, or isometric phase of dynamic movement, which not only creates more stability, but also generates faster ground contact times. Finally, we can focus on maximum force production and how fast we can produce that force in the final phase of jump training. STRENGTH TRAINING As stated prior, the focal point of this program is to build the body’s overall absolute strength and transition it to relative strength. To achieve this, we’ll use a four day split, where two days consist of upper body training, and two days consist of lower body training. Of these two days, one day will focus on building absolute strength, while the other will emphasize relative strength by utilizing the Triphasic Training Method by Cal Dietz.

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ABSOLUTE STRENGTH I’ve focused predominantly on the trap bar deadlift as the core lift to build absolute strength in the lower body. Through my years of coaching, I’ve gravitated towards this movement more and more and as much as I love movement variation for building strength, I use the trap bar as a staple. Here’s why: Multiple studies have found that peak power and peak velocity are greater with trap bar deadlift than conventional deadlift. In many cases, these two measurements are higher in trap bar deadlift than back squat as well. In sports, you rely on power and velocity to succeed, so it makes sense to double down on a movement in which the athlete can move the bar quickly and explosively with the intent of a better transfer to the field. Even more, the trap bar deadlift places slightly more emphasis on knee extension than the conventional deadlift, and less stress on the lower back. This makes it a safer movement for athletes, and makes it more sports-specific. My general goal is to get my athletes lifting 2.2 to 2.6 times their body weight on the trap bar. This is because I have found this range to be an indicator of sufficient absolute strength. Once an athlete has their absolute strength in this range, I know I can shift my focus to developing the athlete’s strength-speed and speed-strength. It’s important to note that these benchmarks are all relative to the athlete’s height and weight. It would be tougher for my 6 foot 10, 250 pound basketball player to lift 650 lbs (2.6 times their bodyweight) than it would be for my 6 foot tall, 250 pound linebacker to lift 650. This isn’t to say we stop at 2.6, either. It’s more of a box to be checked, among a list of other benchmarks, that allow me as the coach to strategize and program in a way that helps the athlete develop more speed. We’ll build strength in this movement, and others, by using simple progressive overload. Each week, we’ll decrease the volume (amount of repetitions) while increasing the intensity or load (amount of weight lifted).

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Every 4th week, we’ll deload, and then repeat. Training in this fashion allows us to stay fresh and continually experience strength gains. RELATIVE STRENGTH There are a variety of methods we’ll use to build relative strength, but the method we’ll use in the weight room to develop this kind of strength is coined Triphasic Training. I was first introduced to this type of training during my pursuit of a 44 inch vertical jump. I read Triphasic Training by Cal Dietz, that focused on isolating and elevating each phase of a dynamic movement: eccentric, isometric, and concentric. To exemplify each phase of a dynamic movement, we’ll use a back squat. The lowering portion of the back squat is known as the eccentric phase. During the eccentric phase, you’re putting your muscles on stretch, and absorbing force as you descend lower into the squat. One of the mechanisms responsible for taking the muscles from a stretched position to a contracted position is the stretch-shortening cycle. When you work this mechanism, you increase the speed and power with which you can contract the muscles. In addition, we’re going to work the Stretch Reflex by manipulating the Golgi tendon organs. The Golgi tendon organs are components of muscle that signals the brain to relax when a muscle contracts too hard. This mechanism is known as GTO Inhibition. This mechanism is beneficial, as it prevents muscle damage. However, the mechanism is overactive, as the GTO signal the brain to relax when a contraction reaches 60% of the maximum force a muscle can handle. With calculated eccentrics, we can place stress on the GTO and bypass this mechanism. To sum this up, we’re trying to increase the total amount of force an athlete can absorb, effectively increasing the amount of force the athlete can produce.

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Next, we’ll work the isometric phase. The isometric phase is the transition at the bottom portion of the squat. During the isometric phase, you’re producing force in a static position. Producing force in this way calls upon motor units to maintain that position and not fold over from the weight. But, when you hold static positions for an extended period, the intiial motor units fatigue, and larger, fast-twitch motor units are recruited as reinforcement. This ultimately teaches the body to recruit larger motor units when performing dynamic movements. It will also increase the amount of force you can absorb, and have a resulting increase in the rate of force development. Finally, we’ll work the concentric phase. The concentric phase occurs during the ascension of the squat. During this phase, we’re working on increasing the speed at which you can generate maximum force. To do this, we’ll use concentric focused lifts in which we’ll move lighter loads as fast as possible. By doing this we’re working rate of force development, which is how fast you can produce force. On top of this, we’ll use contrast training in conjunction with the concentric focused lifts. Contrast training is essentially performing a heavy, resisted movement, such as a squat, or trap bar deadlift, then following it with an explosive movement like a sprint, a jump, or a bound. The idea here is that the concentric-focused, loaded movement heightens the nervous system of the athlete. This is called potentiation. After the lift, we experience post-activation potentiation. This is the enhanced ability of a muscle to generate force with lighter loads after performing an exercise that consists of heavier loads. Post-activation potentiation allows for greater force production, and power output of the lightly loaded exercise. In our case, the “lighter load” will be an explosive, plyometric movement. Working each phase in isolation allows us to work particular mechanisms in the body independently. By training in this way, the physical adaptations we receive from emphasizing each phase will build upon each other in a way that allows us to build more relative strength and increase force output.

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AUXILIARIES To supplement the compound lifts we use to build strength, we’ll use accessory movements to maintain balance in the body and further build strength. I think a key difference in my coaching is that I teach my athletes to approach every rep with focus and intent. Most without coaching go hard on the sprinting, jumping, and compound lifts then the minute they get to auxiliaries they tend to “go through the motions”. While there is some movements where this is merited, the majority of the time, I stress the importance of accessories, as they are tools to get stronger on compound lifts. I push them to keep the same intensity on reverse lunge reps as you do with your deadlift.

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PERIODIZATION

In this section, I’m going to lay out the Periodization you’ll be following in this program. If you don’t know, periodization is intricate planning intended to overload the body with various training cycles and apply stimulus to transfer your training to increased performance in-game. In the Athletic Speed System, we’ll follow a block periodization, which we’ll break down into three main macrocycles; Accumulation, Transmutation, and Realization, which we’ll dig deeper into in the following sections.

BLOCK TRAINING Block training is, at its core, concentrating on acquiring one desired quality, then building upon that adaptation while introducing a new stimulus to improve a new quality. This is my system of choice when training speed because it allows the specific adaptations to be acquired with as little volume as possible, which limits the athlete to simultaneously train the skills of their sport. As you may know from reading above, in this program, there are three phases that make up a block.

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The first is the Accumulation phase. In this program, the Accumulation phase is broken down into two micro-phases. These phases will work to build our foundation. The first two weeks of the Accumulation phase will be known as the Adaptation phase, and this can be thought of as a “Pre-Accumulation’ phase in which we use general preparation methods to prime the body for the stimuli it’s about to be introduced to. In these two weeks, you’ll see a focus on volume to increase your overall work capacity. This will prepare you for more intense loads you’ll see in the following phases by allowing you to produce higher quality repetitions. During weeks three through six, we’ll advance the Accumulation phase by developing basic motor qualities of speed. In addition, we’ll introduce eccentric strength training as well as absolute strength training with compound lifts. As far as auxiliaries go, they will be programmed with the intent of further developing the basic motor patterns. From there, we’ll move into the Transmutation phase, which will build upon the qualities we developed in the accumulation phase, while developing intermediate sprinting motor patterns and explosive power. In addition, we’ll continue to develop absolute strength, as well as work on motor unit recruitment with isometric strength training. Finally, we’ll move into the Realization phase, where we’ll put everything together and focus our efforts on maximal speed training. In this phase, the development of the specific motor patterns we’ve been working on in the previous phases will culminate to produce the proper sequencing of mechanics that will produce improved speed. During the strength portion of this phase, we’ll continue to develop maximal strength, while also further developing speed and power, by moving lighter loads at fast velocities. Below, I’m going to dive deeper into each phase so you can get an understanding of the principles at work.

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PRE ACCUMULATION (ADAPTATION) Phase 1.1 - Weeks 1 & 2 The first two weeks of the Accumulation phase will be known as the Adaptation phase. During this phase, we’ll be focused on getting accustomed to the two main phases of sprinting, the acceleration phase and top speed (maximum velocity) phase. Here, the acceleration phase can be thought of the first 10 yards of a sprint, while top speed encompasses anything beyond this. As I mentioned above, in this phase, we’ll focus on sheer volume, and grasping a solid concept of the mechanics of these two sprinting phases. During the power section, you’ll perform low level plyometrics. These are basic movements that you’ll perform at high volumes to build a solid foundation of power. In the strength portion, the emphasis is on building absolute strength with compound lifts. The volume for these lifts will be bumped up a little more than normal to, again, build up your work capacity, as well as engrain proper motor patterns to support movement efficiency. For our auxiliary lifts, you’ll perform basic movements to stimulate hypertrophy and generate more total work. And, lastly, for the trunk, you’ll focus purely on stabilization to, again, build that solid foundation. All in all, you can think of this of this phase as conditioning to build the overall work capacity and increase the quality of your reps for the next phases of the program.

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ACCUMULATION Phase 1.2 - Weeks 3 - 6 The second part of the Accumulation Phase will take place during weeks three through six. For speed, we’ll introduce basic acceleration mechanics drills in which we’re trying to promote positive shin angles to apply force back into the ground. We’ll simultaneously put a focus on the mechanics of limiting the flexion of the knee to prevent cycling during acceleration. In addition to acceleration mechanics, you’ll also be introduced to basic maximum velocity mechanics via frontside/backside motor pattern drills. These are drills that focus on isolating components of the sprint cycle to instill a particular motor pattern. Down the line, this motor pattern will transfer into more efficient maximum velocity mechanics. During this phase, our plyometrics will be split into two seperate days. The first day will consist of unilateral, or single leg, force absorption movements. The second day will consist of bilateral, or two leg, jumps to increase overall force output. These jumps are considered foundational as I see the mastering of these jumps allow the athlete to handle more workload and improve the quality of his elastic strength.

These jumps require little technique, but are high-effort. During the strength portion, we’ll split into two sections again.

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On one upper and one lower day, we’ll place an emphasis on building absolute strength with compound lifts. On the other upper and lower day, we utilize the Triphasic method to focus on building eccentric strength. This emphasis on the eccentric phase of the compound lift manipulates two mechanisms within the muscle. The first is the stretch reflex, which is monitored by the Golgi tendon organs and the muscle spindles. Muscle spindles tell the brain how hard to contract a muscle, while the GTO’s tell the brain when to relax. Our goal here is to reduce the sensitivity of the Golgi tendon organs (which tell the brain when to relax) and override them, as the Golgi tendon organs usually will shut off any contraction that surpasses 60% of what the muscles can actually handle. In a way this makes them hyper-sensitive. By overriding this mechanism, we can lift more, jump higher, and of course, run faster. The next mechanism we’ll manipulate is the stretch shortening cycle. The stretch shortening cycle is responsible for the absorption of energy when a muscle is stretched, and harnessing that energy to return the muscle to its natural length. To display this ability, think of a squat. As you lower into the squat, you’re putting the muscles on stretch, when you come back to the top, you’re returning your muscles to their natural length. Improving the ability of the stretch shortening cycle results in more force production, as the amount of force an athlete can eccentrically load into a muscle is directly proportional to the amount of force he can produce. Moving onto auxiliaries, we’ll continue to supplement our strength and use movements that support a balanced body. For both the lower and upper body, a lot of these movements will be dedicated to developing the posterior chain, an underdeveloped area in most athletes. For the trunk, we’ll continue to progress the stabilization movements performed in the Adaptation micro-phase.

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TRANSMUTATION Phase 2 - Weeks 7 - 10 Weeks seven through ten mark the transmutation phase. In this phase, we’ll advance the mechanical drills you performed in the Accumulation phase to continue to refine your mechanics in the acceleration and max velocity sprinting phases. These drills will build on each other and allow you to develop different components of the sprint that will work in conjunction to grant you more speed. In the plyometric portion of this phase, again, we’ll split our jumps into two days.. On the first day, we’ll continue to emphasize the bilateral foundation we built in the Accumulation phase, but we will advance and progress these drills to continuously elicit greater power adaptations by adding resistance. On the second day, we’ll focus on high quality movements in the form of isometric dynamic stability. This will help you shorten the amortization phase, or your contact time with the ground. Working these movements will also promote greater structural integrity at the joints while moving dynamically. During the strength portion, we’ll continue spending two days working on building absolute strength. The other two days will be geared towards using the Triphasic method again. This time, we’re working the isometric phase. The goal of working the isometric phase is to teach the body to recruit the maximum amount of motor units. Motor units are responsible for the contractions of muscles. If we can teach the body to recruit the larger, fast twitch motor units, we can absorb more force eccentrically, and have a resulting increase in the rate of force development, or the speed at which you can generate maximum force. We do this by pausing with a load while the muscles are on stretch. When you initially pause, smaller motor units are recruited to hold the position, but as those initial mo-

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tor units “fatigue” larger, fast-twitch motor units serve as reinforcement. This teaches the body to recruit more motor units while performing dynamic movements (like sprinting) as well. For auxiliaries, we’ll continue to use movements that balance the body and promote structural integrity. And finally, for the trunk, we’ll introduce dynamic movements in the form of flexion, extension, and rotation of the torso. REALIZATION Phase 3 - Weeks 11 - 14 The final phase of the Athletic Speed System is the Realization phase. Here, we’re putting all the pieces together and peaking.

This means we’ll make an effort to develop as much speed as possible into your step. To peak your speed, you’ll be introduced to advanced acceleration and max velocity mechanical drills. With these drills, we want high focus, and quality reps performed at high velocity to simulate game speeds. These drills will be broken down into two days of acceleration mechanics and two days of max velocity mechanics. Max Velocity traiing will be broken down further into one day of frontside mechanics, and one day of backside mechanics.

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For plyometrics, we will perform movements that emphasize horizontal force production, or a mixture of horizontal and vertical force production, which will simulate the forces a sprinter has to exert while running through acceleration and max velocity phases. During the strength portion of the program, we’ll again, split our efforts. Two days will be dedicated to building absolute strength. The other two, again, will be dedicated to the Triphasic method. This time, we’re working the concentric phase. The reason for working the concentric phase is to maximize our rate of force development (RFD), or the speed at which you generate maximum force. We want to elevate this speed as much as possible. In addition to working RFD with concentric-focused movements, we’ll use contrast training. I spoke of contrast training above, but as a quick reminder, it’s producing a heavy, resisted movement to heighten the nervous system. Then, you’ll perform an explosive movement, reaping the benefits of that heightened nervous system. Essentially, this is greater force production and power output. As far as auxiliaries go, we’ll do the same thing as the past phases… Use primal movement patterns to supplement strength and build a balanced body. Finally, for the trunk, we will progress flexion, extension, and rotational movements performed in the transmutation phase by integrating them into dynamic, athletic movements.

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PRINCIPLES OF THE PROGRAM

As you can see, this system is designed to start out very basic, and get progressively more and more advanced as you move through it. Regardless of how easy or difficult the drills are, they require the highest focus and intent in order for them to instill the speed that you desire. In the following sections, we’re going to dive into the principles of the program. These principles cover everything from how to lift, how to deload, how to warm up, and more. In order to get the results you are looking for with it is critical we are executing the program consistently and correctly. This is a simple guide to make sure you are doing just that..

STEP 1: Dynamic Warm Up As a base of mobility and general warm up I highly suggest following my Dynamic Warm Up located in the Exercise Database, even if you are at a commercial gym. The Dynamic Warm Up, once understood, should only take 10-12 minutes and will act as a great base to prepare your body for the rest of the workout. The goal of the dynamic warm up is to prime the body for strenuous training by elevating tissue temperature and elevating heart and respiratory rate. The dynamic warm up will improve the quality of the reps, reduce injury, improve reaction time, lower resistance in the muscle range of motion, and improve oxygen delivery and blood flow.

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Point being, approach your warm up each session with intent, focus, and the understanding of the benefits. STEP 2: Mobilization and Activation The next phase of the workout is the mobilization and activation through static stretching and dynamic movements. I mentioned previously that one of the limiting factors for developing sound mechanics is muscle tightness. Muscle tightness not only prevents you from getting into proper sprinting positions, but they also create muscle imbalances. Muscle Imbalances are the leading cause of injury in athletes. To prevent these we want to lengthen muscles that are commonly tight or muscles that will support the movements you are about to perform. Each time we stretch make sure to intuitively relax into the stretch and focus on increasing the range of motion throughout the time of stretch for each individual set. STEP 3: Speed and Power Movements » Warm up Sets - At this point you should be fully warm and ready to compete in every rep. This means every rep is of the highest quality and intensity, especially in this program, where mechanics are paramount. » Intensity - When performing any form of athletic movement always make sure to progress to a technical max. This means you are maximally performing the drill but not sacrificing any technique. If it is a sprint we want to perform with high intensity, but also make sure technique is sound. If the tempo or speed needs to be reduced to meet the technique than so be it. If it is a jump and we need to increase the height we jump each week, without sacrificing form. » Sets & Reps - The sets and reps are given so make sure to record your bests for that particular day if they can be measured. When performing an athletic movement ensure that each rep and set given is performed maximally.

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» Rest - The rest for each athletic drill is intuitive. This means there is no prescribed rest period. You choose the amount of rest where you can perform each drill with 100% quality. The muscles should not be fatigued unless I have noted otherwise. The standard rest period for a movement in this section is anywhere from 60 - 120 seconds but can vary depending on your conditioning level and the degree of difficulty of the movement. » Recording - Track your progress from week to week for the drills that can be measured. Especially in this program, where you’re trying to develop speed, the most easily measured aspect of athleticism. Record your best times to track progress. STEP 4: Strength Movements » Warm up Sets - I usually advise 2-3 warm-up sets when performing the main compound movement for strength or power and then lead into the instructed working sets in the table. » Load - Make sure that you choose a weight that you can not perform more than the number of reps given, but can complete the full amount of reps with. Typically I suggest building up to your technical max lift for the given reps. For instance, if the program calls for 5 sets of 3 reps, the prior 2 sets should be a consistent build up. So, say you ended at a 300lb 3RM, it should look something like this…

Warm Up - 135 x 5 Warm Up - 225 x 3 Warm Up - 250 x 3



Set 1 - 275 Set 2 - 285 Set 3 - 300

» Sets & Reps - The amount of sets and reps is given in each table to show the athlete what they must perform for each movement on each and every day. This means if you are performing a Deadlift for your Strength Movement and it calls for 3 sets of 3 reps you would complete 2-3 warm up sets. Then from there you will progress each of the 3 sets until you reach your heaviest 3 repetitions, while maintaining proper technique. » Tempo - The tempo for each particular rep will be displayed with a bracket next to the movement.

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(Example: [3|1|X]) Where the first number is the Eccentric tempo or portion where you will lower the weight for the given seconds. ([3|1|X] in this case 3 seconds). The next number is the Isometric portion and finally the Concentric is the last. The letter X represents “explode” as in you will produce force as fast as possible in this phase of the lift. So to go with the example of [3|1|X] on say a bench press you would lower the weight to your chest in 3 seconds. Then you would come to a hard pause at the bottom of the motion for 1 second then explode the bar up as fast as you can. » Rest - Sets of reps >5 = 60-90 seconds of rest between sets. Sets of reps